This just in from the police:
This afternoon, Wednesday October 19, 2011, at 3:39 p.m., Portland Police officers responded to the report of a man arguing with people at Southwest 4th and Salmon Street, next to the Lownsdale Park encampment of Occupy Portland. Officers arrived in the area and learned that the man displayed a handgun and walked towards 3rd and Salmon. Officers located the man at 3rd and Salmon and he was taken into custody. A firearm has been recovered.
It’s unclear whether he was involved in Occupy Portland or was some sort of raving anti-Occupy person, but either way it’s scary to have someone waving a gun near a busy protest.
Update 5:21pm—Okay, KGW posted a video of the fight, but I just watched it twice and still have no idea what’s going on. It’s definitely a shouting match between a black guy in a sweatshirt and a group of young Occupy folks wearing bandanas over their faces (plus the requisite “guy waving peace signs”) but how the fight started or what it’s about it unclear.
It’s not a protest
How did the state of Minnesota get to Portland?
In actual constructive comments, KGW has video of the fight pre-pistol:
http://www.kgw.com/video?id=132205753&sec=…
Ditch the facemasks already kids.
This probably has nothing to do with it, but I saw at least 25 cops, on motorcycles and in marked and unmarked cars and vans, heading down NE Vancouver around 3:15. Anybody know what that was about?
The world is going crazy, I swear. What were all those cops doing, anyway?
what is it exactly, then? It’s crazy, I tell ya..J.
Time to kick them out.
Seriously.
I threw a freak show and a protest broke out
99% of the whites trying to keep the black man from speaking his mind. Looks like a KKK rally.
Andy, you sound like Michelle Malkin decrying the racial mix of the protesters to her 99% white audience. Like the KKK, Western Abolition was a movement of white people, too.
It’s kind of embarrassing watching people trying to resolve a conflict by talking AT each other…
Tommy, that was Condoleeza Rice speaking at the Convention Center.
Sarah: What was the purpose of specifying the guy’s skin color?
smapdi, I saw more minorities at the tea party in Poorland.
@Killer Dave – I mentioned his skin color to note who he was in the video as the most direct way to differentiate one person in a sweatshirt yelling from another person in a sweatshirt yelling.
Why a black man gotta shine your shoes?
The dude should have just used down twinkles instead of flashing his piece.
Hey Occupy folks, nobody but you Alinskyites understands the twinkly jazz hands thing or whatever it is. Waving your hands in a non-Occupier’s face doesn’t seem to be a very fruitful way of communicating.
Also, raaaaacism!