Portland Activists Protesting Family's Eviction Erect Barricade, Set Booby Traps for Police
Activists barricaded streets in a residential neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, and set booby traps for police after officers arrested about a dozen people in a clash over the eviction of a family from a home.
Several city blocks remained closed on Wednesday by a series of blockades made of wood, metal and wire fencing. Protesters dressed in black and wearing ski masks stood watch from atop a nearby wall.
The street behind the blockade in the residential neighborhood of homes, coffee shops and restaurants was laced with booby traps aimed at keeping officers out — including homemade spike strips, piles of rocks and thick bands of plastic wrap stretched at neck-height across the roadway.
Antifa in Portland assaulted responding police at the autonomous zone. They’re reinforcing the barricades with power tools and have assembled a large pile of rocks to throw. Photos: @PDXzane pic.twitter.com/KX8Ycxs7zv
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 8, 2020
Mayor Ted Wheeler, who weathered a summer of violent unrest that almost cost him re-election, said late Tuesday that the city would not tolerate an “autonomous zone.”
He added that the protesters were engaged in an “illegal occupation” that was intimidating neighbors and inflaming tensions in a city that was wracked for months by nightly protests and riots until just a few weeks ago.
“It’s time for the encampment and occupation to end. There are many ways to protest and work toward needed reform. Illegally occupying private property, openly carrying weapons, threatening and intimidating people are not among them,” he said.
The occupation of the property began in September after a judge rejected a family’s request for an emergency stay on an eviction.
But it gained national attention on Tuesday when police officers responding to the owners’ complaints arrested about a dozen people.
The 124-year-old house is known locally as the Red House on Mississippi because it is on North Mississippi Avenue.
One complaint of protesters is that the family should not have been evicted in the middle of a pandemic and should be protected by an eviction moratorium enacted by Oregon.
But the moratorium only applies to foreclosures that are a result of pandemic-related financial straits, and the developer that now owns the home bought it at a foreclosure auction in 2018.
According to a history posted online by the group protesting the eviction, the property belonged to the Kinney family since the 1950s.
But the Kinneys took out a new mortgage to pay defense lawyers after a 17-year-old son was arrested in 2002 after a traffic crash. He pleaded guilty to assault in a plea deal, according to court records.
The new loan was resold several times after the housing crash of 2007-2008, and the house was sold to Urban Housing Development LLC at auction in 2018 — but the Kinneys kept living there, according to court papers.
The developer sued in 2019 and the Kinneys counter-sued, arguing that illegal and predatory bank tactics cost them their home. They later filed a motion for an emergency stay that allowed them to stay in the house during the pandemic.
Mark Passannante, an attorney for Urban Housing Development, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
In September, a judge rejected the stay and ordered the family out. Protesters began an occupation of the property shortly afterward and have been there ever since.
Police said in a statement on Tuesday that between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, there had been 81 calls for service to the property for fights, gunshots, burglary, vandalism and noise complaints, among other things.
Surrounding homeowners also complained that the sidewalks were blocked and they could not access their own homes, according to police.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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