The US authorities are still trying to close down camping grounds occupied by the protesters in different US cities. The Police of Portland also gave warnings of arrest in case of resistance of orders to leave the park. The police and the protestors confronted each other on the central Portland, situated in Oregon, one of the US states on Sunday morning.

With mayor giving a deadline till Sunday morning, still about 1,000 protestors remained near the fenced off parks, and among them, 15 of them reported to have been arrested. Apparently, this protest is against the economic inequality.

The protestors replied to the police authorities by saying that We are a peaceful protest, I don’t see no riot here, take off your riot gear and The whole world is watching.

Whereas on a whole, according to the witnesses, the confrontation was generally peaceful.

Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland had ordered the camp to be shut down by stating that “crime, especially reported assaults, has increased in the area around the camps”. He even defended his order to clear the park, by stating that it was his job to enforce the law and keep the peace.

Reportedly, one officer was also hit in the leg by a projectile .On Saturday, however, protestors even gathered in other cities of Denver, where seventeen people were arrested on charges of violence and also in Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. In each of the cities, police authorities were needed to be moved in to control the situation.

Two fatal shootings also took place near in US cities to occupy all these protest camps. A fight also broke out close to the Occupy camp in Oakland, California, and a man was killed.

Also, In Burlington, Vermont, a 35-year-old war veteran apparently shot himself in the head in a tent at an Occupy camp. And on Friday, a 42-year-old man was found dead inside his tent at an Occupy Salt Lake City protest in Utah. However, officials believed that he died from poisoning.

Protest camps in Portland against economic inequality

Report by Indrani Chowdury