Another protest went down in Portland, Oregon, this weekend with little to no police involvement, per Fox News . The protest began with over 100 people representing the Antifa and Black Lives Matter interest groups who were all there to honor the death of Patrick Simmons who had been killed by an enforcement officer in a gun altercation. The participants began the protest by walking through the streets of Portland with seemingly innocent intentions
“We’re not here to riot. We’re here for justice. We need to fight this all the way to the end. These cops need to be locked up,” protester Charles Kimmons said.
Soon, however, multitudes of videos show up across the internet depicting ways in which the protesters were bullying and promoting hateful behavior toward non-protesters. In one video, protesters are seen blocking the street but have appointed their own “traffic directors” to direct vehicles around and away from the rally. Some drivers of the vehicles don’t want to listen to the unofficial traffic directors, which causes tension.
The above clip depicts a man trying to direct cars, but when he received criticism from a driver, he fired back with anger. A protester woman next to him tried to nicely ask the man to turn his car so he can get out of the rally area but he asks just why he should do that.
“Because I told you to…Don’t hurt anybody, just go,” the woman responded.
Other protesters didn’t keep their cool quite as well as this mentioned lady, like the man who began yelling obscenely at the stalled passenger in the car.
“Go back to North Carolina! We don’t need your KKK,” the protester yelled, apparently assuming so much about the man because of his license plate depicting his home state.
In another instance, a Lexus that wanted to make a turn was chased and tackled by a large number of protesters. It appeared that they were banging on the car and dragging their feet until the car was able to pick up enough speed to zoom down the street.
Finally, in a moment which could have arguably gone much worse. an elderly woman from the neighborhood rode onto the sidewalk with a wheelchair, asking one of the loud protesters if he could stop using the megaphone because the sound had been bothering her ears. Then, this woman was belittled and yelled at by protesters.
Apparently the police force in Portland try to stay as hands-off as possible in situations such as these, according to Sgt. Chris Burley. While he made a point that the officers all watched carefully and monitored the crowd, zero arrests were made in the end. Burley explained in a little more detail how the force decides to watch events like these from a distance.
“[Police weigh] the ability for people to gather to practice their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the impact it places on the rest of the Portland community.”