The Birth of an Uprising

for a park in East Portland. The teenage activist group Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front or just the Wire Left posted on their Twitter account that something was planned for eight pm, so I made my way, expecting something interesting to happen. The previous night, the Wire Left and some New Black organizers had set up an autonomous zone style occupation in front of the Mayor's apartment in the upscale Pearl district, inspired by Seattle's Capitol Hill Occupied protest slash

Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Coome morning, not enough bodies were present at the attempted autonomous zone to resist the riot police who arrived to clear the area. After the very short lived Autonomous Zone, I had wondered what the Wire Left had planned next. As eight pm approached On that Thursday, only a little over a dozen people gathered at the original meeting spot. The small group were mostly in black block. Black block is a tactic that originated with German anti

globalization protesters. It involves wearing all black clothing to make it difficult to identify specific people. Shortly after I arrived, the crowd had began marching north. They decided to take the sidewalk instead of the street to due to their low numbers. In a matter of minutes, the crowd arrived at their apparent destination, the Portland German American Society, which features a large statue of George Washington out in front

of the building. Activists started by draping in a man a can flag over the face of the statue and lighting into blaze. People spray painted the base and statue itself, writing genocidal colonist, slave owner and six nineteen, the year the first enslaved Africans were brought to America. Slowly more people arrived as calls for support were made out over social media. The few dozen people in attendance started attaching nylon straps to the head of the statue and began

pulling back and forth. By eleven pm, the statue of George Washington had been completely torn down. The crowd quickly left, calling the night of success, and police arrived a little over half an hour later. At the time, no one could have known that this small action would trigger a series of events that would turn Portland's BLM protests into the biggest story in the entire country. Right Wing media reacted to the toppling of the George Washington statue as expected.

A narrative was spun that police were letting a violent mob of ANTIFA rioters go around town destroying property without consequence. Pundits criticized protesters for erasing history. The Portland police defended their failure to stop the toppling of the statue by complaining that they had been occupied with a concurrent protest at the Justice Center fence. They stated the group blocked the street for several hours, throwing projectiles such as hot

dogs at the Justice Centered doors. By this point, three weeks into the protests, dozens of Portlanders had been arrested at actions, and yet a narrative had begun to spread on right wing media that there had been no consequences for protesters engaging in destructive activity. The toppling of George Washington flipped a switch in national far right media, and suddenly Portland was a symbol of everything wrong with the left. Here's President Trump on the campaign trail two days ago.

Left as radicals in Portland, Oregon ripped down a statue of George Washington and wrapped it in an American flag and set the American flag on fire. Democrat A Democrats. Everything I tell you is Democrat. And you know, we ought to do something. Mr Senators, we have two great senators. We ought to come up with legislation that if you burned the American flag, you go to jail for one year. There are a lot of things wrong with that statement. First off, some of the folks who took down that

statue would find being called a Democrat insulting. Also, the Supreme Court has ruled that burning an American flag is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. Portland protesters toppling at George Washington statue seems to have inspired the President to suggest legislation that would ban not just the toppling of statues, which was already illegal, but flag burning and

similar acts of protest. As it turned out, Donald Trump would follow through on the idea of criminalizing that sort of behavior, But why would protesters go through all the trouble of tumbling down statues in the first place. We talked with some members of the y LF, the Youth Liberation Front to get their perspective. Since the President of the United States has threatened these again literal children repeatedly.

We've redubbed the audio in order to protect their identities because they represent monuments to people who are white supremacist and genocidal, and as an anarchist, I think every statue to a human should be torn down because they don't believe in idolizing anyone, but especially like people who led the way for colonization and just awful atrocities in their lifetime. President Trump's fury over the George Washington action through the

Youth Liberation Front into the national spotlight. But that statue was not actually the first to fall in Portland, and it would not be the last, though the wire Left would become synonymous with a more radical, militant segment of the protests acting under the cover of night. The first statue to come down in Portland was actually at Thomas Jefferson High School. One of the only remaining majority black

schools in the state. On the afternoon of June fourteenth, as a large peaceful march led by Rose City Justice departed from Jefferson, the statue of the school's namesake was torn from its pedestal by a small enthusiastic group in broad daylight. Picking up the rest of the story is my colleague and partner in getting horribly tear gassed A Laine Kinchen. Toppling statues of historical slaveholders became a nationwide trend during the first three weeks of the George Floyd protests.

By the time the George Washington statue at the Portland German American Association came down, eighteen other statues had fallen to crowds across the country. In the weeks that followed, at least seventeen more statues would meet the same fate, and many more would be quietly relocated for their own protection,

just as the wire left vandal Is. Some of the Washington statue fits into a larger context of statue toppling, the while of themselves are only one part of Portland's activist ecosystem, Originally emerging from a loose coalition of anti racist and anti Trump high school groups. Here are two while of members talking about the genesis of the group in nineteen the comrades who started it made a lot of connections with the Occupy ICE and started running things

running the social media. I think it was really born. It came out of like really sporadic school protests, just like whatever was happening, and it was something that people felt was really important. Back then, the group slowly moved towards like anti fascism and you liberation, trying to interest agism as well in those spaces, and I think it

definitely went that direction completely. June. Yeah, that was like a big anti fascist and fascist rally in Portland, and I definitely think that kind of sparked a turning point where I think like the organization really blossomed from there. Yeah, we started off as like a very liberal group, like one of those many boring student activist groups that just like PARTICE, spated in walkouts. But then we started to

take a more radical turn. Like our first protest that I was involved with was for gun control rally and that's yeah, that's really cringe looking back, because now we're all like insurrectionary anarchists. Oh. I think it definitely moved from that into a more radical stance after June twenty nine, and then came on the seventeenth, which was another big rally in Portland. That um where he I mean like a good amount of focus was placed on us all of a sudden, Yeah, and I think it kind of

just continued after that. Jacob bu Eros, the founder of Direct Action Alliance, says he first encountered what would eventually become the wire Left in March of seventeen while organizing to counter a far right demonstration in the wealthy suburb of Lake Oswego. It would be you know, Rose City Antifa, Direct Action Alliance tm w Y, a left which I think had back then it was still called Oregonians Against Trump or something like that. But um, that's when we

first started organizing together to confront the right wing. Was during that time in March of seventeen through May of seventeen, and then after that it was discoordinated effort. Jacob says the Direct Action Alliance was formed out of a sense of desperation in late Yeah, after the election, I just didn't want to keep wasting my time in politics, and

I felt this really big sense of urgency. And around that time was when they started attacking people um at Standing Rock, and both of my kids are our citizens of the Cherokee Nation. My partners the citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and they were they were all really upset

about it, and I was really upset about it. Jacob had been an activist for a while previous to this point, and he was already familiar with Portland organizers who had risen to prominence with the first Black Lives Matter protests. In These include Danielle James and the founder of Don't Shoot Portland, Teresa Raefford. We each have our own individual thing that we really focus on, except for in the Direct Action Alliance, we kind of just do everything. Most

groups have their own thing that they focus on. But we're all the same people helping each other behind the scene. So when Wild Left is working focusing on something that's anti anti police, right, it's the same people who organized the large peaceful blm rallies who are working with them to support them. And so that's where the intersection is. We're all one big family here in Portland. It's not

a it's not like in other cities. Where we actually have to build alliance sause people have been active in the city for so long and have been seeing the same faces for so long. I'd say it all goes back to Terressa Rayford. She's the one. She's the one who took it from even when the when the Occupy movement happened and kind of molded that energy into something where Portland became an activist scene. Again. This this city

wasn't wasn't very active. It kind of lost its edge until Terressa Rayford came along and started pushing people to come out, to show up to fight back. When Kwanis Hayes was killed, was out there calling everyone to come out do something about it. And I'd say that she was. I'd say she's at the core of it. I mean most of the people who I've met, who I've coordinated with, who I've worked with, all of those groups that I just mentioned to you, I met all of them that

Don't Shoot Portland rallies. Way back before Trump was president, Rayford had originally formed Don't Shoot PDX in response to the killing of Michael Brown and Ferguson, but the failed PPB shooting of teenager Quanice Hayes in February seventeen, gave a new local urgency to calls for police accountability and came in the midst of an upswing of far right

mobilizations targeting Portland. Every city has certain defining moments, traumas which galvanized the community, spur the creation of new coalitions, and give rise to new organizing strategies. One of those defining moments for Portland came in May of tw seventeen, when a white supremacist named Jeremy Christian murdered two people on a max light rail train. The day before the killings,

Christian assaulted another Orlander, Dmitria Hester. Here she recounts her experience. Okay, so three years ago, Um, Jeremy Joseph Christian um attacked me. He's a white known supremacist that's here in organists that the police knew about. Everybody's the the mayor knew about.

I mean, everybody just knew about him because he had set the tone at every march and staying and stating how much he hates, you know, the races, anyone that wasn't black, and wasn't that wasn't white, and wanted to harm or kill anyone that wasn't you know those descents of that descent of being white and Christian. So um, he verbally attacks me for three stops on the MAX and May two thousand, two thousand's seven teen front and center, often with a bullhorn in hand. Dmitria became one of

the most recognizable voices of Portland's protests. The man she's describing, Jeremy Christian, was a regular attendee of far right rallies in the Portland area. That night, Dimitria fended off Christian with pepper spray. Police responded, but Christian was not detained and he got away to kill the people. The next day on that same green line. He was looking for me because I mased him the night before. He encountered to um one African American lady and one lady who

had to have Geva Bevon and um she wasn't. He thought she was Muslimed, So he verbally started attaching these little girls under eighteen, and three men came into their rescuing. Was defending them and tried to de escalate the problem, but he stabbed two of wom and killed them, and uh stabbed a third and tried to kill him. So the police um got the call not to even use uh force when they were got the call that he

did this on the max. This just shows you how the police play a part and um everything he did and the reason why he got away with what he did. And then so when they actually um caught him, he was still wielding the knife that he killed people with. UM. He threatened four people on his way to when they detained him. And the only reason they detained him again was because the public was following him. And UM, they didn't even shoot him with rubber bullis or cheered gasim

or anything. With a knife in his hand and threatening the police, he was able to throw the knife on the police car, still drinking his wine that he had in another Gatoray bottle. UM, and they detain him. And after they detain him, he bragged about what he did. Ricky John Best and Tallesia Namchaimchi died in the attack. The third man, Micah Fletcher, survived. A Few weeks before the murders, Christian had attended a right wing free speech

event in the Montevilla neighborhood of Portland. The rally aimed to build on the momentum of the Lake Oswego event. In March. Micah Fletcher, the only survivor of the stabbings, had been in Montevilla as well, counter protesting alongside Direct Action Alliance, Rose City, ANTIFA and what would eventually become the y LF. In some ways, Portland is a very small town. After the murders, far right rallies in Portland continued. Anti fascist counter protests were large and spirited at first,

but as Effie Bound describes, that didn't last. And in a year since that we had seen UM the counter demonstrations dwindle to just basically a small um Black Blocks that was based that was showing up to counter that UM. And on June it had turned into a really really violent UM events where a lot of folks on our side got pretty seriously hurt and um some of them had to go to the hospital and sustained school fractures.

And there was that video of um, you know, etan Ordine or Rufio, um, you know, knocking out somebody, and UM that kind of you know became the viral Proud Boy sensation. It did, and really kind of um you know, did a lot for recruitment for them UM, and so we decided that what we needed in Portland was UM, a strong organizing effort to get as many people as possible to show up to oppose them when they have these rallies. FEE is part of a group called pop mop,

short for Popular Mobilization. Their goal is to use innovative and community friendly organizing tactics to foster a big tent approach to anti fascism. We planned pretty closely with Rosity,

Antifa and d s a UM. Pretty much all of our events that we've had have been in partnership with at least those two organizations, and then for various events, we've had coalitions of up to thirty, you know, plus organizations at various times have signed onto different actions that we've had, involving groups like Jobs with Justice and UM like the Buddhist Piece Fellowship and UH Queer Liberation Front,

UH UH Symbiosis and UH Portland's Assembly. There's a lot of different organization since pop mob has countered far right events with online fundraisers, hundreds of free vegan milkshakes, and anti fascist dance parties. When the George Floyd protests began,

they took on a different role. So one thing is that we've always had a very very narrow mission as an organization, and we've been really intentional about UM trying to stick within the scope of that mission, which is inspiring people to show up and oppose the far right and UM. So UM, we didn't feel like we were in a position, UM where we should be leading anything. So we instead UM agreed as a group that we wanted to operate in a support role only. And UM.

One of the things that we've done over the last a couple of years is kind of really built up on a social media presence and UM have you know, had a lot of UM but like enough, there's some really talented people within our groups that do a lot of great media work and UM, and so we had basically just wanted to use our platform to boost the organizing the other groups were doing on the ground. Don't Shoot would organize rallies throughout the summer. Marches called by

the Direct Action Alliance would repeatedly target police infrastructure. But as new groups sprung up and led marches of thousands, Portland also had a robust support network of activist groups looking for ways to help. Longtime Portland activist Gregory McKelvey describes the transition to new leadership and groups springing up in There were people who were new brand, knew that we're called to the moment because of the murder of George Floyd. And I think that it is really imperative

that those people become the leaders. Also think it's imperative that the people who were previous leaders take a step back and allow those people to be the new leaders. Right, um, And but I think that we cannot keep reinventing the wheel every time that protest movement comes up. So what needs to happen is the previous leaders of every protest movement that happens need to mentor and try and um teach the lessons that they learned to the new generation

that is called to a current moment. The stabbing would put all eyes on Portland, though no outlets reporting on the incident knew about Demitria's encounter the day before. Months later, she would link with activist group Don't Shoot Portland and other organizations to tell her story. Thank You, Thank Good would prevail over evil. For three years, we our community, the victims, have been waking up hoping to see so

closer to the end of the senseless travesty. Today it's chinally here would a twill unanimous votes from the people of our community. Let's get community to thank you for the beautiful, amazing, resilient support. Through this, we have changed the narrative. They came hard and strong towards represent our community, ready intelligience, our heroes, and will forever be looked at as hero We're confind until everyone like Jeremy Christians it's all the street is. They are not welcome here. We

look back until we are creative. Well. She'd continue to work with Don't Shoot, which had grown to become the largest Black Lives Matter organization in the state throughout the litigation of her case. In June, well into the Portland uprisings, Jeremy Christian was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.

At the sentencing hearing, Demitria offered her own indictment of not only Christian, but the entire law enforcement system for facilitating people like him, before offering some searing last words for her attacker. Need people feel colored. That's our community, can't all. We need our community and always to do

what has been for our community. Not people get are looking how the popularity and these know we're wants to stop me from using our debts to capitalize and make a profit at the We will not let you get these people in office. You are not welcome here and to the Westaer Derek and Christian. Your mom should have flat too. You are a waste of bread. Oh can you die? You go to hill. I hope you write, yeah, Hey, what do I tell you? Can water? Fine? The exchange

would become fuel for Demetrius Chance in the streets. Next is my colleague Beatrix. Beatrix is a reporter who worked at me on the ground in Portland. One time I watched her get shot in the head with a grenade by a federal agent. She's fine, she had a good helmet. She's going to take you through what happened next, starting

with the story of Portland's largest new activist group. As thousands of newly activated Portlanders looked for meaningful ways to latch onto the movement, butting in their own backyard, one organization quickly sprung up as one of the loudest in the crowd, Rose City Justice. Almost overnight, Rose City Justice or r c J, was leading marches throughout the city educating about Portland's past its black community, gentrification and police brutality.

Led by a black truck an enthusiastic chance, these marches amassed upwards of ten thousand people at times. Jedi was part of another organization that formed in the wake of Floyd's death. His group, Portland's Civil Rights Collective, began informally through a chance meet up on the first night of the Portland uprisings. Their goal at first making cops hate their jobs. Every night, he and the PCRC team would take to the streets, warring with cops downtown in an

attempt to drain police resources. Their fight would unknowingly lead them to our c J So the first um me and Kinsey, you know, Kinsey Smith. Um, I met her that night and we had just like linked up and just so happened to just find ourselves leading. I mean, like eighty random people that were down just around battling the cops all night. We just kind of fell into that role because I mean there's very few black people

to begin with, even downtown anyway. So um, we were like the only ones that we could really see in our vicinity that we're able to like. Um, I hate the word leader, but just like lead the allies around UM and trying to keep them safe. And so that night we got we exchanged numbers with like eighty different people that we had in that group. Well really I took everybody's number and put it all on the signal group chat, and we just kept going out every single night.

And then eventually, uh, maybe like five or six days, maybe a week passes in a Kinsey had came up with a name, and she named it Port the Civil Rights Collective, And so we did our things for like a week or two, and then we linked up with ros City Justice. Once the merge happened, they began taking to the streets in a very different way. No longer were they standing toe to toe with cops every night. Now they were marching in the streets. Sometimes. Jedi said,

it felt like they were going nowhere. Man. It's that's a it's interesting because it's not how I would have probably imagined it because Rosity Justice at the time was not they were really going out at night. I feel like they were doing like the early date or late evening, but still daytime marches because it was still light out UM. And then things were like calmed down, like you know, once it got dark, uh PCRC, we were like out out on the ground every night all night, uh, just

battling the police basically. UM. And so when we linked up with r c J, because they they had like a much larger following at at the time, and they also had a larger social media presence that was like twice the size as of ours. In a way, seems like we defaulted to their style of of resistance basically, which was just like doing these Now when I think about people called them the long marches to nowhere, which is really true in retrospect, that's kind of what what's happening.

I'd like to think that we still made an impact on uh a lot of the community that we would roll around, a lot of the neighborhoods that we we'd roll around, Like it was nice to see like families come out of their houses and like actually joined the marches sometimes, or you know, just seeing their kids on the porch with holding up their signs and stuff and

that kind of stuff. But when I think about how I literally never ever saw the police that any of these marches, it it makes me wonder like just the effectiveness of it all. If the police didn't give a funk about what we're doing then was it really helping? But I don't I don't think that's a fair assessment of exactly like how we impacted the community. Nonetheless, like it kind of just it evolved into basically us doing marches every day, trying to basically trying to activate people

to come out. It's kind of I guess how I would look at it, um, but that's kind of what it turned into. It can It went from us going out every night, battling the police too, gathering like hundreds and thousands of people actually uh to go on these long marches while r c J led massive actions the so called peaceful protests favored by the likes of Wheeler, events at the Sacred Fence continued to draw the ire

of City Hall and the police. Some protesters even started to wonder if there was really any point in getting tear gassed at the same location every night. Divisions began to mount between our CJ's education leaning resistance during the day and the more lively and more volatile standoffs with cops at the fence at night. Rifts formed between the peaceful crowd and what you might call the direct action crowd.

Activist and live streamer Max Smith said he's purposefully not tied to any one organization, but as the so called fence wars raged on, he too found himself questioning how this was furthering the cause for black lives A fight and fence that was what we were here for. You know.

The fence was like some ship that kind of it was like ed to call the Grand thet autos aside mission, like this isn't this has nothing to do with what we're supposed to be doing right now, but we have to complete this to get back in the game, you know.

And it was really weird, and I think at that moment I really realized that the distraction was intentional and that this was all getting just diverted to become like a like a Trump campaign at you know, He's gonna come through and support these police unions and this is his big commercial for it. So it was a very uh. I felt like it was a frustrating part of the protest because a it was really a dangerous and people were really getting hurt and kidnapped and all that kind

of weird stuff. And then on top of that, it wasn't the fight that I wanted to you know, to be fighting, but it was. But it's the fight that brings out a lot of people. So a very contrasting and confusing time for sure. Gregory also found frustration with some of the unclear goals of the protests as they developed. I think this is a big part of the story that I think is not being told, or that the harder further left UM has failed to really reckon with

UM in an effective way. So UM one, I'm still I'm sure if any of the protests have an incredibly coherent goal. Um, for some it's abolish the police, for some it's defund the police. For some of those things mean the same thing. And then I also think there are a ton of Portlanders, actually most Portlanders, after working in politics for so long, who don't support either of those things. I mean, we hold all of those things. UM.

They're not popular. UM, They're incredibly popular on the left, and if you were at the protest, you would think that these are unanimous things. They're not. UM. So I think there was an incredible opportunity for us when those massive protests were happening to get a lot of change, not just the common sense reforms that I think would make you know. People on the hard left just call

me a liberal. As divisions grew, trouble loomed for our c J. In addition to the sometimes fierce arguments over tactics, many Portlanders criticized r c J leadership for including a former military police officer. There were also claims of financial mismanagement, particularly once leaders from our CJ posted about attending a

luxurious three day retreat. As tensions rose, activists trew lines in the sand and began retreating to their respective corners from it, people started, I guess people weren't really moving on principle, and people weren't moving slow enough because a lot of people were really new to to like organizing and protesting. People just wanted to like get their way in.

They wanted things to go their way basically, and when you have too many cooks in the kitchen, you know the recipe is gonna get sucked up eventually, especially when everybody wants their recipe to work. I mean I personally left because I was with PCRC and the split was basically all the original r c J members and all the original PCRC members are splitting down the middle, and we're going our separate ways because we had initially combined forces.

R c J didn't formally disband after the falling out, but things got noticeably quieter for the group after June. During the height of the r c J Days, their marches had drawn thousands multiple times a week, but by late June they were mostly boosting other groups actions via Instagram. Many of the organizers involved with the group went on to form their own organizations that continue to play key

roles in the movement today. Youth let orgs like Friday's for Freedom and Black Youth Movement immediately began staging community focused neighborhood events throughout the city. Another group, calling itself Justice Unity, Integrity, Community Equality or Juice PDX, would go on to host several rallies later in the summer. Despite the split, organizers remember parts of the r c J Days fondly. Jedi says the mass marches of June helped

feed an undeniable sense of momentum. The amount of people that will come out and also like just some of the education that we're giving to the crowd was I think really amazing, man, and it'smissed um because during those marches, like I would create like little speeches to give to the crowd, and so with Chrissy UM, and so would see be like some of the other organizers, we get on the mic and like have like oh, we'd also like give the crowd homework sometimes, so like we'd be like,

all right, we want you all to read like the Willie Lynch letters. And then like two days March, like literally the next day or the day where we like asked the crowd, all right, so raise your hand if you read that, you know. So Um, those were really nice moments because like you'd see some people literally raise their hand and obviously you know, some people probably have him, but like some people literally did their homework. So it

was nice to see that. And also just like i'd say, like a high points, just we've never seen mass mobilization like that ever happened important I will I've never seen that before. Uh, for for an extended period of time, like seeing thousands of people come out every single day, um to basically wake up their neighborhoods. That seemed like that was really powerful for for all of us too, to feel like we were kind of shifting the you know, the we're causing like a paradigm shift in our community.

With Rose City Justice no longer organizing large scale marches on a regular basis, and the nightly crowd at the Justice Center and getting smaller each night, some activists decided a change was needed. On June, people again attempted a temporary autonomous zone, this time in North Portland in front

of the Portland Police Bureaus North Precinct. Barricades were put up along the streets the precincts doors facing the occupied area were boarded shut and the main exit an entrance facing the other direction were left open so that police could vacate the premises. Police responded to this occupation faster than the one at Wheeler's apartment. For one, it was at a police precinct, so there was a police presence, and two, it had the same problem as the first

attempted autonomous zone. Not enough people were present to hold down the area. After only a few hours, police came charging from around the corner, ripping apart barricades and firing off Stunn grenades and pepper balls. The crowd moved to block North and then quickly started a dumpster fire in the middle of the road. The police, you worked at dispers now ran control agents and impact unions will be

you and again there your bail to the lie. There was also a second, much smaller trash can fire beside a building adjacent to the police precinct. The flames from inside the trash can caught on fire some of the plywood boards covering a window. Protesters noticed and people began yelling, this is a black owned business. Put the fire out. People scrambled to put out the small flames on the plywood, and at the same time police started shooting off tear

gas and flash bangs. The next day, the police, mayor and local news companies spread the narrative that protesters locked and barricaded officers inside their precinct and then the precinct on fire. But what happened here last night, with doors being nailed shut, barred shut, with fires being set to the outside of the building with people inside, that is

not transformation. What happened here isn't helping to bring about any meaningful change, reform, or an end of the historic races, and that all of us are joined together and seeking to eliminate. Last night it was plainly and simply about arson. It was about destruction, It was about endangering lives, it's blatant criminal violence, violence that is totally unacceptable. That, of course, is not what happened, But once a narrative gets spread

enough through mainstream outlets, it's very difficult to correct. Throughout the next few months, Portland police would put out misleading statements and flat out lies regarding the protests, which news

outlets would signal boost and treat as absolute fact. We get after the protest at the North Precinct, people still wanted to get away from the nightly dread at the Justice Center and Fence Direct Action Alliance, the Youth Liberation Front and some of the BIPOC activists who started the initial Justice Center protest organized another protest in North Portland,

this time at the Police Union Building. So for a month we were just targeting downtown, right, we were just straight downtown every single day, and we we figured that we needed to diversify a little bit and start hitting other targets around town. Um going and protesting in areas like that, in neighborhood letting people participate, you know, come out into the streets with us. So that's when we

decided to start marching through neighborhoods. So we did another events in Peninsula Park on June, and this time we wanted to make it a lot more community oriented, so we invited a lot of artists to come perform. Mike Crenshaw was there, um Emiliana Desapato was there, um uh c three, the Guru, all these people. It was like

a concert slash alley and it was great. And we and that was the first night we targeted the Portland Police Association building and so we went out there and that's when they gassed us, and they gassed the whole neighborhood. That was the first night that they gassed an entire fucking neighborhood. When hundreds of Portlanders arrived at the Police Union building to protest, the building was already surrounded by

Portland police and Oregon State troopers in riot gere. Within minutes, an unlawful assembly was declared, and soon after cops began pushing people east away from the p p A building. Do not stop now, get you get. The cops shoved and hit people with their batons while walking east for few blocks, and then began to bull rush the crowd.

In a bulrush, a line of officers sprints towards the massive people, knocking over as many as possible, and then officers in the back typically come to tackle and arrest anyone on the ground. That night, officers initially used smoke grenades, flash bangs, pepper balls and rubber bullets as well. This event has been deep and unlawful. Assimily, you need to disperse to the east, killer to a lawful subject, future rest and forced to include crowd control of munitions moved

to the east. After multiple bulrushes and constant volleys of munitions, protesters began throwing munitions back at the armored police, along with plastic water bottles. Police responded by declaring a riot and blanketing the neighborhood, and tear gas first be used to dispersed on the area. Tear gas had been banned

in Portland since June nine. On the eight in Japman Square, Mayor Wheeler had addressed an unfriendly crowd of activists who had spent the last two weeks getting repeatedly tear gassed by Portland police. He promised to ban the use of tear gas the next day. Soon after he left, officers gas the crowd. The next day, Wheeler kept his word, sort of. The band came with a lot of holes. Gas was allowed in situations where quote lives or safety of the public or the police are at risk, which

was too vague to mean much. But Portland police did take longer than usual to use tear gas on the night of June. The reason why was that earlier that day, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law a bill that banned the use of tear gas. The exception was if Portland police declared a riot and announced out loud that tear gas was about to be used. So, of course, the police switched tactics and made sure to declare a

riot when they wanted to use tear gas. On the thirty The main justifications seemed to be the protesters were near the Union building and some of them had hucked plastic water bottles at riot lines of armored cups. The Portland police declared a riot and started gassing. In the end, neither the state nor local bands on tear gas helped the Portlanders who lived in houses and apartments along North

Lombard Street. It was a balmy summer night and many of them had their windows open in the fresh air. When that air turned to poison gas, multiple residents were assaulted and even arrested while trying to flee their gas filled homes outside of Oregon. On the federal level, other events in late June would contribute to Portland becoming the

most heavily tear gas city in the United States. On June, President Trump had signed Executive Order one three nine three three protecting American Monuments, memorials and statues, and federal property. As we've already explained, toppling statues had become a viral sensation at the time, but the toppling of a George Washington statue by teenage Portlanders seemed to have been the most direct inspiration for this executive order. President even referenced

Portland in his press release on the matter. The order also presents its own timeline of the nationwide protests of June, saying quote, over the last five weeks, there have been sustained assaults on the life and property of civilians, law enforcement officers, government property, and revered American monuments such as

the Lincoln Memorial. Many of the rioters, arsonists, and left wing extremists who have carried out and supported these acts have explicitly identified themselves with ideologies such as Marxism that call for the destruction of the United States system of government. Anarchists and left wing extremists have sought to advance a fringe ideology that paints the United States of America as fundamentally unjust, and have sought to impose that ideology on

Americans through violence and mob intimidation. The order describes a massive, overwhelmingly peaceful nationwide protest movement throughout May and June is five nightmarish weeks of rampant violence and murder, but its solutions focus confusingly on the prevention of vandalism to statues.

It states that quote United States law authors is a penalty of up to ten years imprisonment for the wilful injury of federal property end quote, and goes on to say state and locals law enforcement agencies that failed to protect monuments, memorials, and statues will be subject to withholding of federal support, and the federal government will ensure personnel are available across the nation to assist with the protection

of federal monuments, memorials, statues, and property. Feorder is unclear on how broadly federal jurisdiction extends in the protection of statues. All in all, dozens of statues were vandalized and destroyed throughout the country in the first five weeks of the George Floyd uprisings. The vast majority of these statues were

Confederate monuments in the American South. As of June twenty six, only two statues had been targeted by Portland's protests, one on the steps of a high school and the other on the private property of the Portland German American Society. Both of these were miles from any federal property. However, under the president's new executive order, Portland would become the first city to see the large scale deployment of federal troops.

The Multnoma County Justice Center, the epicenter of Portland's ongoing protests, is flanked on both sides by federal buildings, the Mark O. Hatfield court House and the Edith Green Windell Wyatt Federal Building. A few blocks away, the federal landmark of Pioneer Courthouse overlooks Courthouse Square, the site of many of June's large daytime rallies, as well as many tear gas choked showdowns

between nighttime protesters and PPB riot lines. When Feds were sent in, they would be deploying into the center of Portland's ongoing protests. On July one, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolfe, put out a statement answering the President's call, referring to the executive order he had made. The end of that statement read, as we approached the July fourth holiday, I have directed the deployment and prepositioning of rapid response teams across the country to

respond to potential threats to facilities and property. While the Department respects every American's right to protest peacefully, violence and civil unrest will not be tolerated. In the next episode, we'll hear how Portland protesters and those rapid deployment teams met in Portland for the very first time on July fourth. Uh or the grand pops who couldn't fathom the obamacist hate America just to mean she keeps a promise twenty

teams looking like the sixties. It's crazy, a nationwide deja wo what my people post to do go to schools named after the clan founder we're around town is I don't see why we're frowning Native American students forced to learn about wind o'pellah Sarah, How is that fair, bro? Some heroes unsung in some monsters get monuments built for them. But it ain't be all a little bit of monster. We crook it