Federal officers will start pulling out of Portland on Thursday in a phased withdrawal and state troopers will arrive instead to help safeguard the federal courthouse downtown that has become a national symbol of political conflict as well as a focal point for protests calling for consequential police reform.
Gov. Kate Brown made the announcement in a statement Wednesday and described the federal officers as “an occupying force” that has “refused accountability and brought strife to our community.”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad F. Wolf, in a separate announcement, said he had been in talks with the governor in the last day and agreed to a “joint plan to end the violent activity in Portland directed at federal properties and law enforcement.”
But he tempered the statement later in a call with the media, saying federal law enforcement officers “will remain in Portland. Let me repeat: Our entire law enforcement presence that is currently in Portland yesterday and the previous week will remain in Portland until we are assured that the courthouse and other federal facilities will no longer be attacked nightly and set afire.”
He pledged to re-evaluate conditions over time and “surge up” or “surge down” depending on the circumstances on the ground.
Wolf said Brown reached out to him after she had talked with Vice President Mike Pence about the coronavirus pandemic and the protests. He said he welcomed the governor’s decision to allow state police to help Portland police secure the streets around the courthouse and coordinate with the Federal Protective Service officers inside the courthouse, “as should have been the case” from the start.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump sent a message on Twitter, contending that, “If the Federal Government and its brilliant Law Enforcement (Homeland) didn’t go into Portland one week ago, there would be no Portland -- It would be burned and beaten to the ground.”
The development comes as the city marks the 62nd day of consecutive demonstrations after the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets to decry police brutality and systemic racism. Most of the demonstrations focused on the Multnomah County Justice Center next to the federal courthouse and had begun to wane until early this month.
On July 3, some in the crowd tried to barricade the front doors of the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and they shattered. President Trump sent 114 federal officers from the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to bolster Federal Protective Service workers at the courthouse.
Since then, the number of people demonstrating has swelled as have the demands for the extra contingent of federal officers to go home. Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler have repeatedly condemned the federal presence as Trump, Wolf and U.S. Attorney General William Barr have said the officers must stay until violent clashes at the courthouse stop.
The downtown protest scene typically devolves late at night as some protesters lob fireworks, bottles and cans at the courthouse and the officers, shine lasers in their eyes and try to dismantle a reinforced fence installed outside the courthouse. Federal tactical officers, many dressed in camouflage fatigues, respond with aggressive force, firing tear gas and impact munitions into the crowds and pushing people several blocks away. Some recent protests have drawn more than 5,000 people.
Starting Thursday, all Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will leave downtown Portland, Brown said.
“After discussions with the Vice President and administration officials this week, the federal government has agreed to my demand and will withdraw these officers from Portland. They will also clean up the Courthouse, removing the graffiti,” Brown said in a statement.
While state police and the Federal Protective Service will be responsible for the exterior of the courthouse, a limited number of federal officials, including U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Protective Service officers who provide building security year-round, will remain focused on the interior of the building, she said.
“I have grown increasingly concerned at the nightly confrontation between local community members and federal officers,” Brown said. “We need to recognize that the protests in Portland are not solely about the federal presence. They started before federal agents descended on our city and they will likely continue after they leave.”
Wheeler said he appreciated the governor’s leadership and willingness to allow state police to assist in the city. In the last month, Brown had declined Portland police requests for state troopers to back them up for crowd control during the protests, concerned about local police tactics that had come under criticism.
“The federal occupation of our community has brought a new kind of fear to our streets,” Wheeler said in a statement. “Federal agents nearly killed a demonstrator, and their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core. The daily coverage of their actions has distracted our community from the Black voices at the center of this movement, and the urgent work of reform.”
Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton, in an email to his officers Wednesday morning, said he had been “very reluctant” to expose the agency’s mobile response team and SWAT troopers to the Portland protests under the current climate.
But he said, “Simply put, our law enforcement partners and the community needs OSP’s assistance -- which we will provide.”
State police special operation teams and some uniformed troopers will start a two-week rotation to help the Federal Protective Service and the Portland Police Bureau.
“We will serve fixed locations at the Federal Courthouse and at mobile locations within the city,” Hampton said. ”They will have the appropriate means to do their jobs and stay as safe as possible -- but all eyes of the nation will be on us, particularly when we supplant federal officers at the courthouse in an effort to bring down the protest temperature. It is not a stage we wished to be on, but we will do our part for Oregon. We’ll do our best.”
State police will draw about 100 people from offices across the state to go to Portland. They’ll primarily be troopers from the state police special operation team, as well as logistical support and command staff. The state police will work in cooperation with federal officers and Portland police but report to state police command staff in joint command centers, according to state police spokesperson Mindy McCartt.
Hampton’s direction to his troopers is to “facilitate free speech to the best of their ability and present a restrained and proportional response to observed criminal conduct,” McCartt said.
“Community support and communication is obviously imperative for OSP’s involvement to offer any chance at success,’' she added.
Wheeler said state police, Portland police and the Multnomah County “will continue working together to keep Portlanders safe.”
“The Governor and I have given clear direction: we expect that they will continue engaging only if there is violent criminal activity,” he said.
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said he welcomed the state police assistance to “de-escalate the situation,” noting that the Police Bureau trains with the state police crowd management team. Portland police, also denounced for their use of tear gas against peaceful demonstrators, face court-ordered restrictions to use tear gas and impact munitions only when lives or public safety are at risk.
Federal officers face multiple lawsuits for firing rubber bullets, pepper balls, pepper spray and tear gas that have injured medics, journalists, legal observers and demonstrators.
Federal officials also are investigating the shooting of 26-year-old Donavan La Bella earlier this month and the baton beating of Navy veteran Christopher Davis.
La Bella, who returned to the hospital this week suffering complications from his wound, was shot in the forehead with an impact munition fired by a federal officer outside the courthouse as he was holding a music speaker above his head. A deputy U.S. marshal repeatedly hit David as he tried to speak with federal officers.
Wolf said there have been more than 245 law enforcement injuries, ranging from minor bruises to concussions and broken bones. Since July 4, either the Federal Protective Service or the Portland Police Bureau have declared 16 unlawful assemblies or riots, he said.
A lawsuit Monday challenged the Homeland Security secretary’s authority to direct federal officers in his acting role as head of the department. Many civil rights authorities also have argued that the federal forces have overstepped their jurisdiction under the Homeland Security Act by making arrests blocks from the courthouse, sweeping the city’s Lownsdale Square across the street and pressing crowds several blocks away from the federal building.
Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum last week was unsuccessful in her attempt to convince a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to restrict federal tactics. She presented evidence of two people who were taken off the street by officers in camouflage and placed in an unmarked van to be questioned without facing charges. But U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman found that the state’s case was too weak.
Oregon’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley praised the exit of the federal forces but Wyden said he’ll closely monitor whether what’s promised actually occurs “and is not the administration’s usual penchant for fiction.” He said he’s concerned there’s no specific timeline for a full withdrawal.
“That’s a loophole big enough to drive an armored personnel carrier through. Bottom line, this occupation should never have happened,” he wrote in a Twitter message.
Portland’s mayor and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty had urged Wolf to personally meet in Portland with them to discuss a so-called “cease fire” and removal of the federal officers. Sonia Schmanski, one of Wheeler’s deputy chiefs of staff, said federal authorities acknowledged the request earlier this week but said nothing more.
“I think it was becoming clear to everybody that the situation on the ground here was unsustainable and that state resources were going to be a necessary part of the agreement with the feds to leave,” Schmanski said. “We’re just glad there’s a deal.”
After Wednesday’s announcement, Wheeler said during a news conference with the mayors of Seattle, Albuquerque, Oakland and Philadelphia that federal authorities spoke directly only with the governor’s office and information was relayed back to the city.
He said the governor had “a number of conversations” with federal authorities and the city was looped in on Tuesday.
While Wheeler said he’s pleased “we’ve reclaimed Portland or will soon,‘' he added:
“We would do well to remember that this movement is not about the legal right of federal law enforcement to operate in our cities. It’s about the urgent and necessary work of criminal justice, racial justice and policing reform.”
Staff Writer Everton Bailey Jr. contributed to this story.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
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