It’s been about five hours since the Portland police made their intentions clear in the original Occupy Portland encampment. Now, Occupiers have left SW Main St between 4th and 5th Avenues to move to Pioneer Courthouse Square. The next step for the trusty sleep-deprived and cold occupiers: Deciding where to transport their camp. Washington High School football field, Waterfront Park, Pioneer Courthouse Square and the PSU Park Blocks are the options. Turns out tearing down tents and tarps does little to break up the occupation. Meanwhile, Chapman and Lownsdale Parks are completely evacuated of people and debris and surrounded by chain link fences.
Update 7 PM: Denis here. I ran into four of today’s arrested occupiers at the Starbucks at Pioneer Square, where I’m trying to charge my phone/computer for a change. Two were the only people, they say, arrested at Schrunk—and they were cited and released almost immediately for failure to obey a lawful order.
Only one was attached to the barrel. The other was with her in solidarity. But the girl who was attached said she almost suffered an injury to her arm when Federal Protective Services officers tried to jackhammer away the concrete she was locked to, and had someone bring the key.
The other two were arrested in Chapman Square and also were quickly cited and released. They said they all rode in the same TriMet bus to jail and sang Tenacious D songs, which made the arresting officers laugh. A far cry from the grim scene that saw riot cops brusquely pushing middle aged men and women standing peacefully in the closed park during an Occupy general assembly meeting.//
Here’s a video I made of Occupy’s first response to the riot police invasion on Chapman Park:
Here’s a collection of police-centric photos from the day. For up-to-date covera, follow our current news squad (Denis Theriault, Matt Bors, and Alex Z) on Twitter. Into the night!
- Peace signs vs. the po-po.
- Policewoman with a tear gas gun stretches on her tip toes.
More after the jump!
thanks for the update Alex. You and Dennis have covered this story expertly. Local news I actually give a fuck about. Awesome.
Also, can we get some pictures of you?
“Riot police invasion?” If the officers are citizens doesn’t this make Chapman Square park theirs as well? Using your choice of language what stops the Occupation being made up of a bunch of “invaders” who blocked me and my fellow citizens without tents from using the park?
‘almost suffered an injury’ ??
why report an ‘almost injury’ anyway?
the cops deserve alot of credit for how they handled their job, as well as Reese who likely oversaw the tactics.
# Thanks for following I suppose I’ve been hiding my face around Blogtown for a while, so I’m going to take your request as entirely fair rather than creepy. Here I am muggin’ with a a Mercury mug in the office. http://twitpic.com/7e1ykt . If you see me around (esp. at Occupy) say hello!
Alex, at first I thought you were a male reporter.
Sorry.
It’s understandable.
No, I meant ‘sorry you’re not a man’.
just playin’ !
Hilarious frankieb, did you share that one with your wife?
Sure, why not?
I grew up with 4 younger sisters and no brothers.
Teasing became a way of self-defence.
OK, it ain’t the wittiest attempt at humor …
I cannot help but have this thought it would be smarter for these folks and more to go and “occupy” the state house or the offices of elected Senate and House members. Encourage them to actually serve the people instead of continuing to be self-serving. Encouraging actual changes like overturning that unwise decision from the Supreme Court and Citizens United that gave all the same rights of a human being to a corporation which only exists on paper.
There was some email going around about a proposed new amendment to the Constitution that put new limits on members of Congress to be subject to restricted pay and health plan options. An equalizer of sorts.
Go inconvenience the people that will have a vote and larger voice on such things. Unite under one cause at a time and make them serve us again instead of allowing things to slide further toward the cliff’s edge we’ve been moving toward.
Jake’s right!
And frankieb beat me to the punch about the “almost suffered an injury” line. How is that not “suffered no injuries?”
That little police lady is sooo adorable! As much as i loath and despise ALL cops, i admit it’s difficult to hate her. She looks like a cute little ninja turtle with her BIG BAD tear gas gun and her SCARY protective armor.
I’m sure her male counterparts have her back all the way… so long as she “knows her place” and doesn’t speak out of term. And in the extremely fucked up event that she [might] get sexually harassed or WORSE by one of her comrades, it would simply be best if she kept her little mouth shut and just took it w/ a grain of salt. She doesn’t want to end up like Sergeant Liani Reyna, does she?:
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…