Melissa Etehad
July 25, 2020
The nightly standoffs in downtown Portland between protesters and federal agents continued early Sunday, with several dozen agents in camouflage deploying tear gas and other munitions as they waded into the streets beyond the federal courthouse to push back demonstrators who authorities said had breached a fence.
The confrontation was one of several nationwide over the weekend, including in Seattle, Austin, Texas, and downtown Los Angeles, sparked by anger over police brutality and by President Trump’s recent orders to send federal agents into cities around the U.S. to address ongoing protests.
In Seattle, the situation turned violent and according to the Associated Press, 21 officers suffered minor injuries and 40 arrests were made.
In downtown Portland, several thousand protesters from all walks of life came to the federal courthouse to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement, including teachers, Portland-area healthcare workers and LGBTQ allies. But after several hours, authorities declared it to be a riot, saying that some in the crowd had torn down fencing at the perimeter of the courthouse and were creating a “grave risk of public alarm.”
Federal agents used tear gas on the crowd in what has become a nightly ritual that this weekend appeared to reawaken the protests elsewhere in the country.
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