Rioters Cost Portland Businesses Millions
Downtown businesses in Portland, Oregon, have sustained about $23 million in damages and lost customers because of violent nightly protests that have brought the city to its knees, authorities said Wednesday.
At a police briefing, Deputy Chief Chris Davis said the intensity of the violence by an “agitator corps” and the length of the protests that are now in their sixth week are unprecedented in Oregon’s largest city.
Davis made a sharp distinction between Black Lives Matter protesters, whom he said were not violent, and a smaller group of people he repeatedly called “agitators.” . . .
Protesters have demonstrated for 41 consecutive nights against racial injustice and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and they are increasingly focusing their actions on federal properties, including Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in the heart of the downtown business district.
Authorities have declared riots several times and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. A recently issued federal court order bans the police from using the tear gas unless a riot is declared, but critics have challenged the police on what constitutes a riot and who makes the decision to designate a protest as an unlawful event. (Read more from “Rioters Cost Portland Businesses Millions” HERE)
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