BYJUSTIN WISE-
A large crowd of protesters was dispersed by federal law enforcement using tear gas for the second consecutive night outside a federal courthouse in Portland, as demonstrations escalated in the city in response to the Trump administration's deployment of federal law enforcement agencies in the city.
CBS TV affiliate KOIN captured officers on video dispersing crowds gathered outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse on Sunday night. The news station noted that the officers directed tears gas as well as other crowd-control munitions towards the demonstrators.
In a statement issued Monday, The Portland Police Department saiid that federal law enforcement dispersed a crowd of hundreds of protestors after some people pulled down a fence blocking access to the front of the courthouse.
Police also noted that "dozens of people with shields, helmets, gas masks, umbrellas, bats, and hockey sticks approached the doors of the courthouse" after 11 p.m., leading federal officials to intervene.
Witnesses said hundreds of people wandered around downtown Portland in the hours after the tear gas incident. After 1 a.m., a group of people lit a fire within the portico in front of the federal courthouse, police said, causing federal officers to exit the courthouse and disperse the crowd. Officers also extinguished the fire.
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