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Over the weekend, a reporter from the Associated Press spent time inside of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland and became a first-hand witness to the sparring between federal agents and protestors.
Then, he took to Twitter to show Americans exactly what's happening behind the scenes in Portland...
“We wanted to show you a look inside the protests from both perspectives — out in the crowd with protesters and inside the courthouse with federal officers,” Balsamo tweeted on Monday. “It was a really eye opening experience to see it firsthand. I was inside the courthouse &@gflaccus was outside the fence.”
According to AP reporter Mike Balsamo, about 4,000 people gathered at the Portland Courthouse last weekend, taking the building under siege as they threw concrete slabs and fireworks at U.S. Marshal agents. Balsamo said he personally witnessed six agents sustain injuries from the protests, including one federal agent who was directly hit by a firework.
“It’s scary. You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and … on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent,” an anonymous Deputy U.S. Marshal told AP.
However, the protestors had a different story.
“We are not here being violent or being destructive. We have a positive message — there is nothing to quell here,” protester Monica Arce told AP. “The people of Portland are saying, ‘We don’t want this presence here and we don’t think we need them at all.’”
Read more on the Daily Caller.