The lawsuit alleges the U.S. government violated federal environmental law by deploying ``an unprecedented amount of dangerous chemical weapons'' without assessing their environmental impacts beforehand.

The cities allege that the government overstepped its constitutional limits in its use of federal law enforcement officers to tamp down on protests.

After toppling the statues, the crowd smashed windows at the Oregon Historical Society and later moved onto the Portland State University Campus Public Safety office.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that deputizing the Portland officers gives federal prosecutors the option to charge anyone arrest by those officers with federal crimes, which often come with more severe penalties than the state crimes for which local police usually make arrests.

The protesters with makeshift shields gathered earlier for their demonstration in a park and officers moved in to take away the shields, police said.

The Maine lobster industry is in the midst of a multi-year boom, and fishermen have caught more than 100 million pounds for a record nine years in a row.

Several arrests were made, according to reporters at the scene, but a specific number was not immediately available.

Protesters in Portland hurled several firebombs at officers during a demonstration over a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to not indict officers in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, police said.

In a joint statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan accused the Trump administration of playing politics and said withholding federal funds would be illegal.

Protesters returned to the streets of Portland, Oregon, following a dayslong pause largely due to poor air quality from wildfires on the West Coast.