Except this whole time you've been saying if the Feds left the building and parts of the city would burn and turn into a mad max hellscape. Okay, I made up the last parts but you clearly said this only ended with either the protesters being crushed or the federal building burning. But the federal police force left and nothing happened. The protesters stayed peaceful, I guess you are crediting the local police for stepping up?
I guess I'm going to have to go dig through the back posts. But first it should be pointed out that even in the reports about the agreement for the withdrawal of federal agents said they were NOT leaving immediately, as their departure was contingent on "the security of the Federal Building being demonstrated" (absent their needing to become involved.)
But as to "being crushed of the federal building burning." I'm pretty sure my statement was a bit more nuanced than that, although I could see how certain people might have favored that option. One of the points I also frequently made in all of this was the "peaceful protesters" turning up in very large numbers was providing aid and support for the more violent ones
by virtue of simply being there. "Crushing the (violent) protesters" always had two options that I'm pretty sure I covered and you're conveniently ignoring.
1) The truly peaceful protesters stop showing up in large numbers. (The violent protesters lose the very large crowd to hide in--that happened on Thursday and Friday night, after the "withdrawal" was announced)
2) The peaceful protesters
police their own ranks and stop the more violent protesters from doing anything to provoke a police response against the crowd. (This also happened on Thursday and Friday night in Portland)
It seems more likely that we see now what the federal police were there for, to inflame tensions so Trump could point to liberal Portland and try to scare the crap out of people about how horrible it would be. Instead when his boys packed up and went home things calmed back down to the level before they arrived.
The changing of the (public) guard for the Federal Buildings was only a symbolic contributor to the rapid deescalation in Portland. For the vast majority of Joe Public protester, the announcement that the Feds were leaving was mission accomplished, and allowed for Item #1 to take place, which in turn allowed those that remained to accomplish item #2.
It wasn't the Federal Agents
causing the situation in the way you're wanting to cast it. The agents were doing nothing to directly incite the responses that were being seen. The best case you can make is that their
presence was inciting violence. And if anyone has a problem with a LEO simply being
present in a public space, especially one they're charged with protecting, there are larger problems that need addressed, and it isn't the LEO.
I will agree there were major
optics problems that the Feds were contending with, especially after the middle of the month. Which helped to considerably swell the size of the crowds, but again, they weren't instigating what was going on, but responding the reality of the situation they were in. The escalations which happened were entirely on the people mixed within the ranks of the protesters.
And I'm not entirely convinced the Federal Building in Portland is out of danger just yet. We'll see in another month.