Portland commissioner opposes $18M in police cuts, has home targeted by protesters

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The home of a Portland, Ore., city commissioner was targeted by protesters this week over his refusal to support $18 million in cuts to the police budget. 

A group of around 60 people marched in the rain Thursday from Arbor Lodge Park to Commissioner Dan Ryan's home. Once there, they smashed a window, broke a flower pot and threw burning flares and paint-filled balloons at the home, authorities said.

Dozens of state troopers and Multnomah County sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene and ordered the group to leave. No one was arrested. 

It was the fourth night this week that protesters had descended on Ryan's home, the sheriff's office said. 

“I appreciate that members of our community are passionate," Ryan said in a statement. "But trespassing at the home I share with my fiancé; disrupting and intimidating my neighbors and me -- and vandalizing my property - is not a productive or safe way to express opinion. I have elderly neighbors and I fear for their safety and well-being.”

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Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan (Dan Ryan / Facebook)

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler also decried the protesters' actions. 

“Last night’s criminal destruction and attack on Commissioner Ryan’s home are reprehensible," he said in a statement Friday morning, OregonLive.com reported. "Violence, criminal destruction and intimidation are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Those responsible must be found, investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I condemn anyone who uses violence to attempt to silence the voices of others.”

The vandalism came after Ryan dissented hours earlier in a 3-2 City Council vote to slash the police funds. He was considered a swing vote. Activists had pushed for efforts to cut the police budget for months in similar fashion seen in other cities amid a nationwide reckoning over policing. 

During an earlier visit to Ryan's home, protesters chanted, "Don't be a villain! Defund PPB by $18 million!" Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. "PPB" refers to the Portland Police Bureau.

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"I am committed to alternative police responder options and eform [sic]," Ryan wrote in his blog Thursday. "But cutting an additional $18 million at a time when we have no viable alternative to fill the service gap left behind is not my idea of police reform."

After the disturbance at the home, authorities responded to city hall to reports of doors on fire. Investigators believe a burning object was thrown at the door, sparking the blaze, which was extinguished a short time later.