Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US Supreme Court Lifts Order That Blocked Trump’s Mass Federal Layoffs

19 hours ago

Trump to Attend Club World Cup Final, FIFA Opens Office in Trump Tower

20 hours ago

Trump Says Pharmaceutical Tariffs Could Reach 200%

20 hours ago

Rescue Teams Find Three More Bodies After Central Texas Floods

20 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rigoberto Simental Aguilar

20 hours ago

Trump Says He Is Not Happy With Russia’s Putin, Considering Sanctions

20 hours ago

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to Be Sentenced on October 3

20 hours ago

Israeli Military Says It Struck Key Hamas Figure in Lebanon’s Tripoli

21 hours ago

Madera County Sheriff Logs 29 Fire-Related Calls on Fourth of July, Most in 5 Years

21 hours ago

Trump Says He May Take Over Governance of Washington, DC

21 hours ago
Protesters Set Booby Traps as Large Portland Standoff Stretches Into 3rd Day
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
December 10, 2020

Share

PORTLAND, Ore. — A gentrification protest in Oregon’s largest city that has blockaded several city blocks in Portland entered its third day Thursday as demonstrators dressed in black and wearing ski masks shored up their makeshift barriers aimed at keeping police out.

The fencing, lumber and other roadblocking material first went up on Tuesday after officers arrested about a dozen people in a clash over the eviction of a Black and Indigenous family from a house.

The street behind the blockade in the neighborhood of homes, coffee shops and restaurants was laced with booby traps aimed at keeping officers out — including homemade spike strips, piles of rocks and thick bands of plastic wrap stretched at neck-height across the roadway. It’s unclear exactly how many people were camped out at the site and police didn’t say.

The standoff recalled more than four months of confrontations between police and protesters decrying racial injustice and police brutality that only abated weeks ago.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said the city would not tolerate an “autonomous zone,” a reference to a weeks-long protest in Seattle where protesters essentially took over a several-block area near downtown during racial injustice protests.

Supporters of the Kinney family, the Black and Indigenous family that faced foreclosure, have said the home was unjustly taken through predatory lending practices that target people of color.

The property sold at auction for $260,000 in 2018, the family said, while private land next door is valued at more than $10 million. The small, maroon-painted property is known as the Red House on Mississippi for its location on North Mississippi Avenue.

On Thursday, the family’s supporters said in a statement that Wheeler’s office had reached out to the Kinney family late Wednesday and promised to “keep it Kinney” in an initial conversation.

The statement implored the mayor to ”call off” the police and sheriff’s deputies who secured the home and made arrests on Tuesday.

“We look forward to continuing that conversation as we move more towards our goal of securing the Red House for the Kinney family and their generations to come,” the family’s statement said.

Wheeler’s office said in a statement that the city was “actively working across bureaus and with partners” to resolve the standoff, but did not confirm having had contact with the family.

The Moratorium Only Applies to Homeowners Suffering Pandemic-Related Financial Woes

The house that the family was evicted from lies in a historically Black part of Portland that for decades was one of the few areas Black residents could own homes because of racist real estate and zoning laws.

And the 124-year-old home was one of the few remaining Black-owned residences in an area that has rapidly gentrified in the past 20 years.

The family bought the home outright for cash in 1955, but took out a loan against it in 2002 when a 17-year-old son was arrested on felony charges after a car crash. The family has said the loan had a ballooning interest rate and they refinanced again to attempt to keep up with payments.

A bank finally foreclosed on the property in 2018, but the Kinneys refused to leave. The developer who bought the house at auction filed a lawsuit and the Kinneys counter-sued, alleging they had been the victims of predatory loan practices.

They most recently requested an emergency court order to allow them to stay in the home, citing an eviction moratorium put in place in Oregon during the pandemic.

But the moratorium only applies to homeowners suffering pandemic-related financial woes and a judge rejected the request in September.

Protesters then started camping out on the property, but the occupation gained steam and national attention this week when officers responding to the new owner’s complaints conducted their dawn sweep and made about a dozen arrests, mostly on trespassing charges.

Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, there have been 81 calls to the property for fights, gunshots, burglary, vandalism and noise complaints, among other things, police have said.

Neighbors have complained that the sidewalks were blocked and they could not get to their homes, police said.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Los Angeles Joins ACLU Lawsuit Against Trump’s Immigration Raids

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Task Force Uncovers Chop Shop During Stolen Vehicle Investigation

DON'T MISS

Lawrence Summers: This Law Made Me Ashamed of My Country

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Sues California Over Transgender Athletes in Schools

DON'T MISS

Nvidia Leaps to $4 Trillion as Wall Street Shakes off Tariff Concerns

DON'T MISS

Fresno Woman Sentenced to Prison for DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Three

DON'T MISS

Union Files Ethics Complaint After College Chancellor’s ‘Goddaughter’ Receives $161K In Contracts

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect Tied to 2 Shootings, Firearm Recovered

DON'T MISS

Are Former Measure C Execs Pushing Their Own Ballot Measure?

DON'T MISS

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Near New Cuyama Grows to 80,615 Acres, 35% Contained

UP NEXT

TSA Set to Let Airport Travelers Keep Their Shoes on, Media Reports Say

UP NEXT

Space Industry Urges Congress Not to Axe System That Prevents Satellite Collisions

UP NEXT

Rescuers Scour Flood Debris in Texas as Hope Fades for Survivors

UP NEXT

US Veterans Affairs Will Cut Nearly 30,000 Jobs, Far Fewer Than Planned

UP NEXT

US Proposes Rules That Could Boost Oil, Gas Output in US West

UP NEXT

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

UP NEXT

Texas Girls’ Camp Mourning Dozens Dead in Floods as Search Teams Face More Rain

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

Fresno Crash Involving Unlicensed Teen Driver Sends Woman to Hospital

Trump Administration Sues California Over Transgender Athletes in Schools

25 minutes ago

Nvidia Leaps to $4 Trillion as Wall Street Shakes off Tariff Concerns

27 minutes ago

Fresno Woman Sentenced to Prison for DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Three

15 hours ago

Union Files Ethics Complaint After College Chancellor’s ‘Goddaughter’ Receives $161K In Contracts

16 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect Tied to 2 Shootings, Firearm Recovered

16 hours ago

Are Former Measure C Execs Pushing Their Own Ballot Measure?

17 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Near New Cuyama Grows to 80,615 Acres, 35% Contained

18 hours ago

US Justice Department Scrambles to Defend Its About-Face on Release of Epstein Files

18 hours ago

US Supreme Court Lifts Order That Blocked Trump’s Mass Federal Layoffs

19 hours ago

Trump to Attend Club World Cup Final, FIFA Opens Office in Trump Tower

20 hours ago

Los Angeles Joins ACLU Lawsuit Against Trump’s Immigration Raids

The city of Los Angeles and other Southern California municipalities are joining a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administra...

9 seconds ago

The crowd chants outside the Civic Center at the conclusion of a 'cabalgata' for human rights, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Compton, California, U.S., June 22, 2025. (Reuters File)
10 seconds ago

Los Angeles Joins ACLU Lawsuit Against Trump’s Immigration Raids

A stolen car investigation in Ivanhoe led to the discovery of a chop shop and the arrest of a man after a one-hour standoff, authorities said. (Madera PD)
9 minutes ago

Tulare County Task Force Uncovers Chop Shop During Stolen Vehicle Investigation

President Donald Trump speaks during a "One Big Beautiful" event at the White House in Washington, DC., U.S., June 26, 2025. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
20 minutes ago

Lawrence Summers: This Law Made Me Ashamed of My Country

25 minutes ago

Trump Administration Sues California Over Transgender Athletes in Schools

Nvidia logo is seen in this illustration taken, January 27, 2025. (Reuters File)
27 minutes ago

Nvidia Leaps to $4 Trillion as Wall Street Shakes off Tariff Concerns

15 hours ago

Fresno Woman Sentenced to Prison for DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Three

16 hours ago

Union Files Ethics Complaint After College Chancellor’s ‘Goddaughter’ Receives $161K In Contracts

Jershawn Worthy was identified as the suspect in two Fresno shootings and is now facing multiple firearm-related charges. (Fresno PD)
16 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect Tied to 2 Shootings, Firearm Recovered

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend