Portland absorbed another night of violent protests Sunday that resulted in the toppling of two statues in the city and reports of numerous buildings with their windows smashed in, including the Oregon Historical Society.
The unrest was reportedly tied to the “Day of Rage,” on Columbus Day eve.
Andy Ngo, a journalist who has been documenting the unrest in the city, posted images of the destruction on Twitter. The Oregonian reported that protesters managed to bring down statues of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
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Ngo posted a video of what he identified as the protesters toppling the statue of Roosevelt, which depicts the former president riding on horseback. The video showed a rope tied around the statue and protesters could be heard cheering when the statue shifted.
One person could be heard saying, “F— all you colonizers. Every one of you that’s against Black Lives Matter can f— the f— off.”
The report said that the Roosevelt statue fell at about 8:51 p.m., local time, and the Lincoln statue fell about eight minutes later in Portland’s South Park Block. The paper said that the police did not intervene.
The police department took to Twitter to announce that those “trying to pull down a statue with a chain” or taking part in vandalism is “subject to arrest.” They later declared a riot.
“To those marching downtown: this has been declared a RIOT,” the police tweeted. “All persons must immediately disperse to the NORTH. Failure to adhere to this order may subject you to arrest, citation, or crowd control agents, including, but not limited to tear gas and impact weapons.”
The paper reported that once the statues met their demise, the protests moved and engaged in “other acts of destruction.”
Those at the historical society building reportedly put up a banner that read, “Stop honoring racist colonizer murderers.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
