Politics

Chaos, arrests in Portland after May Day march turns into fiery riot

Portland May Day anarchists
Portland police on May Day. (Twitter)

On Tuesday, anarchists, Communists and Antifa — pretty much all one and the same these days — turned a May Day march in Portland into a fiery riot, prompting some 25 arrests, the Oregonian reported.

According to Jim Ryan:

Protesters shattered business windows, set bonfires in the streets and vandalized a police car Monday afternoon in downtown Portland as a May Day protest devolved into a short-lived but chaotic riot.

The demonstration began as a city-permitted march featuring impassioned but peaceful rhetoric, but it ultimately was defined by black-clad protesters, fires and property damage. Ninety minutes into the march, police declared the gathering a riot. Officers used flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowd after they pronounced the march illegal, eventually arresting 25 people.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

May 1 is International Workers’ Day, and protesters from the Philippines to Paris celebrated by demanding better working conditions. The holiday traditionally celebrates laborers’ rights but in recent years has expanded its focus in the U.S. to support immigrants.

KATU added:

The day’s family-friendly activities started peacefully at Shemanski Park, with a handful of anarchists hanging out at the fringes. Police confiscated many of their homemade shields and other stick-like objects.

The organizers of the rally had a permit with the city for a march throughout downtown starting at 3 p.m. It began peacefully, but after only about 15 minutes of the march, an anarchist group appeared to take over, tossing cans of Pepsi at police and medics. No one was injured.

About an hour later, the march permit was cancelled by police. Anarchists allegedly threw Molotov cocktails, rocks, lead balls and more Pepsi cans at law enforcement.

No doubt because nothing says “peaceful protest” like Molotov cocktails.

Police eventually declared it a riot:

And there’s more, including rocks thrown through windows and graffiti calling for cops to be murdered, the Oregonian said:

A rock was thrown through a window at Goldmark Jewelers, and protesters left a wall and other windows marred by graffiti.

“Why’d they have to do this?” said Kurt Thomas, the building security guard. “The owner’s a nice guy, not a corporate store at all.”

City Hall was also tagged with graffiti, as was the shuttered Macy’s building and other downtown structures. Someone scrawled “Kill Cops” on a Biketown rack, its bicycles’ tires slashed.

Of course, liberals chose to blame police instead of the actual perpetrators.  The Portland May Day Coalition said on Facebook:

Today the Portland police chose to violently escalate a peaceful march. The people asserted their (lawful) right to be in the street and express solidarity with immigrants, with workers, with Indigenous sovereignty, and against capitalism. The Portland Police Bureau responded by

1) Forcibly removing the accessibility vehicle, which was present to allow those with mobility issues to participate and raise their voices

2) Fabricating stories about “Molotov cocktails” being thrown at them, which thousands of eye-witness reports will refute

3) Trying at every step of the way to force themselves into a crowd that very clearly did not want them there

4) Arbitrarily revoking the march permit and informing only the rear of the march, while the elderly, youth, and folks with mobility issues were at the front

There will be a lot of articles about “the march turning violent” but make no mistake, the PPB attacked a permitted march whose only goal was to keep moving along its planned route because some noisemakers and name-calling were enough of an excuse for them to use their large surplus of explosives and chemical weapons against those who had committed to rise, resist, and unite, against fascism and capitalism.

Got that?  It’s the police department’s fault that rioters set fires, destroyed property and called for cops to be murdered.

Here’s a short video:

https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/859200708599582721

The Oregonian said that “each of the adults arrested face second-degree disorderly conduct charges and traffic citations for failing to obey a police officer, according to police. Police said two adults face interfering with a peace officer charges, one faces an assaulting a police officer charge and another faces a resisting arrest charge.”

Portland May Day

Related:

If you haven’t checked out and liked our Facebook page, please go here and do so.

And if you’re as concerned about Facebook censorship as we are, go here and order this new book:

Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

Related Articles

Our Privacy Policy has been updated to support the latest regulations.Click to learn more.×