PORTLAND: Oregon state police were poised on Monday to return to Portland after a fatal shooting this weekend, as clashes escalated between an armed right-wing group and protesters demanding racial justice and police reforms.
Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, released a plan Sunday night in response to violence that she said was stoked by an armed right-wing group called Patriot Prayer. In addition to bringing in state police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Attorney would commit more resources to prosecuting criminal offenders.
“Every Oregonian has the right to freely express their views without fear of deadly violence. I will not allow Patriot Prayer and armed white supremacists to bring more bloodshed to our streets,” Brown said in a statement.
Protests have roiled downtown Portland every night for more than three months following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, the Black man who died under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The demonstrators, demanding reforms of police practices they view as racist and abusive, have frequently clashed with law enforcement and on occasion with counter-protesters associated with right-wing militia groups.
On Monday, Portland police said 29 people were arrested overnight after taking part in an unlawful gathering in northeast Portland where rocks and eggs were thrown at officers.
Two people arrested had loaded handguns and others had knives and rocks, the police said in a statement.
The clashes have exacerbated national political divisions. Republican President Donald Trump has blamed the unrest on the failure of Democratic-run governments, while Democrats say his divisive rhetoric has emboldened violent right-wing activists.
“Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn’t clean it up, we will go in and do it for them!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Trump has sought to crack down on protests as part of his bid to win re-election on Nov. 3. In July, he deployed federal agents to Portland to guard a federal courthouse in the midst of protests, which Democrats and civil liberties groups criticized as federal overreach.
Trump was scheduled to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, this week, the latest US city where protests against racism and excessive use of force by police at times degenerated into violence. Violent protests have rocked the city since the Aug. 23 shooting by a white police officer that left a Black man, Jacob Blake, paralyzed. Last week, a white teenager was charged with shooting three demonstrators — two fatally.
Authorities have not identified the shooting victim in Portland, but the New York Times reported the man gunned down was wearing a hat with the insignia of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer. On Sunday, the leader of the group, Joey Gibson, appeared to confirm that the victim was a member whom he knew.
Trump later re-tweeted a photo of a man identified as Jay Bishop and described him in that post as “a good American that loved his country and Backed the Blue,” an apparent reference to police. “He was murdered in Portland by ANTIFA.”
Trump wrote, “Rest in Peace Jay!” in his retweet.
Members of the small right-wing group Patriot Prayer have clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters for the past two weekends in Portland.
Gibson, who faces felony riot charges for a 2019 clash in Portland, said in an Aug. 17 post on the group’s Facebook page, “If the ‘leaders’ refuse to protect the innocent then it is the obligation of the people to stand for justice.”
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said on Sunday that authorities were investigating whether Saturday’s shooting was connected to skirmishes that night between a caravan of protesters driving through the downtown district in pickup trucks waving pro-Trump flags and counter-protesters on the streets.
Video on social media showed individuals in the beds of the pickups firing paint-balls and spraying chemical irritants at opposing demonstrators as they rode by, while those on the street hurled objects at the trucks.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said on Sunday that city officials were bracing for more violence, citing social media posts vowing revenge for Saturday’s shooting.
“For those of you saying on Twitter this morning that you plan to come to Portland to seek retribution, I’m calling on you to stay away,” Wheeler said.
Oregon state police called to Portland as officials warn of escalating violence
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Oregon state police called to Portland as officials warn of escalating violence
- Pro-police reform protestors have clashed with right-wing groups and militias, as well as local and federal law enforcement in recent weeks
- Escalating civil unrest is quickly becoming a major point of contention in the race for the US presidency
A month on, flood-struck Aceh still reels from worst disaster since 2004 tsunami
- Aceh accounts for almost half of death toll in Sumatra floods that struck in November
- Over 450,000 remain displaced as of Friday, as governor extended state of emergency
JAKARTA: Four weeks since floodwaters and torrents of mud swept across Aceh province, villages are still overwhelmed with debris while communities remain inundated, forced to rely on each other to speed up recovery efforts.
The deadly floods and landslides, triggered by extreme weather linked to Cyclone Senyar, hit the provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh in late November.
Aceh, the westernmost province of Indonesia, was the worst-hit. Accounting for almost half of the 1,137 death toll, a month later more than 450,000 people are still unable to return to their homes, as many struggle to access clean water, food, electricity and medical supplies.
“We saw how people resorted to using polluted river water for their needs,” Ira Hadiati, Aceh coordinator for the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, told Arab News on Friday.
Many evacuation shelters were also lacking toilets and washing facilities, while household waste was “piling up on people’s lawns,” she added.
In many regions, people’s basic needs “were still unmet,” said Annisa Zulkarnain, a volunteer with Aceh-based youth empowerment organization Svara.
“Residents end up helping each other and that’s still nowhere near enough, and even with volunteers there are still some limitations,” she told Arab News.
Volunteers and aid workers in Aceh have grown frustrated with the central government’s response, which many have criticized as slow and ineffective.
And Jakarta continues to ignore persistent calls to declare the Sumatra floods a national disaster, which would unlock emergency funds and help streamline relief efforts.
“It seems like there’s a gap between the people and the government, where the government is saying that funds and resources have been mobilized … but the fact on the ground shows that even to fix the bridges, it’s been ordinary people working together,” Zulkarnain said.
After spending the past two weeks visiting some of the worst-affected areas, she said that the government “really need to speed up” their recovery efforts.
Aceh Gov. Muzakir Manaf extended the province’s state of emergency for another two weeks starting Friday, while several district governments have declared themselves incapable of managing the disasters.
Entire villages were wiped out by the disastrous floods, which have also damaged more than 115,000 houses across Aceh, along with 141 health facilities, 49 bridges, and over 1,300 schools.
The widespread damage to roads and infrastructure continue to isolate many communities, with residents traveling for hours on foot or with motorbikes in search of basic supplies.
“Even today, some areas are still inundated by thick mud and there are remote locations still cut off because the bridges collapsed. For access, off-road vehicles are still required or we would use small wooden boats to cross rivers,” Al Fadhil, director of Geutanyoe Foundation, told Arab News.
“From our perspective, disaster management this time around is much worse compared to how it was when the 2004 tsunami happened.”
When the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami struck in 2004, Aceh was the hardest-hit of all, with the disasters killing almost 170,000 people in the province.
But MER-C’s Hadiati said that the impact of the November floods and landslides is “more extensive and far worse than the tsunami,” as 18 Acehnese cities and regencies have been affected — about twice more than in the 2004 disaster.
As Friday marks 21 years since the cataclysmic tsunami, Fadhil said the current disaster management was “disorganized,” and lacked leadership and coordination from the central government, factors that played a crucial role after 2004.
“The provincial and district governments in Aceh, they’ve now done all they could with what they have,” he said.
“But their efforts stand against the fact that there’s no entry of foreign aid, no outside support, and a central government insisting they are capable.”
