Noah Berger / AP
Stacy Kendra Williams holds a shield while facing off against police at the Penumbra Kelly Building on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, in Portland, Ore. This weekend Portland will mark 100 consecutive days of protests over the May 25 police killing of George Floyd.
Friday, Sept. 4, 2020 | 11:22 p.m.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Protesters marched through the streets of Portland on Friday night to a police building, where officers stood waiting outside, as the city reached 100 straight nights of protests that have been marked by vandalism and violence.
Dozens of demonstrators met at Kenton Park before making their way to the Portland Police Association building, near North Denver Avenue and North Lombard Street. By 10 p.m. police warned protesters to stay off the streets and private property or they may be subject to citation, arrest, the use of tear gas, crowd-control agents or impact munitions.
Demonstrations in Portland started in late May after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A slaying of a Trump supporter shot and killed after he came downtown last weekend with a pro-Trump caravan of pickup trucks further roiled things in the liberal city. The prime suspect in the shooting, self-described Antifa member Michael Forest Reinoehl, was killed Thursday night by law enforcement.
The exact date of the 100-day milestone depends on how the protests are counted, but everyone agrees the benchmark falls over the Labor Day weekend. Black Lives Matter protests, vigils and speeches marking the occasion are planned over three days, and Trump supporters are planning another caravan rally.
Since Floyd's killing, nights of unrest that increasingly targeted a federal courthouse prompted President Donald Trump to dispatch U.S. agents to guard the building in July.
The presence of the agents from U.S .Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service was intended to tamp down on the demonstrations but instead reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement.
The U.S. agents began drawing down July 31 under an agreement between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. But as the unrest has continued and picked up, federal authorities have again said they may increase their presence in the city.
