Photos by Diego Diaz
About a thousand people gathered in North Portland’s Peninsula Park on Friday evening to hold a vigil for George Floyd.
The 6 p.m. demonstration was an act of solidarity with protesters in Minneapolis, where a white police officer is charged with killing Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, on Monday by kneeling on his neck while he lay on the ground in handcuffs pleading for his life.
After the vigil, several hundred in attendance marched south down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard toward the Justice Center in downtown Portland.
While most vigilgoers and marchers demonstrated peacefully, some people who marched began to engage in a level of vandalism, arson and looting not before seen in Portland.
Around 10 p.m., near Northeast Seventh Avenue and Morris Street, a protester shot at the occupants of a vehicle that was surrounded by demonstrators, sending one passenger to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to police.
Portland police declared it a riot on Twitter shortly before midnight. Many businesses and other buildings were broken into and set ablaze, including the downtown Target, several banks, the Apple Store, Pioneer Place mall and the Justice Center, which houses Portland Police Bureau’s headquarters and one of Multnomah County’s two jails.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said on Twitter he was forced to leave his dying mother to deal with the situation, declared a state of emergency at 3:48 a.m. and instituted an immediate curfew, which will resume at 8 tonight.
A widely publicized video of Floyd’s death has ignited nationwide protests and outrage, including in Portland, where protesters have been holding an occupation in front of the Justice Center downtown since earlier this week.
Several demonstrations, including a march downtown Thursday night and a NAACP-organized memorial at Terry Schrunk Plaza on Friday morning have attracted protesters, but Friday night’s vigil and the ensuing 5-mile march toward the Justice Center was by far the largest local demonstration to date.
PNW Youth Liberation Front originally organized the vigil. The group is described in its Twitter profile as a “decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives dedicated to direct action towards total liberation.”
Floyd died on Memorial Day after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin held his neck to the ground with his knee for more than eight minutes while bystanders filmed the arrest.
Chauvin was among officers who responded to a call from a convenience store related to a counterfeit $20 bill.
Chauvin and three other officers were fired after the video surfaced, showing Chauvin holding down Floyd’s neck with his knee as Floyd said he could not breathe and blood dripped from his nose.
He could be heard calling for his mother shortly before he stopped moving.
Chauvin continued to hold his knee to Floyd’s neck after he became unresponsive. Floyd was soon after officially pronounced dead.
A second video from a different vantage point emerged Friday, appearing to show three police officers kneeling on Floyd.
Protests across the U.S. have erupted, with demonstrators demanding justice for Floyd when Chauvin was not initially arrested or charged with his murder.
On Thursday, the attorney for Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, said during a press conference, “There is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge.”
That sentiment changed Friday, when Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, four days after Floyd’s death.
At Friday’s vigil, dozens of Portlanders of color took the stage to memorialize Floyd and demand justice for his death.
Speakers included Pastor Roy Tate, teachers, youths and other community members.
Attendees sat on the lawn and watched, most wearing masks, in a socially distanced fashion due to the ongoing pandemic.
Many black Portlanders have also died at the hands of police, some of the speakers reminded the crowd.
The demonstrations in Portland on Friday were not alone. Protests erupted across the nation, including in Seattle, New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Louisville, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., where the White House was put under lockdown.
Two people died amid demonstrations last night: A 19-year-old man was shot dead in Detroit, and in Oakland, Calif., a security guard was killed.
Portland police report that as of 5 a.m. today, 13 people have been arrested in connection with last night’s protests.
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