Rioters tore through Portland causing more than $500,000 worth of damage – but cops did NOTHING because woke new law stops them using pepper spray or tear gas: Angry residents ask ‘Does that mean we are now like a lawless city?
- Portland was rocked by a violent, 100-person protest that caused $500,000 in damage
- Police stood idle as rioters destroyed the city, citing a new law that prevents law enforcement from using means of crowd control like pepper spray, tear gas or incapacitating projectiles
- Cops added they have not received full clarity on the bill’s limits, so are following the most restrictive interpretation of it
- Antifa rioters tore through the city following a memorial for an activist killed in October 2019, whose mother organized the protest and called it a ‘night of rage and anger’
At least 100 self-proclaimed anarchists tore through Portland, setting dumpsters aflame, smashing windows and causing $500,000 in damage, but police stood idle because of a new state law that restricts how law enforcement can respond to riots.
The city just reached the ‘grim’ milestone of 1,000 shootings through 2021 in what has been a year of destructive protests, violent street clashes and a police staffing crisis.
Now police say a recently passed law ties their hands even further as it prohibits police from using crowd control techniques like pepper spray or tear gas. Instead, law enforcement agencies are told to rely on follow-up investigations to hold rioters accountable.
Portland’s latest round of violence broke out after a memorial for Sean Kealiher, an Antifa activist who was struck and killed by an SUV in October 2019 after getting in a fight with the driver at a bar earlier that night.
Police have not made any arrests in connection to Kealiher’s death, though his mother Laura believes they have identified the culprits, according to the Oregonian/Oregon Live. She organized last Tuesday’s protest on Twitter, writing that it was ‘not a peaceful event’ and dubbing it ‘a night of rage and anger.’
Portland was rocked by a violent, 100-person protest last Tuesday night that caused $500,000 in damage
Police stood idle as rioters destroyed the city, citing a new law that prevents law enforcement from using means of crowd control like pepper spray, tear gas or incapacitating projectiles
Violence broke out after a memorial for Sean Kealiher, an Antifa activist who was struck and killed by an SUV in October 2019 after getting in a fight with the driver at a bar earlier that night
There have not been any arrests made in connection to Kealiher’s death his mother Laura blames police for not bringing her son’s killer to justice. Kealiher is pictured above
She delivered on her promise as police say 35 separate locations were targeted – including banks, retail stores, coffee shops, and government buildings.
Beginning at 10pm, the mob ran amok through the streets and shattered windows, setting fires, spraying graffiti messages like ‘anarchy means attack,’ ‘riots work,’ and ‘breaking windows is good.’
‘The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with House Bill 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,’ Portland Police Lt. Jake Jensen said in a Pearl District Neighborhood Association meeting, as reported by KOIN. ‘That’s the way the legislature said we need to operate in a crowd control environment so that’s how we’re going to act in a crowd control environment.’
House Bill 2928, whose chief sponsors are Democratic Representative Janelle Bynum and Republican Representative Ronald Noble, bans police from using force to respond to riots and charges any violations as second degree official misconduct.
Jensen said, ‘The fact of the matter is without being able to use pepper spray, without being able to use our 40 millimeter less lethal devices in that kind of environment really prevents us from having access to the tools that we need in large part to keep us safe.’
Jensen added that the issue wouldn’t be solved by adding officers, as many officers were at the scene of the riots last Tuesday and could not intervene.
Residents frustrated by the violence last Tuesday questioned whether that meant anything goes now in Portland.
‘Does that mean we are now like a lawless city? Anybody could come in and just bash around and do all the damage that they want without any repercussions whatsoever?’ Linda Witt asked during the meeting with police.
Jensen explained that rioters could only facer consequences retroactively and said, ‘Well certainly not without any repercussions, the consequences are gonna come not on the night of, but through follow up investigation.’
He added that they’re looking for ways around the issue like using shields.
‘The law clearly allows Portland Police to use effective tools necessary to control violent crowds,’ House Minority Leader Christine Drazan told The Associated Press on Friday. ‘However, activist attorneys are deliberately misinterpreting legislation to prevent police from intervening. They have no business putting law enforcement and community safety at risk.’
She organized last Tuesday’s protest on Twitter, writing that it was ‘not a peaceful event’ and dubbing it ‘a night of rage and anger’
Police say the law ties their hands as it prohibits them from using crowd control techniques like pepper spray or tear gas. Instead, law enforcement agencies are told to rely on follow-up investigations to hold rioters accountable
Beginning at 10pm on Tuesday, the mob ran amok through the streets and shattered windows, setting fires, spraying graffiti messages like ‘anarchy means attack,’ ‘riots work,’ and ‘breaking windows is good’
The exception to the new law is when the circumstances constitute a riot and if the officer using the chemical incapacitant reasonably believes its use is necessary to stop and prevent more destructive behavior.
Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen told the Associated Press that officers have been made aware of the ‘potential implications’ of the legislation and that it´s being analyzed by the city attorney´s office.
‘Until we have some clarity on the bill we have to follow the most restrictive interpretation of it,’ Allen said.
Authorities say although police did not directly intervene, officers did give direction to disperse over a loudspeaker and a Mobile Field Force moved in, at which point the crowd splintered.
Portland has seen ongoing, often violent protests since the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Some activists have complained that the police have been heavy handed in their response.
In August, Mayor Ted Wheeler ordered local police officers to not intervene unless civilians were seriously getting hurt or a ‘life safety emergency’ occurred.
This saw members aligned with the Proud Boys and Antifa fighting each other with paintball guns, bats and chemical sprays. One of the most intense of the frays centered on a conservative rally called the Summer of Love, where police ended up getting involved when the groups exchanged gunfire.
Just two months earlier, Portland’s 50-person riot squad resigned in response to the indictment of member Corey Budworth for assault during an incident in which he allegedly struck photographer Teri Jacobs in the head during a riot in August 2020.
Jacobs says she was attacked despite carrying a press card. She was not charged with any crime, and received a $50,000 settlement from the City of Portland as a result of the baton strike. Cops have continued to insist she was part of a violent protest at the time in which rioters set a government building alight with a petrol bomb.
In December 2020, Portland was also home to an ‘autonomous zone’, known as the ‘Red House occupation’ due to its location in a red foreclosed home, that had been been built by Antifa activists and other criminal agitators in North Portland.
Similar to Seattle’s ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’ (CHAZ), the Red House occupation scaled about two and a half blocks in which activists set up homemade booby traps, including spike strips, to keep police vehicles out from the area.
There were stockpiles of weapons, Portland Police reported, and strategically placed piles of rocks around the interior and exterior for activists to use as weapons should police make an attempt at entry. There were guards protecting the zone, a stocked kitchen serving two free meals a day, and a nearby coffee shop supportive of the movement providing free coffee, Fox News reported.
Numerous attempts from police to barge into the house proved to be unsuccessful, but the autonomous zone had been dismantled after Portland’s mayor brokered a deal with protesters — and apologized to them.
Antifa rioters tore through the city following the memorial, spraying painting messages encouraging violence against police
Police say 35 separate locations were targeted – including banks, retail stores, coffee shops, and government buildings. Above is the damage done to Portland’s tenth-tallest building the Moda Tower
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office confirmed a deal had been struck, though it was not clear if the house was ever sold back to the Kinneys, the family that was evicted after defaulting on a second mortgage taken out to pay a relative’s legal fees in a criminal case, according to the Red House on Mississippi, a group of social justice activists.
Mayor Ted Wheeler did not publicly address Tuesday’s violence.
Among the damaged buildings was locally-owned Elephants Delicatessen. Anne Weaver and her husband have owned the metro area’s seven Elephants Deli locations for a couple of decades. Their location at SW 1st and Salmon opened just before the start of the 2020 riots and pandemic and had never been vandalized before now, according to KOIN.
Weaver told the news outlet, ‘We always try to be the business for the force of good. We’re a B Corp and we strongly believe in equity and social justice… We provide meals to shelters and homeless and partner with all kinds of organizations all the time, even through COVID.’
Weaver said one of their managers at the World Trade Center location told them Wednesday morning that five huge windows had been broken.
‘Just immense sadness, you know, here we were thinking we had maybe turned the corner of this really, really arduous hard time we’ve all endured coming on two years now,’ she said.
Weaver said the deli will close early starting this week and that, despite the damage, she still has hope the city can recover.
She said, ‘I’m still optimistic that we’re going to get this thing figured out and that they’ll be some healing and growth and beautiful Portland again, I believe it in my soul. The cup’s always half full with Elephants — we’re always eternally optimistic.’
Chief Chuck Lovell told KOIN, ‘I’m concerned about the brazen criminal acts that took place downtown last night. I want to assure those who were victimized that investigations are underway, and we will do whatever we can to identify and arrest those who were responsible. We ask that anyone with information please reach out to us. Thank you to all the officers who responded to a challenging situation.’
On Saturday, Lovell posted a series of tweets regarding the city’s gun violence issues. His first read, ‘This week we passed a grim milestone. @PortlandPolice has now documented over 1,000 shootings this year. Too many have prematurely ended lives and caused injury. But all shootings cause trauma to our community.’
On Saturday, Lovell posted the above tweet addressing Portland’s gun violence, which saw over 1,000 shootings over the past year
He added, ‘I’m happy to work with our partners addressing this terrible problem and do our part. The Enhanced Community Safety Team is working hard to investigate these cases, and I call on the community to share information with them so we can arrest those committing gun crimes.’
‘We’re also working hard at building the Focused Intervention Team, which has a goal to deescalate and lower the tensions in the community that are feeding the contagious gun violence crisis. I’m looking forward to making more announcements about that soon.’
‘Thank you to our officers, sergeants, criminalists, and detectives who have responded to every one of these shootings, performing trauma first aid and comforting victims, and gathering critical evidence. This crisis affects you too and your efforts are deeply appreciated.’
Meanwhile, a Portland gun violence unit has been having trouble recruiting new officers after it was dismantled during last year’s calls to defund the police and brought back when gun violence shot up this year.
Since May, only four people have applied to 14 spots on the Portland Police Department’s new Focused Intervention Team.
The original Gun Violence Reduction Team was shut down after the Portland City Council voted to cut $15 million from the police budget and eliminate 84 sworn positions last June.
In August, Lovell told KPTV that he’s not sure how he’s going to fill the remaining positions on the new anti-gun violence team.
‘I’m not 100 percent sure yet where those officers will come from,’ Lovell said. ‘We’re to the point now, staffing-wise, where being able to do this means greatly impacting our ability to do something else.’
Last year’s cuts included the gun violence team, which was singled out because 52 percent of its stops in 2019 were of Black people, who make up just 5.8 percent of the city’s population, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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