Protesters remained outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, into the early hours of yesterday as fireworks were shot at the building and plumes of tear gas, dispensed by US agents, lingered above.
Thousands of people gathered in Portland’s streets hours after a US judge denied Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions when they arrest people during protests that have roiled the city and pitted local officials against the administration of US President Donald Trump.
By 8pm hundreds of people, most wearing masks and many donning helmets, had gathered near a fountain, one spot where groups meet before marching to the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and the federal agents there.
Photo: EPA-EFE
They chanted and clapped along to the sound of drums, pausing to listen to speakers.
Among organized groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the “Wall of Moms,” was Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who spoke to protesters outside the Justice Center.
By 9pm the crowd grew to several thousand. People, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder, packed the area and overflowed into the streets as they chanted “black lives matter” and “feds go home” to the sound of drums.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Protesters shook the fence surrounding the courthouse, shot fireworks toward the building and threw glass bottles.
Many times these actions were met by federal agents using tear gas and flash bangs. The flow of tear gas caused protesters to disperse, some becoming sick as others remained toward the front with leaf blowers directing the gas back toward the courthouse.
Federal agents had leaf blowers of their own to counteract.
As the clouds of tear gas floated down the street, protesters would swiftly regroup and return to chant and shake the fence that separated the people on the street from federal agents and the courthouse.
The US Federal Protective Service declared the gathering as “an unlawful assembly” and said that officers had been injured.
The federal agents, deployed by Trump to tamp down the unrest, have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations that often turn violent.
Leaders in Oregon say that federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis and the state attorney general sued to allege that some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
US District Judge Michael Mosman said that the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules.”
Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened, but to prevent injuries by federal officers.
That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mosman wrote.
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