In Portland’s first reported May Day disruption, nearly two dozen police cars were vandalized in the northeast section of the city early Tuesday morning, police say.
Someone dumped paint on @PortlandPolice cars at the North Precinct, looks like 22 cars affected #kgwnews pic.twitter.com/PA7uFmie17
— Rachael Rafanelli (@RachRafanelli) May 1, 2018
At about 5 a.m. this morning, a total of 22 patrol cars in a police precinct parking lot were vandalized with what appears to be latex paint on windows and doors, KGW reported.
Because many of the affected cars are reportedly school resource officer vehicles, those officers will be unable to patrol district schools until the cars are cleaned up. Moreover, officials said the damage will likely take all day to clean and will be costly. According to KGW, there’s already a police vehicle shortage.
An officer on the scene, however, told KOIN that there was no major damage done to the cars, and police are hoping they can be cleaned with soap and water.
Investigators say they have high-quality surveillance video of the parking lot and will review footage in an effort to track down the suspect(s).
While officials are unclear about whether the vandalism was related to May Day, Portland Police Bureau Capt. Charlie Fender said “the connection wouldn’t surprise him.”
Tellingly, it didn’t surprise the anarchist news platform “It’s Going Down,” either, as its Twitter account tweeted out KOIN’s report about the vandalism:
22 police car vandalized with paint in Northeast #Portland. https://t.co/Kmfw9OL36s pic.twitter.com/mFC2VBBvti
— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) May 1, 2018
Portland is a hotbed of anarchist activity, but in a departure from tradition, no major protests were planned for the city this year.
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