Once again, rioters in Portland Oregon targeted the federal courthouse on the evening of March 11. This is in a renewed encounter between the protesters and the federal police.
According to reports, the rioters attacked the federal courthouse when the police removed the fences that were initially built by the demonstrators over the summer, as the riots following George Floyd’s death continued. Floyd is an African American man who was killed by police officers during his arrest in Minneapolis.
Just like what happened last year, the Antifa forced and attempted to get into the courthouse while shouting, “F*** the United States!” The rioters also set a fire outside the courthouse entrance that Thursday evening.
In response, the federal police from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) engaged with the Antifa rioters and forced them to leave the courthouse, back to the park, Yahoo! News reports. Pepper balls, green smoke, and other crowd control ammunition were used.
Reports say that part of the reason for the Antifa riot was Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler’s decision to seek a one-time $2 million emergency funding for the police department, as gun violence surges in the city. Based on reports, the city’s murder rate has increased by 2000%.
Antifa’s Clash with federal police last year
The anti-police brutality protests in Portland, Oregon showed violence on the night of July 2nd, which led the police to declare the action as a riot for the second time in just one week. The event started as a peaceful protest with roughly 200 protesters who were devolved later in the night when some of them set off fireworks and broke through the glass doors of the Justice Center.
The Portland Police Bureau reported that the protestors were shouting “Black lives matter” and “Feds go home” and speaking for several hours that night after blocking the streets while some of them shot off commercial grade fireworks. They also stacked sandbags and placed wooden beams against a door to the courthouse.
The report also states that the tenor of the group of demonstrators shifted when some of the protesters started breaking into the Northside doors of the Justice Center in Southwest Main Street. The rioters moved back to Southwest 3rd Avenue to break the glass doors of the Federal Court House building soon after.
Before midnight, some Federal officers came outside to protect the building and the demonstrators started launching and throwing large rocks, full cans of food, and bottles at them using slingshots. The protesters also threw lit commercial grade fireworks and some of them landed inside the federal building before setting a fire near Southwest Main Street.
The Federal officers declared a riot which allowed the police to order the rioters to immediately clear the area and those who won’t will be forced to leave by the police by using tear gas and crowd control munitions or rubber bullets. The rioters were given warning several times, but refused to leave the area and continued with their rampage.
The rioters eventually dispersed and the Federal police reported that they did not use tear gas.
What did Mayor Wheeler do regarding the riot?
The Signal said that after the riot in Portland for 65 nights, Wheeler refused to do anything while Oregon Governor Kate Brown also refused to do anything to stop the actions of the Antifa where more than 60 Federal officers were injured. Democrats referred to the riot as a “peaceful protest” and denied all the violence that happened even though pieces of video evidence are already circulating online.
The article explains that the Democrats are denying the violence that happened, and are still letting it happen and this is not solely because they agree with it but because of convenient politics. Other Democrats are saying that the violence and the Antifa are myths.
According to Fox News Channel’s The Five, Mayor Wheeler was just concerned about the optics and was not really mad about the violence that took place in Portland caused by Antifa. “He didn’t care about the people there, he cared that Donald Trump might win,” said Greg Gutfeld. He also said that it will only take a person two minutes to find videos online showing what happened and that it was Wheeler’s denial that extended the riot.
“If you look up ‘pile of crap in the dictionary, Ted Wheeler’s face would be right there. Because he is legitimately a pile of crap for abdicating his moral spine, his leadership, which has allowed all of this to happen,” he added.
Democrats refuse to reprimand Antifa during a domestic terrorism hearing
In a Senate hearing regarding Antifa back in August, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blamed the Democrats for not reprimanding the leftist extremist group more directly, Fox News reports. This is in relation to the violence that has erupted in certain U.S. cities which were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. These riots have continued for more than a month in Portland.
According to a conservative journalist from Portland Andy Ngo, they have ‘mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous.’ Ngo has documented the Antifa movements for years and in 2019, the journalist was allegedly attacked by the members of the group.
Ngo testified as a witness in the hearing and said, “I don’t think Congress currently is equipped to handle domestic terrorism because it’s so politicized and that’s very dangerous for this country.” Ngo also said that there was a refusal from the Democrats to reprimand Antifa during the Senate hearing.
“I think Republicans have by and large done a very good part with speaking very honestly and openly about far-right extremism and making sure that the sort of world views and ideologies of racist extremist movements don’t find root in grounding in the mainstream conservative movement,” Ngo told Fox News. He also added that on the other hand, the Democrats are really struggling with drawing the line on where they feel alright about far-left extremism. “As of right now, I don’t see them drawing the line anywhere,” he added.
According to the report, Ngo also stated that there are two contrasting narratives that are being painted about what is really happening in Portland and around the country. He said that the local press in Portland, the establishment media, are talking about how peaceful things are everywhere else outside Portland. But the videos in his works and from other people’s tweets are showing the opposite.
Ngo said that he believes there is a solution and the key to achieving this is by getting on the path of working towards one by actually admitting that there is a problem. He added that if half of the country is not willing to admit that there is really an actual problem, then they will not be able to work on even imagining what steps they can take to come up with solutions.
“Democrats have chosen really to stand in the way of what should be a nonpartisan condemnation of an anti-American, anti-government, violent extremist movement,” he added.