Up to this point it has only been FPS and the Portland Police defending the building. At this point "The Federal Storm Troopers" are brought in.
So up until July 3 or so, the violence consisted of graffiti, broken windows and damaged fences, from what I can see.
And according to this site, Federal Officers confronted the crowds on July 1. So they were already there on July 3.
First off, the Federal Protective Service are the guys that are
normally charged with protecting Federal Buildings. It has an organizational history going back to 1790, they're only a year younger than the US Marshall's service, although they've gone through multiple name changes over the years as they moved between various administrative departments. Without regard to who PotUS is, absent a presidential directive directing otherwise, what the FPS did up to that point is very likely to have happened without regard to who PotUS is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Protective_Service_(United_States)
This also is where timeline confusion comes into play. Is July 1 talking about the night of June 30/July 1, or the night of July 1/July 2?
And I
love how that article leads with the peaceful protesters starting July by gathering around the Elk Statue. The very same statue they burned that very same evening and damaged its base badly enough that Portland removed the statue the next morning out of concerns it might fall on someone(that and it needed cleaning/restoration after being vandalized and burned anyway).
7/01/2020
Violent anarchists graffitied new plywood covering the windows at the Hatfield Courthouse and ripped down plywood on the other side of the building.
...
07/02/2020
Violent anarchists broke a front window to the Hatfield Courthouse and attempted to enter the building.
Violent anarchists refused orders to vacate the Hatfield Courthouse area, and instead launched fireworks and threw objects at officers, while attempting to cause eye damage with lasers. One explosive firework was shot into the courthouse.
FPS law enforcement officers were forced to utilized crowd control measures for safety.
Based on the Portland Police reports, the 07/03 report from this summary(not quoted here) would be for the morniing of the third, not the evening. So the 07/02 entry is the morning of the 2nd, and the 07/01 entry is the morning of the first.
So for the FPS their first "significant confrontation" with the crowd was the morning of the 2nd, as reported by DHS. Sadly the PPB doesn't have a police report covering that night to corroborate. But from the DHS version, the officers didn't do anything until someone started to forcibly enter the building, and again when someone started shooting fireworks
into their building. Which would match up with:
Then federal law enforcement officers began appearing at the daily protests.
At first, activists viewed the agents as a minor nuisance compared to officers from the Portland Police Bureau, who for many nights before had used impact munitions and tear gas to drive demonstrators away from the building that houses the county jail and out of downtown Portland."
Because they only came out when the building they were defending was being
attacked, rather than simply being defaced. And as per the DHS version of things, the building didn't start getting
attacked in earnest until the morning of July 2nd.
Then on July 3rd, as per DHS:
Violent Anarchists broke the front window of the Hatfield U.S. Courthouse and shot fireworks into the building.
Violent anarchists firebombed the building. Federal law enforcement extinguished the fire.
So again, the building was
attacked, not just vandalized. So again, as per their SOP, they came out to respond to the
attack. But that's now two nights in a row that FPS came out... And you did notice the entry about "Firebombed" on the 3rd? The PPD also reflected that with this from the night of the 2nd/morning of the 3rd:
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250945Around 12:46 a.m., demonstrators returned to the west side of the federal courthouse. Once again, demonstrators were warned by the sound truck that the riot declaration was still in effect and they needed to leave the area. At this time, demonstrators started launching mortars towards the federal courthouse and a fire erupted inside of the building where the glass doors had been broken.
Because of this immediate life safety issue, officers once again began to disperse the crowd. As they dispersed the crowd, demonstrators continued to throw rocks, cans, and commercial grade fireworks and mortars towards officers. Because of the violent nature of the demonstrators while officers cleared the area, crowd control munitions were used and several arrests were made.
So as far as I can see, the "Federal agents turning up to protect Federal Buildings from being set on fire" (which seems to have happened with fireworks on July 4, if I read this correctly--what a surprise!
), actually had not happened until AFTER they showed up. Which means the Federal agents were not a reaction to up-ticking violence, but most likely vice-versa.
So CBP forces turning up to support the FPS agents
on the 4th somehow magically made the fire on the 3rd not happen, and also retroactively made the breach on the 2nd and the fireworks being shot into the building not happen on that night as well?
But getting back to your linked article:
But by July 4, that mission shifted as federal officers cleared demonstrators blocks away from federal property. Over the next two weeks, their tactics became increasingly aggressive.
Well, more manpower being available means more aggressive tactics are available as you are capable of being able to do more(you can "counterattack" and defend at the same time), and one of the best defensive actions you can take is move the crowd far enough away that they cannot endanger the building further... By lauching more fireworks into windows they just broke. And again, of course, those Federal agents only came out and did so after somebody
attacked the Federal Building... odd that. But that does make for three nights in a row where Federal Agents have come out to disrupt crowds... That happened to attack Federal property rather than simply spray paint it.
Don't believe me? Even the PPB says the Federal Building was being
attacked on the morning of the 4th, I've already quoted them on this matter. So I'll just give you the link.
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250947On the night of July 4, morning of July 5th, another attack with unsurprising Federal response:
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250952At 10:48 p.m., demonstrators continued launching fireworks and projectiles at the Federal Courthouse. Because of this, several windows were broken and fireworks and projectiles entered the Federal Courthouse building.
...
Between 1 and 2 a.m., some individuals launched fireworks, smoke bombs, and mortars at and near the Federal Courthouse. Crowd control munitions were deployed in the area.
The crowd continued to remain in the area and engage in riotous behaviors involving fireworks, lit fires, smashing windows, and targeting officers with dangerous projectiles.
So nightly attacks on the Federal building, with corresponding nightly
responses, odd how that works. Do we really need to rehash this or do you want to ignore the matter that the Feds were responding to escalations rather than doing escalating?
And looking at the twitter feed for the PPB, it seems to be mostly peaceful around the federal building atm, but they're trying to wreck the Portland Police Association building again, they've declared a riot.