Opposition groups tore down statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and smashed the entrance to the Sunday Reagan Historical Society in Portland’s South Park blocks late Sunday night, before moving to other areas of downtown, without tearing down storefronts.
Police declared the incident a riot and ordered the dispersal of people scattered in the city streets, but did not intervene directly until about an hour after the first statue fell. Crowds were dispersed when police cruisers flooded the area, and officers in tactical gear appeared to make several arrests.
Organizers of the protest promoted the event on social media as “Rage’s Indigenous People’s Day.” Monday is a federally celebrated holiday of Columbus Day, but concerns that many states and cities now recognize the day as Indigenous People’s Day have helped trigger centuries of violence against indigenous peoples with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the United States.
Organizers called for “direct action” by signaling their aggressive stance for the night and demanded that such live-streamers and photographers who have become the mainstays of such events.
Crowds were frequently advised not to film. What happened to the group was that the protesters were ordered to stop photographing or delete photographs in which the occupants of the apartment apartment who had a twinkle in their eye and shot a video of the scene from his terrace threw liquid on his face.
About 200 strong groups marched from Portland to downtown, at one point occupying all four lanes of West Burnside Street. Black is the most worn part of the head and legs. Many wore body armor, shields, or night sticks and other weapons.
As the crowd reached the South Park blocks, some people threw chains on the ropes at Roosevelt’s statue, which was officially a bronze sculpture called “Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider”, while others hit him on the base and sprayed him with red paint. Was.
They began to stretch until at 8:51 pm before the statue was shaken from side to side before floating down before people were dancing to the music playing on a huge portable speaker.
On Sunday, October 11, 2020, a group of protesters tore down a statue of “Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider” in the South Park blocks of Portland.Oregonian
During his lifetime, Roosevelt expressed hostility to Native Americans, as Indian Country Today writes in its account of its attitudes and policies. He pursued policies that promoted integration into white culture, including the allocation system, through which American-origin land was allocated to those who became U.S. citizens and the rest of the land was made available to white immigrants. The policy also weakened tribal governments, which is reportedly the enthusiasm given by Roosevelt.
The group then turned to a nearby statue of Abraham Lincoln and pulled it to the ground at 8:59 a.m., spray-painted “Dakota was 38” at the base of the statue, which was a Dakota-US. Men of 38 Dakota Men Executed After the War was the largest mass execution in a single day in American history in 1862. (Lincoln repealed the same sentence, assigned by a military tribunal, for another 265.)
After the statues were removed, some protesters began smashing windows at the Reg Reagan Historical Society with a banner reading, “Stop Respecting Racist Colonizer Killers.” The mural on the adjacent Sovereign Hotel building depicting the Lewis and Clark expedition was overlaid with red paint.
Kerry Timchuk, executive director of the Executive Historical Society, Said a KOIN News reporter That no performance was damaged.
Crowds then smashed windows and destroyed a sign in the Portland State University campus public safety office fee. Protesters then marched north along Southwest Fifth Avenue, breaking the windows of several storefronts and office fee towers with a seven-block stretch.
Protests across the country have targeted statues as symbols of long-running tyranny during protests against racial justice that followed the assassination of George Floyd’s Minneapolis police – especially statues of federal leaders who still stand in the south. Some were demolished, while some were removed by leaders in the cities in which they stood.
In Portland, many statues showing potential targets were removed in advance as protesters wore them.
The Roosevelt and Lincoln statues date back to the 1920s. The town was gifted as a gift from Henry Waldo Co, who now runs the Morningside Psychiatric Hospital in East Portland, near Mall 205.
In June, a group of protesters pulled down a statue of Thomas Jefferson in front of Portland High School named after him. The third president of the United States also enslaved more than 600 people during his lifetime. Days later, another group tore down a statue of George and Washington Washington in northeastern Portland, also owned by slaves.
In recent weeks, police were able to arrest for “direct action” protest events start at the beginning, in which case include the more than 26 arrested on Saturday as police said that the opposition had blocked a street and failed dispersal when ordered Was.
Earlier in the day, protesters rallied in Portland, the city, in support of police and President Donald Trump. Appeared to be carrying some weapons; Others carried pepper spray canisters and paintball ball-style compressed air guns.
Videos of the scene showed objects thrown from both sides and violent confrontation with counter-opponents by right-wing protesters firing paintballs at their opponents.
Police intervened shortly after, stopping people from approaching the right-wing group. A police spokesman said no crime had been reported and no arrests had been made.
Staff author Jamie Goldberg contributes to this report.
– Shane Dixon Kavanagh; 503-294-7632
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