August 21, 2003
(Updated) Little Beirut Remains Calm As Protesters and Police Generally Behave Themselves
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Standing on the slight hill which was fortunately just inside the demonstration zone, on the northeast corner of N. Willamette and Portsmouth (which would make it the northwest corner of the zone itself), a woman asked me, after noticing my little press badge, if I had tried to get into the fund-raising event itself. All I could say was that the story wasn't inside, and would be covered by the usual people anyway. The story, as usual here in Portland for these things, was on the streets.
As far I as know at this point, the marchers never did attempt to secure a permit for their route from Columbia Park to Willamette Boulevard. Nonetheless, they took to the streets themselves, and received no real police interference to speak of along the entire march.
And then, once at the designated demonstration zone, things essentially stood still. There was noise, and there were chants. There were drums and, of course, there were radical cheerleaders of one stripe or another.
By Portland standards -- or perhaps by Portland stereotypes -- it was all almost sedate.
See Emma's post for a breakdown of the crowd:
The far larger group was the peaceful contingent, and interestingly, they were in a pretty joyful mood. I've been to a half dozen protests in the last year, and this was the first time I saw anything approaching joy in a crowd. Generally we're a grim lot, out there for something so offensive it seems hard to believe we have to protest it. But if hopelessness marked the earlier gatherings, I saw today a group who smelled blood. People were much more united in their messages, and their messages were good. One fellow standing next to me was hollering out to the police that they should fight the President, who would love to see them become un-unionized, low-pay workers. Another protester was dressed as a scientist and had a chart showing the increase in greenhouse gasses.
Once the Bush motorcade passed by along North Portsmouth, the crowd began dispersing. Some wound their way back to Columbia Park and proceeding to have something of a reported face-off with Portland police officers. I still haven't quite pieced this together from news reports, but it all seems somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, police wanted them to avoid blocking sidewalks. On the other hand, they wanted them out of the park, which of course simply meant they had to take to the sidewalks.
Details on this will become clearer. On the whole, however, on top of the general demeanor and intentions of the crowd, the planning process by the Portland Police Bureau was clearly more intelligent than it was for last year's Presidential visit.
One other random detail which underscores the lack of any serious disputes or altercations today: The protest text message service was almost entirely dormant.
Meanwhile, email out of the Portland Police Bureau reports that there have been ten arrests, variously for the charges of disorderly conduct, failure to disperse, interfering with police officer, and resisting arrest. Some of those arrested have given John Doe as their names.
Update
Slightly more detail from the Portland Police Bureau on the above arrests, which continue to number ten. Four people were charged with disorderly conduct, one with criminal trespass, two with resisting arrest, eight with interfering with a police officer, and one with attempted assault. That count totals more than ten because some individuals were charged with more than one of the above offenses.
Update
More from Emma (on her other weblog), mainly about the differences in local television news coverage. Go read.
Posted at 04:46 PM | PermalinkComments (6) | TrackBacks (4)
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Oregon - Battleground State on 23 Aug 2003
When President Bush visited Portland on Thursday, he showed that Oregon is definitely one of the battleground states -- one they want to woo into the Republican side of the column. He raised lots of money for his campaign, over a million dollars at thi...
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Oregon - Battleground State on 23 Aug 2003
When President Bush visited Portland on Thursday, he showed that Oregon is definitely one of the battleground states -- one they want to woo into the Republican side of the column. He raised lots of money for his campaign, over a million dollars at thi...
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Oregon - Battleground State on 23 Aug 2003
When President Bush visited Portland on Thursday, he showed that Oregon is definitely one of the battleground states -- one they want to woo into the Republican side of the column. He raised lots of money for his campaign, over a million dollars at thi...
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Oregon - Battleground State on 23 Aug 2003
When President Bush visited Portland on Thursday, he showed that Oregon is definitely one of the battleground states -- one they want to woo into the Republican side of the column. He raised lots of money for his campaign, over a million dollars at thi...
Comments (6)
The One True b!X on 21 Aug 2003
Then there's the U-Haul which passed by at the tail end of the motorcade, which we assumed must be Vice-President Cheney's undisclosed location.
Aaron on 21 Aug 2003
Good planning: Giving protesters a good area to protest, where they would be seen by the media and by the presidential motorcade.
- Riot cops in most instances were not at the front lines.
- Some good cops in forward positions. (Example: Capt. Mike Crebs, who talked two young women out of the street on Willamette at the very end of the protest.)
Bad:
- Existence of riot cops in sight, period. They do not deter the crowd as much as inflame it. (Have them a block or so away if there's trouble.)
- Outside agency riot cops - Portland had two squads there, while there were at least five squads from outside agencies. The boys from Vancouver or Salem or Beaverton are likely to be itchy to try out their toys on people who can't fight back. Definite liability risk for both Portland and other cities.
- Ticky-tack chickenshit charges. "Interfering with a police officer"? That's a garbage charge that can mean everything from not saluting and saying "yes sir" to shoulder-blocking a cop while he's trying to arrest someone. It's a legitimate charge if it's the latter, but definitely not the former.
The One True b!X on 21 Aug 2003
Yes, overall the Bureau planned their strategy for the day very well.
The outside agency officers also weren't covered by the PPB's policy that nametags must be displayed. During the position changes for the riot cops of whom I took the picture posted earlier, we saw a line of PPB officers with nametags replaced by other officers displaying only "Police" or "Sherrif" on their gear, with no names on display. Bad form and also agitates people in the crowd.
steve on 22 Aug 2003
If there was anything done that incited the crowd, it was the three private security guards hired by KATU to "protect" their cameraman and reporter. Several times the woman tried to report live from the event and was shouted down by those surrounding her as the security guards tried (unsuccessfully) to form a circle of space around her.
Jan VDB on 22 Aug 2003
I spoke to a police chief about the approximate cost of all that police time: about $50 per officer per hour. There were 400 officers in North Portland all day Thursday protecting the Bush entourage from any risk of having an embarassing "photo op." 8 hours each X $50 per hour X 400 officers would be a total cost to Portland, Vancouver and Tigard taxpayers of a whopping $160,000.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party and the Bush re-election campaign pocket a cool million.
When are we going to be reimbursed for this entirely unnecessary expense?
no one in particular on 23 Aug 2003
Jan VDB: According to KOIN, Vera Katz is going to send the bill for police services to the White House: http://www.koin.com/webnews/20033/20030821_bushvisit.shtml
B!x: The text message service was dormant not just because of the lack of notable events, but also (more importantly?) because Indymedia didn't post the story to their front page, so we hardly got any subscribers. Also, the police had apparently taken protest-related traffic to a seperate frequency that wasn't monitored on oregonlive.com. Consequently, our two main sources of information (emailed reports from the field and police scanners) didn't exist this time.
steve: The thing that angers me the most about KATU is that they seem to totally invite this shit. Just like guy with the "BAN GAY MARRIAGE" sign, who waded into the crowd with the full intention of getting into a fight. KATU (and it's always KATU) seems to do this every fucking time. They send a reporter into the center of 500+ people who don't want them there, they get harassed, and then they report on it as a story. Then they do it again at the next protest. Have they learned a lesson about going into protest crowds? Yeah, they've learned they can do it and get a sensationalist anti-protester story every single time.