No. of Recommendations: 11
Following up...
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Editorial: Hello, world. An open letter from ‘war-ravaged’ Portland
By The Oregonian Editorial Board Published: Oct. 12, 2025,7:00 a.m.
The truth about what’s happening in Portland doesn’t matter to the Trump administration. Portland is simply the chosen backdrop for the president’s dramatization of a commander-in-chief whose troops quash a budding rebellion in a show of unfettered might. Cue the inspirational music. That the supposed rebellion consists of protesters in frog suits and chicken costumes holding dance parties outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building is an unimportant detail. As this administration has demonstrated before, when reality doesn’t give you the pictures you want, just paint your own.
But the truth of what’s happening in Portland matters to the 640,000 of us who live here. While we have our eyes wide open to the significant challenges facing Portland, the descriptions of a city that’s “burning to the ground” don’t match what we see around us. Even the one block of protests outside the ICE building doesn’t merit the hyperbole. The heated demonstrations of four months ago have died down dramatically, and federal and Portland police have made arrests when criminal behavior justified it. Portlanders may disagree over how much leeway to give protesters, but there’s no disputing that the characterizations of widespread violence and riotous behavior are flat-out false.
The truth of what’s happening here should matter beyond Portland, however. Regardless of whether people have any connection to the city, they should recognize the danger of a federal government that’s willing to unleash the “full force” of the military in a peaceful city whose politics differ from the president’s.
Certainly, conservative TV networks, social media firebrands and others are blasting footage that they contend disproves the idea that Portland is peaceful. Some of those images are recycled from 2020 protests, which were undoubtedly destructive and marked a turning point for this city in its approach to demonstrations. Other unfiltered sites offer a different picture. On KATU’s new 24-hour livestream, viewers can see protesters wearing inflatable animal costumes, sometimes dancing, while others yell out or play music in a generally relaxed setting.
And some other images do capture moments of rudeness and criminality – moments that occur in every town and every city across the country. They don’t prove that Portland is a lawless warzone, any more than cherrypicked stories of worse violence from Dallas, where a woman was killed outside a PetSmart store reportedly for not saying “thank you,” or Miami, where two police officers were shot last Thursday, do. Should those cities, which are run by Republican mayors and Trump endorsers, also be
condemned?
Even if people aren’t convinced by the footage from KATU or from the new isportlandburning.com website, they should consider what else has been happening in Portland. In the past week and a half, thousands of people came to Portland to run the Portland Marathon – right past the ICE building; pop singer Benson Boone joined a throng of elementary school kids pedaling to school together as part of the made-in-Portland “bike bus” movement; and international designers showcased their work on the runway at FashioNXT, Portland’s annual fashion event now in its 12th year. This city of food carts and farmers markets, where bookstores enjoy cultlike devotion and tree removals trigger celebrations of life, doesn’t need the military here to restore peace and order. We already have it.
Portland does have a long tradition of protest which explains why the city is so accepting of it. Not every community has that history. Some may not share the view that demonstrations and the right to assembly are simply another facet of patriotism. But people stop speaking up when they are afraid, resigned or indifferent. Protest stems from a fundamental belief that people’s voices can make a difference and that our government – on the local, state or federal level – is strong enough to hear them. There is perhaps no more patriotic sentiment than faith in our government’s ability to evolve.
None of this is to deny the significant problems that Portland faces or the difficulties it has had in rebounding from the damage of the 2020 protests and the pandemic. Portland continues to struggle to tame its unsheltered homelessness and untreated behavioral health crises, despite hundreds of millions of dollars and top-level attention. Declining property values for downtown Portland towers are cutting deeply into local government revenue while forcing budget cuts. Although crime has declined dramatically from the pandemic years, Portland’s residents and businesses understandably want more progress.
But solving those problems are our priorities. And none of that is reason for the federal government to send military troops. If the struggles of a local government to solve problems – often rooted in federal failures – are justification for military deployments, then every city across the country should expect troops coming their way.
Our leaders are continuing to show up. Oregon’s governor, Portland’s mayor, City Council and other state and local elected officials are holding Oregonians together and have been united in not taking Trump’s bait. Portland police officers are successfully keeping the peace with proactive outreach to protesters, monitoring federal officers’ actions and making quick arrests when necessary. Residents are showing tremendous restraint despite our city being unfairly targeted, taunted and maligned – actions designed to instigate a reaction. And some of Oregon’s most prominent Republicans are also helping push back against the false characterizations with carefully crafted statements encouraging an outcome in which local authorities take the lead.
The city may need to take stronger action such as enforcing a small buffer to prevent clashes with federal officers who, as a Portland police assistant chief testified, appear to be instigating some confrontations. And Mayor Keith Wilson told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board that city officials and law enforcement partners are evaluating their response every day and are prepared to make changes if and when circumstances warrant it. Additionally, they are exploring how to limit noise and adopt other changes to provide relief for neighbors and businesses in the immediate area. These are not signs of a city that the Trump administration contends is “out of control.”
But that doesn’t seem to matter, as Portland is Trump’s target for now. The question for the rest of the country is whose community is next?
-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board Oregonian editorials
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