Saturday marked 87 consecutive days of protests in Portland, Oregon in the wake of the death of George Floyd, and they were punctuated by violent brawls as these riots continue to go off the rails.

On that afternoon, various conservative groups like Proud Boys, believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, Blue Lives Matter, and Trump supporters such as Troops for Trump held rallies that included a “No To Marxism” rally and the “Trump 2020 Cruise Rally” in Portland. They were then met by radically liberal counter-protesters that consisted of individuals from Antifa, self-proclaimed anti-fascists Popular Mobilization PDX, and Black Lives Matter.

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Both sides used pepper spray and fired paintball guns, and the rightwing protesters supporting their cause had shields to protect themselves.

The violence eventually escalated to the point where people were throwing projectiles and shoving, culminating in all-out brawls in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland.

The Portland Police Bureau eventually declared the protest to be an “unlawful assembly.” Though the conservative protesters immediately began to disperse, some of them were followed into the parking lot by radical leftwing counter-protesters. A group of Antifa radicals followed members of the Proud Boys, hurling objects at them.

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One disturbing piece of footage shows a female member of Antifa throw a punch at a Proud Boy member, only to haven another Proud Boy member fire back by knocking her to the ground. Federal officers with the Department of Homeland Security quickly set up a perimeter at the Terry Schrunk Plaza and tried to break up the crowds by using pepper bullets.

Portland police issued the following statement about the violence that took place on Saturday:

“On Saturday, August 22, 2020 several different groups gathered in Downtown Portland around noon,” the press release read. “There were a variety of groups with various ideologies represented and several hundred individuals filled the streets and nearby park.”

“Officers located a bucket containing condoms filled with an unknown liquid substance and a water bottle with what appeared to be urine along with several shields staged near the park at Southwest 4th Avenue and Salmon,” the statement said.

“Over the course of the next two hours, the groups remained in the streets. Individuals yelled at each other and there were some physical interactions which quickly resolved themselves,” the Portland Police said. “Some members from both groups threw projectiles and deployed aerosols like pepper and bear spray at each other. At times, fireworks were thrown and smoke canisters were deployed. Each skirmish appeared to involve willing participants and the events were not enduring in time, so officers were not deployed to intervene.”

The Portland Police went on to explain why they did not stop the fighting between the groups:

“PPB had limited resources available today for the events and many of those working had worked until the early morning hours as a result of the overnight riot. At one point during this call, there were only 4 available police cars in the entire City to respond to emergency calls for service.”

“There have been questions about why the events downtown were not declared a riot and why police did not intervene,” the statement continued. “Incident commanders have to weigh out the entire situation to determine if police action is likely to make things safer or not. In this case there were hundreds of individuals and many weapons within the groups and an extremely limited amount of police resources actually available to address such a crowd.”

“Additionally, PPB members have been the focus of over 80 days of violent actions directed at the police, which is a major consideration for determining if police resources are necessary to interject between two groups with individuals who appear to be willingly engaging in physical confrontations for short durations.”

“While the activity in the group met the definition of a riot, PPB did not declare one because there were not adequate police resources available to address such a declaration. PPB had roughly 30 officers available for crowd management and there were several hundred individuals associated with the events downtown.”

This just serves as more evidence that the violence in Democrat-run cities is out of control.