Seems there are numerous issues occurring in Portland.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Far-right extremists and continued clashes between Black Lives Matter protesters and police this weekend renewed tensions in Portland, Minneapolis and other cities, pushing the country into its 80th day of consecutive demonstrations in some places.
A group with ties to far-right organizations that have long targeted Portland gathered downtown Saturday afternoon to wave American flags and push back against Black Lives Matter protests challenging police brutality. The event ended with two gunshots.
As the protest wrapped up, a car drove out of a parking garage, witnesses say, and one of the people inside the car pulled out a gun and fired two shots as they sped away. No one was injured.
The Portland Police Bureau initially told The Washington Post that officers were aware of a scuffle, pepper spray use and a paintball gun at the rally, but said they had not received evidence of gunshots. About three hours later, the bureau confirmed one injury at the event and acknowledged allegations that shots had been fired.
Some critics noted a disparity between how police responded to the right-wing group downtown and the left-leaning crowd that gathered outside a police building Saturday night. Officers did not intervene downtown despite reports of violence and gunshots, but they confronted protesters later that night after a small number of people in a large crowd threw fireworks at the police building and defaced it with graffiti.
Gunfire stemming from far-right demonstrations targeting Portland has long been a fear for the city, since Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys and other right-wing groups began singling it out as a battleground to fight “antifa.”
A separate militia-like group called American Wolf, which has been known to mace and shoot paintball rounds at left-leaning protesters, showed up at Saturday night’s Black Lives Matter protest to confront the crowd. Fewer than a dozen men, including the group’s leader, Peter Diaz, were met in the street by dozens of black-clad protesters before they could reach the larger crowd near the police building. People shouted for Diaz and his men to leave, and they did after several minutes of yelling back and forth. Most of the men drove away in a stretch limo with “American Wolf” painted on the side.
Police are facing criticism from activists for a perceived lack of action on the case, one of the latest attacks on protesters. On Aug. 4, a man drove his truck at a high speed through a demonstration area pushing a motorcycle that had been used as a barricade. The driver brandished a gun at protesters after they chased down his vehicle. Police said the driver was interviewed and released without charges. A pickup truck was abandoned several blocks west after its driver accelerated towards the crowd, hitting and dragging a motorcycle
