Rioters in Portland fired smoke grenades overnight after hauling fencing to several buildings and blocking exits.
The mayhem in Oregon’s largest city continued as an Antifa-linked group bragged that the evening “has been tactical” and demonstrators’ “energy is high.”
“With barricades slowing a potential fed attack from any direction, protesters feel in control right now, tho that could change,” PNW Youth Liberation Front said in a social media statement around midnight. The group later shared a call for members of Antifa to arm themselves with guns.
Video footage showed people in the mob hurling smoke grenades at the Justice Center, a city building that includes a police precinct, and rushing forward with fencing to try to block officers from exiting the building.
Groups also used fencing to block exit doors around the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building near the center.
The vandals took the fencing to the Justice Center and used it to barricade doors there, the bureau said.
“People kept barricading exits with pieces of the fence at the Justice Center for several hours, including the barricading of exit doors around the Federal Courthouse. Dozens of people worked to barricade the doors while hundreds either cheered them on or assisted,” the bureau said in a statement.
Shortly after midnight, the mob began shooting commercial-grade fireworks and smoke bombs near the barricaded doors while a different portion of the group used fencing to block traffic on a nearby street.
