Portland protests against police brutality, racial injustice explored in CNN’s ‘United Shades of America’
Updated May 12, 2021;
Posted May 12, 2021
In this photo taken on July 25, 2020, protesters and federal officers clashed in the area around the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse. Portland protests are the subject of Sunday s United Shades of America episode, hosted by W. Kamau Bell. (Photo: Dave Killen / staff)The Oregonian
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In 2016, the comedian and social commentator W. Kamau Bell filmed an episode of his CNN series, “United Shades of America,” in Portland. Back then, the question was, had Black Portlanders been forced to move away from their historic Portland neighborhoods after they were gentrified by supposedly “hip” and “cool” whites?
April 17 2021
A fatal police shooting spurred a nighttime crowd that smashed windows and set fires in downtown Portland on Friday.
Fires, gunshots and broken glass set the beat for a riotous evening in downtown Portland on Friday, April 16.
Portland Police Bureau officers made multiple arrests, while Portland Fire & Rescue crews were kept busy extinguishing at least a half dozen separate blazes, including a major fire that engulfed the awning and boarded-up windows of the Pioneer Tower building immediately adjacent to the downtown Apple store.
Demonstrators gathered in the heart of the city for two events: a peaceful vigil that saw candle-bearing marchers briefly shutting down traffic on the Hawthorne bridge, and a separate direct action -style protest that gathered at Director Park.
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Marchers Set Fire at Apple Store and Shatter Windows Across Downtown Portland After Police Killing The scale of damage tonight recalled the riots last May. A bartender in a downtown restaurant continues work after the storefront window is smashed. (Justin Yau) Updated 3:08 AM The powder keg lit by the police killing of a man in the Lents neighborhood Friday morning exploded in downtown Portland on Friday night. Protesters who for nearly a year have demanded the defunding or abolition of the Portland Police Bureau responded to the fatal shooting by carving a trail of property destruction through downtown. The spree lasted into Saturday morning. They shattered windows of banks, restaurants and a church, wrote “No More History” on the Oregon Historical Society’s front entrance, and faced off with riot p