Protesters in Portland vary as much as their arrests do
Sheena McFerran was two rows behind a line of police at a protest in Portland, Ore., when she saw officers pepper-spraying a Black man.
“I said, ‘Hell no,’ so I pulled his backpack back really hard and stepped into the space he was in,” said McFerran, a 34-year-old manager for the Sierra Club who is white.
Edward Schinzing, 32, was just around the corner on another night. Prosecutors say he and 30 others broke into a building with a jail and courtrooms, destroyed an office and set it ablaze.
Both were arrested. Their disparate circumstances highlight what The Associated Press found in an analysis of more than 200 arrests: Even those accused of breaking the law during the liberal city’s nightly rallies don’t neatly fit into President Donald Trump’s depiction of protesters as “anarchists and agitators.”
A review of court documents, social media posts and other public records from people arrested by federal and local authorities since mid-June reveals a group whose motives are as varied as the acts leading to their arrests.
They’re Black Lives Matter activists who have been in the streets since George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, groups of self-proclaimed parents using leaf blowers to drive away tear gas and black-clad provocateurs taking advantage of the nightly chaos that has gripped downtown Portland for more than two months and led Trump to deploy federal agents in early July.
The AP found that 95% of those arrested by police and federal agents were local. The vast majority have no criminal record in Oregon. Many appear to be college students. Their average age was 28, court records show.
They’re mostly charged with misdemeanors such as failing to comply with a lawful order, while some face felonies such as arson and assault on an officer. Most people have been released, and some have been arrested more than once for similar offenses.
AP’s analysis shows many of those arrested do not fit the caricature of an anarchist bent on destruction.
Moments before her arrest, police threw McFerran, the Sierra Club manager, to the ground, yanking off her mask and binding her wrists in zip ties. She was released after eight hours in jail and faces charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police.
McFerran, who lives in Seattle, said she started protesting in her city and in Portland almost nightly after realizing she could do more in the fight for racial justice. Until Floyd’s killing, McFerran says she was a “tourist protester.”
“I realized I need to be participating in this legitimately every day,” she said. “I need to do this work.”
Some of those charged with more serious offenses, such as assaulting officers and destroying property, have criminal histories. Most are white, according to court records.
Schinzing, who was photographed burning papers inside the county Justice Center, was ordered detained this week by a federal judge. He faces a felony arson charge, on top of unrelated harassment and assault charges.