Activists seeking the abolition of police once again turned their focus toward the Portland Police Association’s headquarters Tuesday night.
A group of about 100 people gathered in Kenton Park in North Portland and marched to the officers union building just before 10 p.m. Someone in the crowd started a fire in a garbage can and placed it near a wooden awning that was constructed around an entrance to the building.
Police said another person then poured an accelerant on the fire, sending the wood into flames. Video of the scene shows flames stretching from the top of the wooden awning to above the building’s roofline.
Abolitionist protestors, advocating for a society without police or prisons, set fire to the Portland police association building
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) April 14, 2021
The building was empty, it has been a frequently targeted by protestors
The PPA is one of the oldest police unions in the country pic.twitter.com/F4OP8wgmJZ
Portland police said the building was unoccupied at the time, and firefighters with Portland Fire & Rescue were able to put out the blaze before the damage could reach nearby buildings.
The protest came following Sunday’s killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by Minnesota police officers. NPR reported that the officer who killed Wright was president of her local officer’s union.
Portland police declared the protest on Tuesday to be a riot and arrested one person. That person was charged with second-degree arson. Police said after that arrest, the crowd dispersed from the area.
Portland Fire and Rescue firefighters extinguish a blaze at the headquarters of Portland's police officer union on April 13, 2021. The fire was started by police abolition activists.
Sergio Olmos
Earlier in the day, police had issued a statement indicating they were aware protesters planned to target the Portland Police Association building with a direct action demonstration. In that release, law enforcement said they knew of the time and place protesters planned to gather, and officers asked the group to not commit acts of violence.
Tuesday marked the second night abolitionists have targeted police property since Wright’s killing. On Monday, protesters broke windows at a police building in Southeast Portland and damaged vehicles at a North Portland parking lot.
Commissioners Carmen Rubio, Jo Ann Hardesty, Mingus Mapps and Dan Ryan released a joint statement Wednesday afternoon calling Wright’s murder “a reminder that the call for justice for Black lives, accountability, and systemic community safety reform never stops.”
“We must condemn racial profiling and police violence just as strongly as we condemn indiscriminate property damage and the normalization of arson. We cannot and should not tolerate violence, and we cannot and should not continue to defer our dreams for a more equitable, inclusive, and just city.”