Surprisingly, this ended well.

So. Eviction notice served, but the Occupation remains in downtown Portland.

Here’s what we didn’t see last night: Mass arrests, violence, naked people covered in Crisco, anarchists hiding in trees with makeshift weapons.

Here’s what actually happened: Curfew broken, dance party, street closure attempt, police officer injured, rough arrest, hours-long street standoff, COOL HEADS PREVAILED.

Thousands of protesters went toe-to-toe with riot gear-clad police in the middle of the night and peace, for the most part, prevailed. I feel like giving the whole city a high five.

Now the long version.

Curfew Broken: Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese set a deadline of Saturday at midnight to empty out both Lownsdale Square and Chapman Park. But midnight found a crowd of 5,000 people dancing, biking, talking, and drum circling in the parks and Main Street. Instead of moving in to forcibly evict people, the police waited by.

Dance Party: For about two hours, the mood on the scene was on of New Year’s Eve free-for-all party. Someone was giving out caviar. It was a gay ol’ time. Occupy Portland’s media group made this little video that captures the mood:

Street Closure Attempt: At about 1:45am, police began trying to clear the Main Street, first by announcing over a PA system that remaining in the street would leave protesters subject to arrest or use of chemical agents. The crowd chanted back, “Too big to jail!” and a group of police in riot gear and five mounted patrol officers began to move into the crowd. Police deployed pepper spray on at least one person.

Police Officer Injured: As the police moved into the crowd, 23-year-old Cameron Matta (still-bleeding mugshot here) is accused of throwing a firework at an officer, causing him to fall over and be injured. In the tensest moment of the night, the police pulled back, out of the crowd, calling an ambulance for their fallen member. As the crowd cheered their retreat, the scene was heated and many shouted slogans of nonviolence. The police officer, luckily, was okay.

Rough Arrest: Not wanting a crackdown on the entire group, the crowd then appears to have pushed Matta forward to police. He was arrested on SW 3rd Avenue, sustaining minor injuries.

Hours Long Street Standoff: Between about 2:30am and 6am, the protesters and police stood their ground. Protesters built barricades on SW Main with furniture that was lying around, small pockets of the crowd got rowdy and near-violent but never took action, and there was a surprising amount of open pot smoking. The crowd thinned to a couple hundred.

At 6am, the police moved through the streets, asking the protesters to return to the parks. With no violence, the streets were cleared. The mood in the parks was victorious. “We held the parks!”

This was a tense night that easily could have led to violence, mass arrests, and a worsening of the relationship between Portland’s citizens and its police. Instead, we had one arrest, one police injury, and the parks are cleaned out of the mess accumulated during the weeks of occupation. Sunday at dawn, it feels like the protest has a clean slate.

The city still plans on clearing out the protest, but Mayor Sam Adams, who watched the protest through the night along with Chief Mike Reese, dismisses a feeling of victory of disappointment. “I’m here to enforce laws and keep peace. I’m not here to tally scores. This isn’t a game,” he told our News Editor Denis Theriault. There’s no clear timeline, but the Mayor says the city still plans on clearing out the parks and erecting fences to keep protesters out at some point in the near future.

Now: What’s next? General Assembly meets at Terry Schrunk Plaza at noon.

Big (HUGE!) shout out and thanks to our reporters on the scene overnight: Denis Theriault, Matt Bors, and Georgia Perry. You guys are rock stars! Someone get them some donuts, ASAP.

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.

30 replies on “Occupy Portland Morning Mop Up: WTF Happened Last Night?”

  1. Thank you for being there and for keeping people informed. That was an amazing night. I was super impressed with the restraint on our police forces part. Feels weird to write that sentence, but I guess from watching other protests play out, I was expecting worse.

  2. Thanks for all the reporting. I really appreciate the thoughtful information from the middle of the night! I am quite impressed with everyone (police, protesters, and policy folks) avoiding violence.

    That being said, as a member of the 99%, it’s really frustrating to watch this unfold and feel like the whole protest has become about holding these parks in Portland, Oregon which is completely unrelated to the financial reality we all face. All this energy and time on the part of everyone (protesters, police, policy, news, etc.) that could be going towards starting a business that is a positive force in our local community, developing better regulation, actually targeting the 1% who I’m quite sure don’t give a rip about these parks or the Portland protest other than it keeps us distracted… I dunno, just hard to watch all this really good work on the part of everyone feel like it’s getting frittered away.

    On the other hand, I’m just getting through my life and observing the Occupy protests rather than trying to participate, so feel free to disregard this entire comment.

  3. Thanks for writing this, Sarah. It’s been a little tough to distill happenings from the bajillion tweets this morning.

    I was so worried for our protestors. I’m not capable of being out there myself, yet they have my total support. Go team protest! You are loved.

  4. Open Letter to Mayor Adams:

    Want to know how to get #OccupyPortland to leave the park? Here’s how:

    Try to realize that a better use of your mayoral influence would be to IMPEL LOCAL AND NATIONAL LAWMAKERS to acknowledge and take action toward ENDING THE CORRUPT PRACTICES that have brought Oregon, the US, and the world to a state where, sadly, public protest is the only option that gets any attention.

    You are as aware of the problems as we are, but unlike Occupy, YOU HAVE THE POWER AND INFLUENCE TO WORK TO ACTUALLY GET THE CHANGES MADE.

    The tools are there (HR 1489, SJ 29 among many others) to be implemented, but lawmakers seem to LACK THE POLITICAL WILL to do so.

    Therefore, you and all the other leaders attempting to send Occupy home need to understand this:

    OCCUPY EXISTS AND WILL REMAIN UNTIL LAWMAKERS SUMMON THE POLITICAL WILL TO ATTACK THE REAL PROBLEMS IN THE US, instead of vilifying citizens who feel they have no choice but to remain in the streets in refusal to tolerate the corrupt status quo.

    You have a unique opportunity here to be a world leader unlike any other: The first to FEARLESSLY NAME the problem (a continuing culture of corruption of the political process and the financial sector), the first to REFUSE such influence in the future (at the risk of it costing your job (which it won’t, if you’re honest and bold about your naming and refusal), and the first to FINALLY START WORK TO END IT.

  5. Write Adams a letter and let him know you don’t appreciate it wormy tactics in this. his move to dismantle the occupiers in the middle of the night is to save his face from the media. listen to his interview from November 10th on NPR’s All Things Considered and see how he doesn’t care about Portland’s People.

  6. @Rob…Why don’t YOU spend your time influencing national leaders? Instead of smoking pot and dancing in a park, and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in police overtime that will come straight out of the budgets of the kind of programs you should be supporting? You want to party, and have other people do the work. We get it.

  7. am so proud of portland and occupy portland . . . imagine these videos all over the world just like we watch the ones in the middle east . . . am thinking that of the one percent, only a few crippled distorted people do not know that you have to have a strong base to hold up a pyramid . . . even the I Ching says so . . . those who want to hang out at the pinnacle and peak better make a strong base or the people will topple them . . . just of few morons can make this necessary . . . our occupy eugene has a self-policing committee so that there really cannot be infiltrators generating false imagine of member violence . . . here’s to portlandia . . . thanks all you splendid people at the birth of the new way we will live . . .

  9. My adult daughter was down there last night. My heart was in my throat. She wanted to participate in a PEACEFUL democratic demonstration. A big THANK YOU to Mayor Adams and the Portland PEACE OFFICERS!

  10. I have to say, i’m a tad surprised that things ended out fairly well for the most part – so far. Considering the thousands of citizens who were at Occupy last night, the fact that there has been only one arrest (and one very minor injury to a cop) certainly says alot.

    And i think it’s real fucking funny how many people (including many so-called “liberals”) have been feigning concern over anarchists and Black Bloc “causing trouble”, when it’s actually been right-wing dummies who’ve been the ones clamoring for violence!

    You should’ve seen all these conservatards bitching and whining on Faux12Oregon calling for the police to use MUSTARD GAS, rubber bullets, and fire hoses (like they did to Civil Rights activists back in the 1960’s). Even threatening to go down there and start shooting! Many people are far more concerned about some goddamn football game then the state of affairs in this country.

  11. to the person who feels holding the parks are unrelated to the protests, for my part, it is the only think that I really relate to. Taking back parks, vacant lots, abandoned buildings for us to meet in since the Union houses had to be sold (or we would be able to be out of the rain holding these meetings now) due to the corporations busting them by lobbying out protections and worse,taking back foreclosed homes, taking back buildings meant for social services, planting gardens in vacant lots, overspilling it all with a creative and people/environment oriented way of existence is the only thing these protests are truly about. Not just cashola

  14. Our emperors have no clothes. Our emperors have no shame. These governors, mayors, city councils, police chiefs and street cops of America need to realize that it is NOT UP TO THEM whether or not Americans peaceably gather, protest, discuss, or demonstrate. It’s up to a document called the US CONSTITUTION. You can beat us and arrest us and tear-gas us, you can try to “permit” us to death….but you can’t kill an idea. You can’t keep down a people’s hopes and dreams for a better life…..a life with dignity and freedom….for us, and for our kids. With OWS America has found it’s voice, and that voice demands fairness and justice – for ALL. This land IS our land! AND WE WANT IT BACK! We want our LIVES back! We want our FUTURE back! But it’s much more than words…. it’s much more than politics..­.. it’s your LIFE, and how you want to live it. Find a quiet place somewhere, and consider this: Each of us has only one brief life….on­e chance….­one roll of the dice….and many choices. The time has come to choose….to risk…and to act. If not now…then when? If not you, then….who? You DO have the power my friend….and the choice IS yours. Don’t let your dreams die….

  15. Our emperors have no clothes. Our emperors have no shame. These governors, mayors, city councils, police chiefs and street cops of America need to realize that it is NOT UP TO THEM whether or not Americans peaceably gather, protest, discuss, or demonstrate. It’s up to a document called the US CONSTITUTION. You can beat us and arrest us and tear-gas us, you can try to “permit” us to death….but you can’t kill an idea. You can’t keep down a people’s hopes and dreams for a better life…..a life with dignity and freedom….for us, and for our kids. With OWS America has found it’s voice, and that voice demands fairness and justice – for ALL. This land IS our land! AND WE WANT IT BACK! We want our LIVES back! We want our FUTURE back! But it’s much more than words…. it’s much more than politics..­.. it’s your LIFE, and how you want to live it. Find a quiet place somewhere, and consider this: Each of us has only one brief life….on­e chance….­one roll of the dice….and many choices. The time has come to choose….to risk…and to act. If not now…then when? If not you, then….who? You DO have the power my friend….and the choice IS yours. Don’t let your dreams die….

  17. I’m not sure why it is being reported that Matta threw the firework, or that the crowd pushed him out. Both those statements are false. I was next to him. the firework came from over our heads, from the crowd somewhere. He was separated from the crowd by the mounted police after the riot police repeatedly hit him with batons. He was never pushed from the crowd, unless you mean the crowd of Portland police in riot gear.

  26. ‘intensive care’ ? for a sore arm and sore leg?
    He asked for it, and he got it. That is usually what happens when you don’t follow a cops instructions.
    Don’t look at this jackass as a martyr, except maybe as a martyr to stupidity.

  27. First of all HORRIBLY WRITTEN ARTICLE, S. Mirk. Nice how you mention the “injured police officer,” who was “luckily ok.” IS HE INJURED OR IS HE OK?? HE CANT BE BOTH. Also, you have no mention on the man who is in critical condition in the hospital after being beaten with clubs by the police.. but I guess that doesn’t really concern you.. does it?

  29. Mirk: “[F]alling to the ground,” how? Did he trip over his own feet? I know you’re not claiming he fell off a horse, since none of the five mounted officers were ever at any point forced out of the saddle; all five police equestrian helmets remained always visible above the crowd until they left, leaving behind several reeking piles of feces.

    frankieb: Failure to comply with a lawful order is a clearly defined criminal offense with clearly defined penalties, and getting your ass kicked by the officer on the scene isn’t one of them. Force is allowed to the extent necessary to effect an arrest and/or protect officers and the public. I don’t want anyone carrying a gun on my behalf who can’t take a nonviolent suspect into custody without injuring him.
    Aren’t police supposed to be the “good guys?” And good guys don’t beat up people. If that doesn’t fly with you, Daraa or Homs may be more your kind of place than Portland.

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