Portland protesters set govt building afire

Portland, Aug. 20: Protesters in Portland broke out the windows of a county government building, sprayed lighter fluid inside and set a fire in a demonstration that started Tuesday night and ended Wednesday morning with clashes with police, officials said.

The fire at the Multnomah Building damaged the county government’s office of community involvement, where Oregon’s first gay marriage took place and where protective gear has been distributed to try to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, said Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury.

“This is the heart of our County, where people in our community come to get married, get their passports, and celebrate cultural traditions diversity,” she said statement.

Demonstrations in which fires have been set, objects have been thrown and police have fired “crowd control munitions” have gripped Oregon's biggest city for more than two months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. their and in a

Participants have repeatedly broken into the offices of a police union headquarters building and last month clashed for weeks with federal agents dispatched to protect a US courthouse targeted by protesters.

Portland officers late Tuesday declared a riot outside the county building after demonstrators in a crowd of about 200 started fires in dumpsters, used rocks to smash first floor windows and tossed burning material inside, police said in a statement Wednesday. A subsequent fire in the building triggered alarms and the building’s sprinkler system, police said.

The riot declaration allows officers to use crowd control methods such as tear gas or flash bang devices. Police said in their statement that some unspecified “crowd control munitions” were used to disperse people but that officers did not use tear gas.

Two protesters were arrested and one officer was left with minor injuries in scuffles as police broke up the demonstration, authorities said.