Man.. this is so maddening..

As a general rule, people at the Occupy Portland camp are distrustful of any and all media. While this may or may not be justified it is foolhardy because when the activists refuse to speak with an onsite reporter they are forced to speak to anyone who is willing to. In most cases this ends up being someone who won't exactly be putting a good face on the camp. For example, a couple nights ago a woman from KATU was there trying to get some words. She wouldn't walk into the camp, when I asked her why she said last time they did they were molested and threatened so much that any footage they got was useless. So she was outside the park trying to get people walking by in or out to stop for a few words. When she got someone to do it, it was a middle aged gentleman who when asked what his goal in being here is, said "Oh I don't know. I just came here to get hammered."

Not that I necessarily disagree with the sentiment that ths mainstream news media does not accurately portray the camp. But for what it's worth, when I am having this discussion with other people at the camp I ask one simple question: "I realize that you do not appreciate the negative spin that the majority of mainstream news puts forward, but can you name one item of news reported that was an outright fabrication?" and no one could. Yes, the mainstream media focuses on the negative and makes no efforts to highlight the positive.. but they have not made anything up, everything they report is true, just only a part of the story.

On the other hand, alternative media (by which I mean weekly rags like the Willamette and Mercury) has the opposite problem. They report the positive aspects of the services being provided, but gloss over the negative consequences of these to the point that it seems less true then what the MSM reports. I may get mad watching the 11 o'clock news on television and seeing only portions of a story reported with critical perspective taken out so the worst light possible is shed on the subject. But in a lot of ways I get even madder when the "alternative" media reports glowing sunshine and free unicorn rides into the land of sugarplums and gumdrops with barely a hint as to the deep running problems that exist.

I know, it's always better to just judge for yourself on things like this. If you don't know whats up or how to feel about the camp simply visit it, stay for a bit, talk to some people, and form your own opinion without having to depend on someone elses words to fill in the blanks. But not everyone has the luxury of time or transport, etc.. to be able to visit the camp. Or some of them have friends who have visited, have nothing good to say, and simply avoid it after that. Either way, using MSM, AM, or first hand experience it never seems like anyone gets a good handle on the situation as a whole.

It enrages me to see the Portland Mercury contribute such glowing words about Occupy Portland based on what amounts to not a lot of time spent there. Denis Theriault, whom I probably respect more then anyone else on staff at the Mercury, appear to be wilfully ignorant about the dangers that exist at the camp. I have personally seen him ignore and walk away from people at the camp attempting to give perspective or opposing viewpoints to the sugar coated doublespeak that is being offered by those who speak the most to any media. And that sort of sugar coating and wilfull ignorance leads to ridiculous stories like that "poll" done by PSU about the percieved safety of the camp. Anyone with half a brain can immediately determine that a poll about the safety of camp conducted only with people who regularly are at the camp is going to have an unbalanced perspective. Of course most people who regularly are at the camp feel safe, they probably wouldn't be there if they didn't. I didn't see this survey, was not asked any questions, but would have answered truthfully that there is not a single moment I ever feel truly safe at camp. Well, I correct myself.. when attending the General Assembly meeting I do feel safe. Being surrounded by people who care enough to be there as well as four or five police officers on the outskirts does leave me feeling safe.

Mr. Theriault has admitted himself that he has not stayed overnight there since the opening days of the camp. And he has said that some people feel as though the feel of the camp has "changed." But this vague, non-specific sort of reporting is intellectually dishonest and a disservice to the entire Portland community (by which I mean Portland as a whole, not just Occupy Portland).

I know as a reporter it's difficult to report matters that are unknown factors. So I can't necessarily fault anyone for not reporting some of the more salacious matters that have become points of discussion. Things like a meth lab (which according to who you speak with either has shut down, or is still active. No one says it was never there), child prostitution (numerous anecdotal reports from reliable sources, but no hard evidence or anyone who can disprove it completely), White Power gangs.. well, lets just say any minority group that has supremecist gangs to have representation in the camp.. no one denies this anymore. As well as just the general out of control drug and alcohol abuse which takes the already unbalanced and makes for a dangerous potentially lethal athmosphere.

No one reports this in the media because of a lack of hard proof. But on the ground, these matters become clear as day. To anyone who denies that drugs and alcohol are a problem, that drug dealers have set up shop in effect using the Occupy camp as an open air drug market because they know they can do so with relative impunity because of the lack of police presence within the camp borders, that the volunteer Safety force is ineffectual at best and completely impotent and actively contributing to many problems at worst, and so many other issues.. to anyone who denies this I have challenged them to spend a single evening camped out there. Of course this is no longer an option, but in the 3+ weeks I was a resident at Occupy Portland not a single person took me up on my challenge.

People say that the Occupy movement is much bigger then the camp. To this I agree, however the camp is the public face. It is a place where people, families, men, women, old, young, etc should be able to come and have interesting conversation about the ills of society that Occupy is trying to address. However in the last 16 days I have yet to speak with a single person who feels 100% safe being at or around the Occupy camps.

I have taken it upon myself, after an incident where I saw a known heroin dealer taking a friend to camp and overheard them speaking that "This is the best place to get anything you need," to be a pollster of sorts. Every third day I have done my best to talk with 100 people in various parts of town and ask them three questions. The questions change from time to time, but are always fairly worded questions related to the percieved safety and sense of community good will that the camp has gained through its actions. And never once did the overall approval of the 100 I would speak with go above 46%. The most recent data was an all time low, with an overall approval of only 29%.

People at the camp are guilty of being incredibly myopic in their perception of how much community support they have. There is a network of supporters, and many of them are loud and have a lot of resources. So I can see how one may think that there is more support then there truely is, but there is no excuse for the wilfull ignorance that exists now of public support. Especially when I am doing what I do and coming back with meticulous data about the approval from people of all walks of life in every major area of town.

As for the impending confrontation with police, I will tell you how it will go down:

The longtime activists, the level headed and experienced people who are not having their first trip to the rodeo will see, and perhaps be a bit peeved about it, that the police are making every possible effort to be as gentle, patient, and temperate as possible. They will do as anyone who has been to a workshop on how to be arrested at a political rally, that is lock arms if they are in a group like that, offer no resistance whatsoever, go limp the second they are touched, and only give the cops the necessary information needed to book them. The police are going to be as gentle as possible to avoid anything close to the appearance of being overly zealous or brutal in the course of clearing the parks of everyone remaining. They will do this because they do not want either the public dressing down that media often does in such cases, and because they do not want a public backlash such as the one that happened in Oakland where police found themselves dealing with a re-occupying force of over double the original numbers after public sentiment turned against the police in the wake of their near-murder of Scott Olsen. Now, those at the camp who are actively aggressive, antagonisitic, and hateful of the police will do everything in their power to attempt to bring about a violent and brutal response. These individuals can often be seen at any point during the day screaming at cops who have not done anything other then walk by, not doing anything to anyone, and letting them know that when they try to take them away they will booby trap their own body to make sure the cop ends up dead. Why exactly the cops have allowed people to verbally threaten the lives of anyone especially police since it is something that is a consistent occurance that the police do see is beyond me. These antagonistic forces will resist, they will fight, they will do everything in their power to instigate a violent or chemical response from the police. They do this because they are under the impression that if they can elicit such a response then Portland will have a similar police backlash and surge of public support just as Oakland recieved. However, because cameras will be rolling by the dozens when the eviction hour comes, it will be plain as day that these antagonistic forces were doing just that. And the public will not have sympathy for any violent or excessively brutal treatment as they did in Oakland because there will be 10 different angles of these people making sure the police have no choice but employ violent or chemical response to those resisting arrest.

The best thing that could happen for Occupy Portland right now is for the eviction to occur peacefully and without incident so that those within the Occupy Portland movement who want to continue with a useful, community oriented and respected organization can regroup and begin again. Perhaps with a camp, perhaps not. But if they do decide to re-Occupy, you can be assured that this time those who start will have learned their lesson, and the problems of the first Occupy camp will no longer be there. If this happens, it will be because the Occupiers have decided to empower themselves to deal with problem individuals themselves and prevent them from rooting down in the new Occupy Portland camp. For this, they will likely be called traitors, fascists, pigs, etc.. and may have to have police cooperation to assure their safety against people who may wish for comeuppance.. but this new group of people will be able to get to the work of activism, action, protest, and change, without having to constantly worry about a population that is going to eat itself.

I would just like to add a quick note at the end. When the camp first started, many of the homeless who moved in were older. But as time went on, those people disappeared and what came was a influx of street kids. Now at the camp there are a number of warring street kid families, and this is a cause of a lot of the safety concern.