Portland Protesters Set Fire to Base of Elk Statue During 46th Consecutive Night of Demonstrations

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

During a night of unrest in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, July 12, protesters set fire to an empty fountain and the base of an elk statue that was recently removed during protests in the area.

During clashes on July 11, one protester, named as Donavan La Bella, was hospitalized after he was shot in the head with an impact munition, the Portland Tribune reported. Mayor Ted Wheeler has announced that US Marshals will investigate the incident.

Protesters gathered on July 12, the 46th consecutive day of protests in Portland, to call for justice for La Bella, local media reported.

The Oregonian reported that a “120-year-old statue of an elk” that sat atop the David P. Thompson Fountain was removed from downtown Portland after protesters damaged its base by setting it on fire during July 1 demonstrations.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/portland-protesters-set-fire-elk-170450082.html

[OneBro]

1. And not one reporter stopped to ask what the hell the vandals were thinking.

Seems like a natural question. Instead of saying "Portland protestors set fire . . . " it should have read "white vandals say they set fire to a stone fountain where an elk statute was mounted because . . ." Otherwise, the act makes no sense and the reporting does little more than feed the predictable out-of-towners making generalized statements about Portland, BLM and AOC and whoever/whatever else they want to throw in the pot.

[NoPasaran]

2. W@hat is the back story to this?

Okay, I'm from out of state, I've never been to Oregon as far as I can recall, but what is the deal with the elk?

[LizBeth]

3. I did not get a lot on Thompson.

The statue, which sits atop the David P. Thompson Fountain, has been the target of graffiti and fires during the weeks of protests against systemic racism, police brutality and the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The elk and fountain were donated to the city by one-time mayor David P. Thompson in 1900 to honor elk that once roamed the Willamette Valley., The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. They sit near the Justice Center, the focal point of nightly protests.

[quakerboy]

4. The elk is incidental

In this case, its location location location. The fountains below the statue made great firepits to dispose of some plywood. No one was particularly interested in the elk itself. And I'd rank the fire itself as pretty irrelevant to the metal statue or the concrete base. But removing the statue and pretending it was necessary gives police and their supporters a talking point.