Violence continued in Portland, Oregon, this weekend even after federal law enforcement pulled back to allow state and local police to take over. Yet the media, including the Wall Street Journal, described the Portland violence as “mostly peaceful.”
On Thursday night, the first night after the Department of Homeland Security struck a deal with the State of Oregon, the violent demonstrations continued, with protesters setting various fires, including one in which a pig’s head was set alight atop an American flag. On Friday night, the fires in the streets continue, with radical leftists burning Bibles on a U.S. flag.
On Saturday night, riots continued, with rioters targeting the Portland Police Department with some of the same weapons they had used against federal officers defending the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, including lasers aimed at officers:
Antifa are trashing a southeast Portland residential neighborhood in an effort to slow down Portland Police who are moving them away from the facility they were attacking with glass bottles. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/wnhduflKJK
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 2, 2020
People in this unlawful assembly have thrown glass bottles at Portland Police and directed lasers at them. Anyone who does not disperse may be subject to force or arrest.
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 2, 2020
Portland Police reported that one march on Saturday night was “peaceful.” Another, however, was quite violent. Notably, members of the demonstration disguised themselves as members of the media to carry out their attacks on police officers:
Meanwhile, a group of about two hundred marched from Laurelhurst Park, blocking traffic lanes, to the Penumbra Kelly Building, 4735 East Burnside Street. The group stood blocking East Burnside Street, shined bright lights at Portland Police officers standing outside the building, directed lasers at the officers and eventually began throwing glass bottles at them. Vehicles blocked East Burnside Street from Northeast 47th Avenue to Northeast 50th Avenue.
A person in the crowd threw a glass jar or bottle filled with paint, which struck a Portland Police officer in the head. The officer was not injured.
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Portland Police dispersed the crowd, directing it west. People continued to throw glass and plastic bottles at police. People with “press” written on their outer garments repeatedly threw objects at officers.
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A large portion of the crowd marched blocking city streets and circled back toward the Penumbra Kelly Building. Portland Police met the crowd near Southeast 50th near East Burnside and directed it south all the way to Southeast Belmont Street. Again people with “press” written on their outer garments were among those throwing objects at police.
That pattern — part of the demonstration peaceful, part of the demonstration aggressively violent — continues the pattern of the past several weeks. However, the mainstream media — as usual — seemed determined to cover up the violence.
Even the nominally conservative Wall Street Journal played the game.
The Journal reported on Sunday afternoon: “With No Federal Agents on Streets, Portland Protests Turn Largely Peaceful.” Six paragraphs into the article, however, it noted:
Separately, a few hundred protesters descended on a police precinct on the city’s east side, according to local law enforcement, where they shined lasers at officers and threw glass bottles at them. The Portland Police Bureau said on Twitter that the gathering had been declared an unlawful assembly and that two people had been arrested.
In claiming that the protests had become more peaceful because of the absence of federal officers, the Journal cited “protesters” — the people with an interest in sending the message that federal officers were to blame for the violence.
The Journal has earned a conservative reputation due to the opinions on its editorial page. However, the news section is rather typically liberal, and over 280 Journal employees recently signed a letter complaining about the paper’s editorials.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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