In recent weeks, Portland, Oregon has emerged as the flashpoint of the organized violent anarchist-communist movement that seeks to “transform” the United States into a lawless Third World Marxist state. Late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, a mob of hundreds of “protesters” played another violent cat and mouse game with the city’s police and federal officers on the streets of downtown Portland. The police officially declared a riot at 11 PM PDT after which the building housing the police union (PPA) headquarters was set on fire by “demonstrators,” according to multiple sources.

I have been following reports from the streets on Twitter and elsewhere online all night that have included multiple cell phone videos. The hashtag #portlandprotest is one active thread featuring reports and videos, many if not most of them sympathetic to the violence. In fact, the vast majority of tweets on the subject have taken the side of the “protesters,” many of them insisting that the fire at the PPA was a false flag – a modern version of the 1933 Reichstag Fire set by the Nazis in Berlin – this time allegedly set by the Portland police themselves in order to provide an excuse for more “repression.” Other tweets have claimed the fire was a worthy tactic in the radicals’ campaign to do away with Portland’s police force. Trending on Twitter this past week – some of them serving as organizing tools for street actions and flash mobs – are hashtags like #TrumpThreatensAmerica and #trumpnazi.

After almost two months of violent demonstrations, rioting, and looting in multiple American cities, President Trump finally took steps this past week to address the situation. As the Daily Wire reported on July 19:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently deployed an elite unit of law enforcement operators to Portland this week under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence.

The New York Times confirmed an earlier report that identified the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC, as the unit that was deployed to Portland as the city has been rocked by approximately 48 consecutive days of riots. Reuters reported that in addition to BORTAC, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are helping DHS’s Federal Protective Service, which provides security for federal buildings.”

It was exactly two years ago that I was reporting, including here at American Thinker and at The Epoch Times, on Occupy ICE Portland, a ragtag group of professional Marxist agitators and local grifters who set up camp adjacent to Portland’s ICE (federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement) building and effectively shut it down for almost a month. During that insurrection, the police were ordered to stand down by the city’s left-wing Democrat mayor. Occupy ICE demanded not only an end to ICE, but, as I wrote in June 2018, to borders, police, and prisons. As absurd as those demands may have seemed at the time, they have now gone mainstream including being championed by many leading Democrats not only in Portland but nationwide in the wake of the fuse lit by the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

Portland Police tweets @PortlandPolice issued between 10:31 and 10:58 PM PDT Saturday July 18

Sympathizers with the violent rioters and looters, which includes Portland’s daily newspaper, The Oregonian, have tried to claim the 52 nights of demonstrations have been peaceful. Typical is the headline on an Oregonian lead story published on July 18: “Feds, right-wing media paint Portland as ‘city under siege.’” Independent media have reported more accurately on the situation, including noting the $23 million in property damage that has been visited on the city since the demonstrations began on May 26^th.

A federal officer in Portland was struck in the head and shoulder with a hammer after a man tried to use to the tool to break down a door to a federal courthouse, police said. Photo by Portland Police Bureau

It seems likely that the Portland protests will continue. The local elected officials, all Democrats, have been demanding that the federal government withdraw the troops sent in by the Department of Homeland Security to protect federal buildings that the police have been unable or unwilling to defend. Escalation of the situation, and its likely spread to other cities, is not out of the question – especially with top Democrats egging on the violent rioters.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), for example, tweeted this incendiary comment – which essentially pours more gasoline on the fire – on July 17:

Nancy Pelosi

@SpeakerPelosi

Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti. These are not the actions of a democratic republic.

@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission. Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.

Photo credit: Twitter

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications.  He also appears in the media, including recently as a guest analyst on BBC World News. Peter's website is http://peter.media.  For updates on his work, follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.