Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Portland to mark 100-straight protest days
Long weekend to see more demonstrations
PORTLAND, Ore. — Once hailed as one of the most livable U.S. cities, Portland, Oregon, is grappling with an uncertain future as it reaches a benchmark: 100 consecutive nights of racial injustice protests marred by vandalism, chaos — and the killing of a supporter of President Donald Trump.
The demonstrations that started in late May after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have divided residents and embarrassed the city’s Democratic mayor.
The slaying of Trump supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, who was gunned down after he came downtown last weekend with a pro-Trump caravan of pickups, pushed the crisis further toward a breaking point.
The prime suspect in the shooting, self-described anti-fascist Michael Forest Reinoehl, was killed Thursday night by law enforcement.
The date of the 100-day milestone depends on how the protests are counted, but everyone agrees the benchmark falls over the Labor Day weekend.
Black Lives Matter protests, vigils and speeches marking the occasion are planned, and Trump supporters are planning another caravan rally.
The events come after officials in suburban counties refused a call from Gov. Kate Brown for their deputies to help Portland police following last weekend’s violence.
The protesters want city officials to slash the police budget and reallocate that money to Black residents and businesses. Some demonstrators are demanding the resignation of Mayor Ted Wheeler.
During the clashes, some have broken windows, set fires, punctured police car tires with spikes, shined lasers in officers’ eyes and pelted them with rocks and frozen water bottles.
After Danielson’s killing, Brown sent state police back into the city to help local police.
Those troopers have been deputized as federal law enforcement officers by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which means protesters arrested by state troopers far from federal property could face prosecution by the U.S. government.
The move appears to be a way to get around Portland’s newly elected local prosecutor, who has dismissed hundreds of cases against demonstrators.
Lost amid the tensions are the voices of the city’s Black residents, who are divided about the best way to keep up the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some credit the protests with maintaining pressure on elected officials while acknowledging that vandalism and violence distracts from the movement’s message.
Others say the street activism — and particularly violence — is taking attention away from other urgent issues affecting the Black community.
A surge in gun violence and homicides has disproportionately impacted the Black community this summer, and police say they are stretched so thin that they don’t have time to adequately investigate or even respond to routine calls.
Shootings in July reached a 30-year high, and nearly two-thirds of the victims were Black.
Behind the scenes, progress in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing has advanced quietly.
A coalition called Reimagine Oregon has advanced statewide proposals to end what they see as systemic racism in everything from housing access to education to policing. Brown this week signed into law expanded statewide restrictions on police use-of-force.
And the Portland City Council in June reallocated nearly $16 million from the police budget to community programs focused on the needs of people of color by eliminating a special gun violence task force and school resource officers in three urban school districts.