PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Mayor Ted Wheeler extended Portland’s Emergency Declaration for another 24 hours following Tuesday night’s unlawful assembly.
The mayor declared a State of Emergency to open resources moments before the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was read on Tuesday. Wheeler said Oregon State Police were made available to assist the Portland Police Bureau and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office during the State of Emergencies.
Police arrested two people Tuesday night downtown after a large group of people marched through the streets and smashed windows of businesses — including multiple Starbucks locations.
At its peak, police estimated there were about 150 people who blocked roads in the area of the Hatfield Courthouse in the latest demonstration by anti-police protesters.
“The police are doing everything they can to unmask, identify and hold accountable those who are hell bent on breaking and burning things. That’s why you are seeing more targeted arrests,” Mayor Wheeler’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Monday night, vandals smashed windows at businesses in Northeast Portland Monday night as part of a “direct action” march that also blocked traffic and caused delays. Portland police declared the event an unlawful assembly about 20 minutes after it began.
“People in this crowd are destroying windows at a local community center that serves children,” PPB tweeted. The center, the Blazers Boys and Girls Club on NE Martin Luther King Boulevard, had its windows and door smashed.
Last week, riots were declared in Portland on 3 separate days, including Friday night after Portland police shot and killed Robert Delgado at Lents Park. On Saturday, an unlawful assembly was declared outside the PPB East Precinct.
A Minneapolis jury found Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter earlier Tuesday for pinning George Floyd to the pavement with his knee on the Black man’s neck.
