Portland protests are scheduled to continue Friday, more than a month after the death of George Floyd and a day after a raucous demonstration in Northeast Portland.
Scheduled demonstrations will begin with a vigil and memorial at 4 p.m. off Northeast Killingsworth Street in Portland.
Other demonstrations will include a Portland protest and march against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Black Lives Matter demonstration on Stark Street from Portland’s Parkrose neighborhood to Gresham, a youth and family solidarity bike ride in Northeast Portland, and a march against racism in Estacada.
Protesters are also expected to gather Friday evening outside the downtown Multnomah County Justice Center.
Rose City Justice, which has organized rallies and marches drawing thousands of protesters, has not announced plans for any Friday demonstrations.
Thursday’s largest protest, held in Northeast Portland, was the most volatile in recent weeks. Demonstrators set a trash bin on the north side of the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct on fire and broke windows of some businesses.
Police said they used CS gas, a kind of tear gas, to disperse crowds.
Portland Police Deputy Chief Chris Davis said officers had some trouble clearing the area where a fire had been set in a trash bin that was pushed up against the west side of North Precinct. Officers were trying to enable firefighters to get in to put out the blaze.
“At that point, where they had set the fire and we couldn’t get the crowd to move, yeah we had to use CS gas finally after some warnings,” Davis said. “That was clearly a life-saving need.‘'
There were officers inside the precinct, as well as four people who were in custody at the time, Davis said.
In the early days of Portland’s ongoing protests, police used tear gas frequently as they confronted protesters. Earlier this month, Mayor Ted Wheeler called for a ban on the use of tear gas.
The nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland and two protesters sued the city, seeking to ban the Portland police use of tear gas to disperse large crowds. A federal judge on June 9 issued a 14-day court order barring the launching of the riot-control agent except when a life is at risk. The judge extended the temporary order through July 24, at the acceptance of both sides.
Remnants of the night of protests remained midmorning near Killingsworth and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
A dumpster still smoldered in an O’Reilly Auto Parts parking lot. A Wells Fargo Bank had a broken window not yet fixed or boarded up. Graffiti crews were busy removing graffiti, which was mostly on the backside of the Walnut Park Shopping Center.
Police said protesters set two trash-bin fires, one of which caused some damage to the side of Mid-K Beauty Supply.
Mayor Ted Wheeler was in the area Friday morning and denounced the damage as criminal activity.
“This completely distracts from the importance of the movement,” Wheeler said.
Police Sgt. Brad Yakots was also in the area Friday morning. Yakots said, judging by what he heard from protesters on bullhorns the night before, that he believed they thought they were graffitiing the Portland Police Bureau Precinct, which is nearby but blocked by fences.
Several people were arrested during the latest round of demonstrations, including one accused of firing a gunshot into the ground near the Justice Center.
Portland’s protests started in late May, days after the Minneapolis police killing of Floyd, a Black man who pleaded for air while a white officer knelt on his neck. The officer, and three others who stood nearby, all face charges in connection with Floyd’s death.
The city’s 29 days of demonstrations have seen budget cuts to the Portland Police Bureau, the appointment of a new police chief and the end of Portland police patrols in schools and on public transit.
A special legislative session, which focused largely on police accountability reforms, also convened Wednesday in Salem. Unprecedented racial justice protests have been held throughout the state, as well.
-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
-- Alex Hardgrave of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report.
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