Portland protests against George Floyd killing continue: ‘We don’t have an end date’

Portlanders returned to the city’s core Wednesday for the seventh night to protest police brutality, amid a wave of demonstrations spurred by the killing of a black man by police in Minneapolis.

George Floyd died after a white police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Three other officers stood nearby as Floyd pleaded for air. On Tuesday, prosecutors in Minnesota announced that all four would face charges in connection with Floyd’s death. The officer who knelt on Floyd had already been charged but now faces a more severe accusation of second-degree murder.

In Portland, demonstrations demanding systemic change have continued to grow. More than 10,000 people gathered downtown on Tuesday, and several thousand people converged Wednesday in the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Rev. E.D. Mondainé, who leads the Portland chapter of the NAACP, called for help to exterminate the disease of racism and to end racist systems that have choked out the hope of better days.

“It’s time for you to rise up, exterminators, and claim what belongs to you,” he said.

Mondainé and others used a sound system to amplify their calls for police reforms. One person told the crowd the demonstrations would continue into the future.

“We’re going to be here every day. We don’t have an end date.”

But the event made a frenetic turn a little after 9 p.m., as the crowd reacted to a rumor that a group had been confronted by police. Thousands of people cleared out from the park and left in different directions. Ultimately, the group converged again outside the Multnomah County Justice Center. A crowd remained there as Wednesday night turned into Thursday morning.

Late Wednesday night, Portland Police Chief Jami Resch released a video statement about the ongoing demonstrations.

“We understand the protests occurring in our city and around the country are monumental," she said. This is a watershed moment for our nation, for our city and for our bureau.”

She said she wants people to trust law enforcement and decried how some of previous protests had escalated to vandalism and other criminal activity.

“We support you and we support your peaceful demonstrations,” she said. “We want you to exercise your First Amendment rights and honor George Floyd, while also calling for action.”

In recent days, Portland police have reacted in two main ways to the protests: by staying away from peaceful protests and by breaking up “unlawful assemblies” with tear gas and loud, short explosives if warnings to leave go unheeded. The bureau displayed both tactics Tuesday and during previous nights.

As Wednesday night’s protests got underway, the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union called on police and public officials to stop using “indiscriminate weapons against protesters,” such as tear gas and stun grenades. The group also called on police to adopt practices that do not heighten the risk of contracting the new coronavirus, which has had a disproportionate impact on people of color.

“Using tear gas and other chemical weapons that attack respiratory systems, cause coughing and make it hard to breathe in response to protests about the longstanding racial injustices in our communities is excessive and morally repugnant.”

Hours earlier, at a Wednesday morning press conference, Resch defended officers’ use of force. She responded in particular to a video showing police ramming through a barricade near protesters hours earlier. The collision occurred after most protesters left downtown and only hundreds of protesters remained.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees the police bureau, thanked the majority of protesters for remaining peaceful.

“More than 10,000 came together peacefully to demand accountability and justice,” Wheeler said at the Wednesday morning press conference. “They took responsibility for keeping one another and our city safe.”

Later in the day, Wheeler tweeted that he had signed a pledge promoted by former President Barack Obama to review police rules, seek community input and reform use of force policies.

Protesters gathered again Wednesday evening at a city-owned green space on Southeast Stark Street and 12th Avenue, a site that has become a launching pad for marches into downtown.

Noelani Johnson decided to attend the protests for the first time to press for criminal justice reforms.

“I’m here because I’m tired of feeling like an outcast in my country, and I want to see changes,” she said. "I think the turnout here has been really impressive. It shows that racism is finally being recorded, and that we’ve all had enough.”

As the crowd grew in southeast Portland, smaller demonstrations emerged throughout the metro area. Dozens of people gathered in Columbia Park in North Portland waving signs of support for police reform. The scene led to a chorus of car horns as drivers passed by on busy Lombard Street.

In St. Helens, a high school student organized a march where demonstrators shouted George Floyd’s name in unison. Hundreds of people then gathered outside the Columbia County Courthouse, the end point of the march.

In downtown Portland, protesters began to converge in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center and in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Three 18-year-old women came together to the protests to stand in solidarity with people of color and called for city officials to defund the Portland Police Bureau.

“I think it’s time to start a revolution," said Shea Rider, who graduated this year from Westview High School in Beaverton. “We need to act. We need justice for George Floyd.”

Nearby, Alexandra Lopez, 17, and Jewel Knox, 15, carried signs that said, “No justice, no peace,” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Lopez said she believes the protests are making a difference. She cited the charges announced earlier Wednesday against the three addition officers involved in Floyd’s arrest.

“I feel cops don’t care,” said Lopez, of Portland. “They don’t care about what we have to say or how we feel.”

Knox, who also lives in Portland, said she attended the protests because there needs to be a change.

“There have been so many lives that have been lost,” she said.

By 6:30 p.m., the crowd in southeast Portland had grown to thousands of people. Many held handmade signs with messages advocating for police reform or justice for Floyd. One sign said, “The color of our skin is not a crime.”

Some people sat near the edge of the huge crowd and handed out water bottles and snacks. Other people carried signs that advertised free hugs.

Isiah Aceves, 23, of Portland, said he attended the protest knowing that he was increasing his risk of contracting the new coronavirus. But the reason for the mass gathering is legitimate, he said.

“It really does feel like a movement," Aceves said. "It’s something where we do have a sense of solidarity throughout every being here.”

Margaret Jacobsen, from West Linn, attended the gathering with her husband, ex-husband and two children. Jacobsen, who is black, said she has talked to her children since they were 4 or 5 about police violence.

"It’s been an ongoing conversation for the majority of their lives,” she said.

Jacobsen said she felt conflicted about the debate around protests remaining peaceful.

"I don’t think we should ever censor people’s anger or frustration that way, especially when there’s fear around being murdered.”

A speaker said at the gathering said a group of seven leaders, including six who are black, had organized the Southeast Portland demonstration. The speaker said organizers soon plan to move the protests outside of central Portland and to other parts of the city.

Wednesday night, though, the group marched from Southeast Stark Street, across the Morrison Bridge, then collect in the downtown waterfront park.

Around 6:45 p.m., the group began to move toward downtown. Shortly after 7 p.m., the crowd had reached the Morrison Bridge as they chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

The Tom McCall Waterfront Park began to fill up even before marchers reached downtown.

Ariane Audett, 25, a Portland State student, said she wanted to join in pressing for reforms of the criminal justice system, which disproportionately impacts African Americans.

“We need some serious changes, justice reform and police policies,” Audett said.

By 7:30 p.m., the marchers filled much of the Morrison Bridge. The crowd paused on the bridge, and a speaker near the front shared the story of Breonna Taylor, a black woman from Louisville shot and killed by police in March after officers arrived at her home to serve a no-knock warrant.

Despite the crowd, the bridge was not blocked off to vehicle traffic, and a driver in a silver pickup approached the crowd and tried to cross the bridge. After several moments, the crowd parted to let him through. People chanted “Peaceful protest” as the driver navigated past.

At 7:45 p.m., the march resumed toward the waterfront park. As they walked from the bridge on to Naito Parkway, the crowd chanted, " “I can’t breathe. We can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. We can’t breathe.”

The group filled the entire street and spilled on to the sidewalks.

Police did not appear during the march, but did tweet out information about where the crowd was gathering and said the crowd remained peaceful.

"Thank you everyone who is participating in this peaceful march,” the police bureau said at 7:50 p.m.

By 8 p.m., thousands of marchers reached waterfront park, and the crowd continued to grow. Some people set up a sound system and posted welcome signs.

Over the next hour, several people addressed the crowd.

“There is no safer place to be than in the company of hope, and I want you to know that you are our hope,” said Rev. E.D. Mondainé, the Portland NAACP president. “The voices of the people are music to the ears of God.”

Around 9 p.m., though, the speeches abruptly ended, after someone told the crowd that other protesters were “fleeing” police on the east side of Portland. Police had not disclosed any information about a confrontation on Twitter.

A speaker first asked a few hundred people to leave together to help the group safely make it to downtown. But people began to leave in mass. Someone announced that the remaining speeches were canceled and asked people to “stay calm and file out.”

People streamed out of the park in multiple directions. At Southwest Second Avenue and Jefferson Street, Oregon State Police troopers were stationed, holding batons.

By 9:20 p.m., hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Chapman Square park across the street from the Multnomah County Justice Center, an area of downtown that had been fenced off to demonstrators for two days.

The Justice Center, which houses the downtown jail, remained fenced off. A loudspeaker told people to stay away from the fence.

A separate group of thousands of people marched throughout downtown Portland and toward the Burnside Bridge. A chant of “Peaceful protest” broke out as marchers started to walk east over the bridge, then turned around and began to walk south toward the Justice Center.

By 9:30 p.m., the crowd gathered at the Justice Center had grown to thousands. Portland police said on Twitter “criminal activity,” had occurred, including people who were shining lasers at police.

An Oregonian/OregonLive reporter also saw the lasers beams.

The crowd continued to grow outside the Justice Center. Although many people stood in the park, hundreds of people had gathered near the fence as of 10 p.m.

Police stood on the other side, wearing helmets and tactical vests.

The crowd of thousands did not join in a unified chant, but several smaller groups did try to lead chants of “Peaceful protest.” One person played a drum.

Some people used megaphones to encourage people to kneel in front of the fence.

Around 10:15 p.m., officers wearing plain clothes beneath their helmets and vests talked with people gathered near the fence.

One officer told people that nonviolence allows their important message to get out. On the other side of the fence, a demonstrator responded by asking for a guarantee that police would not use tear gas.

Aerial footage from a KPTV helicopter showed that some people tried to make space between the crowd and the fence, while other people stood next to it.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., police announced over a loud speaker that they did not intend to engage the crowd and asked the group to remain peaceful. Police said there were children at the event.

Around 11 p.m., police again reiterated the message they had been sharing throughout the night.

“We support everyone’s First Amendment rights and want this to stay peaceful,” police said on Twitter.

By midnight, a large crowd remained gathered outside the Justice Center. One person used a megaphone to say the protest would soon end, then resume again Thursday in Southeast Portland. Some people started marching north away from the crowd.

Police tweeted that someone had passed a donut through the fence to an officer.

Outside the justice center, though, officers pointed bright lights in the direction of Chapman Square. Police used a loudspeaker to tell people there to stop building a structure that could be used to throw projectiles.

Oregonian/OregonLive journalists did see at least one bottle thrown over the fence toward officers.

By 12:30 a.m. Thursday, hundreds of protesters were still outside the Justice Center. Most of the demonstrators later dispersed, police said, but “agitators” remained in the area.

And in the early hours of Thursday, police said the agitators set fires and vandalized buildings.

An agitator hit a security officer in the head, prompting police intervention, according to police, and a police officer was hit in the jaw with a full can beer.

Police said they eventually told those remaining that a civil disturbance had been declared and that force or crowd control munitions would be used against them if they didn’t leave.

Police had dispersed the protesters by 4 a.m. Police said they arrested an unspecified amount of people and towed two cars “associated with the agitators.”

Police have not released the number of people arrested during the city’s seventh wave of demonstrations.

Resch, the police chief, called out agitators in a statement early Thursday.

“We have witnessed a pattern of behavior in the past several days where select agitators remain and target the police, engage in crimes, and cause disorder,” Resch said. “We will continue our efforts to identify, arrest, and hold responsible those who engage in crimes in our City.”

She also praised peaceful protesters, saying Wednesday night “was a great example of a safe and responsible demonstration” that “sends a powerful message.”

Portland was just one of many Oregon cities where demonstrators turned out Wednesday. Protests also occurred in Salem, Eugene, Happy Valley, Medford, among other towns.

Beth Nakamura, Dave Killen, Eder Campuzano, Kale Williams, K. Rambo and Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

-- Noelle Crombie

ncrombie@oregonian.com

-- Joe Freeman

jfreeman@oregonian.com

-- Jayati Ramakrishnan

jramakrishnan@oregonian.com

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