Hours after Commissioner Dan Ryan cast the deciding vote against gutting the Portland police budget by $18 million, a group of protesters showed up at his Oregon house, shattering glass, smashing a flower pot and throwing things at the home.
Protesters, who have for months demanded steep cuts to the police in demonstrations that frequently turned violent, arrived at a dark house and lit flares at the start of the mayhem, the Oregonian reported.
Mayor Ted Wheeler denounced the damage on Thursday, and Friday his support of Ryan was joined by a newly elected member of the City Council, along with a dozen other Black community leaders
Incoming commissioner Mingus Mapps held a video conference with the other Black leaders denouncing the “campaign of intimidation and vandalism” that Mapps said protesters waged against Ryan. “My colleagues and I have come together today, issuing a challenge to every Portlander to reject hate and violence and extinguish hate with love,” Mapps said.
He compared the intimidation of Ryan for his vote to the experiences many Black people have had. “I know what it’s like for a mob to roll up on your house in the middle of the night because you had the audacity to vote, the audacity to hope,” Mapps said. “That’s what it’s like to be Black in the US”
Ryan said in a statement, “I appreciate that members of our community are passionate. But trespassing at the home I share with my fiancé, disrupting and intimidating my neighbors and me — and vandalizing my property — is not a productive or safe way to express opinions. I have elderly neighbors and I fear for their safety and well-being.”
