March 28, 2003
Mayor's Comments on Protests
Yesterday, Mayor Katz released a statement on Portland's antiwar protests:
Although most of the demonstrators have acted peacefully, some are intent upon breaking the law and getting themselves arrested. I do not oppose peaceful and nonviolent protest, but I was disappointed and discouraged by a small group of vandals’ attempts to bring the city to a halt on the first night of protests.
Of course, if it were purely a matter of some vandalism, there current shows of force on the part of the PPB are arguably disproportionate.
Now, I don't argue that there should be no police presence whatsoever. With the clear intentions of some dissenters to engage in civil disobedience (by which I am not referring to outright property damage), there obviously needs to be a police response at the ready. The entire point of civil disobedience is to break a law in order to protest an injustice; a civil disobeyer clearly expects and intends to be arrested for their actions.
But to tail protestors (even in downtown, let alone on SE Belmont and its environs) with dozens of officers ranging from bicycle cops to riot cops is just, well, overkill. And whether intended or not, it mainly has the appearance of an attempt to intimidate dissent back into the shadows.
Those who follow along here understand full well that I, in fact, am personally in favor of greatly expanding the range of protest tactics to encompass actions which are jarring and noticable but aren't violent.
In the main, however, what we've seen in the past week is not an escalation of protest tactics but of police intimidation. Tensions now are rising not because of daily demonstrations, most of which have been overwhelming peaceful (although passionate) on the whole. They are rising because the City seems to believe that trailing protestors with trucks of riot cops and pulling people off of sidewalks (while indiscriminately pepperspraying the crowd) is somehow an appropriate approach.
For those who need the connections to be spelled out for you: All of this is a good illustration of why, despite Sgt. Schmautz's protestations, the policies and actions of the PPB are not above and beyond politics, noruntouchable because people can only view them (says Sgt. Schmautz) through the lens of their stance on the war.