The Portland Police cleared the Occupy Portland protest out of its two downtown parks yesterday—at the time we reported that the great push-out appeared to have resulted in no serious injuries. The Occupiers lodged indoor overnight at the downtown Unitarian Church, which opened its doors to the protesters.

Now, though, Occupiers are saying that the camp’s sign language interpreter, Justin James Bridges, was sent to the hospital after injuries sustained during the move out. He was reportedly hit repeatedly on the back, then passed out, and now has trouble moving his arm.

It’s not clear to me when Bridges was injured, but Occupy Portland‘s web group posted a video last night of police in riot gear hitting members of a crowd with their batons. It’s a tough video to watch and the only incident of its kind that I’ve heard about over the weekend:

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.

13 replies on “Video: Injury Reported at Occupy Portland”

  4. @iPortland – “Their” actions? He’s the one who refused the eviction notice, and went up against riot police after being warned dozens or hundreds of times that force might be used.

  5. The protester in the upper right who, at the beginning of the video, is throwing full punches at the police looks a lot like this guy: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto… I can only imagine he made the situation worse. On the other end of the fight, I have to wonder why some officers are doing overhead swings with their batons. That shit never looks good on video.

  6. You can’t see what’s happening.

    This ain’t the 1960s, everyone has a camera and the cops know they’re always being filmed.

    And when you decide to confront riot police you’ve got bigger problems than a sore back.

  7. The Occupy Portland media volunteers had seen Mr. Bridges at 7 am on Sunday. He was healthy, safe, and in good spirits. This was after the stand offs near Central Precinct, but before the clearing of Chapman Square.

    The injuries he sustained were during police activity to clear Chapman Square.

  10. It looks like that squad did not follow the training procedure. The union will get them reinstated.

    Back in MP school you had to spend 3 weeks as rioters, after messing up that bad, to learn how the baton is used in crowd control.

  11. I wonder what video shot from the Police perspective would show? You don’t see what caused the cop to start swinging, do you?
    Let’s not forget the cops did an amazing job at the task they were given by our Merc endorsed Mayor Adams.
    This could become the standard nation wide for all cops on how to best engage a hostile crowd.
    Our Police Force did one hell of a job, and deserve credit for their work.

  13. Someone in the crowd grabbed an officer’s baton and the others were swinging at those folks’ wrists. That’s why everything seems focused oddly low.

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