‘I choose not to live in fear’: Portland coffee shop bounces back after targeted attack over police event

PORTLAND, Ore. – When Loretta Guzman went to bed on October 4, she was plagued by a foul, ominous sensation. As soon as she announced on social media that she would host Coffee with a Cop the following day at her North Portland coffee shop, she was inundated with negative feedback.

She prayed before falling asleep.

By 2:47 a.m., six masked vandals had smashed her store’s windows and sprayed it with paint.

Guzman told Fox News, in reference to the boarded-up windows in downtown Portland, the skyrocketing crime rate, and the constant vandalism, that “certain people really want to keep us divided.” However, I believe that people are ready for change.

Three weeks later, evidence of the crime is still readily apparent. White paint is splattered across the arborvitae and the sidewalk. Bison Coffee House’s front windows are covered in plywood and adorned with paintings of a bison and a salmon. Seating is outdoor only as Guzman continues to repaint the walls and clean furniture and the bison head that looks out over the dining room is a testament to her Shoshone and Bannock heritage.

The windows at Bison Coffee House are boarded up after a group of people vandalized the shop Oct. 5, 2022, in Portland.

“The Bannock people, they were bison hunters. This then is who we are “She remarked while gazing up at the plastic-wrapped bison head. “I felt I needed a bison in order for my coffee shop to be called the Bison Coffee House.”

Guzman disclosed that she had hosted Coffee with a Cop at least twice prior to 2016. Since the historic riots of 2020, events deemed to be sympathetic to the police have been banned in the city.

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