The BulleTin • Thursday, april 22, 2021 A3
GEORGE FLOYD MURDER | FALLOUT IN PORTLAND AND BEYOND
Protest turns violent night after verdict
BY FEDOR ZARKHIN
The Oregonian
Portland Police declared an unlaw-
ful assembly Tuesday and arrested at
least two people amid a demonstra-
tion held after jurors convicted former
Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin in
the murder of George Floyd.
Floyd’s death in May ignited nearly
a year of protests, rioting and political
unrest in Portland, and it thrust the
issues of police violence and systemic
racism into the middle of a tense na-
tional conversation.
A crowd initially gathered near the
Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse
and Multnomah County Justice Cen-
ter on Tuesday evening, and some be-
gan spray-painting the latter building
about 9 p.m.
A group of roughly 60 began
marching about 9:45 p.m., while
about 25 other people remained near
the courthouse and justice center.
Some demonstrators broke a num-
ber of downtown windows, according
to police, who declared an unlawful
assembly at roughly 10 p.m.
About that time, an officer and pro-
tester engaged in a heated confron-
tation. Another officer arrived on a
bicycle, pushing a different nearby
protester. That protester then punched
the first officer, and police piled on the
person who threw the punch in flurry
of physical confrontation captured on
video by an Oregonian journalist.
A different video of the flurry shows
an officer throwing repeated punches.
Police said officers arrested two peo-
ple during the protest and that they
used pepper spray against one of them.
The events came after Portland
Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a 24-
hour state of emergency earlier Tues-
day, allowing him to impose a curfew,
close city streets and take other ex-
traordinary measures should wide-
spread political unrest erupt.
The mayor also said the city would
have the state police and National
Guard on standby, while Portland po-
lice received assistance from the Mult-
nomah County Sheriff’s Office and
other law enforcement agencies in the
metro area.
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
Police officers took to Portland’s streets Tuesday, the day Derek Chauvin was found
guilty of murder and manslaughter in Minneapolis. The killing of George Floyd
sparked almost a year of racial justice protests in Portland and elsewhere. Portland
Police declared an unlawful assembly Tuesday and arrested at least two people.
Sweeping federal probe into
Minneapolis Police underway
The U.S. Justice Department is
opening a sweeping investigation into
policing practices in Minneapolis af-
ter a former officer was convicted in
the murder of George Floyd there, At-
torney General Merrick Garland an-
nounced Wednesday.
The department
was already inves-
tigating whether
Derek Chauvin and
the other officers
involved in Floyd’s
death violated his
civil rights.
Garland
“Yesterday’s ver-
dict in the state criminal trial does not
address potentially systemic policing
issues in Minneapolis,” Garland said.
The new investigation is known as
a “pattern or practice” — examining
whether there is a pattern or practice
of unconstitutional or unlawful polic-
ing — and will be a more sweeping re-
view of the entire police department.
It could result in major changes.
Minneapolis’ police chief said he will
cooperate with federal prosecutors.
— Associated Press
Federal report: Agents sent to summer protests lacked training
BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security had authority to send federal
officers to Portland to protect the fed-
eral courthouse, but not all officers
had completed required training, had
the necessary equipment or used con-
sistent uniforms, munitions or tactics,
a final report from the department’s
inspector general says.
Homeland Security lacked a com-
prehensive strategy. Not all officers
were trained to respond to riots or on
crowd control. Some federal agents
even questioned their own involve-
ment in the Portland operation due to
their lack of training, according to the
report made public Wednesday.
Radio communication between fed-
eral agents from different agencies was
poor, and different federal officers had
inconsistent annual certification train-
ing for their use of less-lethal weapons.
“Without the necessary policies,
training and equipment, DHS will
continue to face challenges securing
Federal facilities during periods of civil
disturbance that could result in injury,
death and liability,” the report said.
The findings reflect many of the
allegations made in multiple lawsuits
filed against the Homeland Security
department since former President
Donald Trump sent agents from U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforce-
ment and U.S. Secret Service to bol-
ster Federal Protective Service work-
ers at the courthouse in July after
some demonstrators on July 3 tried to
barricade the front doors of the court-
house and they shattered.
Between June 4 and Aug. 31, 2020,
755 federal officers were sent to Port-
land at various times from the federal
agencies, according to the report.
The inspector general’s office ex-
amined one day for example, Aug. 7,
2020, and found that of 22 officers de-
ployed to Portland, 36 did not appear
on a training roster showing they had
received a legal briefing on their au-
thority or the criminal laws they could
enforce on federal property.
Fourteen of the 36 officers in this
examination who did not receive the
training used less-lethal munitions
against people in Portland, increasing
the department’s liability, the report said.
“Deploying officers who are not
properly trained increases the risk of
officers acting outside of their author-
ity,” the report said.
In a review of 63 officers, only
seven had received riot or crowd-con-
trol training, according to the inspec-
tor general’s office. In interviews and
survey responses, many officers iden-
tified a need for more such training.
Under use-of-force policies govern-
ing ICE, Customs and Border Protec-
tion and the Federal Protective Ser-
vice, officers are required to complete
an initial certification for each less-le-
thal device used. Federal officers in
Portland used compressed air launch-
ers, 40-mm munition launchers and
pepper-ball launchers for crowd con-
trol, the report said.
Recommendations
The inspector general’s office made
two recommendations, urging the
Homeland Security secretary to adopt
a plan, policy and process to improve
federal response to future civil dis-
order at federal buildings that would
address training, equipment, tactics
and policies. It also recommended the
Federal Protective Service create plans
with state and local law enforcement
on how to work together to respond
to such civil disturbances at high-risk
federal buildings.
Homeland Security agreed with
the first recommendation and said it
would work on adopting a policy doc-
ument for designating its federal offi-
cer for civil disturbance assignments
at federal buildings. It will include
verification of required legal training
for officers, a public order policing di-
rective, additional training, procure-
ment of equipment.
The Federal Protective Service also
agreed to develop a plan for respond-
ing to civil disturbances at federal
buildings, and estimated it would be
completed by March 31, 2022.
May 18, 2021 Special District Election
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