if it's not a bother, would you consider posting a little about what the Portland protest was like? (This follower was desperate to go but couldn't)
Of course anon! It's not a bother at all, I was planning on posting about it anyway.
First of all, some of the Oregonian's report and pictures are very misleading. I haven't looked at any of the other newspapers yet, but the Oregonian has as their first pictures pictures of cops in riot-gear sparring with protesters, and are making the protests out to be very violent and out of control. This was not the feeling at all at the main protest in Portland- these incidents happened afterwards, from what I know, and were just a small offbranch of the people who were at the main protest who broke off afterwards and rallied along the freeway and Burnside bridge. I don't know everything that happened there because I wasn't there, but there were apparently a few altercations, protesters getting pepper-sprayed, and arrests, along with a very heavy police force. This was not what the main protest looked like, but the news sources had many more pictures of this than the main protest. (I wonder why eh.)
Anyway, to the main protest. It started at 4:00 pm outside the Justice Hall in the middle of downtown Portland. I didn't get there until about four fifteen because traffic was slow right outside Portland.
There were estimated about two thousand people there, and there was such a huge variety. Very old people, even in wheelchairs, to very small kids being carried by their parents. Black people, other Poc, and white people.
Before the march began, there was about an hour's worth of speakers talking about the ongoing struggle against police murders, violence, and racial profiling. There was a definite emphasis on how large of an issue this is, not just in the case of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, but how widespread this is across America. One of the speakers read out a list of many of the names of the black men and women who have been killed by police officers in America during his speech. It was shocking how many names there were that I had never seen in the media, especially when that list only represented a fraction of the people killed each year.
The speakers themselves were from a wide variety of backgrounds. The audio wasn't all that great, and I was pretty far in the back, so I didn't catch their names (I'm absolutely terrible with names anyway) but there was a young black man who I believe was a Junior from one of the highschools in Portland who spoke, a representative from a organization for Human Rights in the Phillipines, a veteran of Iraq from a group of veterans for peace, a minister (possibly two, one of them led us in a prayer before the march began), and representatives from parties such as the All-African People's revolutionary party.
I wish I had been writing some of this down, as I can't remember quotes exactly, but one thing one of the speakers said really stuck with me; paraphrased, it was along the lines of "We endured the burden of slavery, we endured the burden of the lie of emancipation, we endured the burden of segregation, we endured the burden of the Jim Crow laws, we endured the burden of our leaders being assassinated, but now must we endure the burden of our children being killed?"
Another quote I remember is to bring true justice and quality to America (paraphrased) "We must bring down the three columns of American society; white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism." One of the speakers placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that racism is a construct that benefits this capitalist society, and that America's capitalist system has been built upon the backs of marginalized workers. The woman from the human rights in the Phillipines organization and the Iraq war veteran both talked about how America as a country has, and continues to spread the same violence and components of colonialism abroad as it does inside the country as well.
The point that the Portland police force has expressed solidarity with Darren Wilson was also brought up briefly, and we all booed.
"Do not go quietly into that darkness," was one of the opening lines of another speaker. He and many of the others spoke of how this cannot be a movement that is just carried by rallies; rallies and protests are not enough to change things, and action must be taken. He urged the crowd to investigate and join one or more of the organizations represented there that night, and called out all their names (sorry, the only one I remember is the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, I was trying to cram so much to remember into my brain). He also said that if we did not agree with any of these parties specifically, to start our own. The main point is that rallies and protests are not enough; action needs to be taken to force the government to change.
The march itself began at about fiveish, and went on for about an hour. It was intense, but very peaceful. Before we began to march, the reverend (I think?) who led us in the prayer reminded us that during the march we must all hold each other accountable for keeping the peace; that anger was justified, but no violent action should be taken now. I think that's about the gist of what he said. He stressed watching each other and holding each other accountable thing a lot.
There were helicopters (new helicopters, I think, about two of them) circling overhead for the entire first part of the gathering. I think they were there during the march as well, but I didn't look up to see. There was a definite police presence during the gathering in front of Justice Hall, as well, but they were not in riot gear or on horseback as they are shown responding to the later protest out on the bridge. As far as I saw they were one bicycles with light police jackets only. There were quite a lot of them.
I did not come prepared with a sign, but some guy was making signs for people that said "We demand justice for all" and he gave me one of those to march with, which was very nice.
One of the speakers prior to the march told us to march only on the sidwalks, because we didn't want to disrupt traffic, but somewhere that got thrown out the window, because everyone was marching on the street. I think this was a good thing; it makes a better statement.
I can't tell you exactly where we marched, I was too caught up to really notice, and I'm not too familiar with the geography of downtown Portland. But we marched for about an hour. The atmosphere was very passionate, but very friendly as well. People were all shouting along together.
The shouts that were going on were (What do we want?) JUSTICE! (When do we want it?) NOW, NO JUSTICE NO PEACE NO RACIST POLICE, (Hands up!) DON'T SHOOT!, and BLACK LIVES MATTER!
The only moment of conflict was when we marcher in front of some parking garages. Some of the people trying to come out of the garages were honking their horns for a long time and being generally aggressive. But as far as I saw, nothing came of that.
We marched for about an hour, and then gathered back in front of Justice Hall, and held a short vigil for Michael Brown. People were holding up lighters and cellphones, and everyone was quiet.
Me and my family left shortly after that. It was a good demonstration, I think. It was overwhelming community-oriented and peaceful, without losing passion or righteous anger. Definitely not how the newspaper is trying to paint it now.