People should really not miss the irony of scale: The Portland Police Chief says "violence is not the answer" while ordering the violent assault of hundreds nightly. Protesters on the other hand do things like shine laser pointers, spray paint buildings, and light trash fires.

Whether or not you like any of that, there is no question that these things are not in the same universe. Blocking roads and vandalizing buildings has no correlative to what I have seen police do. Hitting protesters in the back, shooting them with munitions, gassing the city.

I can't imagine what the police's endgame is here. Their violence is what is recruiting protesters nightly, they seem unwilling (or incapable) of de-escalation. At this point, they send out cruel and bizarre press announcements. And they act like protesters are evil.

This just helps validate the argument that the more radical protesters are making that the police are an institution beyond reform. Doing things like hitting protesters from behind as they run away, yelling things like "not fucking fast enough," what do they think will happen?

This doesn't even require a radical analysis of the power differential between the police and protesters (which there clearly is). You can just see nightly as people rant about "protester violence," which is a wholly inaccurate assessment of where the violence is coming from.

This is certainly creating a crisis in Portland, one political leaders won't find a solution to. They worked hard to position themselves against federal officers because of the violence used. But now their own police are using the same violence, if not worse.

It has certainly made it impossible for local politicians or more moderate political leaders to provide a "reform not revolution" message when the police seem to be acting with complete disregard for the community they are allegedly accountable to.

So the Portland Police have basically ended any possibility of allies and are instead seemingly comfortable for a confederation of militarized agencies and far-right agitators as their "community." It seems as if they do not consider themselves a part of this city.

The police violence seemed intent on discouraging protests from continuing. It had the opposite effect, so you think they would switch tactics. Unless this is more personal, about looking weak, or they believe the hype that these residents are actually "terrorists."

There's a reason we don't have licenses to do journalism: everyone should have the right to start documenting things around them. And that's what is happening. Regular folks are becoming seasoned journalists by covering this nightly. They have earned our respect.

And we can add that most journalists report that it alternates between indiscriminate use of force against reporters and what feels like intentional targeting. It is unsafe for reporters to cover the story, solely because of the police behavior. Not protester behavior.