Mayor Charlie Hales sent out a statement to the press last night, making it known what a tough thing it was for him to have to send police and firefighters to roust the ShellNoPDX protestors blocking the Fennica oil exploration ship from leaving town.
“This was a hard day for me—and for a lot of people in Portland,” Hales’ statement read. “I oppose drilling in the Arctic.” Hales went on to say it was a “great day” for the city, though, because no one was injured and Shell Oil got its ship back.
Hales struck a less circumspect tone with city employees this morning. He’s stoked about the efforts to dismantle the protest, and says the protestors were happy about it, too. Here’s the e-mail Hales sent to all city staff this morning.
From: Hales, Charlie
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2015 8:50 AM
To: Citywide All Employees Distribution List
Subject: Just another day’s work – thank you!Yesterday, City employees carried out their usual responsibilities. Responding to issues such as house fires, Last Thursday, gang activity, huge numbers of people out in our parks and an extra 2,000 youth utilizing our community centers, among other challenges.
But in addition to all that, personnel from the Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire and Rescue, our City Attorney’s office, and our Park Rangers helped to safely resolve a complex situation at the protest at the St. Johns Bridge. Our teams performed this work in 103 degree heat.
You met this challenge with competence, courtesy and creativity. How good were you? The lead Greenpeace organizer told Chief O’Dea that he had been involved in many protests in many cities and had never seen such a professional and considerate response.
Portlanders appreciate you. Well done!
Charlie Hales
Mayor, City of Portland
1221 SW 4th Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
Sounds about right
An issue was brought to national attention and has helped continue discussion/debate and nobody got their face punched in or shot (at least not that I’ve heard). Actually does sound like a win/win.
Didn’t I read something about police boats deliberately ramming some of the kayaks? Doesn’t sound particularly courteous to me.
@Spaceman – you did read that, but that doesn’t make it true. They arrested people on kayaks, and the video going around shows them doing just that. But a headline that says “COAST GUARD RUNS OVER KAYAKER” gets a lot more clicks.
@reymond-there is news channel video proof of it happening once. But that was a lot less than I expected!
From Mayor Hales: “Just in case you city employees don’t know who I am, I’ll put my office address in the signature.”
Hales is a slime fuck.
I wouldn’t say they were ramming. At least from where we stood they didn’t, however they were driving their ski boats a little too aggressively towards the kayaks (in my opinion.) I must add there were a couple of kayaker’s that began to bang the officer’s heads with their paddles while the officers attempted to hook on to their kayaks to push them aside. Anyway, it’s all a different story when you’re actually a witness.
I should also mention, one of the protesters against the Fennica was overwhelmed & pissed off at an insane woman pro fennica moving toward the arctic, she forgot about peace and threw her glass bottle right at that woman’s leg. 😑 A little too much anger with her, but overall successful and peacefulish.
Oh yeah! That crazy old lady and her husband who were pro-Shell and out on the floating dock rooting for the police. They picked several fights. Reminiscent of Westboro Baptist Church. She tried to get one guy arrested for tossing her counter-protest sign in the water and she went around trying to get news crews to interview her. Her husband kicked off our engagement by trying to bait me into tossing him in the water. I’m an old lady so I thought that was unbelievably odd as it was obviously unlikely I could take him. Out in public, embarrassing their kids, with no concern for the future of their grandkids. Her main debate skill was sticking her fingers in her ears if someone made a viable point. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so sad. These are the people you see posting in these threads that the fliers should be cut down and die. So weird to meet them in the flesh. Ugh. I’m not in the least surprised to hear she threw a bottle at someone.
“National Attention” — ah, yes, the rest of the country watched with baited breath to see if those brave Portland Protesters could stop the Evil Ship from accomplishing its’ mission.
All eyes were glued to the TV, much like OJ fleeing the police.
What will the next Protest in Portland bring, wonders a curious nation?
You’re a hoot, Frank.
You could start your own. Maybe start a campaign to build a giant sculpture of Ronald Reagan’s brain. Kids could play around in all the holes.