As teargas-tinged clashes in downtown Portland between protesters and federal agents continued over the weekend, a series of new protests erupted in other major cities, from Seattle to Baltimore, with protesters expressing fury at the specter of Unidentified federal officers in the community heavily armed streets and continued anger towards their initial goals: police brutality and racism.
In Portland early Sunday morning, camouflaged federal agents walked blocks past the federal court that the Trump administration has said are there to protect, against the wishes of state and local officials, and rejected protesters who authorities say , they had violated a fence.
In Seattle, after Washington Governor Jay Inslee said that a small group of federal agents had been dispatched there, protests erupted in the Capital Hill area. They started peacefully on Saturday but tensed when unknown assailants set fire to a Starbucks and cut a hole in a Police Department building.
Seattle police, after declaring a riot, deployed tear gas and sudden explosions, injuring journalists, lawyers and protesters, witnesses said. Police said 45 people were arrested and 21 officers suffered minor injuries. The protests continued on Sunday.
Demonstrations also erupted in cities such as Louisville, Kentucky, Chicago, Los Angeles, Richmond, Virginia, and Austin, Texas, where a protest took a fatal turn.
Austin police said they were investigating a shooting death Saturday night of a man participating in a protest at the Black Lives Matter downtown. Police said the killed man, who was apparently armed with a rifle, was shot from inside a vehicle that approached protesters. A suspect was arrested, said police spokeswoman Katrina Ratcliff.
In Richmond, police said a city garbage truck was set on fire Saturday night in the midst of a demonstration that organizers say was a show of solidarity with protesters in Portland. Police tweeted a photo of items said to have been dumped on officers, including rocks and batteries. Six arrests were made.
And in Baltimore, a police union building was spray painted against police messages Saturday night when dozens of people marched against racial injustice and in support of Portland protesters.
The rekindled protests, and the authorities’ response with tear gas and rubber bullets, are the latest incendiary strain in a country still rocked by the death of George Floyd in May by Minneapolis police and by generations of police brutality. After protests subsided considerably in most cities except Portland, where they had continued unabated, they were revived over the weekend in the wake of President Trump’s move to send federal agents to cities in a strategy that, according to Critics seem to be aiming to shore up its popularity by leading up to the November election.
As Trump tweets capitalized messages about law and order, critics accuse the White House of using chaotic images of confrontations on the streets of Portland and elsewhere to raise fears about a widespread, mostly progressive, collapse of order. . running cities.
Meanwhile, the deployment has sparked a new round of anger that focuses on constitutional questions about federal authority and state rights. And it unfolds amid a pandemic that’s hitting the economy and spiraling unemployment rates upward. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the late 1960s, a time of fury and frustration against the White House over the Vietnam War, civil rights, and a sense that the United States is straying further from its ideals and vision. of himself.
It has also left some protesters concerned that their initial civil justice message to the black community has been overshadowed by confrontations between federal agents and protesters opposed to their presence.
“I’m here to see specific legislative changes, like education and justice reform,” said Alaysia Atkins, 24, a black activist in Portland.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows echoed Trump’s insistence Sunday that a federal presence was needed to restore order in the city.
“They’re throwing Molotov cocktails and making all kinds of riots there in Portland around a courtroom they want to burn,” he said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding, “I mean, we can’t have this in America cities.
Meadows also said that the aspect of riot control in Portland was different from sending federal agents to Chicago and elsewhere.
“In Chicago, in New Mexico and in Kansas and other areas … what we’re trying to do there is go in and help with gang violence and make sure we make arrests,” he said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, noted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that her city, along with many others across the country, has long cooperated with federal agencies, including the FBI and the Administration of Drug Control, to address issues such as violence.
But she said a Portland-style federal presence was something completely different.
“I have drawn a very hard line: We will not allow federal troops in our city,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor said that she and other city officials “will not tolerate unidentified officers taking people off the street, violating their rights and keeping them in custody. That is not happening here in Chicago.”
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who at one time threatened litigation over the Trump administration’s plans, also said her administration was willing to work with federal officials, through normal channels of coordination with the police. local.
“If we are working cooperatively to tackle violent crime and gun violence, absolutely,” he said on ABC. “If we are going to try to fuel the riots, then that is something else entirely.”
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said the Trump administration had not provided the promised federal funds to Albuquerque for police and criminal interventions, “so the timing of his efforts remains somewhat suspicious.”
And he expressed his outrage at Trump campaign ads that incorrectly suggested that Joe Biden, the alleged Democratic presidential candidate, supported the police outlay.
“It really is about fueling fear,” he said, adding that the White House was trying to distract attention from its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic devastation.
Portland city officials, Oregon state officials and Oregon Democrats have repeatedly called for an end to the federal presence in Portland, saying it has only served to exacerbate tensions. But late Friday, a federal judge rejected a request by the Oregon attorney general to restrict the actions of federal agents.
Etehad reported from Portland, Oregon, and King from Washington, DC
