PORTLAND — Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and others said Sunday night’s demonstration said to be a representation of Indigenous people’s rage defied the wishes of Native and other people of color when some protesters broke windows and threw flares into a downtown historical museum, stole an African-American heritage commemorative quilt, toppled statues, and fired gunshots into a restaurant.
During a news conference on Monday — Indigenous Peoples’ Day –Wheeler, State Rep. Tawna Sanchez, the only Indigenous member of the state Legislature, and Police Chief Chuck Lovell called damages to the Oregon Historical Society as well as several downtown businesses and Portland State University buildings “obscene”, “inappropriate” and “unconscionable,” particularly because the museum has worked to help people understand Oregon’s history of racism.
“To destroy that is to destroy the past,” said Sanchez, who represents North and Northeast Portland. “We have to grow and learn from the past. We cannot just dismiss it and make it go away and act as if something is going to be better afterwards. We have to learn from the past in order to make things better.”
Lovell noted at least two people fired guns downtown and in Southeast Portland Sunday night and several downtown businesses were vandalized before police intervened.
A group of Native leaders from Portland, the Indian Leaders Roundtable, said they denounced the property damage from the night before. The damage to the Oregon Historical Society building was disappointing, particularly because of recent exhibits that displayed accurate depictions of Native American history, the group said.
“We understand that there is justifiable righteous indignation over the unconscionable mistreatment of our people and communities over centuries, and that Indigenous People’s Day its a time to reflect and speak out against these injustices,” The Portland Indian Leaders Roundtable said. “Yet, we cannot condone pointless acts of vandalism and the brandishing of weapons that serve only to detract from the real message that must be heard.”
Wheeler, who is seeking reelection next month, said he believes he and other city leaders have “the road map” to address the destructive actions of some protesters during demonstrations as well as other city issues such as homelessness and gun violence. Among objectives he ticked off: end violence by some protesters by publicly calling for it to stop, redeploy officers back to neighborhood precincts, find a compassionate way to get homeless people off the streets “as fast as possible,” clean up graffiti and other property damage and help pandemic-impacted businesses reopen.
“My administration is doing all that,” he said.
He noted the City Council approved rerouting $15 million from the Portland Police Bureau budget before adopting the overall city budget in June and that the amount fully redirected could be as much as $27 million by the end of fall, due to coronavirus-related cuts and other reductions. He said he didn’t believe more funds would be taken from the Police Bureau due to concerns he’s heard from the public on long delays in the time it takes officers to respond to emergency calls.
“For me, it’s going to have to be a very high bar that’s going to have to be cleared before somebody can make the case to me that further reductions are either needed, warranted or appropriate given the real public safety needs in this community,” Wheeler said.
Lovell said at least three people were arrested Sunday due to their apparent actions during the demonstrations, including one person who drove the truck chained to statues of presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln outside the historical society building that pulled them down.
The commemorative quilt, sewed by more than a dozen Black women ahead of the nation’s bicentennial in 1976 to honor the contributions of the Black community to the history of the United States, was later found outside by police officers, according to historical society executive director Kerry Tymchuk. The quilt was very wet, likely from rain, but he said he believed it could be repaired and put on display in the museum’s pavilion again.
Lovell said around 300 people participated at the peak of the demonstrations Sunday. He said he does not know if any of them were Indigenous. He said the police bureau knew for several days that the protest was going to occur and that some people were “intent on committing criminal acts of violence and mayhem.”
Sunday’s protest was advertised in advance on social media, including a start time and starting location under the Burnside Bridge. Lovell said officers didn’t know what the crowd’s route would be and that several officers were pulled away to respond to a shooting that occurred in Southeast Portland during the same time when protesters were pulling down the statutes, Lovell said. The second shooting, at a restaurant in 1400 block of Southwest Park Avenue sometime afterward, prevented officers from immediately moving into the crowd as a precaution, he said.
He contrasted that with a protest the night before at the police bureau’s North Precinct where officers arrested 26 of several dozen people who police say were there blocking the street. Lovell said it was because the crowd was smaller and protesters had targeted the precinct building several times before over the last five months of demonstrations that officers were more prepared to make arrests before the event was well underway.
In a statement, mayoral challenger Sarah Iannarone said she condemns “all acts of violence and destruction, especially those targeting public art,” and urged people to consider going through filing a formal complaint with the city if they want statues removed or renamed.
“People are hurting and that pain is valid,” she said. “But anonymous acts of destruction outside of any agreed-upon process are toxic, unaccountable behavior that has no place in our city.”
President Donald Trump early Monday retweeted videos of damage caused by the Sunday demonstration. He called the people involved “Biden fools,” in reference to his election opponent and “ANTIFA RADICALS” and urged the city to “call in the feds!”
Wheeler said city, county deputies and state police are coordinating a joint response for any demonstrations that will occur on election night and hammering out agreements that would explicitly spell out the role of each agency. He said he would be open to federal intervention if federal authorities have “thoughtful, balanced ideas” on how they can work with local and state law enforcement to “help us get behind the violence and criminal destruction on our streets.”
“I would be a fool to push them away,” Wheeler said. “And I won’t.”
He said he believed he, other elected leaders and community members need to make it clear that people who commit criminal acts during demonstrations are “working against our values and sensibilities as a city.”
“They actually attacked institutions that support the people they purport to be in the streets marching on the behalf of,” Wheeler said of some of Sunday’s demonstrators. “They are not engaged in any activity that has any relationship whatsoever to racial justice or equity. They are purely engaged in violence and criminal destruction for the sake of violence and criminal destruction.”
