Videos of Portland police tussling with a pair of African American teenagers on the Hawthorne Bridge -- and then arresting one of them a short while later during Friday’s student climate protest -- have gone viral with social media users accusing the police of rough treatment and singling out the black teens.

One of the videos -- which shows police yanking one of the black teens from a crowd of white teens -- had been viewed more than 500,000 times less than 24 hours after it was posted.

After police put out a news release stating they had arrested two 17-year-olds, some upset users in the Twittersphere assumed police had targeted only the two African American teens and left their white counterparts to head home freely. The Oregonian/OregonLive, however, has confirmed that police ended up arresting only one of the black teens, plus a white teen.

Members of the public also took to social media to criticize the police bureau for what they see as aggressive handling of children.

Portland City Council candidate Candace Avalos, @candaceforpdx, wrote: “What is happening here??? I mean seriously, I need answers. I’m having a hard time thinking of any scenario that would warrant this kind of response. These are KIDS. I’m so upset, this is unacceptable.”

What is happening here??? I mean seriously, I need answers. I'm having a hard time thinking of any scenario that would warrant this kind of response. These are KIDS. I'm so upset, this is unacceptable. https://t.co/sLRjWZt8Rl — Candace Avalos (@candaceforpdx) September 21, 2019

Here’s a blow-by-blow of what went down Friday:

Thousands of mostly teenagers met in downtown Portland and peacefully marched across the Hawthorne Bridge to call for reforms to battle climate change. The Portland event joined others around the globe, and Portland organizers had been granted a city permit.

The first video taken on the bridge and posted to Twitter starts by showing two African American teenagers standing on a metal railing dividing two lanes of eastbound traffic, partway across the span. The outer lane of the bridge is closed to cars and crowded with hundreds of students, while the inner lane is open, with cars stopping and then slowly passing by.

Although at least several other people of differing races can be seen standing on the railing, officers order the two black teens to “Get down!” and “Get down now…” One of the teens refuses and instead waves his hands and fingers in front of him as he leans slightly toward one of the officers and exclaims something that’s indecipherable. That prompts the officers to grab both teens and pull them toward them. But people in the crowd behind them pull the teens away. The officers let them go.

A white teen with blond hair stands between the officers and one of the black teens and guides him away.

Watch that first video here:

Just weeks after @PortlandPolice escorted white nationalist protesters across the Hawthorne Bridge so they could harass the people of Portland, today they blockaded then got physical with several PPS (notably not white) climate action protesters on the same bridge. pic.twitter.com/tat3XhZqsW — PDX Resistance ✊ (@Pdx_resistance) September 21, 2019

The second video -- with more than half a million views -- picks up at some point after that. The crowd has made its way to the eastern side of the bridge. Officers can be seen moving toward the black teens by pushing past white youth, some who have their arms outstretched in an apparent effort to block the officers’ path. One of those white youths in the way is the blond teen.

“Why? Why?” a young woman can be heard yelling. Someone else shouts “he” or “they” … “didn’t do nothing!” The officers yank one of the teens out of the crowd, then arrest him. Bystanders erupt into angry jeers.

The Twitter user who posted the video, @saviongb, described the video as follows: “Portland police shoving their way through a group of peaceful young protesters to get to the only black teens in sight.”

Watch the second video here:

Twitter users unloaded in the comments. One woman, @AMoravcov, wrote “This happens so often that the white kids were literally trying to form a wall so the cops couldn’t get to the black kids…”

This happens so often that the white kids were literally trying to form a wall so the cops couldn’t get to the black kids...



It’s crazy how aggressive they were just to get to that boy. Whatever/IF smth happened beforehand I doubt all this was necessary. They don’t even bother - — Hey ✌️ (@AMoravcov) September 21, 2019

A video taken by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows what followed: Police pulled one of the black teens out of the crowd, pinned him to the pavement of a traffic lane, handcuffed him and hauled him off to a police car.

Watch the Oregonian/OregonLive video here:

Police did not arrest the other African American teen who earlier had been standing on the railing mid-span. But the news organization’s video shows officers forcefully dragging out the blond teen and knocking him to the pavement in the lane of traffic, just seconds after a pickup truck drives across that very spot.

On Saturday, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen told The Oregonian/OregonLive he couldn’t speak to that because he didn’t have the information he needed. He said the bureau, however, would review any safety issues stemming from pulling the teens into the street as part of its after-action report.

“Our goal is to get better and to do self-review,” Allen said.

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw did not immediately answer a request for a comment.

Allen had not seen The Oregonian/OregonLive’s video, but he had seen the video that had been viewed more than half a million times, of officers pulling the African American teen from the crowd. That video led the bureau on Friday evening to send out a second news release with more details “to make sure people don’t misinterpret what they saw.”

Allen said the bureau didn’t just pick the African American teen out of the crowd and arrest him without reason. The teen had earlier been endangering himself and drivers by leaning into traffic and causing drivers to slam on their brakes, Allen said. A police statement said officers “were concerned about the extremely unsafe circumstance and saw arrest as the only option,” but they delayed the arrest until the teen made it to the bridge’s eastern side. Police described that as “a safer location.”

Police said the second teen -- the blond one -- was arrested for interfering as officers arrested the first teen.

“People seem to want to make judgments about what happened from a tiny snippet of video that was taken from one perspective,” Allen said. “We understand a lot of time video doesn’t show everything. ... There is often more to that story.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler is in contact with the police bureau about what happened, according to spokesman Timothy Becker.

“We look forward to learning the results of their thorough review,” Becker said in a statement.

Molly Harbarger contributed to this report.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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