Rioters in Oregon used fireworks to torch the ‘Promised Land’ statue depicting a pioneer family at the end of the Oregon Trail. The vandals also laid siege to the city’s Justice Center in what police deemed a “riot.”
The city of Portland is known nationwide as a hotbed of left-wing activism, and protesters there have embraced the ‘Black Lives Matter’ cause with gusto. After incinerating a statue of an elk on Wednesday, a mob of rioters returned to Chapman Square on Thursday night, where they soon began shooting fireworks and what police say were “mortars” at the Justice Center across the street.
The violence was captured on social media, with videos depicting the bombardment, as well as the police response.
As the raging activists formed a phalanx of improvised shields outside the Justice Center, ‘The Promised Land’ was plastered in stickers, spray-painted, and then set ablaze with fireworks. Protesters celebrated as the statue went up in flames.
We returned to Chapman Park and as a bonus some people lit fire to the colonizer statue in the middle of Chapman Park#portlandprotest#portlandprotests#pdxprotest#PDXprotestspic.twitter.com/eiB2vwuU99
By Friday morning, the bronze monument was charred and scorched.
SET ON FIREOur first glimpse of The Promised Land Statue at Chapman Square in Downtown Portland after someone set fire to it last night. Looks like they used fireworks to do it.#liveonK2pic.twitter.com/OmMVxITJDt
Statues honoring slave owners, Confederate leaders, and historic figures deemed “racist” have been pulled down en masse nationwide since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. However, some monuments, such as the elk, have been targeted seemingly at random.
‘The Promised Land’ has been on the chopping block for some time. Its base is inscribed with a quote by Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father and slave owner whose statues have been ripped from their pedestals across the country, including in Portland.
The city’s own Portland Observer described ‘The Promised Land’ last year as a monument to “white cultural supremacy” that remains “hidden in plain sight in Portland’s Chapman Square.”
Police declared a riot on Thursday night and used “crowd control munitions” on the vandals. Several arrests were made, but the cops did not stop the burning of the statue, nor the destruction of the elk monument the night before.
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