(CNN) Hundreds of people gathered and marched on Saturday in Portland, Oregon, marking the 66th night of Black Lives Matter protests in the city, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
Police said hundreds of people gathered at the federal courthouse Saturday night to protest and hear speeches before marching through downtown. That march was peaceful, police said.
Separately, a few miles east, a group of about 200 people marched from Laurelhurst Park to the Penumbra Kelly Building, and they blocked traffic, directed lasers at officers and threw glass bottles at them, according to Portland Police.
One person in the crowd threw a glass jar or bottle filled with paint, which hit an officer in the head, police said. The officer was not injured.
Police said people with "press" written on their outer garments were among those throwing objects at officers. Portland Police made two arrests throughout the night, according to the statement, and did not use tear gas.
Cave-Skier1994 on August 2nd, 2020 at 21:28 UTC »
I wish some of you commenting on how bad Portland is would actually come and visit and see first hand what is happening. The media only shows a percentage of what is going on here.. Everyone keeps saying Portland is being burnt to the ground and being destroyed by protesters but it really isn’t true. It a small localized area in our downtown area... if you actually went to other parts of downtown Portland it is life and business as usual. I feel perfectly safe and so do most people who live here... I ride my bike in downtown Portland everyday and night without any issues. There is so much Misinformation it is crazy.
Oregon does not have a good history of respecting people of color especially people of color. We were one of the last sundown states in the country and we were also a host of one of the biggest KKK sects in the country. We also have monuments all around our north eastern area in Portland where red lining occurred, and it is still obvious because we have so many areas where you only will see one or two black people. We are the inclusive melting pot that most people hear about.. Even if the racism here isn’t open there are tons of micro-aggressions around the city, and it only gets worse when you get to the eastern parts of this state.
Edit: it is literally only two blocks being protested on.
Edit 2: maps of the protest https://katu.com/news/local/what-you-need-to-know-about-may-day-protests-in-portland
SaigoBattosai on August 2nd, 2020 at 21:26 UTC »
“Sometimes you just have to keep going until one side loses patience.”
Wonder how long the protestors will keep it up. Two months is impressive to me, guess we’ll see if they’re still doing this by Christmas.
peterspickledpotato on August 2nd, 2020 at 18:39 UTC »
From a Brit - is there any central source organising the protests? Or are they sort of done by local groups?
Is there like an ultimatum in terms of when the protests stop? Is the defunding of the police the main target? Has it been working?