QuickTake:

Police said the man was arrested for disorderly conduct. A video taken by a Lookout reporter shows him being apprehended as he walked across the street.

Eugene police clashed with a few protesters Wednesday, April 29, during the first day of construction of a fence at the downtown federal building as federal officers blocked access to a plaza area normally open to the public.

Eugene police took one man into custody at about 4 p.m., as he and others were walking in a crosswalk on Pearl Street at Sixth Avenue toward a group of officers.

A video recorded Wednesday, April 29, showing a man being arrested by Eugene police officers near the downtown federal building.

The majority of the sidewalk area adjacent to the Eugene Federal Building had been closed off during construction, and there was no other obvious provocation leading to the arrest.

“[T]he person was arrested for Disorderly Conduct,” Eugene police spokesperson Melinda McLaughlin said in an email. 

McLaughlin said the person was blocking the roadway, though that was not evident from what a Lookout Eugene-Springfield reporter at the scene witnessed and recorded in a video immediately prior to the man’s arrest.

“I don’t have any other details yet, other than he was blocking the roadway,” McLaughlin said.

Earlier in the afternoon, at about 3:30 p.m., a Eugene police vehicle equipped with a loudspeaker blared that people may be arrested for trespassing, as a group of approximately 25 people stood in an area outside the orange cones and signs reading “Sidewalk Closed” at the corner of Pearl Street and Seventh Avenue.

While protest activity normally takes place in the federal building plaza, uniformed Federal Protective Service officers on Wednesday afternoon stood in front of the protesters, blocking plaza access. The plaza is not a part of construction activity.

Several protesters declined to give their names, but Carol Van Houten, 88, held a sign that read, “No ICE, No War, No Genocide” and said she visits the site weekly on Wednesdays as part of regular protesting, which for her typically involves two days at the building each week.

“I tried to walk on this sidewalk, and an EPD woman on a bicycle rolled up and escorted me across the street, stopping the traffic so she could escort me across the street,” Van Houten said.

Van Houten said she’s “disappointed in the city,” referring to the Eugene police presence. She also was critical about the plaza being off limits Wednesday.

“They’re telling us that it’s federal property. I think it’s community property,” Van Houten said.