With many of the city’s entertainment options shut down, protesting has become a form of nightlife.
After I covered the clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement in Portland, Oregon, last week, I had a long epistolary conversation with one of the federal officers, to whom I promised complete anonymity, who had been stationed inside the federal courthouse that was at the heart of the conflict. During a two-hour texting session, we war-gamed how the standoff between Portland protesters and federal forces might end: With the announcement today by Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) that federal agents will be leaving downtown Portland tomorrow, it looks like none of our predictions were correct, though barring backdoor conversations we as yet know nothing of, some combination of 3 and 8 seems to explain the move. I was at the protests all last week, and I saw no inclination on the part of the crowds to back down. In fact, I saw just the opposite. Sure, the majority of protesters were peaceful. But the 200 or so that had been showing up in front of the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse every night since the feds showed up (in response to what was said to be local authorities’ demonstrated lack of willingness to stop the violence against federal property) were growing in both numbers and tactics.
