The city of Portland, Oregon, continues to devolve into chaos and violence as anarchists and rioters continue their reign of terror over the city. What’s more, police can do nothing to stop them thanks to Democrat interference, tying the hands of police behind their backs and depriving them of effective means of getting these riots under control.

According to the Daily Mail, a violent mob of about 100 “anarchists” began running wild through the city, vandalizing walls, smashing windows, and setting fires at around 10 pm last Tuesday night. This resulted in $500,000 worth of damage. Despite the overwhelming chaos, police report that they could only stand by and watch as their city fell to rioters as new laws tied their hands and prevented them from acting.

They’ve, instead, been instructed to investigate the riots after the fact and hold what rioters they can find accountable for the crimes.

Lt. Jake Jensen of the Portland Police explained to residents why they did not interfere during a neighborhood meeting as reported by the Mail, and he pointed to a fresh bipartisan House bill as the reason:

‘The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with House Bill 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,’ Portland Police Lt. Jake Jensen said in a Pearl District Neighborhood Association meeting, as reported by KOIN. ‘That’s the way the legislature said we need to operate in a crowd control environment so that’s how we’re going to act in a crowd control environment.’

House Bill 2928, whose chief sponsors are Democratic Representative Janelle Bynum and Republican Representative Ronald Noble, bans police from using force to respond to riots and charges any violations as second degree official misconduct.

Jensen said, ‘The fact of the matter is without being able to use pepper spray, without being able to use our 40 millimeter less lethal devices in that kind of environment really prevents us from having access to the tools that we need in large part to keep us safe.’

Jensen added that the issue wouldn’t be solved by adding officers, as many officers were at the scene of the riots last Tuesday and could not intervene.

Now, Portland residents are living in fear.

“Does that mean we are now like a lawless city? Anybody could come in and just bash around and do all the damage that they want without any repercussions whatsoever?” asked Linda Witt.

Jensen reiterated that rioters would face repercussions, but only after the damage was done. He also added that police were looking for workarounds, such as using shields against the rioters.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has not publicly addressed Tuesday’s riot as of this writing. Portland Chief Chuck Lovell, however, addressed the riots directly to CBS affiliate KOIN-TV, and asked for help from civilians to identify the rioters.

“I’m concerned about the brazen criminal acts that took place downtown last night,” said Lovell. “I want to assure those who were victimized that investigations are underway, and we will do whatever we can to identify and arrest those who were responsible. We ask that anyone with information please reach out to us. Thank you to all the officers who responded to a challenging situation.”

This is likely to only increase the violence and destruction in a city that passed a “milestone” of 1,000 shootings in 2021 alone.