Bizarre footage continues to emerge from Portland, Oregon, where police made numerous arrests and seized an arsenal of weapons as protesters set another fire outside a police precinct, and came up with a novel form of stand-off.
On Sunday night into Monday morning, Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland marched and gathered in front of the North Precinct Community Policing Center, a building activists have tried to burn down with people inside before during demonstrations.
A crowd chanting, “burn it down,” set multiple mattresses on fire and added debris to the fire until first responders deemed it dangerous and had to move in to extinguish it.
Protesters also blocked traffic in downtown Portland and several commuters got stuck in the crowds, with one video showing a driver, a black woman, being completely blocked by demonstrators who refused to move out of the way.
She accuses them of setting the city’s streets “on fire” and insists they go somewhere else. The protesters eventually move out of the way and let her through after she exits her vehicle and accuses them of using a racial slur against her. The alleged language was not caught on camera.
“You’re setting fires in the streets? No, that’s violence. That’s violent. Get out of my way” A woman demands to be let through the street, which protesters have blockaded near the precinct #Portland#PortlandProtestspic.twitter.com/wAiZfJcotf
A total of 15 arrests were made by police for various charges like interfering with a peace officer, reckless burning, and possession of destructive devices.
One person taken into custody was in possession of a glass jar of flammable liquid, another had a stun gun and baton, and yet another with what police described as a “slung shot,” a homemade weapon meant for swinging and hitting someone.
A more bizarre encounter captured during the protests was a one-sided rap battle between a police officer and an unidentified protester.
Armed with a microphone, the ‘rapper’ at one point says to the officer in riot gear, “If you was a man, you would grab the microphone and you would f**king rap.”
President Donald Trump has remained heavily critical of local authorities’ handling of protests in Portland, which have continued now for months. Trump on Sunday earned criticism for sharing a viral video of one protester accidentally setting his own feet on fire. The incident was cut to the song ‘Footloose’ by Kenny Loggins. Critics blasted the sharing of the video as inappropriate for a president.
In another tweet reacting to the latest protests, Trump highlighted the “bad nights” had by cities like Portland and placed blame on “radical left governors and mayors.”
Rochester N.Y., Brooklyn N.Y., Portland - All had bad nights, all weakly run by Radical Left Democrat Governors and Mayors! Get the picture?
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that federal authorities should be deployed to the city to help temper the protests.
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