Bottom line:
Activity in the vicinity of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse once again remained peaceful – in sharp contrast to the violent nightly siege of previous weeks. Thursday evening marked a fifth consecutive night with zero attacks directed at federal officers or federal property. The change is directly attributable to the long-awaited cooperation from state and local law enforcement, which began last week, but should have been the case all along.
However, Portland’s rioters have not stopped and are instead focusing their attacks on local law enforcement officers and buildings elsewhere in the city. In doing so, violent anarchists have employed many of the same violent tactics previously used in the federal courthouse siege. Thursday night, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) reported that it had declared yet another unlawful and riotous assembly – the fourth in four consecutive nights – as rioters attacked state and local officers and the East Precinct building. Unlike the courthouse siege, however, the nightly violence against PPB officers and property has drawn the condemnation of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said in a press conference that the activity “is not peaceful protests.”
The past 24 hours:
Once again, there were no attacks directed at federal law enforcement or property. Crowd size in the vicinity of the federal courthouse peaked at less than 100 people and remained peaceful.
DHS officers conducted zero arrests and reported zero injuries or damage to federal property.
Miles away from the courthouse, PPB reported that it declared an unlawful assembly just before 10 p.m. local time, after rioters vandalized the East Precinct building and attacked security cameras. The report also added, that after the declaration, rioters set a garbage can on fire and pushed it up against the building. As PPB and OSP officers worked to disperse the crowd, they were attacked with hard projectiles such as glass bottles and heavy rocks.
PPB reported that the group returned to the precinct building multiple times after being repeatedly dispersed, during which time officers were assaulted with hard projectiles and commercial grade fireworks. PPB also reported that an officer was severely wounded by a thrown rock.
The majority of the crowd had departed the area by 2:30 a.m. local time, according to PPB.