Police in Portland and Seattle arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday on charges related to the vandalizing of immigration offices and other buildings during Inauguration Day demonstrations in both cities.
The arrests came as law enforcement agencies across the country were on high alert following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, and amid lingering fears that large groups of armed protesters might mobilize around state capitols.
The gatherings in both cities appeared to share some of the anti-law-enforcement sentiments expressed in largely left-wing protests that unfolded in both cities last summer, following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. Much of the ire appeared aimed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.
The plywood-covered windows of an Amazon Go store were spray-painted with an anarchist symbol and the phrase “Skin Biden + Kopmala,” according to photos disseminated by the Seattle Police Department.
A video verified by research firm Storyful shows a group in Seattle burning American flags on the street, and a group chanting “No cops! No prisons! Total abolition!” Storyful is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal.
The Seattle Police said a group of marchers dressed mostly in black lighted a large American flag on fire in an intersection not far from a federal immigration court. The people also tore plywood coverings off windows that they then smashed, police said. Among the buildings damaged were the William Kenzo Nakamura federal courthouse and the Starbucks in the Pike Place Market.
Police arrested three people on charges ranging from property damage to burglary and felony assault.
In Portland, police said a group of about 150 marched Wednesday afternoon from Revolution Hall, a local music venue, to the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters, where the building was vandalized, windows were broken and a dumpster set on fire.
Photos from local media showed a crowd dressed in black marching in Portland and carrying banners, including one with the phrase, “We are ungovernable.” A banner captured in another photo reads, “We don’t want Biden—we want revenge!” and included both an anarchist and antifascist symbols. Another showed a person holding a sign that read “F— I.C.E.”
Video footage verified by Storyful shows people dressed in black, some wearing gas masks, breaking windows at the Democratic Party headquarters using batons. The walls of the building also had been tagged with anti-Biden and antipolice messages.
“We’re frustrated and disappointed about the damage done,” the Democratic Party of Oregon said in a statement. “We’re thankful that none of our staff were in the building at the time.”
Then around 9 p.m. local time, according to the Portland Police Bureau, a group of about 150 people—some carrying shields, umbrellas and batons, and wearing gas masks and helmets—marched from a park to an immigration office, where graffiti was drawn and rocks thrown. A spokeswoman for the Portland police said she would not be able to confirm if the groups were linked.
Federal officers, police said, “launched crowd control munitions” to disperse the crowd.
Portland police arrested 14 people between the two incidents on various charges, including criminal mischief, riot, reckless burning and possession of a destructive device.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Portland said that as of Thursday no federal charges had been filed related to the damage in Portland. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle said she was unaware of any federal charges related to the destruction there.
Portland endured more than three months of daily protests this past summer, with demonstrations often followed by late-night violence and property destruction, including some perpetrated by a local antifa movement. Tensions rose after federal agents sent in by then- President Trump to defend a U.S. courthouse came under scrutiny for picking up suspects in unmarked vans.
Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people to date with crimes related to the clashes between law enforcement officers and demonstrators.
In Seattle, protesters last summer turned several city blocks into an autonomous zone with no police presence following the killing of Mr. Floyd.
