#What’s really going on in the ‘battle of Portland’

Peaceful protesters don’t try to burn down federal courthouses or jails or the headquarters of a local police union, nor hurl rocks and bottles at cops, night after night for weeks on end — nor assault a police station: What’s going on in Portland is somewhere between riot and insurrection, and demands a strong federal response even if local officials are in denial.

Antifa types are besieging the Mark Hatfield Courthouse and other federal buildings, as well as the Multnomah County Justice Center. They’re assaulting not just buildings and law-enforcers, but the very rule of law.

Questions do need asking about the feds’ tactics: Does the situation really require unmarked vehicles, and officers working without visible shield numbers or other clear ID or even uniforms?

Yet the answers may be “yes and yes,” if there are real concerns about law enforcers’ personal safety. Recent days have already seen the public release of some officers’ personal info — “doxing” that invites harassment or worse at their homes.

And the basic legal authority for the feds to act is beyond clear: Nightly attacks on the area have proceeded for weeks now, and the efforts to set the Justice Center aflame have clearly endangered the lives and safety of civilians, including detainees in the 700-bed jail.

Some are now claiming that anonymous federal officers detained them illegally. Those claims absolutely merit full investigation, which Oregon’s US Attorney has vowed to do.

But Nancy Pelosi’s response to what’s happening in Portland is completely one-sided, accusing the feds of creating a “banana republic” while ignoring the fact that rioters have an anarchy nation. The attitude of the local Democratic lawmakers is even worse, a complete abdication of their city to violence.

And what do these liberals, normally so race-conscious, have to say about the account of Portland Police Officer Jakhary Jackson, a black cop who publicly complained about the racism of the mostly-white, privileged “protesters”?

They don’t care because it’s a cop. And they don’t care about Portland because they don’t live there — not in the parts getting destroyed.