PORTLAND — Protesters repeatedly set fire late Monday night to a police union headquarters building and were repelled by officers spraying tear gas, officials said. Twenty-five people were arrested amid clashes that stretched into Tuesday morning.
People in a group of about 300 people hurled rocks and bottles at officers and set three fires to the sides of the building and one to an awning, police said. All the fires were put out. One demonstrator climbed atop the building’s roof to unfurl a banner and the building’s walls were spray-painted, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Portland has been gripped by nightly protests for nearly three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Demonstrations, often violent, have targeted police buildings and federal buildings. Some protesters have called for reductions in police budgets while the city’s mayor and some people in the Black community have decried the violence, saying it is counterproductive.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump renewed calls to have Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler call in the state’s National Guard.
“They must stop calling these anarchists and agitators ‘peaceful protestors’. Come back into the real world! The Federal Government is ready to end this problem immediately upon your request,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
In July the federal government sent agents to protect federal property in downtown Portland. Crowds grew into the thousands and agents repeatedly clashed with people over a two-week period, deployed tear gas and arrested people they said were hurling objects and trying to hurt agents and damage property. Wheeler himself was tear gassed one night when he showed up at the protests.
The agents pulled back from a visible presence downtown, but it’s unclear how many remained in Portland, under an agreement in which State Police would be deployed to downtown. The State Police left after the agreed upon two-week monitoring period.
Brown’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Before dawn Monday, police used tear gas to scatter demonstrators who hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers and set fires in the streets as they marched on a precinct station. Twenty-three people were arrested.
During that demonstration, a group of about 200 lit a dumpster on fire and used it as a shield as they approached the station, police said. They threw objects at officers, hitting some positioned on the roof, and lit an awning on fire. One officer suffered a wrist injury after he was hit with a piece of ceramic.
