Even as the military packed downtown Washington, D.C. to counter Trump-supporting protesters who never materialized, rioters in helmets and pads, carrying shields, ran wild at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Ore. on the night of Jan. 20.
Some 200 people gathered at the facility in the South Waterfront section of the city after the inauguration of Joe Biden, and Federal Protective Services officers tried to disperse them with loudspeakers, KGW-TV reported.
Police reported recovering batons, Molotov cocktails, knives and a crowbar.
The building has seen several violent clashes between demonstrators and federal police over the past year, starting after the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
The demonstrators were demanding that ICE be abolished for its role of controlling illegal immigration, even though immediately after his installation as president Biden signed executive orders including a 100-day moratorium on deportations as well as a halt to construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden has also pledged to undo immigration policies enacted by his predecessor, President Donald Trump.
Inexplicably, Antifa demonstrators had broken windows at the headquarters of the Democratic Party, which supports their causes almost entirely, in Portland earlier the same day.
More characteristically, they also burned American flags and spray-painted storefronts in Denver and Seattle, marched in Columbus, Ohio, and wielded shields and clubs while protesting in Sacramento, Calif. the same day.
One of the rioters’ signs in Portland read ‘We don’t want Biden, we want revenge!’ in response to “police murders” and “imperialist wars.”
