Last Updated on February 17, 2022
Black Lives Matter and AntiFa-linked rioters in Portland, Oregon used a guillotine to perform mock executions on American flags and a stuffed teddy bear outside a Police Bureau building Saturday night, the latest in a nearly constant 3-month string of violent left-wing demonstrations in the city.
Footage shot by Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) shows a large group of rioters gathered in the streets, cheering as members of the crowd dump accelerant onto burning American flags draped over the guillotine’s restraining assembly, where a condemned prisoner’s head would rest immediately before decapitation.
Protesters cheer as they burn American flags at the guillotine outside the police bureau #PortlandProtest #Portland pic.twitter.com/R9I6dobNiv
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 23, 2020
“Someone rolled a mock guillotine with a stuffed bear into the street. The bear and multiple U.S. flags were burned,” the Portland Police wrote in a Sunday morning statement.
According to the statement and photographic evidence, officers were pelted with rocks, bottles, eggs, and paint balloons, while also facing down rioters armed with blinding laser pointers and paintball guns.
Following the declaration of an unlawful assembly, 14 arrests were made as clashes with demonstrators stretched into the early morning hours. As a result, many Portland residents were left helpless and defenseless, as police, pre-occupied with violent mobs, were stretched far too thin to properly patrol the city.
“Between 45 and 50 officers had to be pulled from precincts to assist in the protest response,” police say. “For most of the duration of this event, there were between 120 and 140 calls holding in the City of Portland. Calls included shots fired, assaults, alarms, threats, and suspicious circumstances.”