Free Republic

Gripped by violent demonstrations for weeks, Portland police quickly squashed protesters’ attempts to establish an autonomous zone similar to Seattle's by clearing barricades and closing down a park across from a courthouse. The Portland Police Bureau said in a press release Thursday morning that the city "has temporarily closed Chapman Square Park and Lownsdale Square Park.” Protesters had pitched the tents Tuesday night into early Wednesday in Lownsdale Park, across the street from the federal Pioneer Courthouse, which Homeland Security was protecting. At about 5 a.m. Thursday, the Portland Police Bureau helped the City of Portland temporarily close the two...

An unofficial Twitter page attributed to a group of anti-capitalist, anti-fascist teens who call themselves the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front said protesters want to establish the Chinook Land Autonomous Territory, or CLAT, in downtown Portland. The Chinook people include several indigenous groups native to the Pacific Northwest. Portland protesters early Wednesday began to set up tents in the park near the federal courthouse and have barricaded streets to create their own autonomous zone, likened to the since disbanded Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle. Demonstrators began erecting tents in downtown Portland’s Lownsdale Square, across the street from the federal...

Portland protesters early Wednesday began to set up tents in the park near the federal courthouse and have barricaded streets to create their own autonomous zone, likened to the since disbanded Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle. Demonstrators began erecting tents in Lownsdale Square on Tuesday night. The park is just across the street from the Federal Courthouse and was home to the “Occupy Portland” encampment in 2011. As of 5 a.m., about a dozen demonstrators remained in the zone. Police said they removed some of the barricades at Southwest 3rd Avenue and Southwest Salmon Street, but demonstrators returned to...