This flag caused some trouble.
This flag caused some trouble. Doug Brown

Perhaps it was inevitable.

Don't Shoot Portland demonstrators protesting police abuses briefly squared off with Oregon Occupier supporters still feeling high off the acquittals of the Bundy gang in front of Portland's Justice Center this afternoon.

The altercation brewed after members of Don't Shoot marched from Portland State University to the city's downtown jail, pushing a write-in campaign for sheriff by organizer Teressa Raiford and pressing grievances stemming from a violent conflict they had with police two weeks ago.

At one point, the group apparently plucked up a flag that belonged to a woman who'd been barbecuing in Lownsdale Square, in celebration of the surprise exoneration of Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five codefendants, who no longer face conspiracy charges for taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year. The acquittals have been seen as proof—to the Don't Shoot Portland protestors and lots of others—that a group group of white defendants can skate on even well publicized misdeeds, while minorities are shot and brutalized for no reason.

When protestors burned the occupiers' flag, the woman—wearing an American flag-themed tank top—became upset.

"Why would you burn my property?" she asked.

Before long, members of her cohort had stepped in, accusing Don't Shoot protestors of breaking the law by burning the flag. Things got racist very, very quickly, with one man telling protestors to "go back to Jamaica," and using uglier slurs.




As police looked on (they've got the road blocked off), people on both sides worked to calm the situation. As of this post, the Don't Shoot Portland protestors had resumed chanting against police abuse, though an occasional "Fuck the Bundies!" could be heard.