A riot was declared in Portland early Wednesday morning. It was the second since federal police agreed to leave the city. The target of the latest riot activity was the Portland Police Association office. Protesters broke in through the back door and tried to set the building on fire:

A riot was declared in the early hours of Wednesday after demonstrators gathered across Portland on Tuesday and later marched to the Portland Police Association building where some set fires and barricaded public roadways for the 68th night of protests against systemic racism and police…

Upon reaching their destination Tuesday night, some in the crowd proceeded to drag a dumpster into the street and light it on fire. Others set debris on fire and pushed it against the PPA building, only for some to dismantle the pile and extinguish the flames. Portland police did not engage the crowd but tweeted that there was “criminal activity” occurring in the area and asked peaceful protesters to leave…

The riot was declared about an hour later once a group of protesters breached the PPA building, causing damage and setting fire to the building. The majority of the crowd had left the area by 3:30 a.m.

The crowd marched to the PPA building and immediately started trying to figure out how to break in:

Somebody asked if anyone had a crowbar (the entrance is boarded up). Crowd seemed momentarily unsure of what to do next, now chants have resumed. pic.twitter.com/SQe4YXs6SZ

— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) August 5, 2020

Arson is the goal but I think this dumpster fire is a pretty good metaphor for these rioters:

Dumpster on fire in the middle of the street. pic.twitter.com/pvitMDPZqt

— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) August 5, 2020

The rioters did eventually break into the back door of the PPA and attempt to set a fire inside. Portland police published this photo of the damage to the door:

It appears the building was targeted in advance:

Without federal offices to fight, #antifa have moved on to attacking other buildings that belong to Portland Police (what they were doing before feds came). The past two nights they targeted the SE building. Tonight they’re going to north Portland, close to the north precinct. pic.twitter.com/WusSRw3ZYa

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 5, 2020

While all of this was happening, there was a lot of other chaos going on last night. Protesters set up barricades in the street:

Antifa rioters blockade street near the SE Portland Police building. They steal benches from a nearby a restaurant to use as barricades. They end up trashing the street & leaving that there for others to clean, like last time. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/aFGVGKaJ1o

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 4, 2020

Shots were fired, apparently at a car.

The moment shots were fired during the antifa riot in North Portland overnight. #PortlandRiots https://t.co/596uEv53Jn

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 5, 2020

But the visual highlight of the night took place when a protester tried to stop a pickup truck at one of the makeshift barricades. The protester zooms in from the right side of the frame and puts his motorcycle on the ground in front of the truck to prevent it from advancing. The truck driver, clearly looking to escape the mob, sped forward, dragging the bike down the street in a shower of sparks:

Pickup sped through crowd and rammed through the fence, sparks flying. pic.twitter.com/0zumuvzNKC

— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) August 5, 2020

The police description of the night notes, “No one was hit by the truck and the driver was cooperative when interviewed by officers.” Here’s another angle:

Last week I suggested that it was unlikely the mob would be able to take the win (when federal police agreed to leave the city) and tone down the violence:

Getting rid of federal officers was never really the point. These nightly protests/riots were happening for weeks before the federal reinforcements showed up. In fact, the feds showed up because of the nightly violence. So having the feds leave (eventually) doesn’t mean this is over.

These were never pro-federalism protests they were anti-police protests. Replacing federal police with state police shouldn’t make much difference to people whose stated goal is to defund police.

Since then, they got two good news cycles out of not trying to burn anything down. But that appears to be all they could manage. Since then we’ve had two riots declared in less than a week, the one early this morning and one Saturday night. This was never just about getting rid of the federal police. This is Antifa looking for an excuse to attack anything connected to the police.

Update: I missed this earlier but there’s another angle on the truck that shows why it took off so fast. Someone was slashing his tires.

Antifa slash the tires of a truck on the street where they are rioting. The driver drives off. They chase him down and smash up his vehicle. In June they did this to another driver during broad daylight in SE Portland. #PortlandRiots #antifa pic.twitter.com/VB2TGe5qLU

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 5, 2020