NPR suggests possible connection between police declaring riots and racism

As Portland, Ore. and other U.S. cities have seen civil unrest in recent months amid an intense public focus on issues such as race and policing, NPR has suggested that the rules concerning declarations of riots may be connected to historical racism in Oregon.

"Between May 29 and Aug. 27, the Portland Police Bureau declared 23 riots and 22 unlawful assemblies (that doesn't include nights that started as unlawful assemblies and were later declared riots)," an NPR article says. "But the laws governing those declarations are vague and have roots in Oregon's deeply racist past."

That article bears the title "Police Declare Portland Protests A Riot But This Definition Could Be Rooted In Racism" and it links to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), which reports that the territory of Oregon had exclusionary laws that discriminated against black people; and while the state prohibited slavery, a racist anti-black exclusionary clause was included in the state's constitution.

"These laws were rarely enforced, but they did the job they were created to do: establish Oregon as a majority white state," according to OPB.

In a video posted online, Portland Police Bureau Deputy Chief Chris Davis provided the definition of a riot: "A riot is when six or more people engage in tumultuous and violent conduct and thereby intentionally or recklessly create a grave risk of causing public alarm, excluding people who are engaged in passive resistance." 

NPR described this definition as "subjective" and said that "the dispersal inevitably affects hundreds of non-violent protesters."

The officer explained in the video that while authorities warn crowds when they need to disburse, force can become necessary when people refuse to comply.

"A lot of the riot and crowd control philosophy and statute was developed around the '60s and '70s, when protests around some of the very same things — rights for Black people — were taking place in the state and particularly in Portland," Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum said according to an NPR report.