Portland’s mayor and police chief Monday vowed to pursue and punish protesters who broke windows and threw flares into the Oregon Historical Society, toppled statues of two celebrated U.S. presidents and fired gunshots into a restaurant during a downtown riot the previous night.
But the culprits may prove difficult to identify let alone capture.
After months of demonstrations punctuated by violent clashes or vandalism, many of the city’s most militant protesters remain largely elusive or unknown.
Calls to action by often anonymous organizers spread rapidly among left-wing activists on social media and can come together in a matter of hours.
Some participants will then take steps to shield their identities during marches or demonstrations that — while leaderless in appearance — can have a specific goal and the tools to carry it out.
Such dynamics were on vivid display Sunday night, escalating destructive tactics that had waned in recent weeks.
Protest organizers using the Twitter account Generational Resistance started promoting an “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage” only the day before.
The event generated an immediate interest in activist circles that have demanded an end to systemic racism and police brutality since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Generational Resistance, which calls itself “a BIPOC affinity group” and has just under 2,800 followers, laid out a loose outline for the evening.
There would be an undisclosed “direct action” involved. Participants should dress in black and “cover up.” Photographs, video or livestreams would be prohibited.
Members of Generational Resistance could not be reached for comment through their Twitter account, though the group released a statement Monday night.
“We stand to decolonize ourselves and decolonize society by working to abolish colonial systems rooted in racism and build community rooted in liberation,” the statement said.
Members also called for the abolition of police, prisons and capitalism, the return of land to Indigenous communities, and said they supported reparations for Black people and their descendants.
More than 200 people braved a steady downpour and gathered beneath the western span of the Burnside Bridge, the protest starting point, by about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Most of the participants dressed head-to-toe in black and wore face coverings. Several milled about and handed out shields, body armor and helmets to those who wanted them.
A group of Native organizers, some whom were not masked, burned sage and asked the crowd to line up behind a banner that read, “This is Indigenous Day. We want our land back.”
The crowd then began a 20-block march through downtown Portland to the city’s South Park Blocks, delivering call-and-response chants and singing Indigenous songs.
As people reached a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt on horseback in front of the Portland Art Museum, a person on a megaphone announced they had arrived at their destination.
Several in the crowd started to affix chains and straps to the Roosevelt statue, a bronze sculpture officially titled “Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider,” as others took a blowtorch to its base and splattered it with red paint.
They began to pull until the statue rocked from side to side before falling down at 8:51 p.m. Protesters erupted in cheers as dance music played on a large portable speaker.
The crowd then set its sights on an Abraham Lincoln statue a block away, toppling it minutes later.
Afterward, some protesters began smashing windows at the Oregon Historical Society while others unfurled a banner that read, “Stop honoring racist colonizer murderers.” Flares were also thrown into the building’s lobby though they quickly extinguished, police later said.
A mural on the attached Sovereign Hotel building depicting the Lewis & Clark expedition was splattered with red paint.
More chants. More cheers. More dance music.
Over the next half-hour demonstrators used batons, bicycle locks and other objects to shatter windows at Portland State University and along a seven-block stretch of Southwest Fifth Avenue.
Police said one person fired two bullets into the front windows of an empty restaurant on Southwest Park Avenue.
During the demonstration, people in the crowd repeatedly admonished others suspected of filming or taking pictures.
Passersby who happened upon the group were ordered by demonstrators to stop shooting video or to delete photographs, including an apartment resident who had lasers shined at his eyes and a liquid thrown in his face as he appeared to film the scene from his terrace.
A woman with a child was later threatened for taking a photograph of the crowd as it marched along Southwest Fifth Avenue.
No police were visibly present as the rampage continued, though several warnings were given on a loudspeaker.
After more than an hour police declared a riot as the march neared Pioneer Courthouse Square. Minutes later, a phalanx of police cruisers and officers in tactical gear emerged and dispersed the crowd north into the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.
Portland police on Monday said they took three people into custody, including one man accused of breaking several windows and another accused of using a van to help pull down the Roosevelt statue.
Officers have made more than 1,000 arrests at protests since late May, though the majority of them have been for misdemeanor crimes such as interfering with a public safety officer and disorderly conduct. Multnomah County prosecutors have declined to prosecute nearly 70% of protest-related cases.
Police Chief Chuck Lovell said during a morning press conference that the bureau would continue to investigate suspected crimes committed at the South Park Blocks demonstration.
However, when asked, Lovell couldn’t say who the organizers of the event were if or if they had ties to Portland’s Indigenous community.
And while the chief said Portland police had known about the protest in advance, they had no idea where demonstrators intended to march or what they planned to do.
Speaking at the same press conference, Wheeler offered a reprimand while seeming to acknowledge the difficulty in stopping the vandalism.
“If you’re here engaging in acts of violence and criminal destruction we do not tolerate it, we will not tolerate it,” he said. “We will do our level best to hold you accountable.”
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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