
Portland sees peaceful night of protests following withdrawal of federal agents - throwanem
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/31/portland-protests-latest-peaceful-night-federal-troops-withdrawal
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juisfahfuisdad
Did the author write this article too early? There's a viral video from last
night about a protester burning himself after failing to launch an explosive
at the federal courthouse.

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bJGVygG7MQVF8c
> Did the author write this article too early?

Charitably: yes

Realistically: the narrative bias pulls pretty hard

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Kednicma
I know that people will complain about the news source, so here are local
journalists covering the same phenomenon [0][1]. The past two nights have been
marked by a withdrawal of federal and city police, and a corresponding drop in
violence, riots, property destruction, and injuries.

It is almost as if the cops are the ones who instigate violence, and not the
protestors.

[0] [https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-
protest...](https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-protests-
continue-friday-with-questions-about-how-state-police-will-respond.html)

[1] [https://www.opb.org/article/2020/07/31/portland-
protesters-g...](https://www.opb.org/article/2020/07/31/portland-protesters-
gather-peacefully-thursday-as-federal-officers-depart/)

~~~
tinalumfoil
> It is almost as if the cops are the ones who instigate violence

Or it's temporary and we're a couple weeks away from kids getting shot if
CHAZ/CHOP is an example.

~~~
Kednicma
People have already been shot [0], so I'm not sure I see your point. I'm not
sure why you've brought up CHAZ/CHOP other than as a non sequitur; people are
not attempting to establish an autonomous zone downtown.

Nonetheless, I'll take your bet; I bet that the violence will not return until
the police start engaging again. I can agree that the peace is temporary, but
to me, it is merely because there is currently a handoff from federal police
to OSP.

[0] [https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-officers-
portland-p...](https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-officers-portland-
protester-shot-less-lethal-munitions/)

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kvirani
Good

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verroq
Makes sense now that all the violent protesters have been arrested.

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trianglem
Just the right trying to bring their straw man of antifa violence to
fruitition.

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dmix
They always had the choice to peacefully protest. Everyone knew they were
purposefully attacking the courthouse.

Mostly a distraction from real police reform. Federal police arresting violent
white protestors is low on the list of important priority police reform issues
in the US. Seemed like two groups were trying to make an important moment
about themselves.

I'd watch it start to descend into on Twitter, and the feds would let them
protest for 4-6 hours until around midnight, usually when it got really bad
before declaring it unlawful. And everyone did their song and dance. Then the
next day the news and political punditry would be all about vandalizing some
courthouse and nothing else.

