Demonstrators shattered windows and broke into a dental office, taking items -- including a chair -- to add to the fire, the Oregonian reported. A bundle of newspapers was also set ablaze and thrown into a storefront, located on the ground floor of the residential building around 11 p.m. -- leading police to declare the gathering a riot.

"This was the arson fire that prompted a riot declaration tonight," police wrote on Twitter. "It was critical to secure the area to allow firefighters to respond to this dangerous situation."

So, illegally building a bonfire in the middle of the street, busting out windows, and breaking into businesses and stealing were not enough to declare a riot? It was only when they finally threw a burning bundle of newspapers into the building in which the mayor lived that led them to declare a "riot"? Good grief! Has no one though that, if they had declared a riot when they should have, before things got so out of hand, that maybe things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand? Apparently it wasn't even the arson itself that led to the declaration of a riot, since there has been plenty of arson in Portland before, but only when the arson was where the mayor lived, that finally got the declaration of a riot. The whole things is so stupid and disgusting.