Portland police responded Friday to some protesters’ calls for “direct action” by repeatedly blocking and advancing on marchers as they made their way through North Portland neighborhoods.
The tactics prevented people from gathering outside local police buildings, which have been the recent focus of raucous demonstrations. But the police use of force on what had been a largely peaceful march drew immediate criticism, including from Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, the council’s leading advocate for police reform.
Portland police pushed people, shot them with impact munitions and set off smoke devices after people threw some water bottles and paint toward officers.
“This brutality is unacceptable,” Hardesty said late Friday on Twitter. “This is the community the police are sworn to protect and serve. They must uphold Portlanders’ Constitutional rights.”
The North Portland march was one of several gatherings Friday against police violence and systemic racism. Others occurred downtown, the longtime heart of the demonstrations that began in late May. None of the other protests drew a police response. Among a small, loosely organized group of protesters, provoking police is seen as a way to force change.
In recent weeks, those calls for “direct action” have resulted in demonstrations where crowds of a couple hundred people have gathered. Some people set off fireworks, lit small fires and tossed eggs. Police have regularly labeled the gatherings unlawful and broke up the crowds, sometimes with tear gas.
But that scene did not unfold Friday. A march of about 300 people left Peninsula Park around 9:15 p.m. It was presumably headed to the police union headquarters 1 1/2 miles away.
But marchers came to a sudden stop several minutes after it began. More than 20 police officers and several police vehicles blocked the group from moving on to Interstate Avenue. The police blockade of a peaceful march took demonstrators by surprise.
Portland police used a loudspeaker to tell people the street was open to traffic and ordered people to leave. Police warned that if people stayed, they could be gassed or shot with less-lethal munitions.
Police and marchers faced off for about 20 minutes. The groups stood about 50 yards apart, between a school, a commercial building and several homes.
Protesters at the front of the march held handmade wooden shields distributed earlier in the night. Most people chanted to the beat of snare drums. Someone played a recording, “Portland police your violence and terror aren’t wanted in our city.”
Marchers eventually started walking away and then turned south on Montana Avenue, a residential street. Police were waiting for the crowd when people arrived on Killingsworth Street, another main thoroughfare. About two dozen officers in riot gear blocked the march from going west.
Protesters turned again to avoid police. The march eventually started moving east on Killingsworth, in the direction of a police precinct. Officers cut off the crowd at Mississippi Avenue around 10 p.m.
Another standoff ensued. Police made no announcements for several minutes. Some officers pointed flash lights or other types of bright lights at protesters, who were mostly standing on the north side of the intersection.
At 10:10 p.m., police used a loudspeaker to label the march an unlawful assembly. Police said people had thrown things at officers. An Oregonian/OregonLive journalist saw someone throw a water bottle and some type of white liquid toward an officer. Police called the liquid “paint bombs.”
Around 10:15 p.m., an officer used a loudspeaker to tell protesters to leave immediately. Someone threw another water bottle as police were making the announcement.
Police then immediately set off smoke devices, shot less-lethal munitions at people and advanced on the crowd. Officers sometimes shoved or pushed people to force them to move north. Police detained at least one person.
Police forcefully pressed people several blocks north. Jonathan Taylor, of Vancouver, said he was driving his motorcycle on a Friday night cruise when he turned onto a side street and happened upon officers.
He said he hit his horn and asked if he could go through. Taylor said an officer got out of a vehicle, threw a smoke canister at him, then pointed a gun at him. Taylor said he kicked the canister back in the direction of the officer.
Taylor said the experience made him realize the outsized force police use at protests.
“I see the way they treat you guys. It’s ridiculous,” Taylor said, in reference to protesters. “Now I understand what you guys are going through.”
Police retreated from the neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. after pressing the bulk of the crowd back to Peninsula Park, the original launching pad for the night.
As people started to plan next steps, someone moved a dumpster into the middle of Albina Street and lit the contents ablaze. Then someone lit a second dumpster on fire in the same spot. The fires burned inside the dumpsters as people marched away.
The crowd of about 200 people moved west on Rosa Parks Way. People only made it a few blocks before police met them on Michigan Avenue. Marchers turned onto Michigan as police trailed behind them on the residential street. An officer used a loudspeaker and repeated demands for people to leave.
Lines of officers then started running toward people, at times setting off smoke devices. The crowd split into multiple groups as police and protesters wove through residential streets. Police retreated around 10:50 p.m.
A group of 100 people soon started to marched north on Albina toward Lombard Street. The Portland Police Association building sits on Lombard and has been a frequent site of protests. It was likely the initial planned destination of the march.
Police were waiting on Lombard for the crowd. Someone rolled out a dumpster into the middle of the street and set it on fire just before 11 p.m. Police soon moved closer to the crowd and ordered people to leave. Police cited the dumpster fires and “paint bombs.” After a few minutes, protesters backed away and started walking east, in the opposite direction.
Another police blockade appeared within 10 minutes to prevent the crowd from marching on to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Police forced the crowd onto residential streets, including Rodney Avenue and Stafford Street. Officers at times chased people to make them move. They were trailed by police vehicles, with lights flashing.
The police push divided the crowd. People started to gather again around Commercial Avenue and Buffalo Street after police left. About 150 people soon started marching around 11:30. The crowd chanted “Black lives matter!” as people walked. Marchers returned to Lombard and walked west for several blocks.
When the march met a police line at Mississippi Avenue, people turned on Mississippi and faced off with police. Officers told people to move to sidewalks or risk arrest.
Eventually, police retreated and the march briefly resumed west on Lombard. Police blocked the Interstate 5 overpass and ordered people to leave around 12:15 a.m. The two sides faced off. Protesters at first stayed on the sidewalk, then moved to the traffic lanes that police were already blocking. Police repeated demands to leave. No one left.
Dozens of officers started running toward the crowd just before 12:30 a.m. The chase turned south on Mississippi Avenue, back into a residential neighborhood. Vehicles with flashing lights and sirens followed police. The cars continued to circle the neighborhood even after officers stopped engaging.
Multiple witnesses wrote on social media that officers slashed tires of nearby vehicles during the pursuit.
More than 50 people remained in the area around 12:45 a.m. Several live videos on social media showed the smaller crowd eventually made its way back to Lombard, where police again formed a defensive line to block people. The standoff continued past 2 a.m.
The gathering was one of many that took place.
The night came after one of the quietest nights in months at Portland’s regular protesting locations Thursday.
Protesters have gathered nightly across the city since May 28 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Locally, protesters are pushing for a range of police reforms and cuts to law enforcement budgets.
The turnout of the protests has diminished significantly since Gov. Kate Brown negotiated a deal with Vice President Mike Pence to remove federal officers, who had regularly used clouds of tear gas to disperse the crowds. They were replaced by Oregon State Police, who helped protect federal buildings from vandalism over the past few weeks. Yet since Oregon State Police announced Thursday they were pulling back, questions remain about whether federal officers will return to the nightly protests.
No answers arrived Thursday, because only a few dozen people gathered outside the federal courthouse. The night was among the calmest since June, before the arrival of federal officers.
Beth Nakamura of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
-- Jamie Goldberg; jgoldberg@oregonian.com; @jamiebgoldberg