"I, as well as the city, will always support your right to free speech,” Mayor Ted Wheeler says in a video released Tuesday by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). “We just ask that you do it peacefully and legally.”

That’s the overarching message of the video, which is a three-minute rotation of talking heads, backed by an acoustic track that can best be described as “we found this for free on a fair use website.” Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the video—in which Wheeler, Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, and other officials implore Portlanders to protest in a respectful, law-abiding manor—is its release date: April 30, one day before May Day.

May Day, formally known as International Workers’ Day is a big day for protests, both in Portland and around the world. And this year is no different: Occupy ICE PDX, the group that organized a long-term demonstration outside the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building last year, is planning a march from SW Waterfront's Elizabeth Caruthers Park to the ICE building at 1 pm this afternoon. They will be protesting the Trump Administration's border family separation policy.

High school students in the area are planning a walk out in solidarity with Occupy ICE PDX, and a Portland May Day coalition will hold a "festival of resistance," meant to build unity among different oppressed groups, from 4 to 6 pm in Holladay Park. According to PPB, demonstrations are planned for downtown Portland as well. None of the planned protests have acquired permits from the city or federal government to hold a protest, meaning they'll be deterred from marching in the streets.

In that context, PPB’s video can be viewed as a plea from the city for protestors to stay peaceful—and a warning of what will happen if they don’t. Outlaw asks that people not bring weapons “or things that can be used as weapons” to protests, and reminds people that they need to follow PPB’s dispersal orders—and that “if you remain, you will be subject to arrest.”

Also appearing on the video is Gabriel Russell, a local regional director for the Federal Protective Service, a federal law enforcement agency. Russell’s directions about protesting on federal property seems to be a targeted warning to those planning to protest at the ICE building today.

“While visiting the federal space, all federal laws apply, including bringing prohibited items such as weapons and narcotics,” Russell says. “In addition, you’ll be subject to arrest if you are blocking doors or driveways, fighting, or threatening or insulting federal employees.”

The video is certainly a new approach to Portland's erratic history of protest policing. If all goes as planned, today's protest will likely be the first substantial demonstration of 2019 (aside from the small, hateful Patriot Prayer meeting outside a union hall in January), and only the second after Wheeler's proposed protest rules failed to pass a city council vote in November.

It's also the first Portland protest to follow a court ruling that upheld PPB's ability to use violent force against non-violent protesters during demonstrations.

It's unclear what tactics we'll see the PPB use today to keep protesters safe while allowing them to flex their free speech rights. But the video makes one thing clear, once you look past the soft-focus greenery background and lulling soundtrack: The city is expecting today’s protests to get violent. And it intends to take action when they do.