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‘What are we marching for?’ Protesters and observers wonder alike in Portland

By Maxine Bernstein, oregonlive.com
Published: January 22, 2021, 8:13am
2 Photos
Protesters tag and smash windows at the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters during the J20 march in Southeast Portland.
Protesters tag and smash windows at the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters during the J20 march in Southeast Portland. (The Oregonian) Photo Gallery

PORTLAND — As about 50 people dressed head-to-toe in black stood in a standoff with Portland police blocking a parking lot behind Benson High School, several parents and coaches from a youth soccer program on the nearby field walked up to see what was going on.

“What are they marching for?” one soccer mom asked.

The anarchists, antifa and activists seemed at times to question that themselves.

“Who set this (expletive) up?” Reese Monson asked over a megaphone as the demonstration got underway two hours earlier outside Revolution Hall.

A voice in the crowd yelled back, “We don’t have leaders.”

Those meeting on Inauguration Day outside the Southeast Portland music venue carried on what has become a cat-and-mouse call for disruption in the city over the last few months — a vestige of Portland’s summer protests that often devolved at night into clashes with police.

The latest iteration has wrought extensive property damage recently in downtown and Northeast Portland, including indiscriminate window-smashing.

The “direct action” events have tied Portland’s mayor and police in knots – as well as others in the larger Black Lives Matter movement who want police reform, even abolition, but have condemned the property destruction and have worked to separate themselves from those who advocate vandalism.

An on-the-ground view of Wednesday’s protest shows the lack of cohesion, the divergent ideas of what constitutes free speech in Portland and the turbulence of the crowd.

Monson identified himself as a member of Black Unity PDX, described as a civil rights collective on social media.

He concluded as others shattered windows of the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters: “We don’t know what that was, that was not us.”

• • •

People started gathering about 2 p.m. outside Revolution Hall — a rare daylight appearance by the loose band of demonstrators.

A Twitter post on PNW Youth Liberation Front’s account had circulated with 189 retweets and 440 likes advertising “J20, decrying “F— THE STATE,” “F— BIDEN,” LANDBACK. F— 12,” and urging “Landback.” It also exhorted explicitly: “No streamers! No peace police!” – a warning that they didn’t want any challenges or recordings of their actions.

Within minutes, a disorganized scrum formed and couple of dozen people clashed with Portland bike officers outside the hall, angered by the police appearance and their questioning of some in the crowd.

When a sergeant removed a banner with poles from one person, the crowd was incensed and yelled, “Move out! Move out!” as they pressed forward toward the police.

The officer returned the banner, not the poles. Police set off a smoke grenade to keep the crowd back and allow the bike cops to ride off.

Within an hour, the crowd had grown to about 200 as they marched through city streets. They wandered west and then north before finally ending behind Benson High in Northeast Portland.

They first headed up Southeast 12th Avenue and turned on Northeast Davis Street.

With two drummers keeping a beat in the middle of the group, marchers yelled chants including “No good cop, no good president!” “Black Lives Matter!” and “No cops, no prisons, total abolition!”

They walked until they hit a literal roadblock at Grand Avenue. People stood in the intersection, about 16 blocks northwest of Revolution Hall, debating which way to go next.

“Take the bridge!” someone shouted, likely referring to the nearby Burnside Bridge.

One man threw a large-sized rock at the back of a passing car. The car continued.

Many shouted they felt unsafe staying still, so those at the head of the march turned north onto Grand as a police speaker blared in the background, ordering people to obey all traffic laws.

When the police loudspeaker directed people to remain on the sidewalks, the crowd ignored the command, chanting, “Off sidewalks and into the streets!”

“I don’t know where the (expletive) I’m going, but I don’t give a (expletive),” yelled marcher Princess Warner, 20.

At the start of the gathering, Warner said she came out to protest to stress that even with a new president in office, the nation must do more to address systemic racism.

“With this Biden administration, I don’t want people forgetting that Black lives still matter,” Warner said. “They never stopped mattering.”

Her friend, Teal Lindseth, 22, said they haven’t been on the streets the past months simply to protest Donald Trump.

“We’re doing marches because Black lives (expletive) matter,” Lindseth said. “Injustice. It’s time for this to be done.

“My 6-year-old should not have to go through what I have gone through,” Lindseth said. “My child should see Black history stuff. In school we don’t even learn enough about that. Biden really needs to change education. Foster care needs to change. There’s so much wrong with this world. It needs to change.”

• • •

As the crowd reached the entry ramp to Interstate 84 off Northeast Grand Avenue, it halted.

“Where the (expletive) are we going?” one man yelled.

Some shouted for everyone to turn around. Another responded, “There’s police cars behind us!”

“This is the worst (expletive) march I’ve ever attended!” another person yelled.

Many cut through a car lot and headed back east on Northeast Ninth Avenue.

About 3:40 p.m., one woman urged unity.

“It’s not about making a riot happen if it’s not going to happen,” she yelled.

Moments later, the group marched past Ninth and Everett Street, where several people suddenly used metal batons and crowbars to smash out windows of the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters and tagged the building with “F— Biden” messages.

At least three people tagged and broke windows, while several others stood in front, trying to shield them by holding up black umbrellas. Others turned over a dumpster in the street and lit the contents on fire.

Some people demanded media not film or photograph the destruction.

No uniformed police were in sight.

Some in the crowd could be heard murmuring that they weren’t OK with the vandalism.

“That’s not what I came for,” one person said.

• • •

The crowd splintered some after the property damage. Police now trailed the group.

As some people marched north on Northeast Flanders and past the Franz Bakery Outlet, a man inside peered out a window, just watching the demonstrators in black walk by.

Soon, Portland bicycle cops arrived, prompting some in the crowd to warn others that police were closing in.

“Bike cops!” some shouted. Many ran toward Benson High School, just a block away, as others in the group yelled, “Don’t run!”

About 50 people now walked on a path just south of the high school, past people playing tennis on nearby courts.

As the marchers passed by Buckman Field Park south of Benson, a youth soccer coach yelled out from the track, “There’s a lot of kids here! There’s a lot of kids here!”

Someone shouted back not to worry.

Police blocked off a parking lot beside the field behind the high school and ordered no one to enter the lot.

People in the crowd taunted the officers and squeezed little pig toys to make them squeal as the officers stood in a line, blocking the lot and processing some people arrested in the vandalism.

Several parents from the field stood at the edge of the lot, watching the standoff, wondering what was going on.

By then, some in the crowd, like Monson, had left.

Some veered off to Irving Park, where a Defend Democracy Coalition had organized a rally.

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Monson said he was headed to Irving Park where “the real movement is happening.”

Police said they arrested eight people, ranging in age from 18 to 38, on allegations including criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and reckless burning. Police said they removed two metal batons and a pry bar from people they alleged were involved in the vandalism to the Democratic Party office. Police also removed four Molotov cocktails from the backpack of one man arrested in connection with the smashing of at least one window after detecting the smell of gasoline coming from his pack, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office.

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