After a number of hours of demonstrations, a protest in north Portland Tuesday night was finally declared it a riot. Police used tear gas to disband rioters wreaking mayhem in the city a new video reveals.
Police stated that about 200 protesters began gathering at Peninsula Park at about 6 pm. Nearly two and a half hours later, the protesters began marching in a northwesterly path in the direction of the Portland Police Association’s office in North Portland.
The video captures the moment canisters of CS gas are deployed in an effort to break up the crowd. Some of the protesters took out their phones and started to record the event.
Quickly after the protesters arrived in the area, police said the group blocked the road on North Lombard Street at North Campbell Avenue. Some began throwing things at the cops like water bottles, cans, and rocks the size of softballs, and they began shining green laser lights into officers’ eyes.
Police warned protesters and rioters alike beforehand.
“CS gas is being used, disperse from the area,” a warning blared from a loudspeaker.
WATCH:
Police are now using tear gas on protesters. @fox12oregon pic.twitter.com/VG2WABZZND
— Drew Reeves (@DrewReevesTV) July 1, 2020
Police said a riot was declared in the section of North Lombard Street round 10 pm after protesters set off commercial-grade fireworks at officers and tried to set fire to dumpsters and trash cans.
Rioters used a line of garbage bins to block the road and have lit the contents on fire near Lombard and Albina. @fox12oregon pic.twitter.com/tIFfxJfUy5
— Drew Reeves (@DrewReevesTV) July 1, 2020
This is what organized rioters do. They begin a peaceful protest while waiting for the news media to show up and video it. Then, some radicals mixed in with the peaceful protesters, start to do illegal things, so that police will step in and disburse everyone, as is standard procedure. That’s when some of the protesters, who are really rioters, go up to the news crews and complain that they were only protesting, and they complain about having the right to protest, etc. so that the story will become the police are suppressing people’s constitutional right to peaceably assemble.
Well, Portland cops aren’t having it.
Protests have been raging in the city over the past few weeks. We reported about two weeks ago when Portland cops rushed in to demolish a recently started “Autonomous Zone” in the city.
Rich is a conservative, syndicated opinion writer and owner of MAGA-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty, and faith.
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