With No Federal Agents on Streets, Portland Protests Turn Largely Peaceful
PORTLAND, Ore.—A band of Portland moms chanting, “No justice, no peace” led hundreds of marchers to a federal courthouse here Saturday night, arriving to raucous cheers from a few thousand others already in place.
For several hours, Moms United for Black Lives took their usual spot, front and center along a roughly 15-foot-high fence line ringing the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, ground zero for more than two months of nightly protests. With helmets, goggles and gas masks at the ready, they were prepared for tear gas. But for the third consecutive night, they didn’t need them. They didn’t even see any law-enforcement officers.
The Trump administration and Oregon’s governor unveiled an agreement Wednesday for federal agents who had been deployed to defend the courthouse to draw back and be replaced by state troopers. The federal agents, who came from agencies including Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were a flashpoint for conflict over the past two weeks.
They wore camouflage, numerical identifiers instead of name tags, and patches with their affiliation that were difficult for many to recognize. They used tear gas and nonlethal projectiles and took some people they said were suspects off the streets in unmarked vans. Local and state Democratic officials said they didn’t belong in the city. Some protesters threw things, including frozen water bottles, at them and shot fireworks at the courthouse, according to the federal government.
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