Police: 4 arrests, concrete thrown at officers on 78th night of protests in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. (NewsNation/KOIN) — Four arrests were made overnight following the 78th consecutive night of protesting in Portland.
The height of confrontations took place between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. PST during which protesters launched commercial-grade fireworks, golf balls, large river rock, glass bottles, ball bearings and palm-sized chunks of concrete from sling shots at officers, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
One officer was punched in the head multiple times, causing minor injury, police said.
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty reacted late Friday to a video that surfaced on Twitter showing multiple officers contentious encounters with several protesters.
“This brutality is unacceptable,” Hardesty said in her Tweet. “This is the community the police are sworn to protect and serve. They must uphold Portlanders constitution rights.”
Similar to Thursday, the protest was planned at Peninsula Park in North Portland for 8 p.m. with a march that followed an hour later. As usual, the destination of the march isn’t determined until people gathered at the park. The Peninsula Park event was promoted on Twitter by the group Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, who wrote “F— your peace policing. Let people be angry.”
At 10:18 p.m. PST Portland police declared an unlawful assembly for protesters in the area of North Mississippi and Killingsworth, saying that people in the crowd threw “paint bombs and other projectiles.”