Violence broke out again Thursday night that carried on until Friday morning. A couple of hundred protesters gathered near A federal Courthouse that they tried to set on fire.
The rioters broke the glass windows on the federal courthouse and then shot mortars towards it with one actually entering the building.
They shot commercial-grade fireworks towards the police along with throwing rocks and bottles. One thug threw an open penknife at a federal officer just missing him by inches. Then rioters are trying to deplete the city’s funds in order to get them to defund the police.
As they attacked the building, federal authorities rushed outside to protect the building. They were met by rocks, full cans and bottles along with the fireworks.
A riot is still declared in the area of the Federal Courthouse and Justice Center. You must leave the area now by moving to the west. Tear gas and other crowd control munitions may be deployed. Leave the area now.
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) July 3, 2020
A sound truck was deployed to announce that the demonstrators must depart from the area or they would be facing possible tear gas and other methods of dispersing a mob.
Of course, the warning didn’t work and they had to forcibly remove them, making several arrests in the process. And true to form, those who were arrested claimed police brutality.
These are the fireworks antifa are using to attack police & the public in Portland. Last night one of their own comrades was injured by their explosive outside the federal courthouse. They rioted for hours and started a fire inside the courthouse. pic.twitter.com/TO1TAoRPsN
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 3, 2020
The US military is protecting the Portland federal courthouse under attack tonight by antifa black bloc militants. They rushed out and made an arrest here. Antifa have been trying to set the building on fire for hours. pic.twitter.com/p0GiQj5tCZ
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 3, 2020
When antifa and BLM rioters began pulling down the window barricades at the @PortlandPolice central precinct, police responded and were promptly surrounded by an angry mob. pic.twitter.com/y4JvhtTfrn
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 3, 2020
As the PPB detailed:
Around 12:46 a.m., demonstrators returned to the west side of the federal courthouse. Once again, demonstrators were warned by the sound truck that the riot declaration was still in effect and they needed to leave the area. At this time, demonstrators started launching mortars towards the federal courthouse and a fire erupted inside of the building where the glass doors had been broken.
Because of this immediate life safety issue, officers once again began to disperse the crowd. As they dispersed the crowd, demonstrators continued to throw rocks, cans, and commercial-grade fireworks and mortars towards officers. Because of the violent nature of the demonstrators, while officers cleared the area, crowd control munitions were used and several arrests were made. As officers began to disengage the crowd at Southwest Main Street and Southwest Broadway Avenue, commercial-grade fireworks were once again thrown at officers.
