Originally tweeted by Laura Jedeed (Misanthrophile) (@1misanthrophile) on September 22, 2020.
Hi there, coming at you from the Anarchist Jurisdiction of Portland: specifically, Laurelhurst Park, where perhaps 100 protesters have gathered in preparation for tonight’s activities
Let’s see what happens
#PortlandProtests #BlackLivesMatter #PortlandRiots #pdxprotest
@ShieldPDX has clearly been working overtime: just a ton of shields on offer tonight! The NLG and medics tent hands out ear plugs and hand sanitizer; Good Trouble distributes snacks
“Move at 8” has been a lie each and every time, and also tonight. My money’s on 9:00, as in the days of yore
More people trickling in. It’s a small group tonight
The march has marched, the chants have echoed:
“Stolen people, stolen land!”
“What’s outrageous? Kids in cages!”
“Out of your houses, into the streets!”
It arrives at the MSCO (Multnomah County Sherrif’s Office)
2 cop cars greet us, lights blazing
The crowd is real small tonight. In the darkness I overestimated: maybe we have 100. High estimate
What they lack in size they make up for in volume
New (to me) chant: “I don’t wanna say another motherfucking name!”
I regret to inform you that a terrible crime has taken place
This water bottle, just thrown, splattered on the pavement at least 100 feet from any police vehicle, never mind cop
Won’t someone put an end to this violence?
Sorry I forgot the picture of the above-mentioned crime here it is
We got WAP playing again: quickly becoming a protest staple
The chorus has been altered to “Weak-Ass Police”
Twerking had occurred
New (to me) chant:
No good cops in a racist system!
No bad protesters in a revolution!
The police are tweeting but not announcing anything directly to the protesters
The police also can’t figure out how to do a tweet thread
A group of bloc’d up protesters run out from the MSCO property, liberated traffic cones in hand
Immediately, DJ LRAD rings out. While he respects our right to protest we’d better not come on their property or else “OC Munitions”
Tear gas is banned for PPB. OC is not
OC munitions are pepper balls and it is my well-researched objective journalistic opinion that they suck ass
“Sir,” DJRAD blares at Richard, who is standing 10 feet inside the property with both middle fingers up, “We know your name. Please move off the property”
He does, at his leisure
Two excellent signs
An activist is upset at press for NOT recording protesters. This is a new one on me
Respectfully, I’m gonna continue to err on the side of not recording protesters without permission
Activists putting on an impromptu rap concert
The concert continues. Tough to live-tweet a concert, so if you wanna see it I recommend @Cascadianphotog/@PhrenologyPhun and @R3volutionDaddy
Sorry for the extended absence! The protest is still going. The music portion has ended
“You look like you wear high top crocs!” @MildlyAutistic shouts at the cops
This is an extremely mellow night
Famous last words, I know. Still, feels like things are gonna stay chill
I’ve been chatting with some activists about where things go from here
Gonna discuss/analyze for a second while nothing’s happening
The Portland protests have ebbed and flowed. We’re in a bit of an ebb right now
The MO right before the fires was: go out, face down the police, drain their resources. But they were doing those mass arrests and that drains the protesters’ resources. Fiscal and emotional. Even with the DA throwing out charges, it takes a human toll
Protests have mellowed post-forest-fire. ICE on Friday was a shit-show obviously but the next three days have been incredibly chill. Dance parties, marches, not much direct action
Less casualties. But is it bothering anyone? Is it putting pressure on the city?
Some people think protests of federal buildings is the way. Feds have a hair trigger, they’ll come out over nothing and show the whole world they’re fundamentally opposed to free speech
Big headlines. Big attention. Big pressure
But some of those headlines could backfire. An excuse for Trump to impose martial law pre-election seems real dangerous to me. For sure it’ll role up his base and scare law-and-order centrists. Is that the way to go?
It feels like there should be other options. Other way to express that the social contract is broken, that we won’t put up with it, that we need massive structural changes to how we look at policing and justice in Portland and beyond
What’s the answer? No idea
Worth thinking about, I think. It feels like we’re at a bit of a crossroads, like we were at the end of July
Happening now:
“My neck! My back! We’ve got to get these streets back!”
I missed pictures of a brief flag-burning
And a chud has decided to grace us with his cute dog. He’s threatening to “attack liberals” so that’s fun
He also threatened to punch @econbrkfst
Now he’s pretending he didn’t
A big confrontation. The gentleman is an asshole. I’m not gonna run down the whole thing, but my God this fellow is an asshole. He was mean to Richard
He’s also super fucked up
And his super cute dog is off leash
So it’s not great
This is dumb
This is so dumb
His dog is super cute though. Sure wish he wasn’t off leash running up on MSCO property getting close to the police, that’d be cool
For some reason activists are trying to have a conversation but he’s unable to form coherent sentences so it’s very confusing to me. They have more patience than I do
I’m getting dumber listening to this
The protest has thinned considerably and I’m going to take this opportunity to leave a protest before midnight for once
Solidarity with everyone still out here!
More Stories
1-25-21: Cleaning Up DHS Chemical Weapons in a Playground
1-21-21: Far Right Failure in Salem, Oregon
1-20-21: Videos from ICE Protest