Over the weekend, leftist activists blocked a pick-up truck in Portland near the central police precinct, demanding that the passenger next to the driver give the black power salute and chant “Black Lives Matter”; the truck was later smashed and a window shattered.
The truck was smashed up later. #PortlandRiots #BLM #antifa pic.twitter.com/NZk8nzoLdE
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 20, 2020
The Daily Wire reported last week that a leaked email from a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that the department had “overwhelming intelligence” that the extremist violence in Portland was “organized” by individuals with an ideology categorized as “Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired” (VAAI).
The Daily Wire noted:
CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge tweeted out a letter that she obtained that was written by Brian Murphy, former Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at DHS, that said in July that the violence in Portland had reached a level that officials could no longer state that the violence was “opportunistic” but that it was “organized.”
Murphy stated in the email that the individuals who were attacking the federal facilities in the city did so “based on those ideologies.”
“We have overwhelming intelligence regarding the ideologies driving individuals towards violence and why the violence has continued,” Murphy continued. “A core set of threat actors are organized, show up night after night, share common TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] and drawing on like minded individuals to their cause.”
A poll conducted by DHM Research between September 3 to 8, 2020, of Oregon residents found that 42% of respondents felt the police should use more force; another 18% felt the force currently used was fine with them. Additionally, 66% of Oregonians disapproved of the protests. “Voters ages 18-29 are the only group to approve of the protests, with 62% saying that they approve compared to 33% who disapprove,” DHM Research pointed out.
Only 10% of respondents approved of Oregon Democratic Governor Kate Brown’s response to the protests, and even that was better than the 8% of respondents who approved of leftist Democrat Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s response. 46% of Oregon voters approved of the Portland police response to the ongoing protests and 45% disapproved.
DHM Research stated, “At the end of the survey, we asked voters what word is a more accurate description of the events in Portland: 55% said riot and 37% said protest.”
On September 9, the city of Portland — decimated by rioters the prior three months — banned the use of facial-recognition technology by local police.
“Its decision to prevent both local government and businesses from employing the technology appears to be the most sweeping ban yet by an individual city,” CNN reported, adding:
The new rule prevents “private entities in places of public accommodation” in Portland from using it, too, referring to businesses that serve the general public — a grocery store or a pizza place, for instance. It does not prevent individuals from setting up facial-recognition technology at home, such as a Google Nest camera that can spot familiar faces, or gadgets that use facial-recognition software for authenticating users, like Apple’s Face ID feature for unlocking an iPhone.