Left-leaning protesters and anarchists are continuing to use demonstration tactics like property damage and flag burning, showing an internal split among groups, The Washington Post reported.
Demonstrators who are unhappy with President Joe Biden are rejecting centrist ideologies they think will not do enough to address climate change, economic inequality, racism and war, according to the Post’s Saturday report.
Protesters in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon have continued to break windows, burn American flags, and demonstrate against both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, according to The Post.
200 left-wing protesters are on the streets in Portland right now, with anti-Biden and anti-police messages.
“We are ungovernable,” one sign says. pic.twitter.com/WLTFpJrS03
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) January 20, 2021
Anarchists in Seattle shouted expletives against Biden and Trump while walking through a residential area before breaking the windows of the original Starbucks, according to the Post. Protesters in Denver yelled at law enforcement and burned an American flag.
Demonstrators vandalized the Oregon Democratic Party headquarters in Portland, Oregon, divided liberals and escalated to federal law enforcement officials deploying teargas when the group targeted the Immigration and Customs (ICE) headquarters, the Post reported.
One Portland protester was caught with home-made Molotov cocktails that leaked gasoline in his backpack, some people carried knives, fireworks and bear spray, the Post reported. Others were arrested for vandalism and throwing projectiles at law enforcement.
Several individuals were accused of breaking windows with pry-bars and batons, the Post reported.
Protesters at the ICE headquarters burned a Biden campaign flag while chanting “not my president,” according to the Post. Others vandalized the building with anti-Trump graffiti phrases such as “reunite families now.”
The president of a local liberal advocacy group called Portland Forward, James Ofsink, said that increasing tension among progressives in the city shows what’s happening across the U.S.
“Portland is going to continue to be a microcosm of the political divides, especially among the left, that we’re seeing across the country,” Ofsink said, the Post reported. “The idea that middle-of-the-road Democrats can say with a straight face that we need to take things slowly or do things in a very deliberate way rubs a lot of people the very wrong way.”
Recent protests in Portland go against Republican claims that far-left organizations support Biden, Vice President of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League Oren Segal said, the Post reported.
“There have been so many efforts to link Biden to the radical elements of the left, including antifa,” Segal said, the Post reported. “This demonstrates a disconnect between that messaging from the Trump administration and elected officials, who tended to lump together the left more broadly with these radical elements.”
Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon’s Black Caucus, Gregory McKelvey said that some activists who want to identify with the demonstrators find it difficult because it could damage their community and messaging, the Post reported.
“I don’t think these tactics work. It alienates people, and growing the coalition is essential to creating change,” McKelvey said, the Post reported. He added that trauma from being on the receiving end of crowd control munitions might be to blame for activists continuing to act out.
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