Police report assaults at protest in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police in Portland have ordered participants in a march by Patriot Prayer to disperse after officers saw assaults and projectiles being thrown.
Police said Saturday that some arrests had been made at the downtown protest.
The problems occurred as two opposing protest groups – Patriot Prayer and antifa – took to the streets.
People were lighting firecrackers and smoke bombs in the crowd and police used flash-bang grenades in an effort to disperse the clashing protesters.
Officers were searching for weapons and handcuffed at least two people.
Thousands of people protested the Trump administration’s family separations in Portland and across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
At Portland’s rally earlier, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., blasted President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and asked the crowd what score the president would get for his zero tolerance policy. The crowd shouted back, “Zero!”
The policy of prosecuting people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally led officials to separate children from their parents. Hundreds of rallies were held Saturday nationwide opposed the now-abandoned policy.
In Seattle, several thousand protesters rallied outside the SeaTac Federal Detention Center that holds immigration detainees. More than 25 rallies were planned across Washington state on Saturday.
