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 3 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

FUSD Trustees Name Misty Her as Interim Superintendent. National Search Yet to Start

DON'T MISS

Gov. Newsom Appoints Judges for Fresno, Merced Counties

DON'T MISS

Assemblymember Soria Dodges Questions About Defamation Lawsuit

DON'T MISS

Israel Briefs US on Evacuation Plan for Palestinians Ahead of Planned Rafah Assault

DON'T MISS

Canadian Police Make 3 Arrests in Sikh Separatist’s Slaying That Sparked a Spat with India

DON'T MISS

Three Arrested for Trespassing, Posting Flyers at Fresno Synagogue and Church

DON'T MISS

As They Search for a Superintendent, Fresno Trustees Flunk Econ 101

DON'T MISS

Universities Negotiate End to Protests, Open Dialogue on Investment Policies

DON'T MISS

Fresno Approves Hydrogen Contract for New Buses. How Far is the Filling Station?

DON'T MISS

Heavy Rains Over Texas Have Led to Water Rescues, School Cancellations and Orders to Evacuate

UP NEXT

Merced’s Treacherous ‘Tunnel Lane’ Removed from Northbound Highway 99

UP NEXT

US Airstrike Targeting Al-Qaida Leader in Syria Killed a Farmer, American Military Says

UP NEXT

Another State Department Official Resigns Over Biden’s Gaza Policy

UP NEXT

Senators Want Limits on Government’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Airport Screening

UP NEXT

Biden Says ‘Order Must Prevail’ on Campuses, but He Won’t Send National Guard

UP NEXT

Police Dismantle UCLA Tent Camp, Take Pro-Palestinian Protesters Into Custody

UP NEXT

Fresno State’s Randa Jarrar Dragged Out of Event Featuring Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik

UP NEXT

Trump Calls Judge ‘Crooked’ After Facing a Warning of Jail Time if He Violates a Trial Gag Order

UP NEXT

Biden’s Historic Marijuana Shift Is His Latest Election Year Move for Young Voters

UP NEXT

The Latest | In Israel, Blinken Pushes Hamas to Agree on Gaza Cease-Fire Deal

Israel Briefs US on Evacuation Plan for Palestinians Ahead of Planned Rafah Assault

5 hours ago

Canadian Police Make 3 Arrests in Sikh Separatist’s Slaying That Sparked a Spat with India

5 hours ago

Three Arrested for Trespassing, Posting Flyers at Fresno Synagogue and Church

6 hours ago

As They Search for a Superintendent, Fresno Trustees Flunk Econ 101

6 hours ago

Universities Negotiate End to Protests, Open Dialogue on Investment Policies

7 hours ago

Fresno Approves Hydrogen Contract for New Buses. How Far is the Filling Station?

8 hours ago

Heavy Rains Over Texas Have Led to Water Rescues, School Cancellations and Orders to Evacuate

9 hours ago

Google, Justice Department Make Final Arguments About Whether Search Engine is a Monopoly

9 hours ago

Anchovy Feast Draws the Most Sea Lions to SF’s Fisherman’s Wharf in 15 Years

9 hours ago

Captain Sentenced to 4 Years for Criminal Negligence in Fiery Deaths of 34 Aboard Scuba Boat

9 hours ago

FUSD Trustees Name Misty Her as Interim Superintendent. National Search Yet to Start

In a show of unity that has been absent in the Fresno Unified boardroom for more than a month, trustees voted 7-0 to appoint Deputy Superint...
Local Education /

2 hours ago

Local Education /
2 hours ago

FUSD Trustees Name Misty Her as Interim Superintendent. National Search Yet to Start

4 hours ago

Gov. Newsom Appoints Judges for Fresno, Merced Counties

4 hours ago

Assemblymember Soria Dodges Questions About Defamation Lawsuit

5 hours ago

Israel Briefs US on Evacuation Plan for Palestinians Ahead of Planned Rafah Assault

5 hours ago

Canadian Police Make 3 Arrests in Sikh Separatist’s Slaying That Sparked a Spat with India

6 hours ago

Three Arrested for Trespassing, Posting Flyers at Fresno Synagogue and Church

6 hours ago

As They Search for a Superintendent, Fresno Trustees Flunk Econ 101

7 hours ago

Universities Negotiate End to Protests, Open Dialogue on Investment Policies

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend