Portland protesters blocked federal officials inside a courthouse, and attempted to set the building on fire as the two groups clashed again Tuesday night through Wednesday.
As hundreds chanted “Black Lives Matter” and “The Feds Are Going Home,” a team of protesters propped several wooden beams and sandbags against a door of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, according to the tweets. from Clypian, an online media outlet run by South Salem High School Students.
Videos released by Clypian overnight show protesters ripping plywood covering another entrance and the feds throwing tear gas and pepper bombs at the crowd. At one point, someone throws a firework at the officers, which explodes at their feet.
Another video showed the plywood facade of the courthouse, which has been routinely attacked while the feds stand guard inside, on fire, sparking a stream of officers.
Protests have been raging in Portland for more than 50 days, but tensions between protesters and police have escalated in recent days after President Trump’s deployment of federal officers to the city.
A total of 114 federal officers have been dispatched to the west coast city, including those from the U.S. Federal Customs Protection, Immigration and Control Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals Service, Today Today reported, citing documents filed Tuesday.
Many officers wear patches from the Department of Homeland Security, but do not have name tags.
Some say that the presence of federal agents has fueled the protests, which have only grown in recent days compared to previous weeks.
“People legitimately fear for their rights,” Najee Gow, a 22-year-old nurse, told USA Today. “They come for our rights. They are exercising martial law. “
The deployment of the officers has drawn criticism from public officials, including Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who blamed the feds for exacerbating the situation.
“What is happening here is that we have dozens, if not hundreds of federal troops descending on our city and what they are doing is intensifying the situation,” Wheeler said Sunday. “Your presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism.”
Mayors from several cities joined him: Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Tucson, Sacramento, Phoenix and Kansas City, Missouri, writing a letter Monday to Attorney General William Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called the deployment “abuse of power,” CNN reported.
Mayors are calling on the feds to withdraw troops from the cities where they are currently on site and to stop plans to send them to other cities, saying officers have used “significant force” in Portland, including snatching the street protesters.
Meanwhile, Trump has praised the feds in Portland for doing “a fantastic job.” He has raised the idea of more deployments to other cities, such as Chicago and New York.
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