Chief Reese deserves some credit for realizing that this wasn't going to go away and that an apology was called for. I hope that the original statement was an honest mistake on his part. Even Portlanders who may not support all of the tactics of the Occupy movement will recoil against any smear campaigns which target free speech or legal protest.

I think today Portland stepped back from the brink. Maybe it was the events at UC Davis, a pepper spraying far more out of line than ours. Maybe the Mayor's vast experience in social media is rubbing off on Chief Reese. And maybe the organization behind the march for single payer health care finally awoke some of the listening cells in the "Occupy Movement's" brains. I've seen precious little evidence that those neurons have been firing since mid-day Saturday last week.

So much remains to be done, though. The communities and organizations involved need to be very clear in their communications about such things as the call from the Oakland occupation for a shutdown of all West Coast ports on December 12th. That's a rather complex thing to pull off and is fraught with major labor law implications. And some of us remain skeptical in the face of the "Let's You And Him Fight" spewings in the blogosphere and in social media.

I have more hope tonight than I did after Thursday's near-catastrophe. But hope is not a strategy, and listening is hard work. The ball is still in the Portland movement's court, not in Michael Moore's, Matt Taibibi's, AdBusters' or even Occupy Oakland's. Disruption and chaos cannot work here. The police bureau needs to be gentler, to be sure, but they must remain firm.

'occupy' - if you had wanted to march for Universal Health Care a couple YEARS ago, when it might have made a difference, I would join you.

So this damned pig Reese apologizes for telling that bold-faced LIE, engaging in direct fear-mongering tactics - in a shameful naked effort to try and "sway" public opinion against this unstoppable movement.

Well at least he had the decency to say he was sorry - which he is.

NOW, if he could just apologize for the murders of Aaron Campbell, James Chasse, Keaton Otis, and other citizens who have been murdered by Portland cops!