Seventeen police cars were burned. Are the Portland anarchists to blame?

PORTLAND, Ore. — An arsonist cut through the fence of an enclosed area of ​​a Portland Police Bureau training facility and began setting fire to police cars. The devastation — which occurred early in the morning on May 2 — was brazen: The perpetrator set fires that engulfed 17 vehicles, including one that turned into fireball near a large propane tank before fire crews arrived to extinguish the flames.

Even days later — as PPB cops on motorcycles zipped through training turns created by orange cones in the lot — the stench of charred plastic hung in the air. The hole in the fence had been patched, but the damaged vehicles remained lined up next to the warehouse-sized training building, located in an industrial zone near the airport. Some police SUVs showed melted tires on the driver's side. Other cruisers had gaping holes from their fenders. And many police cars were just charred husks of bare metal.

Clashes between Portland police and far-left activists are commonplace in this city, which former President George H. W. Bush once called “Little Beirut” because of the persistence of its protests. However, the burning of more than a dozen police cars – on police property – marks a terrifying escalation in tactics. The same as a taking responsibility was posted on an anarchist forum in Portland, by an anonymous group calling itself “Rachel Corrie's Ghost Brigade.” The statement linked the arson attack to support for a pro-Palestinian occupation of the Portland State University library and called for violent resistance against police. “Let's burn ten million police cars!” he stated.

A Portland police spokesman says Rolling rock PPB is “aware” of the post that “claims responsibility for the fires”, adding that “the post is part of the investigation”. A spokesman for the FBI's Portland office would not “confirm or deny” that the feds were involved in the investigation, but said the FBI is also aware of the incident. If the claim matches reality, it could signal the arrival of a new wave of what the government considers “Anarchist Violent Extremism', a form of dangerous left-wing extremism that mirrors the threats posed by far-right militia movements and anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Portland emerged as the epicenter of the overnight protest following the police killing of George Floyd because protesters saw PPB as an avatar of the kind of police brutality that led to Floyd's death. The PPB has been under Justice Department oversight for more than a decade as federal authorities attempt to rein in a pattern and practice of excessive force.

The 2020 protests against police brutality saw activists push police officers into crackdowns that showed their preference for violence. The PPB's widespread use of force against protesters was ruled unconstitutional by the Department of Justice. the use of tear gas by police inspired a damning report by international war crimes investigators. And police investigations have since unearthed police training material celebrating the crackdown on “dirty hippies”.

Property destruction was a feature of nighttime actions in 2020, but was mainly opportunistic and disruptive, eg: breaking windows or painting anti-police graffiti. Fire was occasionally used by agitators — but more often than not it was confined to a trash can or trash can as a sign of burning rage rather than a credible attempt to burn down buildings.

The claim of responsibility for burning the PPB vehicles has not been independently verified. It was posted on Rose City Counter-Info, an anarchist website it believes is run by “an anonymous collective.” The site is active as of fall 2020, advertising itself as “a safe and anonymous platform for hosting radical content” specifically for “so-called Portland” — a home for “radical and anarchist-related reporting, analysis, announcements, calls to action, art, and reflections.” The site has published zines for the anarchist actions as well guides how to for the “Troublemakers”.

The site has been viewed a few times with skepticism — with one left-wing Twitter account remarking that it “seems like a ridiculous front for right-wing bad actors posing as anarchists” — but Rose City Counter-Info has also been cited as a reliable source on academic works for Portland anarchists. Rolling rock messaged the site asking how or if they looked into the arsonist claim and did not receive a response.

The statement, published on May 6, celebrated a “preemptive … attack against the PPB.” It reads in part: “On May Day we burnt some PPB cars at their training facility. We cut a fence, set ten fires and we are happy that we burned fifteen cars!” (The initial number of PPB vehicles destroyed was 15.) The statement said the arson was intended to thwart an expected police sweep of a pro-Palestinian student occupation of the Portland State University library. “After seeing Humboldt, Columbia, UCLA and others,” the statement said, “we knew the occupation at PSU would be swept violently, and we wanted to attack PPB first.”

In addition to claiming responsibility for the fires, the statement included a call for violence, urging the occupying students to “FIGHT!” to defend their camps: “If the frat brothers come, break the windows of their house! If the Zionist settlers come, throw fireworks at them!' He added: “If the cops come, don't just resist arrest, fight them!… it's time to be violent.” The statement concluded with a call to “avenge the Palestinians and the brutalized students at PSU and beyond!” He added: “Let's burn ten million police cars!”

Alexander Ross is a PSU professor who researches extremist movements and political violence. He was careful to weigh in on the statement given the “evolving situation,” but said from reading the document, “I doubt it was some kind of false flag.”

It describes the attack on the police training center as “a very big escalation” — even from the most extreme acts of the protests and riots of 2020. The way the manifesto not only claimed responsibility for the arson, but linked it to campus protests, he argues, could easily open up charges of terrorism and conspiracy to those responsible. And it will almost certainly increase tensions between police and street activists in the future.

The takeover of the PSU library was cleared by the police on the morning of May 2. According to information, the invaders caused significant damage to the school library building, but not to its collections. The library won't reopen until the fall. Portland Police was arrested 30 people, at least half a dozen of whom were PSU students, and are searching for more than a dozen others who fled the building. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who doubles as police commissioner, called the protesters “delusional” for believing their actions could affect conditions on the ground in the Middle East.

The PPB said no one is in custody for the crime. He declined to release surveillance camera footage of the attack. The manager of a family business adjacent to the PPB educational facility pointed out Rolling rock a repaired cut in the fence at the back of his property where the arsonist appears to have entered the police precinct. (His own surveillance footage captured only the glare of flames and flashing emergency lights, he said.)

The arson against police cars and the claim of responsibility have made headlines not only in Oregon but also in Israel — where it has been covered by Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel. Invoking Rachel Corrie's name has proven provocative to audiences in both the Pacific Northwest and Israel.

Corrie was an American peace activist from Washington living in Gaza in 2003. She tried to prevent an Israeli Defense Force armored bulldozer from destroying Palestinian homes, which the IDF claimed were being used by militants. Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer operator, who later insisted he did not see her.

Some far-left groups have been excited by the branding. The Connecticut chapter of the John Brown Gun Club — a far-left gun rights group inspired by the anti-slavery radical who tried to take over an armory in Harper's Ferry — He wrote on X: “Rachel Corrie's Ghost Brigade is an incredible moniker. May we all live well enough to be worthy of such a moniker.”

Corrie's parents, on the other hand, are taken by surprise. “It's just wrong,” Corrie's father, Craig he told reporters: “They chose Rachel's name for a use they would never, ever have approved of.”