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Portland Police arrested a crowd of more than 100 protesters during a protest Friday night, ending a march just minutes after it began.
Mass detention was an apparent use of kettling, a police tactic of surrounding a crowd and containing people within a perimeter. Police told the crowd they were holding everyone within limits to “investigate a crime,” but did not specify the nature of the alleged crime.
Protesters first gathered in the Pearl neighborhood around 8:30 p.m. and started marching about half an hour later. Police threatened to arrest protesters minutes after the march began, claiming those marching on the street were blocking traffic and would be subject to arrests, citations or crowd control ammunition if they did not move.
Police announced around 9:20 p.m. that they were setting up a perimeter around the group and detaining everyone. Police said the detention was “temporary” and would remove protesters “one at a time”.
Meanwhile, a crowd gathered outside the perimeter chanting “let them go” and slogans decrying the police.
In an incident at around 10 p.m., videographer CarissaDez captured live footage of Portland police spraying two people outside the perimeter who were clashing with police over the detentions.
At around 10:15 p.m., the police began releasing legal observers and members of the press one by one. Lawyers also posted reminders on social media regarding the rights and resources of protesters.
Several live broadcasters and independent journalists said they had been released, police gave them their name and date of birth, wrote the information down on a piece of duct tape and gave it to each person for them to do. ‘she places it on her chest. Police then photographed each person as they left, forcing them to remove their masks.
At around 11:10 p.m., police appeared to arrest at least one person. It was not known why the person had been arrested.
According to people posting on the scene’s social networks, around 11:30 p.m., group of four policemen grabbed and pepper sprayed protester who carried a boom box and took away the speakers. It was not immediately clear why they had sprayed pepper on the person.
At midnight, there were still dozens of protesters inside the perimeter.
Freelance journalist Laura Jedeed reported that a person standing on the sidewalk was arrested shortly before midnight.
Videographers who documented the protest said police had been following the protesters since the start of the march, which lasted less than 15 minutes.
Adam Costello, a live videographer, said two windows were smashed at the start of the protest. Costello suspects this may have prompted the police to set up the perimeter.
A police spokesperson declined to describe the nature of the alleged crime being investigated.
The kettling of Portland protesters recently gained attention in January after two federal judges dismissed or recommended dismissing civil lawsuits, including one brought by the Oregon ACLU, which challenged police practice.
The cases, which stemmed from the June 2017 protests in downtown Portland, were dismissed despite strong objections from community members to the tactics – and a critical report from the Portland Police Review Bureau.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is a police commissioner, said in January he didn’t like the way the police used the tactic during his tenure, but he didn’t say the practice should be banned.
“If porridge is to be used as a technique, it has to be well planned and well trained,” he told The Oregonian / OregonLive.
“What I think we should do is have an open conversation with all of our law enforcement partners and legislative leaders about what tools are appropriate and how to best use them,” he said. -he declares. “I’m not saying porridge should be irrelevant, but I think we should be having a conversation about how we should use it as a tool and use it appropriately if we decide to use it. “
The mass detentions marked the second night in a row in which police responded forcefully to protesters in Portland.
On Thursday evening, federal agents fired tear gas at a group of a few dozen protesters who had gathered at the US courthouse in Hatfield. Some protesters were continuing their efforts earlier in the day when they protested against an oil pipeline.
Police arrested at least one person during the protest.
Juniper Simonis, an environmental biologist who studies the effects of chemical agents on protesters, visited the protest scene on Friday morning and reported finding cans of exhausted HC gas.
HC gas is a poisonous and potentially fatal smoke grenade that Portland police have deployed more than two dozen times over the summer as they tried to disperse protesters.
“HC” stands for hexaclorotethane, a common ingredient in smoke devices that the Environmental Protection Agency has classified as a probable carcinogen.
This report will be updated.
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; [email protected]; @JRamakrishnanOR
Maxine Bernstein and Kale Williams of The Oregonian / OregonLive contributed to this report.
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