A group of protesters shield themselves from chemical irritants as they demonstrate last week
As fireworks rained down on Washington DC on inauguration night, a different kind of light show was kicking off in Portland. Hundreds clashed with police in a cacophony of burning flags, teargas canisters and yells as protestors smashed in the buildings and doors of the Democratic Party offices, scrawling “F*** Biden” and “Breonna Taylor deserves justice” upon the walls.
Now experts fear the clash signals a fracturing of disenfranchised voters on the Left that could soon become one of the Biden administration’s biggest afflictions.
“I think the protests are indicative of a larger frustration, which is why the transfer of power was not a cure,” says James Ofsink, president of Portland Forward, a local progressive advocacy group.
He says those taking to the streets believe Mr Biden’s centrist policies are too lenient on environment, policing, racism and economic inequality issues. Activists in the early 2000s, who took issue with the middle-of-the-road Barack Obama policies, are suspicious that Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris will set up camp on the fence.
Then there is the contingent who refuse to view the government of any sort as an appropriate way to make change.
A protester uses an umbrella and a shield as federal law enforcement officers use crowd control munitions
“A really pervasive thread across the country is the folks who see government as too inefficient or too corrupted or too built into the existing power structure,” Ofsink says. “And that is a sentiment you see both on the left and the right — that feeling that the government is not going to be responsive to their needs and the needs of their community”.
This frustration may sow enough division to spark demonstrations across the country.
“Whether it is blocking oil tankers or laying people down on railroad tracks I think we are going to see more guerilla style activism,” Ofsink says.
On Monday, Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler said the destruction and violence seen at some of the protests against racial injustice was "unacceptable", and revealed he filed a report about an "incident" he was involved in on Sunday, without elaborating further. Mr Wheeler has been the target of Left-wing activists, who have set fires inside his apartment building.
“We are actually, unfortunately, seeing this growing trend towards people saying, ‘If you don’t agree with me politically then we are going to come after you either physically, or we are going to come after your home, or we are going to come after your place of business’,” he said in a press conference.
It had been hoped that Mr Biden, who has long called for unity and a healing of divisions that have ruptured in the US, would salve America’s wounds after Mr Trump packed his bags.
Protests erupted into chaos in Portland just hours after Joe Biden was sworn in as President, with the Democratic Party office vandalised
“This really wasn’t about Trump,” says Mac Smiff, a protester who has lived in Portland for 29 years, and runs a local hip hop magazine We Out Here.
“It looks a lot like last year if not more intense,” he says. “It is just the feds [police] going crazy.”
Vice President Harris’ history as a prosecutor has triggered fury among those who have spent the best part of a year calling to “defund” law enforcement after the deaths of several black Americans at the hands of the police. Anything less than a public condemnation of the current policing system could be felt as a slap in the face. Biden’s appointment of former army general, Lloyd Austin to defence chief has also ruffled feathers.
The protests symbolise a national tug-of-war as they become ammo for right-wing pundits to hammer the Left. In a reversal from just weeks ago when the far-Right stormed the Capitol building, Right-wing Telegram channels are filled with mugshots of the 14 who were arrested in Portland over the weekend, pointing to the news reports as evidence of Biden’s failure in his first few days.
In reality white supremacists and far-Right militia groups were responsible for nearly 70 per cent of terrorist attacks and plots in the US last year, according to Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group. Anarchist and anti-fascist groups rose to 20 percent from 8 per cent in 2019.
A Special Response Team operator holds a less-lethal rifle during protest
Those on the ground worry that there has been an unhelpful bundling of anarchists, anti-fascists and those supporting causes like the environment or racial justice. In June, Nebraska officials cautioned a 33-year-old for creating a viral hoax advert offering to pay people to turn up to Black Lives Matter marches under the guise of “Antifa”. During the storming of the Capitol earlier this month, there were baseless accusations that the far-left were masquerading as loyal Trump supporters to try and cause havoc.
Yet homegrown extremism is a pressing topic for the new government to tackle. An October study from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, found that white supremacists conducted two thirds of the terrorist plots and attacks in the US in 2020. Anarchists and anti-fascists orchestrated 20 per cent, with the number of incidents growing from previous years as these extremist groups targeted police, military and government facilities and staff.
Portland locals, who spoke to The Telegraph under anonymity because of their involvement in protests, say few should be surprised about the demonstrations. After all, the city has a long history of perpetual protesting. But there is a possibility that similarly ‘blue’ urban areas surrounded by Republican suburbs may see similar unrest in the near future.
“At the end of the day, it is about how hungry people are,” says Smiff, who has been held by the police previously for taking part in the demonstrations. “The government keeps trying to scrape around the edges but it is going to take some meat on our plates to change the situation, because too many people out here are just chasing scraps.”
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