Protesting an authoritarian police state is terrifying

[Blecht]

I am posting another column from our local paper -- people outside of Portland seem to have no idea about what is happening here.

This is from Henry Latourette Miller:

https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2020/07/opinion-protesting-an-authoritarian-police-state-is-terrifying.html

Miller, who has a master’s in urban and regional planning from Portland State University, is a journalist and urbanist. He lives in Portland.

Excerpt:

“Stay together, stay tight. We do this every night,” chants the crowd in one of my videos taken on June 13 during the protests that have continued in downtown Portland uninterrupted for two months.

The clip shows protesters fleeing flash grenades, tear gas, batons and projectiles the Portland Police Bureau were using to clear the public parks in front of the Justice Center. Corralled by police SUVs on streets to the north and south, about 1,000 non-violent protesters are crammed along a three-block stretch of Southwest Madison Avenue. Rather than disperse the crowd, the police had forced us into a funnel. Any desire to leave was met by the fear of what the police would do to you if you tried to escape their net.

I held up my phone to capture the crowd of people of all ages, from young teens to seniors. Then a flash grenade, sounding like a bomb, goes off.

A few let out involuntary screams in fear. With anxiety growing, we chant, “Stay together, stay tight. We do this every night,” faster. The pitch gets higher and the chant has to be restarted a few times, but it does something the PPB is trying with all its military might to prevent: It makes us feel safer.

Read the piece.

[Mike 03]

1. Kicking

[cayugafalls]

2. Kick and Rec...

Important article.

[Vivienne235729]

3. So much love to those protesters.