The Department of Homeland Security will keep its law enforcement personnel in place in Portland to protect federal properties, because it is not known where riots and crime will appear from night to night in the Oregon city, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said Wednesday.
"What we know about Portland is that they foster an environment that allows this type of violence to go on," Wolf said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"We saw that for almost 60 days at the federal courthouse. That violence has now shifted to the left and the right of the courthouse. It's now focused on the Portland Police Department in different facilities that they have around the city."
Wolf added that the activities in Portland are "very organized," and that the DHS has observed late-night movements that are similar to those used by law enforcement officials.
"You saw training," said Wolf. "You saw the organization there that this is a coordinated attack against that courthouse night after night after night."
But the same tactics that were seen being used against the federal courthouse in Portland are now shifting to attacks on the local police, he added.
Wolf also said that there are people speaking out against the violence that are using the same arguments DHS employed in its concerns that the rioting has nothing to do with peaceful protests or the national dialogue about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
"That violence is just criminal activity and we need to call it that," he said. "I think they are seeing that elsewhere. We are going to continue to surge in cities across this country when there are direct threats to federal property and federal law enforcement officers."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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