Portland Police Say Anarchists Set Fires, Break Windows Downtown

PORTLAND, OR — Self-described anarchists marched through downtown, blocked traffic, smashed windows, set fires, and set off fireworks, Portland police said. Now they want to know who was responsible.

The people gathered around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night around Chapman Square Park, removed police barricades, used them to block off Southwest 3rd Avenue, and started setting off fireworks.

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They started marching around 10 p.m. and within 10 minutes, they broke numerous windows and bank ATMs, police said.

The marchers damaged 35 separate locations including stores, banks, coffee shops, and government buildings and dispersed within the hour.

Damage was estimated at more than $500,000. Police said that it could take days to collect all the damage reports and come up with a dollar figure for the damage.

Anyone with information about the crimes should notify crimetips@portlandoregon.gov attention: Central NRT.