Every night for nearly eight weeks, protests against police brutality have taken place in Portland, with citizens exercising their First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
While a vast majority of protesters have peaceably assembled, late-night violence has been a frequent occurrence. Graffiti-covered buildings and boarded-up windows pockmark the downtown area, and law enforcement has resorted to using tear gas and detaining protesters.
The violence and vandalism has been unacceptable, obscuring the message of those who are rightfully outraged by the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police and by other incidents of police violence against Blacks. Also unacceptable has been the reaction of Portland leaders, who have failed to quell the violence and return the focus to legitimate protests.
But as the protests continue and Portland becomes a regular feature on national news, perhaps the most disconcerting aspect is how the Trump administration is exacerbating the situation and turning the city into a political pawn.
Last week, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf visited the region and declared that Portland “has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob.” In Wolf’s dystopian vision, a mob “escalates violence day after day” and vandalism of the federal courthouse is an attack on America itself.
The accuracy of such hyperbole is, to the Trump administration, unimportant. The important thing is that images of unrest and assertions that Trump can stop it play well in, say, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Rather than demonstrate leadership or concern for the people of Portland and the surrounding areas, Trump is using the situation to embolden his “law and order” campaign in hopes of being reelected.
If you are incapable of leading, it seems, the cynical alternative is to create a false narrative of the federal government rescuing the law-abiding citizens of Portland from the angry mob of anarchists.
To enrich that narrative, federal law enforcement officials have been using unmarked vehicles to grab protesters off the streets of Portland. As OPB has reported — a report confirmed by other outlets — “Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.”
Federal officials have said they are protecting federal property, but numerous accounts detail arrests being made far from those areas. Attorney Juan Chavez of the Oregon Justice Resource Center said, “You have laws regarding probable cause that can lead to arrests. It sounds more like abduction. It sounds like they’re kidnapping people off the streets.”
In another case, a deputy U.S. marshal shot a protester in the face with an impact munition, fracturing his skull. Video shows the protester was standing across the street from the federal courthouse in a nonthreatening manner.
Rather than achieve its professed desire of quelling the unrest, the Trump administration has aggravated the situation through authoritarian tactics. While Portland officials deserve criticism for their inadequate response to violence and vandalism, the federal presence has been contemptuous. As Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said, “It’s simply like adding gasoline to a fire.”
Meanwhile, the reason for the protests remains. The nation is undertaking a reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice — a reckoning that will continue regardless of distractions from the Trump administration.
