The Portland Police Association building was set on fire Tuesday night. Portland Fire and Rescue personnel were able to extinguish the fire but not before it caused an estimated $25,000 of damage. Photos courtesy of PPB. Composite image by Joshua Skovlund/Coffee or Die Magazine.
The Portland Police Association building was set on fire Tuesday night, according to a Portland Police Bureau press release. The fire is estimated to have caused $25,000 in damage during the second night of demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, in response to the police shooting death of a Black man in Minnesota. A 19-year-old woman was arrested for starting the blaze.
A crowd of 100 gathered in Kenton Park in northern Portland around 9:40 p.m., the PPB said. The group blocked traffic and “began shooting fireworks into the air” as they marched.
When the group arrived outside of the Portland Police Association union office building, police said, a member of the crowd set a trash can next to the building and lit its contents on fire. Shortly after, someone lit fire to a door to the building with an “unknown accelerant on the wooden framing.” Police arrested Alma Raven-Guido, 19, on the scene. She is charged with arson in the second degree, a class C felony in Oregon. Police released photos of accelerants, lighters, and other fire-making items they say Raven-Guido was carrying.
According to the Daily Emerald, Raven-Guido is a student at the University of Oregon.
The fire came one night after rioters damaged a building that houses multiple law enforcement agencies, including Portland Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. According to previous reporting by Coffee or Die Magazine, profane graffiti, heavy projectiles, and fires damaged several buildings and law enforcement vehicles Monday.
The Portland street violence mirrored protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, that began after police officer Kimberly Potter fired a single shot that struck Daunte Wright in the chest, mortally wounding him during a Sunday traffic stop. Potter resigned from the police force Monday and was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with second-degree manslaughter.
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Joshua Skovlund is a former staff writer for Coffee or Die. He covered the 75th anniversary of D-Day in France, multinational military exercises in Germany, and civil unrest during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis. Born and raised in small-town South Dakota, he grew up playing football and soccer before serving as a forward observer in the US Army. After leaving the service, he worked as a personal trainer while earning his paramedic license. After five years as in paramedicine, he transitioned to a career in multimedia journalism. Joshua is married with two children.
