By Conrad Wilson & Jonathan Levinson @ OPD.org, March 12

For the first time in months, the parks across the street from the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland were filled with clouds of tear gas Thursday night as a group of about 50 protesters smashed several windows of the building and spray painted parts of the stone façade.

The protest happened just days after the federal government removed the metal anti-personnel fence that had surrounded the building for more than eight months. At the time, a spokesperson for the Federal Protective Service called the dismantling a “return to normalcy.”

Demonstrators rallied Thursday against numerous causes including the Line 3 pipeline, a proposed oil distribution route between Alberta, Canada and Wisconsin that would violate treaty rights of the Anishinaabe, an indigenous group in parts of the U.S. and Canada.

Earlier in the day, protesters marched through downtown to protest the pipeline, where the demonstration was largely focused on large financial institutions. During that afternoon protest, officers from the Department of Homeland Security pushed marchers away from the federal courthouse. Afterward, a construction crew erected a small plywood barrier outside the front doors of the courthouse.

On Thursday night, protesters burned an American flag and smashed a front window of the newly exposed courthouse, prompting federal law enforcement officers to respond with tear gas and impact munitions.  At one point, protesters also lit a section of plywood on fire.

In scenes reminiscent of last summer when teams of federal law enforcement officers deployed to Portland in an attempt to quell massive racial justice protests, officers clad in helmets, tactical gear and shields once again cleared downtown streets through clouds of tear gas and smoke.

In November, responding to criticisms of overreach during the protest response, a federal judge restricted federal law enforcement officers from dispersing protesters beyond a one-block radius around the courthouse.

The injunction created an “excluded area” around the courthouse within which federal law enforcement can engage in crowd control activities. Outside that area, federal officials cannot use otherwise legally permissible crowd dispersal techniques [....]