UPDATE 1:09 PM—The Tribune story has just been corrected; Jefferson Smith says the report mischaracterized his stance toward the protest. The headline now reads: “Mayor candidates split on Occupy Portland Correction: Smith says caamp might not need to end” (oh, hasty updating!). Instead of enforcing an arbitrary deadline, Smith “is willing to see the camp remain, provided occupants comply with ‘benchmarks’ set by the city, such as committing no crimes that are not related to the protest, such as acts of civil disobedience.” This is much less surprising news than just Hales and Brady wanting the protest out. Back to the original post:

If Occupy Portland were happening in 2013 instead of right now, the protest would get a much different reception from the city—in a Portland Tribune article, all three of the main contenders to replace Mayor Sam Adams say the city should give Occupy a deadline to move out.

Charlie Hales says the city should give the camp two or three days to get out of the park before swooping in with police and making arrests. (cut to: Oakland)

Eileen Brady and Jefferson Smith say the city should work with the protesters to agree on a move out deadline. Hopefully they’re up for attending several nights of four hour meetings—you think Occupy is going to agree on an end date when the group couldn’t even agree on clearing Main Street?

“Civil disobedience means you break the law to make a point. The protesters have broken the city’s anti-camping ordinance to make their point. People have heard them. Now’s the time to move on,” says Brady.

“Now’s the time to look for a win-win. The city should work with the protesters to help them find another vehicle for their message,” says Smith.

I’m surprised that none of the candidates Brady and Hales are not on the side of Occupy with this. Telling the camp they should move is the middle-of-the-road response that will look good to business—but it’s strange that with all their progressive talk, none of the candidates want to side with the Occupiers and rally their support. What’s the deal here? WHAT’S THE DEAL? Poll time.

Update 10/26: If you guys are interested, 19-year-old mayoral candidate Max Brumm thinks the Occupiers should stay: “The should definitely stay, and the police should not interfere. I think the biggest complainers don’t even live inside the city of Portland… The OccupyPdx people have been conducting civil disobedience during this whole process. The only reason to send the police in at all would be when outside instigators start violence.”

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

13 replies on “Occupy Portland: Mayoral Candidates Agree Disagree That City Should Boot the Protest”

  1. The deal is the Occupy folks haven’t done anything to effect any sort of meaningful systemwide change, or lay any sort of foundation for leading to such change, whatsoever. Its like those handful of people who gather in Pioneer Square every Friday. They’ve become city noise.

    Plus, there’s this sort of stuff, from the Willamette Week Occupier of the Day (sorry), today is “Pi”:

    Tenure at Occupy Portland: Camping since last weekend and staying until it ends, but says he might move to the Occupation in Seattle

    Otherwise lives in: Eugene

    His favorite political thinker: Khalil Gibran

    His contribution to the camp: Pi says he hasn’t been able to volunteer because he’s afraid to leave his stuff. “People are yelling about stolen stuff every night.”

    Why he won’t show his face or use his real name: “I’ve been going by Pi for 13 years. You cannot create or destroy energy. Just like Pi, it goes on forever.” He also says he’s afraid to show his face because of government monitoring.

    His experience at Occupy Portland: “My idea of the movement is that people feel like this is their last-ditch effort to be heard. There’s going to be violence, there’s going to be resistance. The police are going to crack down and people are either going to give up or it will be the last crushing blow.”

  2. Jefferson Smith clarified his position by saying the protesters should be allowed to stay if they meet certain benchmarks:

    (from the updated article)
    But State Rep. Jefferson Smith is willing to see the camp remain, provided occupants comply with “benchmarks” set by the city, such as committing no crimes that are not related to the protest, such as acts of civil disobedience.

    As long as the occupants meet the benchmarks, Smith would allow them to stay. He would only move to the close the camp if the ratio of noncompliance to compliance with the benchmarks becomes too great.

    At that point, Smith says the city should look a win-win situation.

    “The city should work with the protesters to help them find another vehicle for their message,” says Smith.

  3. It seems necessary that the camp will be moved. But to where and what effect it’ll have on the Occupy community, who knows. By the way, who is the leader(s) of the Occupiers in Portland? Is this a social Co-oP in which everyone is just chillin and waiting or are there a group of loud extroverts actually planning the end goal?

  4. I don’t think anyone is going to be worried about the Occupy folks, until they start registering as voters, and using their direct democracy to put forth some consensus derived candidates and platforms to start running for positions in the representative democracy that the rest of the country outside of a few parks in big cities use.

    Until then, it’s all just noise… it’s a shame I agree with the majority of the noise.

  5. “using their direct democracy to put forth some consensus derived candidates”

    You just described every election, dude. That’s what elections are: a vehicle for the community to arrive at a consensus about who should represent us.

  6. Let’s go to Portland’s other, often forgotten, mayoral candidates!

    “The Winter is Coming.”
    ~Eddard Stark on #OccupyPortland’s coming challenge, winter weather!

    “They’d go away if you stopped paying attention to them, you imbeciles. As mayor, I’d kindly ask you not to ask me these idiotic questions.”
    ~Frank Cassano

  7. One can forgive the Tribune for being unclear, because everything Smith has said about anything so far on the campaign trail is a vague statement laden with qualifiers.

  9. @Zed – I know, right?! The difference is, they’re a direct democracy looking for group consensus, where as the government here is a republic or representative democracy where decisions are based by a simple, or a modified majority. If they start developing candidates out of their direct democracy OR otherwise interfacing with the larger representative democracy, then they’ll REALLY become a force to be reckoned with…or… interesting.

    As it is, they’re outside of the system giving them squarely zero effect on people within the system.

    How about if they had a “register to vote day”, and then they all used consensus to decide which mayoral candidate to endorse and as a block vote for. Suddenly they stop being “That problem in the park” to all of these candidates and suddenly they become “Oh shit! It’s the electorate!”

  10. Walked by the camp this morning. At this point, it’s just a bunch of people living in a park. Maybe they go on a march every few days, but they could be doing that anyway.

    I recommend everyone walk by there and ask yourself what it is accomplishing. If there is an answer, it isn’t obvious.

  12. JUST A NOTE: Our blogging software won’t let us change the name of a poll after it’s published, unless we want to delete the entire poll and lose all the votes. I think it’s better to keep it with the misleading title, though hopefully people will actually read the rest of the post. THAT’S ALL!

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