Rioters were filmed harassing two elderly women who were trying to stop vandalism of the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct as protests and violence in Portland continue.
The Thursday night protest was once again declared an unlawful assembly by the Portland Police Department around 10 p.m. as the group gathered in front of the building and attempted to set fire to the precinct for the second consecutive night.
“Last night’s violence by rioters at our east precinct was incomprehensible. We have people who are intentionally planning to go out and attack precincts, trap people inside, set fires to these buildings,” Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said.
Apart from those acts of vandalism, a picture published by Portland police shows an elderly unidentified woman doused in paint after she didn’t move when the rioters splashed it on the plywood surrounding the building.
Police added that a second elderly woman using a walker was confronted while attempting to extinguish a fire lighted by the group.
This unknown woman using a walker was confronted by the group currently outside East Precinct and paint was strewn all over her. pic.twitter.com/k1cCVMbNht
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 7, 2020
There was a separate unknown woman using a walker outside of East Precinct who attempted to extinguish a fire set by the group. The woman depicted in this photo was not using a walker.
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 7, 2020
“She stood in the front and they dumped some white liquid all over her & curse her out,” independent journalist Andy Ngo wrote in the caption of a video showing the incident. After the lady was doused in paint, the rioters reportedly verbally abused her, shouting phrases like, “This isn’t your world anymore.”
The woman with a walker was attempting to extinguish a small fire that was lit inside a garbage can which was later pushed against the front of the building.
Ngo posted a video on Twitter of the incident, showing a person decked out in black clothing and a helmet, reminiscent of the garb worn by members of the far-left anarcho-communist group Antifa, trying to stop the woman from dousing the fire.
The same woman was seen in another video with a Black Lives Matter sign on her walker, trying to stop the Antifa rioters while they attempted to destroy the plywood surrounding the building.
Antifa militant stops an elderly woman from putting out a fire they started at the Portland Police east precinct. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/RBGb5cNu3g
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 7, 2020
During the violence Wednesday night, similar behavior was reported at the east precinct as rioters blocked the primary entrance and exit to the police building and attempted to light it on fire while a number of officers were still inside.
Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler accused the rioters in that incident of attempted murder at a press conference in his most forceful condemnation of the nightly violence yet.
“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people that you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder,” Wheeler said.
Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
