Rillwater via Instagram Housing activists prepping for months for foreclosure defense efforts at houses across Portland are facing their first major test this afternoon after Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies and Portland cops showed up to enforce an eviction at a Southeast Portland home—and reportedly brought along pepper spray and riot gear. The home on SE […]
Occupy
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Occupy Trials Put on Hold: DA Takes Fight to Supreme Court
Denis Theriault Eviction at Chapman Square Last week, we reported that a little more than half of the remaining Occupy Portland court cases had won the right to jury trials and legal counsel. We also conjectured—based on multiple interviews—that District Attorney Mike Schrunk might dismiss these cases rather than waste time and energy appealing the […]
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Occupy Portland Ad Blitz: Turning Buses, Trains into Movement’s Sistine Chapel
Occupy Portland—still soldiering along from its office in St. Francis in Southeast, and also from the city hall camping vigil, every single day—is tired of everyone thinking the movement’s dried up and gone as it enters its second year. And, so, a bunch of occupiers have decided to take a page from their friends in […]
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Occupy Portland Wins Right to Jury Trials—Will Dismissals Follow?
Denis Theriault Eviction at Chapman Square After more than eight months of fighting—and in what amounts to a huge, and hugely complicated, legal victory—many Occupy Portland defendants have finally won the right to jury trials. This morning in the Multnomah County Courthouse, Judge Cheryl Albrecht ruled that a recent appellate court decision does indeed apply […]
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Judge Declares Operating a “Disco Trike” is Free Speech
During an Occupy protest on a rainy night last winter, Portland Police arrested Portlander Dan Kaufman and impounded his sparkly gold “disco trike,” charging him with “unlawful operation of a sound-producing equipment” as he blasted music during the protest. Today, a judge declared that the charges against Kaufman are worthless. Operating a disco trike at […]
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Mayhem Almost Erupted As Cops Cleared Terry Schrunk Plaza on Saturday
A few hours after Saturday’s hundreds-strong march marking the one-year anniversary of Occupy Portland and the 11th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, a few dozen occupiers decided on a symbolic gesture: They gathered in the federally owned and controlled Terry Schrunk Plaza—across SW Madison from Chapman Square—for what could have been a reoccupation. That […]
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Occupy Protester in Pepper Spray Photo Sues for Policy Changes, $155,000
As we reported late Wednesday, Liz Nichols—the Occupy Portland protester pepper sprayed in the face while shouting at another officer who’d hit her in the neck at a rally November 17—filed suit today against the city and the Portland Police Bureau. Nichols, a 21-year-old PSU student, is accusing two officers of using excessive force, the […]
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Occupy Protester in Infamous Pepper Spray Photo Will Sue Police Bureau
Word just arrived at this tender hour that Liz Nichols, the young college student whose mouthful of pepper spray was immortalized by an Oregonian photographer during a chaotic anti-bank protest last November 17, will file an excessive force lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau. According to a release sent out by Nichols’ attorney, Ken Kreuscher, […]
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Occupy-Related F6 Protest Trials End, No Anarchists in Sight
Nathan Gilles Nefi Martinez-Bravo testifies. Yesterday, the Multnomah County courtroom of Judge Cheryl Albrecht saw yet another Occupy Portland-related trial. This time for the unpermitted February 6, 2012 anti-police brutality protests. The night of February 6, or F6, is one both protesters and cops won’t forget anytime soon. It was the night both kinda went […]
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Could Occupy Portland Still Get Jury Trials?
Denis Theriault Jamison Arrests A startling new development in the Occupy Portland court fight had defense lawyers scrambling on their smartphones and laptops this morning. The reason? A new court of appeals decision might mean occupiers could get their long-sought jury trials after all. The trial for the October 30, 2011, mass arrests at Jamison […]
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Happy Birthday, Occupy! Are We Still Talking About You?
Happy birthday, Occupug. This weekend was the first birthday of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. Two Portlanders are there reporting for Occupy and have made a video rounding up the weekend events in New York. The one-year mark fair time to ask the question: How has Occupy changed the way we think […]
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Occupy Portland Goes to Trial
Denis Theriault Eviction at Chapman Square After seven months of pretrial proceedings and fights over police records Occupy Portland is now going to trial en masse. While Occupy has already seen a scattering of individual cases go to trial, starting last week, the movement had its first mass arrests trials, beginning with proceedings for the […]