Violent protests return to the streets of Portland following 10 days of quiet as police arrest 11 and 'deploy tear gas to break up crowds'
Protesters have returned to the streets of Portland following a ten-day pause caused by poor air quality from nearby wildfires.
Demonstrators marched to an ICE facility in the south of the city late Friday night, where police declared an unlawful assembly.
Activists threw items at officers, leading to the arrests of 11 people, including at least two from out of state.
Photos show that smoke was used to clear the crowd, and it appeared that tear gas was deployed.
Police initially tweeted that tear gas was on the list of crowd control agents if people did not disperse, despite Democrat mayor Ted Wheeler last week ordering officers not to deploy the chemical agent for crowd control.
Protesters have returned to the streets of Portland following a ten-day pause caused by poor air quality from nearby wildfires
Photos show that smoke was used to clear the crowd, and it appeared that tear gas was deployed. Dozen of police with riot shields are seen standing guard outside an ICE facility
Demonstrators marched to an ICE facility in the south of the city, where police declared an unlawful assembly
A protester moves through smoke fired by officers late Friday after they declared an unlawful assembly
Police were seen back on the streets of Portland Friday following a ten-day break in unruly protests. Demonstrations in the city have been ongoing since late May
A Portland police officer is seen making his way through a street filled with smoke following a clash with demonstrators
Hundreds of people have been arrested since the protests started in May. Police have been out in force each night trying to keep order in the streets
A protester taunts officers during a dispersal at the ICE detention center in Portland
Wheeler himself was tear gassed when he went to a demonstration against the presence of federal authorities dispatched to the city to protect federal property.
He said he still wants police to respond aggressively to prevent violence and vandalism. Hundreds of people have been arrested since the protests started in May.
Protesters in Portland want city officials to slash the police budget and reallocate that money to black residents and businesses.
Some demonstrators are also demanding the resignation of Wheeler, a white man and the scion of a timber company fortune.
In clashes with police, some protesters have broken windows, set small fires, punctured police car tires, shined lasers in officers' eyes and pelted them with rocks and frozen water bottles.
Police criticized Wheeler's orders to ban tear gas, saying in a statement that it could force them to employ potentially more dangerous crowd control measures to quell violent demonstrations.
Officers guard the front gate of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center on Friday night
Police arrest a protester as they try to take control of the streets during protests on Friday night
Dozens of officers stood guard outside the ICE facility during a standoff with protesters who refused to leave the area
It appeared that police deployed tear gas to break up the crowds, who assembled for a demonstrations following a ten-day break
The new protest comes after reports the Justice Department explored whether it could pursue either criminal or civil rights charges against city officials in Portland.
Federal officials are said to have researched whether they could levy criminal or civil charges against the officials, exploring whether their rhetoric and actions may have helped spur the violence in the city.
It underscores the larger Trump administration's effort to spotlight and crack down on protest-related violence.
President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats, and specifically pointed to Portland's mayor Ted Wheeler, who he says have not done enough to stop nights of looting and unrest in cities across the U.S. Trump has called Wheeler a 'wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor' and has said the city 'will never recover with a fool for a Mayor....'
Trump has heaped blame for the unrest on Democrats who are leading the cities where violence has occurred and tried to keep focus squarely on pockets of protest-related violence, instead of on the point of police reform and the larger movement of racial injustice.
Portland police arrest a protester during a dispersal at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center
The protests, which began over the killing of George Floyd, often result frequent clashes between protesters and law enforcement
Protesters shielded themselves from smoke behind umbrellas in Portland late Friday night
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler ordered officers not to use tear gas to break up demonstrations. However, it appeared the chemical agent was deployed during a clash on Friday night
Since protests began back in May, hundreds of people have been arrested in Portland. The city has struggled to curb violence that erupts during and after demonstrations