The downtown area of the city of Portland in Oregon is not a place you want to take your kids for an excursion to get ice cream. Dodging homeless encampments is the least of your worries. Avoiding the latest demonstration against whatever the issue of the day might be is the real challenge.
Just make sure you bring a gas mask for the tear gas and a sturdy shield to guard against rubber bullets fired by police and the rocks and glass thrown by loony leftists. You’ll be alright. Probably.
On Saturday afternoon, a huge “No Kings” demonstration stepped off, and for a few hours things were fairly peaceful in Portland. But you knew it couldn’t last. Around 6:30 p.m., several hundred rioters, hellbent for blood, attacked federal police officers guarding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
Portland police can’t make a move without a committee telling them what to do. According to Oregon Live, the elite Rapid Response Team drove by the scene a few times “with their lights flashing,” as the federal officers were under siege. The police were in full observation mode.
After the rioters breached the glass doors and entered, the federal officers responded with tear gas and non-lethal bullets. And the riot was on.
The mob threw fireworks, smoke grenades, and rocks at federal law enforcement officers before rushing the doors and entering the facility.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital, “Portland rioters are violently targeting federal law enforcement and we won’t sit idly by and watch these cowards. Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Four officers were injured in the melee, and several rioters were arrested.
After the glass door was breached, federal officers emerged and began staking out a perimeter to the ICE office, shooting less-lethal rounds into the crowd. Officers tackled one person and detained them in handcuffs.
The federal police remained outside the building for several hours while others boarded up the glass door.
Portland Police’s Rapid Response Team mobilized not far away but as of mid-evening had done no more than drive by the scene with lights flashing. Troops of bicycle police also cycled through the area at times.
The riot declaration came at 6:38 p.m., though hundreds remained clustered in front of the ICE facility.
The Portland loonies are a little more creative than most. They posted flyers all over the city listing agents’ identities, photos, and addresses. The doxxing campaign brought a swift response from DHS.
“We will NOT be deterred by rioters’ intimidation and threats,” DHS wrote in the post. “ICE immigration enforcement will only ramp up. The violent targeting of law enforcement in Portland, OR by lawless rioters is despicable, and its leaders must call for it to end.”
ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons got emotional when he said, “People are out there taking photos, of their names, their faces, and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves.”
There appears to be some confusion about the purpose of these raids. Some politicians seem to believe that the people being arrested are obeying the law while they’re being detained. Asking how they got into the United States in the first place never seems to cross their minds.
San Diego Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera shared a photograph of ICE agents on his Instagram page, which had the word “TERRORISTS” scrawled in red across it.
He wrote a post alongside the image, saying: “Look at this photo. This isn’t a war zone—it’s a neighborhood in our city. In San Diego, they’ve targeted parents dropping off their kids at school, people following the law inside courthouses, and workers just doing their jobs at local restaurants.
“These are federal agents carrying out raids on under the false pretense of ‘safety.’ This isn’t safety. It’s state-sponsored terrorism. And anyone who cares about freedom—and true safety—should be fighting back.”
I have no response to such incoherence. It’s just part of the Democrats’ campaign to drum up hysteria. If it leads to bloodshed, all the better. Democrats are hoping to ride the violence all the way to control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.
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