What Happened In Portland?
Written on July 31st, 2020
I want to talk about something that I feel is very relevant in terms of the Black Lives Matter Movement... Portland protests. These protests are like something you would see out of a dystopian revolution movie (ex. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire). There is violence represented beyond any other kind in national protests. Angry objectors have thrown rocks and beer bottles, erupted fireworks, even set buildings on fire. Fences have been placed and the people of downtown Portland would cluster at the fence and yell for the defunding of the police department. They would scream expletives. They would plead with officers to stop killing Black men, Black women, Black trans people. They would do this for hours until their voices were hoarse.
And how does the government deal with this massacre? They hire federal officers in camouflage to drive up in unmarked mini vans to protestors and detain them with no explanation. That to me sounds like abduction and kidnapping. Nancy Pelosi called them "unidentified storm troopers." Who are these federal officers? According to BBC, "the officers are a part a new federal force created in June in an executive order signed by President Trump which tasks them to protect historic monuments, memorials, statues, and federal facilities." Portland does not support their ambushes. Mayor of Portland, democrat Ted Wheeler told CNN "their presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism." Here, Wheeler is implying that the violence really started to get out of hand in the protests once the feds' came into play.
The protests in Portland started like any other recently, with the intent to demand justice for George Floyd and other black Americans who were killed by police. Just innocent Black Lives Matter activists exercising their right to protest. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, tension started escalating when the feds' openly fought back against the protestors. According to a journalist for TIME who documented Portland protests since May 25th, "You get way more used to standing in clouds of tear gas. You’re less afraid at the sight of charging police officers." One protestor got shot at by federal officers just for holding a boombox over his head. This was on July 12th so you can only imagine what happened after this... the protests intensified even more. On July 18th, a navy veteran was beaten by US Marshal Officers to the point where he had 2 broken bones in his hands, according to the Associated Press. There seems to be this pattern of cause and effect in Portland: the federal officers go out of their way to harm innocent protestors (cause), the protestors become even more mad at the federal officers so their fight escalates with even more damage and violence (effect).
All of this leads back to one prime location in downtown Portland: Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse. Ironically, Hatfield was a pacifist (someone who views war, violence and militarism as unjustifiable) and worked to pass the civil rights bill that outlawed racial discrimination in hotels and other businesses. But protestors are angry for a different reason. There is a famous Thomas Jefferson quote etched on the side of the courthouse saying "The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.” Protesters are angry because they believe that the said quote represents how Jefferson's "wave of liberty" was widespread slavery. Henceforth, the quote has been covered in graffiti. They are demanding more action from federal institutions. The Hatfield Federal Courthouse also made protestors aggravated because it was the place the federal officers would take protestors after they "kidnapped" them. There, they would throughly search the protestors belongings and pat them down for anything "illegal." The majority of the protestors would be released but some would be deemed as criminals and would be sent to jail.
The federal buildings are supposed to be protected by Homeland Security but now that measures have been taken, it's the feds' who "protect" the buildings. However, they are the ones who are throwing pepper bombs, releasing clouds of tear gas, firing rubber bullets and beating innocent protestors with batons. According to a leaked memo from Homeland Security, the federal officers "do not specifically have training in riot control and mass demonstrations." In other words, they really are not qualified for the job of control in Portland. They have just caused more anger with the people including the Governor and the Mayor. Subsequently these two have filed multiple times for the federal officers to leave. Now finally, the feds' are starting to leave after the Governor and Vice President chatted about how they only brought violence to downtown Portland. Now the protests are becoming more peaceful as protestors are mostly found sitting on grass instead of fighting with gas masks. Hopefully peace will draw in more families to participate in the protests. "Ultimately, while we wanted the feds out, this was really about Black Lives Matter,” says a protestor to The Washington Post. Now protests are more about having fun instead of fighting desperately for freedom.
But while most of the fires seemed to have been put out, "President Trump has doubled down, promising to send more federal officers to cities governed by his political rivals... the liberal democrats," says The New York Times. Trump has also made a remark against the Governor of Portland's choice of forcing the feds' to leave tweeting “She must clear out, and in some cases arrest, the Anarchists & Agitators in Portland. If she can’t do it, the Federal Government will do it for her. We will not be leaving until there is safety!” Governor Brown tweeted back at Trump saying, “I think we’ve had enough political grandstanding from DC. The President’s plan to ‘dominate’ the streets of American cities has failed. We will protect free speech and the right to protest peacefully.” Hopefully the violence and chaos in Portland is over but who's to say trump won't deploy more federal officers to other major liberal cities. God only knows.
Sources:
Bogel-burroughs, Nicholas. “Portland Clashes Converge on Courthouse Named for an Antiwar Republican.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/portland-protests-courthouse.html.
Chalfant, Morgan. “Trump: Feds Won't Leave Portland until Governor Clamps down on Protesters.” TheHill, The Hill, 30 July 2020, thehill.com/homenews/administration/509755-trump-feds-wont-leave-portland-until-governor-clamps-down-on.
Jonathan Levinson | Conrad Wilson. “Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets.” Opb, Content Migration, 27 July 2020, www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/.
Mansoor, Sanya. “Portland Protests: What's Happened So Far.” Time, Time, 23 July 2020, time.com/5868911/portland-protests-law-enforcement-response/.
Olsen, Henry. “Opinion | Portland's Protests Will Not End Well for Anyone.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 July 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/29/portlands-protests-will-not-end-well-anyone/.
Oregonian/OregonLive, Molly Harbarger | The. “Portland's Justice Center Fence: A Daunting Place after Dark for Both Protesters and Police.” Oregonlive, 29 June 2020, www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/06/portlands-justice-center-fence-a-daunting-place-after-dark-for-both-protesters-and-police.html.
“Portland Protests: All You Need to Know about Trump's Crackdown.” BBC News, BBC, 20 July 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53473732.
Taylor, Adam. “Trump Ordered Federal Forces to Quell Portland Protests. But the Chaos Ended as Soon as They Left.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 July 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/31/portland-protests-federal-calm/.
