PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A few dozen protesters gathered outside of the Justice Center in downtown Portland late on Election Night after a different group ended a peaceful march at Revolution Hall, hours after it had started there.
The “West Coast Solidarity” event was posted on the public pages of the PDX BLM events calendar and was slated to last until 11:30 p.m.
The protesters started marching around Southeast Portland around 7 p.m. The crowd was several hundred strong at one point and returned to Revolution Hall around 10 p.m. KOIN 6 News witnessed some graffiti during the march, as well as an argument between demonstrators and two people who were standing outside a home, but police did not interact with the march and thanked the participants for “maintaining a peaceful event.”
The group dispersed, with about 75-100 people heading to downtown Portland to join a small group of demonstrators at the Justice Center. By 1 a.m. though, the crowd had dwindled substantially.
Revolution Hall in Southeast Portland was the starting point for many of the protests that began following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Protesters would gather there, hold a rally and then march through the streets.
Over time, the protests morphed into often violent events that lasted for more than 100 consecutive days, ended only when wildfires erupted throughout Oregon in early September, making the air unsafe for anyone to be outside. Since then, protests have continued, though on a more sporadic basis.
On Monday, Gov. Kate Brown issued a State of Emergency for Portland, putting the Oregon State Police and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in charge of a Unified Command and also put the National Guard on standby.
That Unified Command was put into action Monday night when protesters gathered at Director’s Park, then marched to the PSU campus and smashed windows at the Campus Security building. An unlawful assembly was declared and 2 people were arrested.
KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story as events develop.