Update, 4:45 pm:
Mayor Ted Wheeler responded to the threat with this press statement:
Today, City Hall was evacuated because of a bomb threat.
We learned that a person called several times expressing that a bomb was going to go off within the building.
City Hall Security, as well as the Portland Police Bureau, responded swiftly and checked the building thoroughly. Thankfully, they found no alarming devices or packages.
At this point, we don’t know if the threat was in response to the protests over the weekend.
These threats of violence are alarming and create a sense of fear that no one should experience, but unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a reality in local government.
I’m grateful that nothing happened. I’m grateful for the swift action of our security and our officers.
We will let you know when we get more information.
Update, 1:15 pm:
The police bureau has allowed city staff back in the building, after officers deemed there was no “credible threat.”
Original Story:
City staff have evacuated Portland City Hall after receiving a bomb threat over the phone, according to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). The threat came in around 12:15 pm.
“The Portland Police Bureau is investigating the matter to determine the credibility of the threat,” said PPB spokesperson Tina Jones in a brief press release.
According to Marshall Runkel, chief of staff for Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, the call came in through the City Attorney’s office. “We are fine,” wrote Runkel in an email to the Mercury.
Sonia Schmanski, chief of staff for Commissioner Nick Fish, told the Mercury that the call came from an out-of-state phone number.
We’ll update this blog when more information becomes available.
Andy Ngo, is a vitriolic far-right blogger (Yes Quillette is far right, look at their Twitter followers) who shares many of the same ideas as white supremacists based on his own writings. Writing about a Portland area bakery “serving muffins with a side of white guilt” and his other musings on “Bio-diversity” and claiming that Islamic communities are “anti-thetical” to American society, are straight from the white supremacists crap chute that has snaked it’s disgusting way into normalized speech. It’s completely possible for him to be Asian, gay, and still be a disgusting bigot. Not only white people are bigots (see diamond and silk). Playing earpiece to Andy’s pathetic 150$ dollar GoFundMe and the ideas that he was attacked for being a “conservative” are what is getting bomb threats called into our local government. Nobody gave any “stand down orders”. Andy, knowing full well what he was doing, waded into a crowd of people he has repeatedly to threatened, harassed, and played grab ass games with over the web. He did so, in full obvious danger to himself to create a narrative that ANTIFA attacks innocent people. What a fucking joke. Andy is not innocent. Words and beliefs are action incarcerated and he faced a generously light dose of what his actions deserve. He’s the definition of crying wolf and his own writings and actions will prove that he is not the innocent victim he claims to be. Once again, in less than a month, Andy Ngos wolf calling and hoaxing of a hate crime (which despite being gay, he has accused with zero proof or evidence that local area attacks were faked) have created a reaction so fierce that death threats were involved.