Portland Police Declare Riot for Second Successive Night

Police declared a riot on Wednesday for a second night in the U.S. city of Portland after demanding the breakup of a protest near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building, calling it an unlawful assembly.

Federal officers fired pepper balls to disperse a crowd of about 200 protesters in the city’s south, and set off a few smoke devices, the Oregonian newspaper said, adding that a rock was thrown and a window of the building broken.

The protest began in the Elizabeth Caruthers Park before demonstrators marched towards the ICE building, media said.

“All persons near SW Bancroft St and SW Bond Ave must disperse,” police had said on Twitter, warning the marchers that they faced arrest and the use of tear gas, crowd control agents and impact weapons if they did not comply.

Police had also declared a riot on Tuesday after protesters lit fires, threw rocks and smashed windows at county government offices in another location, in violence that led to two arrests and a minor injury for an officer.

Protests against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death on May 25 of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The Portland protests are among those that have erupted in arson and violence, with federal officers sent into the northwestern city repeatedly clashing with crowds targeting its federal courthouse.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr drew fire from Democratic lawmakers this month for sending federal officers to disperse protesters in the city.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez)