July 24, 2020. Sparks from a firework exploding around police in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center. Although the nightly protests are confined to one block in a city with a population of over half a million covering an area of 145 square miles, the nightly protest became a major political controversy once President Trump and Attorney General William Barr dispatched over one hundred heavily armed federal troops, who wear no identifying markings on their combat style cammo uniforms, to the protests. Friday night an estimated 3,000 protesters gathered and remained until the federal troops cleared the area at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning while making several arrests. Photo by Austin Johnson.