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Portlanders rally to remove Trump

By Eder Campuzano, The Oregonian
Published: November 5, 2017, 9:19pm

A little more than 100 protesters gathered at Jamison Square in Northwest Portland Saturday as part of a national series of demonstrations pushing for the removal of President Donald Trump from the White House.

The Portland event was organized by the local chapter of Refuse Fascism. Speeches were slated to begin at 2 p.m. but were postponed for nearly half an hour as organizers waited for the crowd to grow.

Far-right media outlets and Facebook groups had painted the planned demonstration as the beginning of a “civil war” in the preceding weeks. Those fears never came to fruition, although shouting matches broke out at the square and at Salmon Street Springs after the group marched through downtown Portland.

“I’m glad there was no violence,” Robert Brown, the lead organizer and fourth-year student at Portland State University, said. “People were here to have their voices heard and they got that.”

Things got heated when Joey Gibson, leader of Vancouver-based Patriot Prayer, showed up with a small entourage just as speeches were beginning at Jamison Square. The Washingtonian is known for planning right-wing rallies in Portland that rile local antifascists and at times end in violence. Gibson attended the Refuse Fascism rally to watch and converse with demonstrators, he said.

Protesters engaged with Gibson and his entourage, shouting “Nazis go home” and addressing him in speeches.

Demonstration leaders encouraged the crowd to ignore Gibson. And although a small group huddled around the Patriot Prayer leader to debate Trump’s policies and the Washingtonian’s presence in Northwest Portland, the larger crowd broke out in side conversations as speaker after speaker took the microphone.

Protestors marched

Brown encouraged attendees to address the crowd as speakers prepared their remarks. At one point, the Portland Raging Grannies took center stage, singing anti-Trump songs to the tune of “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.

Shortly afterward, the crowd began marching south, snaking through Northwest Portland and on to Pioneer Courthouse Square. From there, demonstrators turned west en route to Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Gibson went home before the group started marching.

Demonstrators walked south along the waterfront until they reached Salmon Street Springs. A few attempted to venture up the ramps to the Hawthorne Bridge. Portland police clad in riot gear blocked the demonstrators.

Portland Police on Twitter announced that there were no arrests

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