District Attorney Nathan Vasquez told reporters Wednesday that he would seek charges against demonstrators from “the left, right or center.”
District Attorney Nathan Vasquez told reporters Wednesday that he would seek charges against demonstrators from “the left, right or center.”
In a clear break from his predecessor, the district attorney of Multnomah County, Ore., promised this week that protesters arrested for breaking the law will be prosecuted — period.
Just 4 ½ years ago Nathan Vasquez, who took office this month after ousting his boss, Mike Schmidt, appeared at an August 2020 news conference alongside Schmidt, who announced he would not prosecute people arrested for low-level charges, including rioting, disorderly conduct, or breaking a citywide curfew.
For months afterward, social justice demonstrators and cadres of black-clad anarchists continued their restive protests, making Portland a poster child of big-city disorder and a punching bag for President Donald Trump and other right-wing commentators.
But if there was any doubt things had changed, Vasquez told reporters Wednesday that no such policy exists now and that he would seek charges against demonstrators from “the left, right or center.”
“I don’t think it served this community. And I don’t think it served the individuals that were actually out trying to get their message out,” Vasquez said of the defunct no-arrest policy. “I’m going to seek to hold you accountable.”
Vasquez made his announcement the morning after several hundred demonstrators gathered in Tom McCall Waterfront Park to listen to speeches opposing Trump and his policies. As many of the people dispersed, a smaller band marched toward Portland City Hall, leaving a trail of spray-painted anarchist symbols behind them.
Portland police officers and Oregon State Police troopers swooped into the crowd and arrested five people, primarily on allegations of criminal mischief or resisting arrest.
Speaking at Wednesday’s news conference, police Chief Bob Day recalled how someone told him that police weren’t even visible at a smattering of previous protests held in the wake of Trump’s election last year and Monday’s inauguration.
“That’s exactly the point,” the chief said. “We’re not there. We don’t have to be …. But we’re always monitoring and observing, and when we saw the acts of vandalism, we felt like we needed the intervention.”
Notably absent from the news conference were other elected officials, though Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement he supported the district attorney’s “safeguarding” of free expression by arresting those who committed vandalism.
A police spokesperson said Wilson had “a packed calendar” and could not attend, while Natalie Sept, chief of staff to council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, said their office was awaiting an after-action briefing.
“The few individuals exploiting protests and rallies for vandalism only distract from the important issues Portlanders are raising,” Pirtle-Guiney said in a statement.
Trump during a speech on Inauguration Day suggested that 2020 protesters hadn’t been held accountable.
“Look what happens in other parts of the country, in Portland, where they kill people and destroy the city — nothing happens to them,” Trump said.
The truth is more complicated. Of roughly 1,100 people arrested during the social justice protests, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found that roughly 75% were not prosecuted. Some 200 people went to court, with punishments ranging from probation to multiyear prison sentences.
In a notable example, Malik Muhammad was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a joint federal and county case for tossing Molotov cocktails at police. Oregon sentencing guidelines call for a probationary sentence for a first-time offender charged with spray-painting graffiti or breaking a window, regardless of the political context.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh contributed to this article.