Want to know what’s up in the Rose City? Read more missives from Portland on Blogtown, the blog published by our sister paper, The Portland Mercury.
The second night of Portland protests against the police killing of Daunte Wright—a Black man fatally shot by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb Sunday—ended in flames.
The target was the North Lombard headquarters of the Portland Police Association (PPA), the union representing rank-and-file Portland officers. The building has been boarded up since the city’s racial justice protests began in 2020, as it had become a popular target for protesters’ ire.
A group of 75 protesters marched from Kenton Park to the PPA building shortly before ten Tuesday, during which attendees lit fireworks and chanted rallying cries like “Every city, every town, burn the precincts to the ground,” and “Say his name!” “Daunte Wright!”
By 10:03 pm, several attendees had used accelerate to set a side door on fire, then scattered. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) declared the scene a riot at 10:06 pm, and Portland Fire & Rescue firefighters extinguished the majority of the fire by 10:10 pm. The entrance appeared significantly damaged by the flames. No one was reported injured by the fire.
PPB arrested one person on arson charges at the scene.
The scorching of the PPA building follows a trend of property destruction—especially directed at law enforcement hubs—that’s now become expected at Portland protests against police brutality. On Monday night, demonstrators gathered outside East Burnside’s Penumbra Kelley Building—which houses offices for Portland Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office—where they shattered the building’s windows with rocks and tore down light fixtures with their bare hands.