Portland, City of Roses; Now City of Riots-95 Days, Looting, Fires, Broken Windows

Nadene Goldfoot                                   

July 4, 2020 downtown Portland, 

OregonPolice 

forced to use tear gas on rioters 

By a Saturday night in mid-August,

 22-year-old K was showing her

 sister how to put on a gas mask

 and helmet before going to meet

 other demonstrators in

 Portland’s Laurelhurst Park.

July 22, downtown Portland, OR...Getty image; boarded up businesses to protect windows

By August 29, one man was shot and killed in downtown Portland as dueling demonstrations; one a pro-Trump car caravan, and another-a counter-protest mounted by various opposing groups--unfolded late Saturday.  Portland police said the man was shot around 8:45pm near SW 3rd Avenue and Alder St.  The agency didn't say whether the incident was related to the demonstrations or not.  

Here's the Portland Police Report on what's been happening to our City of Roses, Portland, Oregon.###PPB###

At Portland's federal courthouse building, Black Lives Matter Protests 

Individuals within a protest gathering set an arson fire at the offices of the Portland Police Association (PPA) building Saturday morning, prompting a riot declaration.

On Friday, August 28, 2020 at about 11:45p.m., a march began from Peninsula Park in the street. Many in the gathering were wearing protective gear, including helmets, goggles or gas masks, all black clothing, and/or carrying shields. Marchers arrived at about 12:10a.m. to the PPA building, in the 1800 block of North Lombard Street. They blocked traffic both directions. Someone cut the power line to the building almost immediately.
                                                    

Fires lit in the streets 

Portland gained national attention this week when the head of Homeland Security toured the vandalized Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.
                                                                   

Acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said "the City of Portland "has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob."  Note the graffiti on the wall. 

 The PPA office has been the site of numerous violent protests over the past few months, and protesters have lit the building on fire several times. It is located in a residential neighborhood and there is concern that any building fire could spread to occupied homes, especially during the current stretch of dry weather.

Day 72 of demonstration

About 10 minutes later, individuals wheeled multiple dumpsters into the road and lit at least one on fire. The fire was in the road and not threatening any structures. In the interest of deescalating the situation, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers remained out of sight. However, arsonists put some debris, including a large mattress, against the front door of the building, appeared to spray accelerant on it, and lit it on fire. The flames appeared to engulf the front door area of the building and nearly reach the roofline. Due to the extreme life safety concerns, the Incident Commander declared the incident a riot. A warning was broadcast by loudspeaker that the incident was declared a riot and all persons were to disperse immediately to the north. Failure to comply with the order may subject them to citation or arrest to the use of tear gas, crowd control agents, and/or impact munitions.
                                                

Portland Police Union President call for end of all this

Officers responded and moved the rioters away from the building so the fire could be extinguished. As officers approached, rioters threw objects at them, including rocks. Multiple officers suffered minor injuries after being struck by rocks. During the response, officers used crowd control munitions. However, no CS (tear) gas was deployed.

There was fire damage to the front of the PPA building (photos). Officers also recovered a bottle that contained flammable fluid (photo). An arson investigator responded and gathered evidence of the crime.
                                                    

Inside PPA building where fire was set

Officers made multiple arrests. Information about the arrests will be released at a later time.

A Goodman family member (remember Doug Goodman of a parking lot in downtown Portland?-good friend of Sam Arnstein, both in AZA) wrote to city mayor Ted Wheeler about what's happening:

Dear Mayor Wheeler and city council members;

I have attached an article from a recent 
Business Journal relating to Standard Insurance, 
the largest private business in downtown Portland, moving their 
employees to their Hillsboro campus for safety reasons. 
A larger number of businesses are moving out
 of or locating outside of the Central City. These 
companies include, Daimler Chrysler 
(subleasing 100k SF), AirB&B, Banana
 Republic, Microsoft (80k SF, plus permanently 
closing their retail store),
Saucebox, etc.. Google, who leased 90k SF
 in the Macy's building has stopped construction
 of their improvements. The list goes on and on.
 If you know a retail or office broker, give them
 a call and ask them how many clients they
 have are trying to leave. The number is like
 nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business
 in downtown.Their departure has absolutely 
nothing to do with Black Lives Matter movement 
(which has been a positive), but does have 
most everything to do with the  lawlessness 
you are endorsing downtown. You are doing 
an excellent (job) of enabling people who
 don't know or care about George Floyd
 to ransack our city at the expense 
of the people you are trying to help.
 Think how many jobs have been lost by
 people of color in our city, not through protest, 
but from vandalism. I would make the case
 that your actions have hurt those
 you have intended to help.I would
 encourage each of you to walk around
downtown Portland in the morning.
 Name the time and I will give you a tour.
You aren't sweeping the streets, needles 
are all over the place, garbage cans 
are broken and left open, glass from
 car windows that have been broken 
out is all over the streets, parks are 
strewn with litter (their fountains 
turned off) weeds are taller than
 the plants in the planter boxes,
 graffiti is on sculptures, etc.
 You are willfully neglecting your duties
 as elected officials to keep our city safe and clean.

President Donald Trump and Democratic rival 
Joe Biden have been accusing  one another 
over violence that has erupted at protests 
in Portland, Oregon.  A man linked to a 
right-wing group  was killed on Saturday, 
as elsewhere in the city a pro-Trump 
rally clashed  with Black Lives Matter 
protesters. Mr Trump called participants 
of the  rally "great patriots" and blamed
 the city's Democratic  mayor for the 
unrest.But Mr Biden accused the
 president of encouraging the violence.

Resource:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53962363

https://www.kptv.com/news/walking-tour-what-portland-looks-like-now-after-protests/article_5f4881d8-c894-11ea-84d1-9ba7f0652166.html
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/08/21/major-downtown-property-owner-urges-city-council-to-address-the-lawlessness-you-are-endorsing-downtown/
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=261151
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/08/1-person-shot-killed-near-downtown-portland-protests-saturday.html

Praying for Gabrielle Giffords

It isn't every day that a Jewish girl is elected congresswoman in Arizona, but it had happened to Gabrielle Giffords. In fact, she happens to be the very first. She is the granddaughter of Akiva Hornstein, the son of a Lithuanian rabbi who had moved to Arizona from New York and had founded the tire business that she later ran before she entered into politics.

In 2006 she was running for Congress and won by a narrow margin. She was not bashful about declaring herself as being Jewish. In fact, she said, "If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it. Jewish women have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn't or can't be done and pull people together to be successful."

Being that she has a Christian mother and a Jewish father, she hadn't always felt this way, but 10 years ago she visited Israel on a political trip and it turned out to be life-changing for her. She later sponsored a bill in the Arizona Senate eliminating the statute of limitations for collecting the insurance claims by victims of the Holocaust and their heirs.

She was in Israel again last month and also visited a synagogue, planning to return there this summer. After visiting Temple Emanuel Synagogue she told the congregation that the US must remain committed to Israel, realizing that it is the only Middle Eastern democracy. Just last week she wrote in Arizona's Jewish newspaper that there would be no peace before the Palestinian leadership and other organizations accept Israel's right to exist, most likely meaning that they should stop bombing Israel.

She's a brave politician to have come out to her conservative southern Arizona district that she was Jewish. She even changed over from the Republican she was to registering as a Democrat because she was unhappy with some decisions.

Then to be shot in the head by a 22 year old misfit who said that his most favorite book was Mein Kampf gives you pause to wonder if this killing spree wasn't induced by his being anti-semitic. He seems to be so mentally off, that pschologist Dr. Alan Lipman didn't give any credence to his political views. At this point Jered isn't insane, just has had an undiagnosed mental illness.

Women like her come along rarely. Here she was actively working at her job, doing with 100% of her capabilities, and she was the object of a deranged killer. With 6 others murdered in this shooting spree and 13 injured, one just wonders how things like this can happen.

The amazing wonder of it all is that Gabby is alive, and we can all thank her 20 year old intern for that who was so quick to run to her side and keep her from bleeding to death. In fact he stayed with her the whole time until she was wheeled into surgery, talking to her and holding her hand. This I learned from Fox News today. I noticed I had tears running down my cheeks as I listened to the reports. I believe his name was Hernandez, and he had known her for several years. I think he was like an angel sent to guard her.

40 years old and married to an astronaut. It sounds like an ideal life, but here Gabby is, a woman dedicated to helping her fellow man and neighbor, with her life on the line. We can only thank everyone involved with helping her from the amazing doctors to her amazing friends.

Fox News

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/jewish=congresswoman-in-critical-condition