‘Day of Rage’ Comes to Portland as Protesters Target Roosevelt, Lincoln Statues

Portland, Oregon has become the epicenter of radical, political action in 2020, with well over 100 consecutive nights of action taking place on the streets of the northwestern city.

In many ways, the ebb and flow of these demonstrations clearly mimics the news of the day, with the throngs of protesters growing more agitated or more complacent depending upon just what they witnessed in the mainstream media that day.

But something was different over the weekend, with protesters organizing a “Day of Rage” aimed at escalating their rhetoric to extreme amounts.  On Sunday, these demonstrators targeted a number of statues of storied Americans, including a number of our most noted Presidents. 

Droves of protesters in Portland, Ore., took down the statues of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Sunday in demonstrations that had reportedly been billed online as “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage” by organizers.

According to The Oregonian, a group of nearly 200 protesters marched through parts of the town on Sunday night — some carrying weapons, shields and red paint — and toppled both statues before breaking multiple windows at the Oregon Historical Society.

The first statue to come down was that of Roosevelt, who has been knownto have expressed racist attitudes toward Native Americans, and then Lincoln’s statue. The paper reported that protesters also painted “Dakota 38” on the base of the latter, referring to the number of Dakota men that were hanged after the Dakota-U.S. War under Lincoln.

President Trump was quick to respond.

These are Biden fools. ANTIFA RADICALS. Get them FBI, and get them now! https://t.co/RI9fH6sC1g

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020

Christopher Columbus has been a target of social justice campaigns in recent years, with several organizations attempting to rebrand Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day”, hence the timing of the incidents.