We are preparing for a showdown this Saturday night when the city declares Occupy Portland officially evicted from its two parks at 12:01 am on Sunday morning.
While Occupy Portland hasn’t come out with a consensus decision for whether they’ll stay or go, given past history and this morning’s shouts of “We’re not going anywhere!” it’s clear that some individuals will certainly stay in the parks until they’re forcibly removed.
Multnomah County jail is currently at 88 percent capacity of its maximum 1,310 inmates, says Sheriff Spokesman Steve Alexander. The jail has a policy for times of large arrests, it’s called the Capacity Management Plan (pdf). The plan states that if the jail reaches 97 percent capacity (Alexander says it’s 95 percent capacity), the jail has to start releasing people. They have a complicated matrix to determine who to release, but it’s the lowest-level offenders who are deemed least likely to re-offend.
Based on the current numbers, if police arrest more than 95 people, the jail will have to start making releases. There is no plan to open more beds somewhere else in the county to take extra prisoners.
Occupy Portland media outreach guy Reid Parham sent us a note saying that Occupy has information from city commissioners’ officers saying the city will push to hold arrested Occupiers for as long as possible, since the protesters will potentially return to the park whenever they’re released.
Remember Chris O’Connor’s letter about protesting? Give it another read through to note what people will likely be arrested for, how to prepare for arrest (don’t forget medications and that lawyer’s number Sharpied on your arm!), and that getting arrested is a big fucking hassle.
They could intern quite a few Occupiers on the Portland Spirit. Might do wonders for the “reality show” that the owners of the boat are shopping around. (No Boat Cop jokes please.)
Also, Ross Island could become Portland’s own Guantanamo Bay, with the prisoners forced to toil in the sand-and-gravel mines.
I’m not advocating either of these courses of action. Just another episode of “Mecklem Predicts.”
OK, but seriously, who decided Saturday night at midnight was a good time to have a major police showdown in downtown Portland?
Good thing the PSU isn’t having any coaches-raping-little-boys scandals. Otherwise all of downtown Portland would be on fire right now.
They’ll likely wait til about 4 or 5 AM
Andy, I was thinking that too. Some enterprising downtown bartender should create a drink for the occasion, the “Screaming Teargasm.”
I didn’t get the lawyer’s number sharpied on my arm because I had an elaborately planned escape route
Good thing I wasn’t arrested
I don’t know that this is a very constructive article, from several viewpoints.
damn son you got problems