Portland, my home, was terrorized Sunday several times. Not by foreign "terrorists". Not by drugged out hippies.
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But by the police force.
Our city is beautiful, but our police are ugly.
One Riot Caught by the Oregon News
Before the march even happened... the Peace Community of Portland worked with the City, the Portland Police Bureau and others to ensure safety and peace. We asked that there be no horses or riot gear as those are intimidating. Bikes were okay and that there'd be hundreds of Peace Keepers to help keep things from escalating.
This is what the "force" chose to do Sunday instead.
The police presence was so high that one might say that they seemed to be marching along side of the protesters, as if they themselves were participants in the dissent.
But in reality, they were escorting the marchers just as if they were escorting prisoners to other destinations within their jail.
And this photos is especially interesting. Notice the FINGER IN AN UP AND READY POSITION?? That is called WEAPON DRAWN.
On Portland Indy Media Activism/Action site thie below was needed...
"Injured/sprayed yesterday?
Contact the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center (NWCRC) at 503-295-6400. But Most Importantly: have the injury documented by a medical professional (if you don't have access to one, call the street medics at 503-233-3194).
If you can't get in to see someone today, have a friend take a picture of the injury (if it's visible such as bruises, cuts, etc.) Use a film camera, if possible. It holds up better in court.
If you think you are experiencing symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), please call the medics, they will direct you to resources that can help."
An eye witness account speaks to the "peacekeepers":
"Towards the end of the march a group marched towards Burnside and were stopped infront of Carl Greve's by the police. There was massive use of pepper spray initially. However, once things had calmed down and the police were in their alignments it continued to happen. A woman was standing 4 feet away from the police line of for officers chanting "This is what a police state looks like" she was not flipping the police the finger and she was not using any profanity. She was not asked to move, and she never made any attempt to get closer to the police line. She made no gesture of violence, or of any other kind. She just stood there chanting "This is what a police state looks like" when an officer randomly sprayed pepper spray in her face. After the prick police assholes payed out $300,000 for excessive pepper spray force for another protest and promised it wouldn't happen again, guess what, IT DID. To the organizers of the protest YOU CAN NOT TRUST THE POLICE. They lie, they manipulate, and deceit is one of their main character traits. I keep hearing from the organizers of these marches that they are cooperating with the police, but this cooperation is still harming the people protesting. This woman was on the sidewalk, chanting, standing still, she was acting in a non violent fashion, and it didn't matter. You wore t-shirts saying peacekeeper, you failed to do so, and a citizen who was abiding by the law and excising her constitutinal rights had to pay the price. "
I can only hope that people will realize that the revolution is here. Now. And will hit the streets and join us.
How many others have to be hurt and arrested?
How many humans have to die?
You can hear the scatter gun during the first video at the 1:35 mark. The people on the left side of the street between the two buildings, still bustled in and stopped, all ducked. And in that instant we all KNEW...
Fucking KNEW! that no matter what... we are all prisoners to the police force. That they are the tools of this corporate sponsored, tolerated terror Regime.
Ever hear people screaming due to the pepper spray?
We can march and march till they arrest us.
But they can't arrest us all. Sadly it's going to take all of us to stop this war and stop this madness.
I'm angry right now but I hear so many say, "you march for me"...
NO! I don't.
You didn't hear the scatter guns. You didn't hear the riot police from the paddy wagons running your way.
You weren't ducking down next to me saying, "oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit".
It's all just settling in. I'm angry, scared, shocked and... proud that I was there. It took me 24 hours to even talk about this with my husband. But he had already known about the riots and figured I hadn't been close or that I had to sort it all out first.
See, I don't like to scare my loved ones. They go through enough as it is.
They always ask me before I leave, "who is going to march with you?" "Who is going to be there with you?"
Seriously Pissed Off Grannies from the Surge Protection Brigade. Yes, the rocking chairs are still being held by the cops. Just one of the many action tents put on for the community.
A little dude giving us all the Peace sign.
First protest I've been to where the sidewalks were mostly empty and the streets were packed.
God's creatures with weapons. Ironic for me.
Portlandia... she's always above me at marches.
Support the Troops; give them Halliburton Stock
Religous Left.
All around this statue, children had written messages of peace and hope in chalk.
I think my later diaries about today will be more focused.
Street Action.
Community Action.
Crowd/March itself.
Later.. my unraveled ramblings thoughts.
But it sucked having to have another Peace March. Hopefully we won't have to do this again next year.
Last night, both Oregon Senators Gordon Smith (R) and Ron Wyden ("D") were at KGW station studios for a live televised "Ask Your Senator" town hall. This was an invitation only town hall meeting and apparently no one from the Peace Community was invited. We didn't think it was right that the Senators were unwilling to have a discussion with their constituents unless they were invited and their quetions pre-screened.
(we weren't supposed to enter the driveway or approach the building)
So we greeted the audience members with their Free Speech Tickets and tried to get the Senators to come out and hear us.
I apologize for the poor photographs. It was a dark and crappy night. At least 30 - 40 protestors arrived banging pots ala Molly Ivins style, members from several peace groups were there. CodePink Portland, Veterans for Peace, No War Drum Corps, Washington County Peace Vigil, Civic Resist, members of the Surge Protection Brigade, the Lone Vet and others.
Senators Smith and Wyden refused to come out. Like chickenhawks.
KGW has an employee who came out several times to tell us where we could and could not stand. He told me not to take photographs of the building as it was a private building. Then he took a photograph of me and called police. KGW should alert it's employees that they are NOT TO TOUCH PEOPLE. The man got in my face so I got back in his... with a fucking bull horn.
LET US IN!
Apparently KGW didn't find any of this newsworthy, their van drove by but didn't stop. The ticketed audience didn't seem very happy either.
(Karen being escorted from the entrance)
I got up to the entrance and windows and started taking photos...
Look at all the "happy" people inside with their free speech tickets...
I was warned twice by KGW that I would be arrested. They called the police and they arrived. I asked that they, as Peace Officers and servers of the community, to please ask the Senators to come out and talk with us. The "cop" laughed and said, "No".
No one was arrested. No one was heard.
The media and the politicians aren't going to do a damn thing about this illegal occupation and a war for greed and corporate profit and political power.
Senator Smith once told greiving parents of a dead soldier basically to just wait and they'll see that Bush was right and they were wrong for protesting the illegal occupation.
He then has flip flopped and said that the war may be wrong.
Now he has changed his tune again and supports a Surge. So people were arrested for refusing to leave the lobby till Smith flip flops back again.
Tomorrow "C" and "T" of CodePink will enter again. I'm forwarding on this email from our action email.
"Happy Valentine's Day Massacre of Peace People's Lobby Rights,
You've heard the old joke that starts, "A master's student, a legal secretary and a hippie peace professor walked into a Senator's office..."
Whoops! Joke's on us. Turns out all we had to do was walk to the public elevator--never made it to the office--and we were halted by one security guard, with half-dozen more on the hoof toward us. We were going to US Senator Gordon Smith's office to offer our opinion, in person and in writing, that the Republican Senator from Oregon ought to live up to his brave proclamation for peace that he gave on the Senate floor way last December 7, when he said he was at the end of his rope with this war. Rhoda Moore, Kerry Bassett and I had only one request, that he promise to vote against the supplemental war and occupation spending bill.
Instead, we were asked to leave the 12-story office building because our presence was "a disturbance to the other tenants."
Gosh, that was our intent. Guess we succeeded.
Oh, they meant that thinking at all about the war is disturbing, I suppose. Disturbing enough to prevent those who looked suspiciously like peace people from even entering the elevator.
We talked for an hour or so. We assured the security people, and the representative from Smith's office who came down to talk with us on the brick outdoor plaza, that keeping peace messages out of Smith's sight and office environs was only going to disturb more of the tenants in the end. Since the building is on private property (PGE), one of our secondary goals is to drive a wedge between PGE and Smith by making it more costly to have him as a tenant. Smith's rep, Andrew Over, categorically denied that we were being kept out at Smith's office request and, upon further questioning, even denied that the Smith people had any input into this decision.
OK, then. This is an invitation to fax Senator Smith's office to tell them two things:
1. Tell the Senator to immediately promise to vote against any further funding for this godawful war.
2. Insist that the office be open to those who wish to be peace lobbyists. No one who has gone there has yelled (or even talked loudly), nor have we blockaded (yet), we haven't invaded any inner or private spaces, and we've been friendly to all.
I wish I could assert that we've never interrupted any of them in conversation, but we are working on our conversational skills, which are not perfect but are not illegal--or maybe they are."
Smith's office:
Phone: 503.326.3386
Fax: 503.326.2900
And if you'd like to learn more about being a part of this nonviolent civil resistance campaign, please visit the website: www.defundthewar.com
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This is such an outrage and I am asking that everyone flood the senator's office with faxes and phone calls demanding our right to lobby for peace. Thanks everyone!
I apologize for any errors. My computer is fritzing out. I'm trying to get this out and about because my loved ones are going in again.
"Wisely, the soldiers who staff the Broadway recruiting center closed up shop and barred the windows today, girding their loins and steeling themselves against the grandmothers' bloc who took the sidewalks out front. The recruiters gave some kind of hasty excuse to explain their absence, but the truth was obvious: They simply recognized that they were outnumbered and facing superior forces. (No one but the Portland Police Bureau is usually foolish enough to mess with grandmothers.)
I spent my lunchbreak there today, with some of the coolest grandmothers I have ever met. (And some grandfathers, and even some younger folks.) (Even one of my favorite people from the Native Youth Movement was there... so it was more of a grandmother, grandfather, grandchild sort of thing. Solidarity!) It was a somewhat larger crowd than I had expected, and the signs and colorful knitted hats and scarves were visible from way down the street as I made my way toward them. There was something really, powerfully inspiring about seeing the steel awning pulled down over the exposed windows at the recruiting office, and the apologetic little sign hastily taped up on the door, informing passersby that the office was closed. It was like looking at a white flag." - Taken from a member of Portland Indy Media.
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