For the third time this week, a riot was declared in Portland late Friday night after insurgents demanding social justice caused widespread damage to businesses and a church that feeds the homeless weekly.
A group of several hundred people marched through Portland on Friday. During the BLM protest, the crowd chanted, “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” and “Black lives matter!”
The Portland Police reported looting and some stores were vandalized with anti-cop graffiti. There were also reports of gunshots. Some rioters destroyed the storefront windows of Nordstrom, Verizon, Nike, Starbucks, and banks.
During the height of last summer’s protests against police brutality, Nike pledged $40 million over four years to “support the Black community” and to “supporting organizations that put social justice, education and addressing racial inequality in America at the center of their work.” At the same time, Verizon announced that it would donate $10 million to various social justice groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Urban League. The Starbucks Foundation offered $1 million in neighborhood grants to support racial equality in response to the death of George Floyd.
Arsonists set the Apple store on fire while at least two security guards were inside the building, according to KOIN-TV reporter Jenny Young.
Last summer, Apple had a mural of George Floyd and the words “I can’t breathe” painted on the tech company’s downtown Portland store. Apple donated the artwork to the nonprofit Don’t Shoot PDX, started by Black Lives Matter supporter Teressa Raiford.
Last June, Apple announced that it was launching a $100 million initiative to promote racial equality for people of color with a focus on “education, economic equality, and criminal justice reform.
“Windows were also broken at the First Christian Church, a location known for their generosity in feeding over a thousand meals weekly to the homeless,” the Portland Police Bureau reported.
“These are the people feeding the unhoused and telling the story of racial injustice in Oregon. It just doesn’t make sense,” a downtown Portland resident told Shane D. Kavanaugh, a reporter with The Oregonian.
The Oregon Historical Society was also damaged; vandals wrote: “NO MORE HISTORY.”
There were a total of four people taken into custody during the riot, according to police.
*story by The Blaze
