People who purportedly identified themselves as “PRESS” on their clothing during the ongoing protests in Portland were seen throwing objects at law enforcement officers during demonstrations-turned-riots overnight, according to a reporter on the ground.
Andy Ngo, editor-at-large of The Post Millennial, tweeted late Wednesday local time that protesters from the crowd of demonstrators “throwing projectiles at officers” included people who had marked themselves as “PRESS.”
The person who captured the video that Ngo shared, who identified themselves as part of a “press collective in PDX,” did not include any information on their own Twitter page about “press” allegedly throwing the items.
The video also shows someone pointing a large green laser at the officers.
Portland has endured more than 80 nights of increasingly violent and destructive demonstrations that have at times devolved into riots. It’s also not the first time people who had identified themselves as being members of the press have allegedly acted out.
Late Saturday into Sunday morning, police said people who identified themselves as “press” threw objects at police. Two officers went to the hospital after being injured by flying objects, which included a 9.5-pound rock, police said.
A day before, police said “several people with ‘press’ affixed to them shined flashlights in officers eyes.”
At the beginning of the month, people with “press” markings repeatedly threw objects at police, the Portland Police Bureau reported.
On Wednesday night, authorities declared a riot at a Portland protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.
People spray painted windows on the building, used traffic cones to block security cameras, and tried to break windows, 360aproko news reported.
Demonstrations in which fires have been set, objects have been thrown and police have fired “crowd control munitions” have gripped Oregon’s biggest city for more than two months following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died after a white police officer held his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd’s repeated shouts that he could not breathe.
Participants have repeatedly broken into the offices of a police union headquarters building and last month clashed for weeks with federal agents dispatched to protect a U.S. courthouse targeted by protesters.
The protests have shown no signs of waning in recent days. Just Sunday night, a man was seen on video being viciously attacked and knocked unconscious by a crowd of people.
Police have so far identified 25-year-old Marquise Love, who also goes by “Keese Love,” as a suspect.
Anyone with information about Love or the attack is asked to call Detective Brent Christensen at 503-823-2087 or email him at Brent.Christensen@portlandoregon.gov.
