As protests and riots over George Floyd’s murder rocked cities across the country in the summer of 2020, President Trump sent federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Ore., to quell large nightly demonstrations at the city’s federal courthouse.
Now, five years later, the chaotic and sometimes violent upheaval in Portland and the subsequent clashes between protesters and the federal authorities that followed the deployment in 2020 have become an unflattering part of Portland’s public image, one that many residents are eager to erase.
But for Mr. Trump, those weeks appear to have provided a playbook, which he is now following as he moves to send National Guard forces to cities that he argues are out of control. And for many people who lived through that trying time in Portland, the fraught days of 2020 offer a cautionary tale, as demonstrators gather in the city once again, this time to protest the treatment of immigrants.
In interviews, police officers, federal agents, protesters and city officials described missteps in 2020 that made a tense situation worse and are already being repeated in other cities by police forces and protesters alike.
Some of those veterans of 2020 expressed hope that the experiences of five years ago would inform what happens in the weeks and months ahead. Others worried that the combination of Mr. Trump’s penchant for provocation and the presence of a small cadre of protesters and counterprotesters bent on sowing chaos would once again make the city a tinderbox.
“It’s hard for me to give you lessons,” said Aaron Schmautz, a Portland police sergeant and head of the city officers’ union. “All I can really remember is how tired and traumatized we all were.”
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The post In 2020, Trump Intervened in Portland’s Protests. They Got Even Worse. appeared first on New York Times.
