One of the Many Signs Held by a Protestor at the  Emergency Protest in Portland, on May 21, 2025.  Twenty Protestors Were Arrested; Five From Portland.

Portland Police arrested 20 individuals after a protest on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, which began around 3:45 pm at Commercial and Pearl Streets near the waterfront.  A group of protestors were blocking Commercial Street including using traffic cones, before many of them began sitting in the road.  A warning was given at 4:15 pm over a loudspeaker that they needed to move or face arrest for blocking a public way according to a press release issued by the Portland Police Department this morning.

Approximately 15 minutes later, another warning was given.  At 4:40 pm. Police began taking people into custody charging them with obstructing a public way.  They were transported to the Cumberland County Jail.

The five arrested from Portland are: Abigail Fuller, 65; Raphael Wuesthoff, 87; Gail Dawson Gray, 47; Robert Schaible, 81; and Alex Barbour, 36.  According to an intake officer at the Cumberland Couny Jail the 20 arrested were taken in around 5:00 pm and probably released around 7:00 pm, he said.  “I’m guessing, ” he admitted.