Several clashes between law enforcement officials and protesters have characterized the widespread anti-ICE protests. However, a recent brutal fight between some protestors in Portland, Oregon, and the police has left citizens questioning whether the police intentionally stir up the unrest.
The combat, shared on Reddit, opened with one armed personnel member grabbing one of the protesters’ shirts. Immediately, other protesters went after him in an attempt to rescue the individual.
Amid the chaos, one angered rioter struck the officer with a wooden signboard, prompting the officer to go after his attacker. The situation further escalated as additional policemen intervened.
When a protester attempted to restrain one of the policemen, the officer pushed him away, turned, and shot at him with a less lethal gun. Other members of the unit continued to shoot at the protestors, while one personnel member deployed a smoke canister into the crowd.
Angered demonstrators were heard screaming, “Leave us alone. f**k you!” In the background, one officer was spotted forcefully dragging a citizen to the floor to a corner, while other personnel surrounded him. Even when another individual tried to rescue him, a policeman waved a gun at her.
The caption to the video partly read, “Seems diplomatic solutions and decent law enforcement have been entirely abandoned as government policy.” The video has since sparked outrage among netizens, who have lashed out at both the Trump administration and law enforcement agencies.
One Redditor claimed the chaos was deliberately instigated by law enforcement. The Redditor wrote, “The po po is intentionally escalating the situation. Where are all the good cops?” A second observer noted that the armed men in the video may not be military personnel. “Definitely not military personnel,” claimed the observer. “That looks like MAGA sloppy, non-trained, straight out of the trailer park azzes.”
This netizen called for a fight back against the government. “Defund the police!” cried the citizen. “If it looks like a Nazi, and acts like a Nazi, it’s a Nazi. They want a culture war, let’s give them one.”
A fourth person added, “It’s what the Trump Admin wants to happen. Civil unrest. MAGA wants to instigate violence against Democrats, Americans with different ideologies than their MAGA Fascism, Isolationism.”
While other Redditors lashed out at the government, a particular netizen suggested that the military men were right in using force against the demonstrators. “In other parts of the world, if you assault law enforcement like that, you get shot down with lethal. Nothing is wrong with the officer’s actions from the video,” they wrote.
It is uncertain whether the fight left any casualties.
