Tonight in #PortlandRiots, rioters decided to target a Multnomah County office building at 501 SE Hawthorne for vandalism & arson.

This site had not been targeted previously. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/protesters-gather-at-colonel-summers-park-as-nightly-demonstrations-in-portland-continue/283-02393710-146d-46a9-a0b1-f07be26b76c2

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury's statement on the vandalism & arson

https://multco.us/multnomah-county/news/statement-chair-deborah-kafoury-incident-multnomah-county-building

Video of the fire

(NB this videographer is not a neutral or objective reporter, & his subsequent claims regarding events should not be relied upon absent independent confirmation) https://twitter.com/i/status/1295955181939519488

501 SE Hawthorne is close-in East Portland

https://twitter.com/AlliMechanic_TV/status/1295960803850387459?s=20

Looks like somebody's decided to try to take #PortlandRiots to the ICE facility Wednesday night

(& no, I don't know why @googlemaps has it listed as "Imagrations & Customs Enforcement")

ICYMI, 100s of RadLefties occupied Immigration & Customs Enforcement HQ property & adjacent property in SW Portland from June 17 to July 23, 2018. https://www.oregonlive.com/news/erry-2018/07/62ee150670182/occupy-ice-pdx-a-timeline-of-t.html

Portland Mayor @tedwheeler refused to protect public access to the bldg or otherwise police the mass encampment. The occupation forced HQ to close for ~2 weeks, leaving immigrants unable to keep necessary appointments until fed reinforcements cd arrive & secure the area.

ICE installed a temporary no-climb fence to secure the building.

After six days, the City cited the security fence for violating code & blocking part of the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, a tent city of 100s remained on trolley tracks next to ICE bldg for weeks.

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/06/portland_ice_protesters_remain.html

"Protesters" continued to interfere with ordinary business at the ICE bldg & assaulted officers on multiple occasions.

Which was why the fence was necessary.

"Protesters" also harassed & attacked passersby, incldg proprietors of a non-profit food cart that funded a meal delivery program for the homeless.

Harassment & threats forced them to shut down & sell the cart.

A number of neighbors expressed their displeasure with the chaos to local news stations

On July 25, Mayor @tedwheeler indicated he'd remove such future encampments sooner rather than later, "if I could predict the exact situation." (Spoiler: Chapman Square drug on for several weeks)

After 2018 Occupy ICE, Wheeler expressed concern "message" was undermined by piles of garbage & bio-hazard & litter left behind. "While I support [their] goals ... I don't support that as a tactic."

Weeks of ongoing chaos & harassment of public tho? Meh.

RadLeft claim causes "good liberals" have sympathy for & get a pass on low-grade terrorism in super lib cities.

Good libs can't talk abt criminal activity for fear of undermining/distracting from MESSAGE or valuing property & privileged folks' comfort over "marginalized" lives

RadLeft also fabricate claims of persecution to drown out objections to comrades' actual harassment of & assaults on public.

Five days in, public complained. So Occupy ICE spox claimed a drive-by "poop spraying" had been directed at encampment.

I've expected since early June that mass "BLM" rallies wd eventually give way to mass "Abolish ICE" rallies in order to revive fervor & numbers & consolidate diverse factions into a larger radical movement.

Tonight may or may not be part of such a strategic pivot. Time will tell

Also expect efforts to recruit momentum from existential threat narratives around MeToo, "gun safety," Sunrise Mvmt, CAIR/BDS, AIM, LGBT rts, & eventually far more overtly, capitalism & "Western oppressors."

& mainstream Dem & allied-media messaging is directly feeding process

Agree. Don't expect Abolish ICE to displace BLM - it'll take the lead on messaging for a period. I believe overall goal is to grow & knit factions together into a unified "uprising against oppression" thru this process, which started before Trump even ran https://twitter.com/RandiPDX/status/1296140519202893824?s=20

I worked extensively in Dem organizing, messaging, & progressive infrastructure building in CA, WA & ID for 18yrs off & on, 1992-2010. That background partially informs my analysis here.

Revolution isn't coming tomorrow. But folks ARE working on it & they're getting $$ to do so

We don't need thousands of revolutionaries in streets to cause serious disruption & harm to innocents. RadLeft are weaponizing rage. Enraged folks are volatile, esp when mob dynamics come into play. Moral certainty feeds radicalism & can birth terrorist cells, as seen in 60s-70s