Police Clear Portland Park

As part of the deal Oregon governor Kate Brown made with Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, local law enforcement had to prove they were capable of protecting the Federal Courthouse in Portland.

As part of that assignment, police have started to clear out Lonsdale park, the area that has been used as a staging area for the nightly assaults on the courthouse. While not a declared autonomous zone, the park has been occupied for months and looks like it.

Rioters have destroyed the parks in downtown Portland. The grass has turned to dirt mounds and the statues in the area have been removed following dozens of attempts to destroy them. There is trash everywhere. pic.twitter.com/86rQBofibo

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 26, 2020

Early this morning, police and clean-up crews entered the park to begin reclaiming it.

Woman who was in the park when it was cleared says police arrived at 5:30 am, used loudspeakers, told people to get moving. Police advised they’d have 10 mins to pack up or face arrest or non-lethal force.

— Noelle Crombie (@noellecrombie) July 30, 2020

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Orion Crabb, 37, says he’s been living in the park since the very end of May. Got told to leave today around 6:30 a.m. pic.twitter.com/FDWGAY5Qch

— Rebecca Ellis (@Rjaellis) July 30, 2020

Too bad this didn’t happen sooner. Had the governor and mayor acted like the adults in the room, instead of frightened children, little of this would have happened. No riots, no attacks on the courthouse, no Federal presence.