Portland police officers pursue a crowd of about 200 after forcing the group to disperse from a law enforcement precinct in Portland, Ore., late Aug. 1, 2020. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Video footage from the scene showed a group of about a dozen, many clad in all-black, repeatedly shouting expletives at the woman while shining lasers into her eyes.
The group was mad that the woman was wearing what appeared to be a swastika armband.
“Take it off you Nazi [expletive]!” one man shouted. The woman said she would not while cursing back.
“Go back inside your house before you get [expletive] up!” one of the males in the crowd told her. Another man opened the door to the woman’s house and tried shoving her inside. When she refused, he grabbed her arm and tried to rip the armband off.
It wasn’t clear how the incident ended.
After they were sent links to the videos and asked whether the incident was under investigation, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman told The Epoch Times that officers aren’t sure whether the woman called the police and filed a report.
Rioters gathered around 8 p.m. at Floyd Light Park and began walking about an hour later, blocking both lanes of traffic, according to the bureau. After arriving at the department’s East Precinct, the mob tried tearing a surveillance camera from the building. Some spray painted the camera and the precinct’s front doors.
The crowd then began tampering with the doors and ripping down boards that were put up to protect the precinct’s glass windows.
“Several people in the group began to ram a large 2 by 4 piece of wood in to the front glass doors in an effort to shatter them. Other members of the group slammed different heavy large objects into the glass doors as well. The objects included large rocks,” the bureau said in an incident summary.
Rioters refused to comply with requests to leave the area. They cracked the precinct’s glass doors, causing significant damage, and started a fire after barricading the entrance.
When officers moved to disperse the crowd, rioters hurled projectiles and shot commercial-grade fireworks at them. Officers responded with tear gas and crowd control munitions.
“While dispersing efforts continued, a truck associated with the group attempted to run over several officers,” the bureau said.
The mayhem continued for hours as officers repeatedly dispersed the mob, which kept returning to the East Precinct.
Several arrests were made, including 38-year-old Davis Beeman of Vancouver, Wash., who was charged with reckless driving and interfering with a police officer. According to his Twitter account, Beeman is a member of Antifa, a far-left anarcho-communist group, and often goes to protest and uses his truck to block traffic.
Rioting has continued on a near-nightly basis in Portland since late May with no signs of slowing down.
City officials have no concrete plans on how to end the violence.
Portland Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Oregon state troopers were seen helping police officers quell the violence as part of an agreement reached between the state and the federal government.
City and state officials grew angry with the Trump administration for increasing the number of officers at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building, last month after rioters targeted the building and police officers didn’t intervene.
The agreement resulted in the courthouse being left alone, but the riots have continued. On Tuesday night, a mob set fire to the Portland Police Association’s building for the second time in two months.
Some others arrested in recent weeks in Portland self-identify as members of Antifa, in addition to Beeman.
Independent journalist Andy Ngo warned members of Congress in Washington on Tuesday that the group plans to spread violence across America.
“Unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon be happening in cities across the country,” he said.
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