Downtown Portland erupted with fervor Wednesday evening as a coalition of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets, their march coloring the city with cries for a free Palestine and, for some, acts of vandalism that unsettled the city's core. According to KGW, demonstrators numbering around 100 kicked off the protest at the South Park blocks, sweeping through to 4th Avenue and then to Southwest Washington Street before congregating at Pioneer Courthouse Square where Starbucks and other storefronts endured the brunt of their outrage.
The protests, however, spiraled when violence found its way to bystanders; one woman recounted how she and her boyfriend were set upon and beaten by at least a dozen individuals after they refused to comply with what she presumed were directions from the protest's more aggressive participants, “They knocked me and my boyfriend to the ground and started kicking us and hitting us and we were kind of getting back up and some people came and repelled them, and they attacked those people, everybody kind of scuffled for a while, and we were standing back up and walking out of it and they attacked us again and took my bag,” she detailed in an interview, per KOIN. Fireworks—another sign of escalation—echoed through the urban clamor, an ominous sign of the tension intensifying at ground zero.
Before Wednesday's bout of chaos, Portland State University had already been a stage for protestors' fervency, a cadre consisting largely of PSU students, faculty, and staff orchestrating an occupation of Millar Library. The demonstrations forced the university to shutter its operations for Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping for a return to the norm as expressed by PSU's administration. "I continue to hope for a peaceful resolution and I offer my thanks to the entire PSU community for continuing to care for one another," PSU's spokesperson said, according to a KTVZ report.
Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Chief Bob Day made it clear that the department's patience might not endure if protests at PSU sustained, though emphasizing a commitment to de-escalation strategies, "We will pursue all efforts at de-escalation, but make no mistake PPB will take appropriate action to do our part to hold individuals and groups accountable for their criminal conduct," he wrote, as per KOIN in statements that rub up against the uncertain timeline of the police response given that conditions were continually in flux. This stance came amid rumors that the District Attorney's office had hampered police response; PPB refuted such claims emphasizing that "District Attorney Mike Schmidt and his team have offered their full support to PPB efforts to resolve the situation," the PPB iterated in a statement shared by KTVZ.
