Waiting for the riot…

The melee that was supposed to happen, didn’t — in the city that was supposed to become a warzone, but didn’t. Protesters gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Southwest Macadam Avenue on Monday evening, hours after news broke that the Trump administration plans to send 200 members of the National Guard to Portland.

A Department of Defense memo to Gov. Tina Kotek outlined the plan. President Donald Trump claimed the deployment is needed because “it’s anarchy out there.”

The scene outside the ICE building Monday evening was smaller than recent demonstrations but still spirited. A few dozen people held candles, burned sage, carried flowers and chanted toward guards stationed on the rooftop. One protester wore a chicken costume and occasionally shouted into a megaphone. Others gathered and stood outside the office holding signs and throwing up peace signs as cars drove by.

“It’s every American’s duty to protest and as a white man it’s my duty,” said one protester. “It’s embarrassing, unlawful and a misuse of taxpayers’ dollars.”

According to a group of Portland police officers, Monday evening was mild.

“It’s a different vibe today, it’s a little more chill tonight you can say,” one officer said.

Another officer commented on the weekend uptick. “There is a lot less people [than the weekend], yesterday it was sunny, it was a Sunday.”

Portland Police shared that their task for the night was to protect the rights of individuals.

“As liaison officers we are here to ensure personal rights are upheld, staying here, being available for everybody,” one officer said. “As you can see this isn’t a giant crowd.” 

Some protestors shared that they came to stand against federal immigration enforcement. 

“I am here to keep supporting Portland to get ICE the f*ck out of Portland,” one said. “Portland is committed to showing up. If anything, we are scared of the ICE officials, this is not a civil war…We are just protesting the grotesque divide.” 

One Portland police officer shared that “What you see is just individual behavior, it’s not a crowd, per say, it’s each person expressing their own way and having their own emotions in their own way.”

Officers assigned as liaisons said their role was to protect free speech and de-escalate tension.

“As liaisons, it’s dependent on the crowd, a lot of what we do is help facilitate freedom of speech,” one liaison officer said. “You have the right to free speech, and you don’t have to agree with the other person but you both have that right and we are here to help defend that, you can’t just silence someone because you don’t like it. You can disagree but we all have that right to free speech.”

Other protesters voiced concerns about the Trump administrations directive. 

“I used to work for the Department of Defense as a [physician’s assistant] for a military hospital, I love our military,” one protestor said. “I want to see how it goes, I wonder if they will take his orders. This isn’t a king country, we aren’t here to serve a king.”

Police said they are tasked to continue monitoring demonstrations as long as they are needed.

“So we are out here as long as we feel we are going to be useful,” one officer said. “There was a lot of right-left stuff last night but a lot of it we evaluate [to ask ourselves,] ‘Are we needed?’ Are we providing a service or are we just standing here.”