Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Protesters Set Booby Traps as Large Portland Standoff Stretches Into 3rd Day
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 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

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

DON'T MISS

California’s Effort to Hold Oil Companies Liable for Natural Disaster Damage Stalls

DON'T MISS

Trump: Israel Would Be ‘Leader’ of Iran Strike if Tehran Doesn’t Give Up Nuke Program

DON'T MISS

California Families Question if College Benefits Outweigh Increasing Costs

DON'T MISS

Fewer Americans Say the Israel-Hamas War Is Important: Survey

DON'T MISS

Clovis Teen Bicyclist Dies After Being Hit Near Bullard and Temperance

DON'T MISS

New Kaweah Health Clinic Is Coming to Woodlake

DON'T MISS

Israeli Strike on Gaza Apartment Building Kills at Least 23, Officials Say

DON'T MISS

Senate Confirms Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

DON'T MISS

Wall Street’s Euphoria Sends Stocks Soaring After Trump Pauses Most of His Tariffs

DON'T MISS

New Mexico Governor Mobilizes National Guard to Tackle Crime Emergency in Albuquerque

UP NEXT

Wood Has 2 Homers as Nats Win For First Home Series Victory Over Dodgers Since 2014

UP NEXT

Giants Suffer Second Straight Shutout Loss to Reds

UP NEXT

Curry Scores 25 as the Warriors Cruise Past the Suns in West Playoff Race

UP NEXT

Man Pleads Guilty to Trying to Assassinate Justice Kavanaugh

UP NEXT

Trump Administration to Roll Back Array of Gun Control Measures

UP NEXT

This Is Who Trump Has Targeted for Retribution

UP NEXT

Signs of a More Buyer-Friendly Housing Market Emerge for Spring

UP NEXT

Castellanos’ Grand Slam Helps Phillies Beat Dodgers, Take 2 of 3 From World Series Champions

UP NEXT

Appeals Court Reverses Trump Firings of 2 Board Members

UP NEXT

Trump Tells People to Be Patient as Global Markets Keep Dropping Over Tariffs

Fewer Americans Say the Israel-Hamas War Is Important: Survey

4 hours ago

Clovis Teen Bicyclist Dies After Being Hit Near Bullard and Temperance

5 hours ago

New Kaweah Health Clinic Is Coming to Woodlake

5 hours ago

Israeli Strike on Gaza Apartment Building Kills at Least 23, Officials Say

5 hours ago

Senate Confirms Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

6 hours ago

Wall Street’s Euphoria Sends Stocks Soaring After Trump Pauses Most of His Tariffs

6 hours ago

New Mexico Governor Mobilizes National Guard to Tackle Crime Emergency in Albuquerque

6 hours ago

This Is Fresno Unified’s Last Chance to Get It Right: Editorial

7 hours ago

California Youth Soccer Coach Accused of Killing 13-Year-Old, Assaulting Other Teens

7 hours ago

Kash Patel Has Been Replaced by Army Secretary Driscoll as Acting Head of the ATF

8 hours ago

California’s Effort to Hold Oil Companies Liable for Natural Disaster Damage Stalls

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers have blocked a bill to make oil and gas companies liable for damage to homes from natural disasters caused...

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

California’s Effort to Hold Oil Companies Liable for Natural Disaster Damage Stalls

4 hours ago

Trump: Israel Would Be ‘Leader’ of Iran Strike if Tehran Doesn’t Give Up Nuke Program

Photo of smiling college graduates holding their degrees
4 hours ago

California Families Question if College Benefits Outweigh Increasing Costs

4 hours ago

Fewer Americans Say the Israel-Hamas War Is Important: Survey

5 hours ago

Clovis Teen Bicyclist Dies After Being Hit Near Bullard and Temperance

5 hours ago

New Kaweah Health Clinic Is Coming to Woodlake

Palestinians hurls a stone at Israeli forces following a military raid in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
5 hours ago

Israeli Strike on Gaza Apartment Building Kills at Least 23, Officials Say

6 hours ago

Senate Confirms Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

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

Search

Send this to a friend