PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — More than 100 people occupied the park and the streets outside the Justice Center Sunday night hours after construction crews boarded the building after Saturday night’s protests ended in fireworks and tear gas — with the Portland Police Bureau declaring a riot.
Sunday marked the 39th straight day of protests in the city since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Around 9:30 p.m. people began to arrive at the Justice Center. Construction workers were still working on the building at the time and were reportedly heckled by people. By 10 p.m., roughly 200 protesters filled the parks and streets nearby with a few dozen federal police on guard.
By 11 p.m., the crowd had grown in size and began to set off fireworks near SW 3rd Ave. A bonfire was also spotted in Chapman Square.
Earlier in the day, a small pro-police demonstration took place in the same space that demonstrators burned American flags and statues the night before. For a brief moment in the afternoon, blue hearts with supportive messages for the Portland Police Bureau were taped to the outside of the building.
On Saturday, for the fourth time in five nights, a riot was declared in downtown Portland after protesters threw bricks, mortars, M-80s, fireworks, lit fires, smashed windows, and clashed with police and federal officers who used tear gas and other crowd-control tactics to disperse the group by 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
A total of 13 people were arrested. Authorities said several officers were hurt “mostly due to mortars and fireworks thrown at them.”