“We want them to get the shit out of our city,” said Aaron, a Portland resident who withheld his full name while standing outside a courtroom, protesting the increased presence of federal forces.
What constitutes the situation Wolf describes is not one mutually accepted by those on different sides of the problem. The Trump administration says they are fighting “anarchists”. But protesters here on the ground in Portland tell CNN that the president and his team are expanding a whole movement, overwhelmingly peaceful, despite some periods of violence, for purely political reasons.
For more than 50 days since George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, protesters have gathered in Portland to seek accountability from law enforcement officers who they believe have acted with impunity.
An endless cycle
While the protests during the day have been overwhelmingly peaceful, marked by marches, unity gatherings, and even song-singing, nightly clashes between some protesters and federal officials have resulted in repeated vandalism by the U.S. court in downtown Portland and tear gas from protesters.
Heavily armed tactical officers hiding within federal facilities will periodically appear on the street at night without warning and will respond to escalations by some protesters, such as launching fireworks into the building or removing metal fences erected to keep the remote protesters.
When federal agents leave the building, they do so in a massive show of force. Tear gas and scattered projectiles from the crowd litter the air as protesters and journalists rush to safety.
While federal officials’ efforts to clear the area are momentarily successful, it remains part of an endless cycle: protesters finally return to court once the pungent odor of chemical gas partially dissipates.
“I was going to ask why they were not keeping their oath, the Constitution,” said Chris Davis. “All I wanted to do was ask them why.”
CNN has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the US Marshals to comment on the incident.
This incident was too much for Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who described the actions of CBP officers in Orwellian terms.
An exaggerated national threat
While some senior government officials request investigations of federal actions, the risky attitude on the ground in Portland continues. Protesters calling for an end to racial injustice confront officers defended by a president who continues to use the riots in the city as political ammunition in his attempts to be tough on crime.
Although the president and senior DHS officials have portrayed Portland as a city under siege, the image on the ground is markedly different from the image of the riot they are trying to project.
Instead of widespread chaos, the epicenter of day and night protests has largely been relegated to the block that houses the federal court.
Some local journalists who have covered the protests here from the beginning have also observed an apparent wide friction by law enforcement, who they say tend to group all protesters, including the overwhelming majority of peaceful protesters, into a group of suspected criminals.
“The way that the police authorities and even public officials here have been talking about these protests is really in a broad and comprehensive way, saying that all this multitude of people are committing riots or committing a crime instead of several of them, “Portland Mercury reporter Alex Zielinski said in an interview with CNN. “So I think that’s the way the federal police operate. They see anyone involved in these protests as someone who is committing a crime.”
Protesters are not alone in their antipathy to the federal government. Local elected officials in Portland have repeatedly called for the dissolution of Trump’s federal cavalry so they can address the protests themselves.
“What they are doing is escalating the situation,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said in an interview Sunday with CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Their presence is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism and is not helping the situation at all. They are not wanted here.”
Despite reality checks from those who have seen the Portland situation up close, Trump continues to use the city’s ongoing protest movement for political gain.
And Portland is not the only city facing scrutiny from the president.
On Monday, Trump said he will also send federal law enforcement to other cities, “all led by very liberal Democrats,” in the latest example of his “law and order” message. Yet despite the president’s attempts to portray these cities as states of chaos, there is no indication that any of them have experienced the degree of calamity Trump is describing to the American people.
It is unclear how the growing tensions in Portland will be resolved. With Trump and DHS ramping up their heated rhetoric to label protesters, and protesters angry and stunned by the caustic descriptions of their movement, there is no clear path to resolution as protesters and protesters continue to gather outside of court. federal.
“It is ironic that we receive tear gas for protesting aggressive police tactics,” said Eric, a Washington state protester who declined to give his last name for fear of being attacked by authorities.
“We are not leaving,” he said. “I think it says more about them than it does about us when the feds respond to our demands for justice with tear gas and smoke bombs.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Greg Clary, Conor Powell, Manu Raju, Geneva Sands, Jennifer Selva, Hollie Silverman, Konstantin Toropin, and Amir Vera contributed to this report.
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