Belmont store window smashed.
Belmont store window smashed.
  • Belmont store window smashed.

Shortly after 6 pm, with red-and-black flags waving, several dozen protesters left Colonel Summers Park, as promised, for an anti-police-brutality march that had the Portland Police Bureau concerned enough that it sent out a pre-emptive arrest warning earlier in the afternoon.

The marchers were chanting in unison, “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, FUCK THE POLICE!” And, yes, they were mostly members of the anarchist Black Bloc crowd, dressed in the usual black and with bandanas over their faces.

Windows were smashed. Cars were tagged. And, also as promised, Portland cops—some in riot gear—were on hand and ready with the handcuffs. (And also with some taunts of their own.) The Oregonian reported some nine arrests in connection with the protest, an unpermitted march meant to show solidarity with the 400 Occupy protesters arrested in Oakland last month. (The Oregonian over-stated the number of protestors they counted 175, I counted no more than 80).

As we mentioned earlier, tonight’s march wasn’t technically an Occupy march—although many of the marchers are Occupy Portland participants. And that tension was on display as the Black Bloc helped escalate the protest into a mini riot.

The first incident was on SE Yamhill, when a car trying to avoid the marchers slowed to a near stop. Seeing an opportunity, masked protesters spray-painted the driver’s rear window with an anarchy symbol.

“Why are we spray painting regular people’s cars!?” yelled a woman from the crowd.

<div class=”blogImageLeft” style=”width:275
px;”>Protestors March on Belmont.

  • Greg Podolec
  • Protestors March on Belmont.

Ten minutes later the group continued on its circuitous route from the poorly lit residential Yamhill to the brightly lit storefronts of Belmont. Near SE 28th, a masked protester used the metal staff holding his red-and-black flag to bust two holes in the window of Genoa Restaurant. Take that, 1 percent!

The next piece of property to feel the marchers’ wrath was a blue BMW parked at SE 30th and Stark, just up from Stark Naked Pizza. A protester again used a flagstaff. He smashed the vehicle’s windshield and passenger-side window.

The mild destruction elicited cheers form some protesters and boos from others.

At SE 26th and Stark, the cops moved in. They even enjoyed a laugh at the expense of the marchers.

Talking through a loudspeaker from a white van, the police declared that SE Stark was being cleared and that “anyone one left in the street would be subject to arrest.” The officer talking into the loudspeaker could be heard holding back a laugh, and when the street was cleared actually said, “Take that, baby.”

The group headed back to Belmont, where some pulled a dumpster out into the street. At this point unmasked protesters started shoving their masked compatriots and pushed the dumpster back to the curb.

Next, the anarchists knocked over a recycling bin, and again unmasked protesters picked the contents and placed them back in the bin.

The protesters continued to SE Morrison, just next to the Lone Fir Cemetery. There, they learned the police were waiting for them at SE 20th. Trying not to get outflanked, the protesters found an open spot between buildings and headed back to Belmont. The police still managed to outflank them.

Then the 15 or so riot police, 10 or so cops on bikes, and the five horse-riding police officers all moved in and starting making arrests.

At 23rd and Belmont, an unmasked man was arrested.

“I was just crossing the street,” he screamed as he was handcuffed

Police move in.

Brent Georgeson, an unmasked protester, said he saw the police knock the man off his bike.

“I don’t think breaking car windows and store windows is the best way to get the message across,” said Georgeson. “I mean I don’t know if the street is a good place to have a discussion like that.”

He was holding a red-and-black flag, which he said he had picked up because he was concerned someone might use it to break something else.

As police in full riot gear stormed Belmont, several other protesters were handcuffed and hauled away in police cars.

“This is not Occupy doing this,” said Bao Vuong from Occupy Portland, trying to distance the movement from the Black Bloc. “This is a group of anarchists, and we have asked them not to do this and they don’t listen.”

After the arrests on Belmont, the protesters scattered. As of an hour or so ago, a small group had made their way to SE 36th and Hawthorne. Vuong, who followed the group, said he saw at least two more arrests.

34 replies on “Black Bloc Trashes Belmont; Cops Make Arrests”

  3. A very small group of them passed 15th a little over half an hour ago. They were chanting “the people united will never be divided” (which isn’t the chant), except half of them were chanting something else about police brutality, sort of undoing the united and undivided argument.

  5. “I hope they get shot.”

    Over afew smashed windows. WOW! Which were smashed by a COP-INFILTRATOR, btw! Maybe someone ought to report your sorry ass for DEATH THREATS!

  6. The positive elements of the Occupy movement need to beat the shit out of these dumbasses to let them know, without a doubt, their destructive crap won’t be tolerated.

  9. Pro tip kids: if you don’t want police and government, act like they aren’t necessary. Your vandalism and general thuggery justifies the State and is counterproductive. I’d actually like to think it is just planted provocateurs but I know some punks really are stupid enough to be so self-defeating. If you must break things, break your own things. Even destroying government property just comes out of the wallets of your fellow citizens.
    You’re making peaceful anarchists look bad. Ass clowns.

  10. black bloc is not a group, or organization. It is a loosely defined set of tactics. Seems to be a poor decision to use such tactics here, thus overshadowing the issue of police brutality. The cops have no room to talk about property destruction, given all of the humans they have harmed.

  11. @Spindles: OK, so three reasonably muscled guys show up to a protest, break a camera, and don’t say anything…that makes them cops. Are you serious?

  12. “black bloc trashes belmont”? There was, like, 5 broken windows, some paint, and a displaced trash can. If they had been out to trash it, you would have a better photo than a couple of punctures in a door. How about “PPB drag’s innocent people’s faces across the pavement all over SE portland”? Because that is similarly accurate. They beat and cut people in the street, and didn’t even try to say they were the one’s breaking things. Their crimes were jaywalking, and they were beaten for it.

    But, you know, let’s focus on the window. What was this march about again? Oh yeah, something something brutality…

  15. You know, it’s real fucking funny how people in general like to advocate violence and even make chicken-shit death threats on-line in response to insignificant amounts of property damage. Who are the “anarchists” now?!

  16. @12 Somehow I doubt you grasp the irony of your last two sentences. What was this march about? Must have been about breaking a few windows. All because someone had a bad plate of gnocchi once, I guess? Or maybe it was because Columbus is from Genoa? Are they mad that Dixie Mattress Co. left?

    Fucking imbeciles.

  17. worst. protest. ever.

    while this protest was supposed to be part of occupy, the protesters are actually part of a different 1%. The 99% of us who live in that neighborhood thank the police

  21. I like the idea of groups of people following behind the vandals and cleaning up after them. This should be main strategy employed by Occupy to demonstrate that they don’t condone the actions of the anarchist types.

  22. This was not Occupy? LOL. And you call yourself a newspaper? Once again selective reporting from the Pravda of downtown Portland. If you are reading this rag I invite you to go down and see what happened for yourself. There’s a YouTube link after description.

    Occu-Mob Goes Berserk: Smashes Windows, Dumps Trash, Intimidates Media/Cops
    From: daylightdisinfectant | Feb 7, 2012 | 89 views
    Dateline Portland, Oregon – February 7, 2012: Violence/Language warning. Viewer Discretion Is Advised. What was supposed to be another “Peaceful Protest” by Occupy Portland ran hopelessly awry and out of control this evening. The self described mob shouted profanity, broke windows, and sought to intimidate police and citizen journalists who would try and film it. Some occupiers overturned trash cans while others seemingly not in agreement with the vandals, uprighted the cans and tried to clean up the mess. Portland Police responded with the riot squad. A total of ten arrests were made, three caught on film, with two of the perps identifying themselves and claiming that they were just walking down the sidewalk and were pushed into the street. One claims the cops attacked him with a bottle. One of those arrested identifies herself as a “Emmalyn Garrett.” The other identifies himself as “Effy Artinez” (SP?). Chants made by the Occu-Mob included “Fu*k the Police!,” “All Cops Are Bastards,” and “America Has Got to Go!” Again, viewer discretion is advised. … (more info)

    http://youtu.be/p-WS42BBBLs

  23. Jesus, Dan. You’re like a priest who spends all day denouncing sexual immorality and all night fucking kids. The anarchists create support for the police by acting like assholes, then Dan comes along and encourages support for the anarchists by pretending that these are the same people who honestly can’t find work. You’re just a really stupid person.

  24. Well sadly, the reporting here IS extremely bias on a WW/OregonLive level. So i’m pretty disappointed that the Merc. would publish such a slanderous blog. I actually have to go to my credit union on Belmont this morning – i seriously doubt i will encounter a “trashed” street.

    And it also seems to be lost on many folks that any damage occurred may likely have been done by POLICE PROVOCATEURS.

    http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Damo&hellip;

  25. See that, Dan? See how you sound just like that goofy asshole DamosA? That’s what happens when you assume that the world is made up of two kinds of people. You two clowns should move to Idaho together.

  27. OWS needs to get some rules and a structure. Let the anarchists go have their own pointless tantrums.

    And protesting the police, except in truly extreme cases, is a fool’s errand.

    Ah, but then fools think they can defeat capitalism by means of juvenile street theater like this crap.

  28. So, i see vandalism, maybe not done by the main group, and a bunch of whiny ass kids. That one kid should have just gone to the sidewalk and STFU. He did not have to be arrested but what in the fuck good does it do anyone to antagonize police. You know that won’t end well. How is this helping the 99% ? Some stupid lame chants and a bunch of confused 20 something middle class white kids whining about America. Is Genoa a corporation? Oh, and before you 20 somethings get pissed, if you are my age and doing this nonsense I actually have less respect for you than the 20 somethings. Just stop. What a shock it was on Belmont eh?

  31. people who want to practice violence as protest will completely discredit the Occupy movement, which has had a strong commitment to non-violence since the start. this article, the second like it in two weeks (see Chris Hedges’s article and over 100 responses) tells a very sad and disturbing story. if you want to practice random violence in an infantile manner (or any other manner), please separate yourselves from the rest of us who have chosen a higher, better and more effective way.

  32. daylightdisinfectant = biggest douche bag fake journalist ever.
    Everything he does is bias, he also likes to censor comments made on his utube videos.
    Typical fascist.

    I bet at least two of those masked individuals were undercover cop agent provocateurs.

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