Portland police and protestors clash in broad daylight

Portland police and protestors clash in broad daylight

SeattlePI.com

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Protesters outraged with the arrests of seven people at a home where a family was removed in September hurled rocks at officers, sprayed a fire extinguisher at them and damaged police vehicles on Tuesday.

The violence happened in broad daylight, and by evening, Mayor Ted Wheeler sent out a statement saying he was authorizing Portland Police “to use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation ... There will be no autonomous zone in Portland."

“It’s time for the encampment and occupation to end,” Wheeler said in a statement that also acknowledged the issues the protesters want to fix, such as housing and health care. “There are many ways to protest and work toward needed reform. Illegally occupying private property, openly carrying weapons, threatening and intimidating people are not among them.”

The clash fits into a larger debate roiling in Oregon about whether state lawmakers should extend a pandemic-inspired moratorium on evictions that’s set to expire within weeks. Federal renter protections are also set to expire on Dec. 31 and housing advocates are worried that an end to those policies could lead to a huge wave of the newly homeless.

Portland has been the site of frequent protests, many involving violent clashes between officers and demonstrators, ever since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. But most happen at night, making the daytime protest a rare occurrence.

A group of activists for months have camped at the home dubbed “Red House on Mississippi” because it is on North Mississippi Avenue — to express their outrage against gentrification and the eviction of the Black and Indigenous family in September.

The Oregonian reported that the house had belonged to the Kinney family since the 1950s, according to the website for the Red House on...

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