Presence of federal agents spreads unrest in U.S.
Cities across the country respond in solidarity to ongoing unrest in Portland
SEATTLE— A series of strident new protests over police misconduct rattled cities across the country over the weekend, creating a new dilemma for state and local leaders who had succeeded in easing some of the turbulence in their streets until a showdown over the use of federal agents in Oregon stirred fresh outrage. With some demonstrators embracing destructive protest methods and police often using aggressive tactics to subdue both them and others who are demonstrating peacefully, the scenes on Saturday night in places like Seattle, Oakland, California, and Los Angeles recalled the volatile early days of the protests after the death of George Floyd at the end of May.
The latest catalyst was the deployment of federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Ore., whose militarized efforts to subdue protests around the federal courthouse have sparked mass demonstrations and nightly clashes there. They have also inspired new protests of solidarity in other cities, where people have expressed deep concern about the federal government exercising such extensive authority in a city that has made it clear it opposes the presence of federal agents.
President Donald Trump has seized on the scenes of national unrest — statues toppled and windows smashed — to build a law-and-order message for his re-election campaign, spending more than $26 million (U.S.) on television ads depicting a lawless dystopia of empty police stations and 911 answering services that he argues might be left in a nation headed by his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Biden insisted last week that the president’s pledge to inject a federal law-and-order presence into the already volatile issue of policing shows that he is “determined to sow chaos and division. To make matters worse instead of better.”
The situation has left city leaders, now watching the backlash unfold on their streets, outraged and caught in the middle. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in an interview Sunday that the city is in the middle of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with protesters infuriated by the federal presence in Portland smashing windows and setting fires, the very images of “anarchy” that the president has warned about.
“There is no question that the actions in Portland have escalated things, not just in Seattle, but nationwide,” Durkan said.
Over the weekend, dozens of people were arrested in Seattle. Protesters in Los Angele s clashed with officers in front of the city’s federal courthouse downtown. Police also made arrests at protests in smaller cities, such as Omaha, Neb., and Richmond, Va.
In Oakland, what had been a peaceful protest led in part by a group of mothers proclaiming “Cops And Feds Off Our Streets” devolved after dark as another set of protesters smashed windows at the courthouse and lit a fire inside.
An armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas, by a motorist whose car, according to witnesses and police, had been aimed aggressively toward a group of demonstrators also protesting the federal presence in Portland.
Some cities had welcomed Trump’s offer to send additional law federal law enforcement agents in to help combat escalating gang violence and drug crime, but insisted they would brook no federal agents on their streets arresting and tear gassing protesters.
Democratic city and state leaders pushed back against the new federal presence, but also expressed frustration that some on the streets were going too far and playing into the president’s gambit.
Portland has been the epicentre of the most recent protests. Police have said there was persistent vandalism, people pointing lasers at law enforcement agents, and protesters who threw objects at officers, including those protecting the federal courthouse.