48 images Created 24 Sep 2022
Attack on the Federal Courthouse in Portland
On July 24, 2020, I travelled to Portland Oregon to cover the riots. Hundreds of people belonging to Antifa gathered on Southwest 3rd Avenue outside of the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse in Downtown Portland. The very well-organized group of Antifa stormed the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse while federal officers waited inside.
Hundreds of Antifa armed with shields, helmets, gas masks, umbrellas, bats, and hockey sticks approached the doors of the courthouse until federal officers came out and dispersed them. The rioters renewed attempts to force their way into the courthouse while chanting “fuck the United States!”
Several demonstrators were seen setting fire to the plywood outside the courthouse building, prompting federal agents to deploy teargas and smoke bombs in a bid to push the protesters back towards a park. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined the rioters, walked up to the fence line alongside his security detail and was gassed by federal officers, who did not know it was the mayor. For a week, we witnessed nightly criminal activity including assaults on law enforcement officers, destruction of property, looting, arson, and vandalism.
Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service deputies, officers from the Federal Protective Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection made numerous attempts to repel the assault on the courthouse. Without the assistance of the Portland Police, it became difficult. Some of the officers sustained injuries from powerful lasers pointed at their eyes. A group of women linked arm in arm and wore sunflower-yellow T-shirts, used their bodies as a physical barricade between Antifa protesters and federal agents, an effort that was quickly dubbed the “Wall of Moms.”
Media outlets refused to acknowledge that Portland was under siege, as Antifa and other agitators violently took control of the city’s downtown core. The attack on the courthouse came one day after authorities removed fencing initially erected over the summer, in response to continued riots following the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Best viewed on destop computer. More photos in the menu.
Hundreds of Antifa armed with shields, helmets, gas masks, umbrellas, bats, and hockey sticks approached the doors of the courthouse until federal officers came out and dispersed them. The rioters renewed attempts to force their way into the courthouse while chanting “fuck the United States!”
Several demonstrators were seen setting fire to the plywood outside the courthouse building, prompting federal agents to deploy teargas and smoke bombs in a bid to push the protesters back towards a park. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined the rioters, walked up to the fence line alongside his security detail and was gassed by federal officers, who did not know it was the mayor. For a week, we witnessed nightly criminal activity including assaults on law enforcement officers, destruction of property, looting, arson, and vandalism.
Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service deputies, officers from the Federal Protective Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection made numerous attempts to repel the assault on the courthouse. Without the assistance of the Portland Police, it became difficult. Some of the officers sustained injuries from powerful lasers pointed at their eyes. A group of women linked arm in arm and wore sunflower-yellow T-shirts, used their bodies as a physical barricade between Antifa protesters and federal agents, an effort that was quickly dubbed the “Wall of Moms.”
Media outlets refused to acknowledge that Portland was under siege, as Antifa and other agitators violently took control of the city’s downtown core. The attack on the courthouse came one day after authorities removed fencing initially erected over the summer, in response to continued riots following the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Best viewed on destop computer. More photos in the menu.
