PORTLAND, Ore. – This liberal city is known — and prepared — for protests that can descend into chaos, but even it is reeling from the nightly unrest splintering off peaceful demonstrations over police killings of African Americans.
Portland's visibly frustrated police chief on Wednesday pleaded for people to help stop those “holding our city with violence.” For five nights, these smaller groups have smashed windows, set fires, broken into a building housing police headquarters and spray-painted walls and sidewalks.
The mayhem is not unique to Portland during national upheaval over the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck.