As the Nov. 3 presidential election nears, Oregon firefighters are urging the public to protest peacefully, but they are preparing for the possibility of violence.
Portland faced three days of demonstrations and riots following the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. In the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis at the end of May, the city has seen nightly protests for more than 120 days, with civil unrest ensuing in some cases.
“We’ve been thinking of strategies to try to mitigate some of those things that we saw (in 2016)," Portland Fire Lt. Damon Simmons told KPTV-TV. "But at the end of the day, like I said, a lot of it is so dependent on the things that people cook up in their homes and how the election goes and what their feelings are at that particular hour or minute.
“It just takes one person to make a really bad decision to turn something into chaos," he added.
That chaos can erupt when a mob mentality takes over crowds, and it can be a frightening experience for people on both sides of the protest.
“They get caught up in the moment and excited, and then they find themselves stuck in those crowds, and it can be difficult for some people who aren’t in those situations very often,” Simmons told KPTV.
Extra firefighters will be on duty Election Night, but Simmons said he hopes those shifts will be uneventful. Although firefighters have responded mostly to medical emergencies during this year's protests, fires— intentionally set and accidental—are threats that loom in these situations.
“That’s the reality of what we’re dealing with here: People are doing things that can set other people on fire,” Simmons told KPTV. “And that, to me, it’s become something we have to be ready to deal with day to day is just incredibly unbelievable.”
Ultimately, Simmons hopes that when the public exercises its right to vote or protest—or in some cases, both—they do so nonviolently.
“I just hope people will think about the fact that this country was formed with the intent that we work together peacefully and although the results may not be what one side or the other wants, it’s important that we’re peaceful,” he said.
