Wednesday, September 2, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
FBI shifts resources to ongoing unrest in Portland
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) 4 Port-
land9s FBI chief said Wednes-
day, August 26, he is shift-
ing the agency9s resources
to focus more heavily on the
nightly racial injustice pro-
tests in Oregon9s largest city
that often end in vandalism,
clashes with local police and
dozens of arrests.
Special Agent in Charge
Renn Cannon said he is pull-
ing agents from fraud and
organized crime teams to
focus on <acts of violence and
federal crimes= committed
during nearly three months of
unrest. The FBI respects the
rights of peaceful protesters
to assemble and demonstrate,
but near-nightly acts of vio-
lence and vandalism associ-
ated with the protests have
created a dangerous and vola-
tile situation, he said.
<We do investigate major
threats of violence and fed-
eral crimes. And sometimes
a major threat of violence is
a cumulative threat that hap-
pens over a period of time. It
starts to have a really negative
impact on the community,= he
said in an interview with The
Associated Press.
<Here in Portland, we9re
... making the assessment
that we should be trying to
do a little more than we have,
because the cumulative effects
and the nature of the problem
indicate that the community
needs help,= Cannon said.
He declined to provide
specifics about the numbers of
agents being shifted to protest
cases or which cases, or how
many cases, the agency was
investigating. The FBI has
previously released wanted
posters related to two inci-
dents on May 29.
The announcement came
as Portland Mayor Ted
Wheeler prepared to make a
statement the day after pro-
testers smashed windows and
vandalized City Hall inside
and out. Police made 23
arrests as they dispersed the
crowd, officials said.
Demonstrators in the
crowd of about 150 also threw
bottles and eggs at police, put
metal bars in the street to try
to damage police vehicles
and smashed a security cam-
era on the City Hall building,
police said in a statement. The
statement said officers used
<crowd control munitions= in
response but did not say what
kind.
The day before, local
police used tear gas to repel
protesters who repeatedly set
fire to a police union head-
quarters building and arrested
25 individuals.
And last weekend, protest-
ers clashed violently in down-
town streets for several hours
with members of a right-wing
group that showed up to con-
front them. Video recorded
during the Saturday melee
shows one man pointing a gun
into the crowd, but no shots
were fired.
Cannon declined to say if
the FBI was looking into Sat-
urday9s events, but he said his
agency does help local, state,
and federal law enforcement
with <threat assessments= in
situations such as those.
Portland has been gripped
by nightly protests for nearly
three months since the police
killing of George Floyd in
Minneapolis.
D e m o n s t r a t o r s h a v e
repeatedly targeted police
buildings, police union build-
ings, city and county offices
and federal buildings with
vandalism that includes set-
ting fires, spraying graffiti
and smashing windows and
security cameras.
Some protesters want to
eliminate or drastically reduce
the city9s police budget 4
saying the police protects
property over Black lives 4
while the city9s mayor and
others in the Black commu-
nity have decried the violence,
saying it is counterproductive.
On Tuesday, President
Trump renewed calls to have
Gov. Kate Brown and Port-
land Mayor Ted Wheeler call
in the state9s National Guard.
<They must stop calling
these anarchists and agitators
8peaceful protestors.9 Come
back into the real world! The
Federal Government is ready
to end this problem imme-
diately upon your request,=
Trump wrote on Twitter.
Brown responded on Twit-
ter to Trump9s demand, call-
ing it <political theater.=
In July, Trump sent agents
to protect federal property in
downtown Portland.
Crowds grew into the
thousands. Agents repeatedly
clashed with people over a
two-week period, deployed
tear gas, and arrested those
they said were hurling objects
and trying to hurt agents and
damage property.
The American Civil Lib-
erties Union on Wednesday
filed a lawsuit against Trump
and other federal officials
related to the agents9 actions,
alleging they used excessive
force and illegal detentions to
try to stamp out Black Lives
Matter protests.
The agents pulled back
from a visible presence down-
town on July 31.
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