This post is going to seem a bit odd, as it will revolve around what's often referred to as "drama" from the Portland comedy scene. Referring to a man accused of rape by multiple people and the resulting fall out and argumentation around it as "drama" leaves a bad taste in my mouth, though. Accountability is important, it is difficult, and it doesn't have an expiration date.
So, for those of you here because of my social media posts on this subject--here's the background on Nicky Moon, an infamous local figure in the Portland comedy scene, infamous namely for the multiple accusations of rape against him.
To the Portland Comedy Scene's credit, he was and is banned from the scene years ago. So why, you might ask, are we suddenly talking about him again now? Well, the answer to that lies with a public post made be one Lydia Manning featuring Nicky Moon in a fun, positive light.
The pumpkin post
On October 19th, Lydia Manning made a casual post about her in the pumpkin patch with Nicky. You can view the public, feel-good post here.
Above is a screenshot of the post in question. It outraged me for several reasons, the main ones being that it was cruel to post this abuser's face in a fun, innocent context, especially considering some of his victims are/were friends with Lydia and were bound to scroll past and see this and it very much normalizes his presence as wholesome, fun, and safe. It's worth noting the only two angry reacts on that post is from myself and Jane Malone, so even if he definitely isn't back in the scene anymore, his presence adjacent to it is apparently something too many Portland comedians are totally fine with.
I unfriended Lydia (not that that means much, especially since I deleted my entire personal Facebook account a couple weeks later), and Jane made a public post about how she refuses to normalize Nicky Moon. Gabby Jesus also made a post on the topic, calling out comedians for not permanently cancelling rapists if the rapist is attractive.
The following screenshots are messages Lydia sent to Gabby in response.
Soooo... whatever? Jane and I unfriended her, shelved our disgust, and kept a mental note she's not a trustworthy person with safe associations. And we all moved on. The posts made got very little attention. They could barely be considered a repercussion of any meaningful capacity. It seemed to have all been blown over and been swept under the rug. And then...
Weeks later Nicky lost his shit
Two weeks after she'd made her post, Nicky hopped on the replies (oddly enough bringing more unwanted attention to a status that had a grand total of two likes and already largely disappeared from most people's thoughts) with some rather, uh, choice words. He has since deleted all the following replies to Jane.
Gabby has also posted her own reply to Nicky, which he did not respond to (unless you count deleting all his tweets as a response).
In Conclusion
I don't give a fuck about Nicky Moon. But I'm not going to tolerate this "live and let live" bullshit when he very clearly has zero fucking remorse and ultimately survivors of his attacks have suffered far more than he has. A man with pretty obvious anger issues and zero remorse or respect for anyone he's harmed does not deserve second chances in any way. I'm sick of this shit. Sorry this post didn't end in a more articulate way, but I just need to get this out there. Because our society has a severe avoidance problem when it comes to consistent accountability for predatory men and I personally don't want to be a participant in that kind of toxicity ever again.
Tiffany McGuire, like many of us, found her life thrown into a state of flux when the pandemic hit. Before the spread of COVID-19 mandated shut downs and stay at home orders, she worked in film production as well as performing and producing stand-up comedy. She's maintained a solid community through comedy, however, and her two cats have kept her company through the shut downs.
Aside from having helped organize a 2017 tax day march demanding the release of Donald Trump's tax returns, McGuire didn't have much protest experience prior to the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Portland. “I don’t think anything prepared me for what I have experienced here and now,” she said, as accusations of unnecessary force and unprompted escalation continue to be levied at the police.
Nonetheless, the protests sweeping the nation struck a chord with McGuire. “After the death of George Floyd and seeing what happened in Minneapolis, I started donating to bail funds and supported the protests,” she said, “but concerns about the pandemic were holding me back from participating for the first week.”
As the nation was still early in struggle with the pandemic, and little was at the time known about transmission and effective ways to prevent it, McGuire was not alone in this concern. Data since collected about the spread of the virus indicates that because the protests are outdoors and many protesters are wearing masks, protests themselves aren’t focal points for transmission. (1) At the beginning of the protests however, the fear of contracting and spreading COVID-19 was prevalent.
“Then I remember seeing an Instagram video that encouraged white people to put their white bodies in front of Black bodies,” McGuire said, “a term some find cringe now, I realize, but it spoke to me so profoundly. I wanted to use my privilege if possible and help where I could. So I went out for the first time on May 31st. I was tear gassed by PPB at close range the very first night I was out. It was horrific, and from where I was standing, totally unprovoked. It really lit a fire in my personal determination to keep showing up.”
While McGuire stresses that she is not a leader in the BLM movement or the protests, and that she isn’t a reporter, it became important to her to act as a witness to what was happening. “I started to realize that...I was the only connection some people had to what was happening here,” she said. “I felt a responsibility to both witness what I felt was wrong on the ground, and relay it to those in my circles. I started taking footage of what I felt were key moments and sharing them through Instagram stories, which seemed like a safer and more compelling option than live streaming for a variety of reasons.”
Though some protesters continue to livestream as a means of broadcasting events live and unfiltered, others refrain from this practice or actively discourage it. Though reasons may vary, some of the most common reasons to not livestream is safety and privacy. There is a very real worry about inadvertently compromising someone’s identity or compromising a movement by inviting disruption from authorities. (2) Furthermore, there have been reports of authorities using live stream footage and other recordings from protests to target protesters for arrest at later dates. (3)
Despite the risks that protesters have and continued to face, from fears about COVID-19 to the very real threat of retaliation from police and from the feds, people continue to show up to Portland’s protests every night. The willingness of protesters to put themselves on the line night after night even became its own rallying cry: “Stay together, stay tight, we’ll do this every night.”
“This is a leaderless movement with many moving parts,” McGuire said, reminding us that the movement is based in communal support, assistance, and shared values and momentum. “But I’ve seen so many young Black men and women and [non-binary folks] give speeches and lead marches and stand totally fearless in the face of intense violence. When you see that, it makes you want to step up and be much braver yourself.”
The Timbers Army van, recently targeted both by police and Alt-Right counter protesters, has been providing support to Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland. Photo by @perrygraphs
As one of our previews interviewees highlighted, “Courage is contagious.” Many who have attended the protests speak of how touching and inspiring it is to witness and be part of a movement that draws people from all walks of life to donate time, energy, and skills to a common cause. “Most of the incredible memories I have are of people finding ways to be helpful and going out of their way to care for each other,” McGuire said. “Whether it has been feeding thousands of people [barbeque] every night or providing snacks or water or first aid or legal resources or safety gear, so many people find meaningful ways to contribute and fill vital roles. Whenever anyone gets hurt by law enforcement, any number of individuals come to their aid, medics or not. This has become a makeshift community and it’s driven by a moral imperative.”
Reflecting on powerful moments she’s witnessed at the protests, McGuire notes that one of the most powerful she’s witnessed is likely to also be a controversial one. “[O]ne night I was up front near the fence and suddenly the whole fence was lined with ropes and chains and hundreds of people started pulling it down all at once and it was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen.” The fence in question was erected by federal agents around the courthouse.
A close-up view of the downed fence by @perrygraphs
“If someone looks at that as a breach of the fence, and a threat, they might not get it. But there, where that fence was not needed or welcomed, where it never should have been, where it’s a symbol of the violations of rights for a whole city, the fence coming down was a righteous and profound moment of revolt. The building was never in jeopardy because it was never about the building.”
The building in question, a federal courthouse that has been the focus of many protests, has functioned both as a symbol and a bargaining chip. Depending on who you ask, there may be a wish to occupy the building as a means to force city and state leaders to negotiate abolition or defunding the PPB or more introduce meaningful legislation addressing the needs and protection of black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) individuals and communities; others see the federal building as a symbol of injustice and inequity that disproportionately affects BIPOC communities, while still others see it as a symbol for the justice they are striving for. This makes it a perfect staging area for protests against policing practices that punitively target BIPOC communities.
“I never touched the fence but I definitely cheered when it came down. I used to be tempted to ‘peace police’ other protesters but after seeing and experiencing all of the violence from law enforcement and hearing them use a fence to justify that violence, I have no interest in doing that anymore,” McGuire said. “Honestly, fuck the fence.”
Just as many may not understand the importance of the federal courthouse in these protests, a lot of misunderstanding has circulated regarding the protests generally. “The internet has been a nightmare of misinformation since the protests started around the country and especially since Portland has been getting national press,” McGuire said. “We came out here protesting police brutality and we were met with police brutality. Then we’re somehow accused of being violent. It’s so backwards. City and state and federal officials love to inflate the verbiage of the actions of protesters to sound scary so they can justify their use of force but I have never seen a protester be physically violent toward an officer. I have, however, seen endless violence from officers toward protesters. Law enforcement shows up in riot gear and will declare anything and everything a riot, but they’re the only ones rioting.”
There is an absurdity to the assumption that the protests are actually riots happening night after night, McGuire points out. “To think hundreds and sometimes thousands of people are rioting every night for months and all we’ve managed to accomplish is a minor amount of property damage is just bizarre and absurd and yet somehow a whole subset of the country believes it,” McGuire said. “It’s confounding.” Meanwhile, in response to the violence protesters have experienced at the hands of police, many protesters have seen a necessity to come prepared for violence, however peaceful the intention of the protests may be. “We started showing up in protective gear to defend our bodies from their attacks, but none of us are armed. They are armed to the teeth. They show off their weapons and use them against us constantly.”
In other areas of the country, Black Lives Matter protests have seen a number of victories. This includes the banning of no-knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed in her home by officers who forcibly entered utilizing a no-knock warrant; (4) a push to disband the police in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed (though this effort has since stalled); (5)(6) many more areas are considering cutting police budgets and reallocating funds to preventative community resources, while Congress has promised legislation on massive police reform, and more. (7) With little to no response from officials in Oregon, however, it can be hard to know what has been accomplished in Portland specifically.
“I think there’s a real fear we’re being placated by those who claim to have learned any lessons without any substantive change taking place,” McGuire said. “[I]t’s interesting that the mayor recently apologized for the local police and their excessive use of force after he himself was tear gassed by federal officers. It feels entirely empty after we experienced that for 50 days by his own force before the feds got here but it’s acknowledgement,” she said, later pointing out that despite this public apology, the PPB (for which Mayor Wheeler serves as the commissioner) has returned to using teargas as crowd control. “We’ve also had judges side with protesters and demand that law enforcement stop such aggressive tactics. I want to see long term changes. Of course I want the federal presence out but I also want to see the PPB defunded significantly.
Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler has come to be known by some protesters as "Tear Gas Teddy" for not barring the use of teargas on protesters. Photo by @perrygraphs
“Nationwide, there’s clearly been a groundswell of support for BLM and a radical shift in understanding of the role of police. I’m hoping that new understanding brings about transformative change. That more and more bureaus are defunded and disbanded and we as a country demonstrate that we possess an ounce of imagination and the capacity to do things a better way.”
McGuire's role of witness, and relaying what she witnesses at the protests online, has drawn a substantial amount of harassment for doing so. The harassment, she says, is nonstop. “[I]t’s been somewhat shocking when I am reading messages from total strangers telling me I deserve violence or I deserve to die.”
Nevertheless, she remains steadfast in her participation and support of the protests, and continues to encourage people to listen to Black leaders and activist groups associated with the movement. “[We need] to get back to the heart of why we say Black Lives Matter,” she said. “Police brutality is a fair chunk of what we’re fighting against now but the movement is much bigger than that. I want people to educate themselves about how this is the civil rights movement of our time and examine which side of history they’re on.”
As the national dialogue around race and racism in America is beginning to change and some states and cities are seeing the fruits of Black Lives Matter protests and activism, the movement as a whole continues to face challenges. In Portland specifically, the use of force against protesters, in particular the use of chemical weapons, has been criticized. PPB racked up more than $45,000 on riot control agents as of June (7) while also facing lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union. (8)
“[T]he use of force is traumatizing upwards of thousands of people in this city alone,” McGuire said, speaking to the direct personal cost of the excessive force and escalation tactics PPB and the feds have repeatedly been accused of. She described injuries she received one night during the federal occupation of Portland: “...I was shot twice with impact munitions, sponge grenades specifically. One hit my hand, which was excruciating enough to go to Urgent Care and even a week later, it’s still painful.
“I think the trauma of being tear gassed and shot with munitions and pepper balls and fear of being arrested or (unlawfully) detained scares a lot of people out of participating, and that’s hard to overcome. Some people don’t feel like they can take the risk to even march during the daytime,” she said. These fears are obstacles both to the movement and its need to maintain momentum for the long run, and for people who find themselves genuinely afraid to exercise their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.
Though federal agents have purportedly withdrawn from the city since this interview was conducted, McGuire described their presence as a frustrating derailment. “As citizens, we have very specific tools at our disposal for protest and the federal government has gone out of their way to take them away from us.”
The departure of federal agents or reduction of their presence has brought reports of more peaceful protests, (9) though clashes with PPB continue to be a nightly occurrence. Even as tensions continue to fluctuate, protesters continue to grapple with the trauma of the violence they’ve witnessed and endured. McGuire herself has, since this interview was conducted, been assaulted by a PPB officer at one of the nightly protests, not only witnessing the trauma being perpetuated by officers but experiencing it first hand. Through all of this, McGuire stressed that it’s important to stay focused on what matters and what is at the heart of this movement.
“[L]isten to Black leaders and Black people about their real life experiences,” she urged. “Believe them. Take them seriously. Let it change you. Let it change our nation.”
(2) Kayyali, D. (2018, May 18). Hey Activists: Think Twice Before Livestreaming Protests. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://www.wired.com/2017/03/hey-activists-need-think-twice-livestreaming-protests/
(3) Morrison, S. (2020, July 21). How feds used a YouTube livestream to arrest a Portland protester. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/21/21332653/portland-oregon-protests-feds-dhs-youtube-livestream
(4) Willis, J., Brown, M., O'Connor, M., Peters, R., & Iannelli, J. (2020, June 11). Louisville Metro Council Bans No-Knock Raids Following The Police Killing of Breonna Taylor. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://theappeal.org/louisville-kentucky-ban-no-knock-warrants-breonna-taylor/
(5) CBS News. (2020, June 26). Minneapolis City Council members taking first step toward disbanding city's police department. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneapolis-city-council-members-taking-first-step-toward-disbanding-citys-police-department/
(6) Bailey, H. (2020, August 06). Plan to disband Minneapolis police halted in city commission vote. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/05/plan-disband-minneapolis-police-department-halted-city-commission-vote/
(8)Ellis, R. (2020, July 27). ACLU Adds Federal Agencies To Lawsuit Against Portland Police. Retrieved August 15, 2020, from https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-aclu-federal-law-enforcement-portland-police-lawsuit/
(9)McEvoy, J. (2020, August 03). Photos: Violence Subsides After Feds Exit Portland Protests. Retrieved August 15, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/03/photos-violence-subsides-after-feds-exit-portland-protests/
A look at two incidents in the past month that highlight Oregon police departments' glaring tendency to brutally attack and arrest protesters of racial inequality while ignoring blatant violence from the Alt Right including pointing guns at people, macing people, and beating people. Here are some first hand accounts, photos, and videos of the protests of July 29th in Springfield, Oregon and August 22nd in Portland, Oregon.
Springfield, July 29th
On Wednesday, July 29th, in Springfield, Oregon, Black Unity held a march in Thurston. The peaceful march was met with police barricades that guided the direction of the march. Springfield Police Department, coordinating with alt right counter protesters, purposefully pushed the march into an angry crowd of said counter protesters. Only one arrest of violent counter protesters was made, a woman who attacked a Black Unity protester so badly she had to go to the hospital. Here is an account from one of the medics who was marching with Black Unity on this brutal night:
When we arrived at Jesse Maine memorial park, the first thing I noticed was the amount of people unaffiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement who had come out of their houses to watch the protest assemble. That wasn't out of the ordinary, these protests create a bit of spectacle. Very quickly, some verbal disputes broke out between protesters and counter protesters, but all were settled nonviolently with both parties walking away.
As we started to march, a teammate and I followed in a car in order to provide security or an evac vehicle if needed.
Things were tense, with many counter protesters following behind shouting nonsense about racism not existing. After only a half hour of marching, our route was blocked by police in riot gear and a construction barricade. Protesters lined up across from the police while Black Unity leadership tried to negotiate. Apparently negotiations broke down because the police suddenly attacked with pepper spray and batons.
I heard several anguished cries for a medic so I grabbed my bag, jumped out of the car, and asked my teammate to wait a few blocks away in order to provide emergency transport. A member of the leadership team had apparently been grabbed by the police, another member of the leadership team tried to shield him from the batons. The police did not hesitate to baton and punch this woman repeatedly in the face, head, legs, and back. Somehow, she was pulled away from the police and behind the line of protesters, where members of my team could treat her. She was having trouble staying conscious, so we called for immediate evac.
While this was going on, two more women stumbled back from the line with bloody noses, police had stopped using batons and simply started punching protesters in the face. Several people who were badly beaten were going into shock. They were shaking, hyperventilating, and vomiting.
I gave them all the same treatment: I introduced myself, asked them their names, and told them to inhale, count to four, exhale, count to four. The instructions for this breathing exercise are simpler than most, so people experiencing shock have an easier time following. However, there was nothing I could do to make them feel better about the fact that their friend was just grabbed and beaten by the police.
We detoured our march down a different side street (this is about when the police informed counter protesters where they were forcing us to go so they could cut us off and ambush us at our cars). We marched a little ways up when I heard more cries for a medic. I approached and saw it was yet another member of the leadership team who appeared dazed, and was bleeding from a cut on his nose. He asked me to check him for a concussion. I checked his pupils, they were dilating and contracting with changes in light, and he was able to quickly answer questions about himself, so it seemed he was fine. I also cleaned the cut on his nose and he went on his way.
As I was writing this, I struggled with this next part for a long time, because what happened next was absolute chaos.
We marched straight into a group of violent counter-protesters. Immediately fights broke out everywhere around me. I’m trained in deescalation but it's near impossible to deescalate an all out brawl. The police pushed us into the violent crowd, then backed off for about an hour and left us to fend for ourselves amongst the mob.
I was still working on trying to treat a few people that were injured, but there was nowhere safe to treat my patients, as we kept being approached by counter-protesters, and the nearby park was crawling with armed men hiding in the shadows. Black Unity leaders took to the PA system in the back of their truck to advise BLM to go to their cars and get out as soon as possible.
I stayed with my team to make sure everyone had a safe group to leave with. Eventually, the BLM crowd thinned out and it was just about 2 dozen of us, surrounded by white supremacists that were pushing us out of the neighborhood with the help of police.
I saw a police officer stop one white supremacist who was becoming particularly aggressive. The officer said to him “I know you think you're helping, but you're not, you’re making this even more unsafe for everyone." The counter protester then started bumping the cop and screaming in his face about how he "doesn't know who he's messing with.”
The officers eyes widened and he put one foot back, getting into a combat stance. But just before anything happened, a higher ranking officer pulled him away and they continued to allow this man to threaten and shove protesters.
I split from the crowd, separated from my team, and tried to find a safe place to evacuate from, as I didn’t want these violent counter protesters to see the license plate of my teammate's car.
I ducked down a quiet street and called for evac. As I was waiting, a large black van with tinted windows came down the street. The hair on my neck stood on end. I walked back towards the main road and the van turned to follow me. They even went as far as to swerve into the wrong lane of traffic to get close to me, but had to peel off to avoid oncoming cars. They pulled into the cul-de-sac ahead of me in order to cut me off, as I frantically called for evac. For a brief moment, I made eye contact with the driver. He was wearing a balaclava, and he had a look of absolute hatred in his eyes. This man wanted to kill me. I darted across the street and dove into the evac vehicle as quickly as i could, and we were able to get out without being followed.
We rallied with our team in a parking lot to debrief and make sure everyone got out safely. We were there for no more than 10 minutes before 2 cars full of protesters came screaming into the lot. They hopped out and were frantically screaming about how white supremacists had chased them from Thurston, across the freeway, and to the other side of Springfield. Apparently they had darted into the parking lot in order to evade the truck full of Neo Nazis that was chasing them. I never saw the truck, but the wild look on their eyes and the way they kept looking behind them every few seconds told me they had been through something harrowing. We spoke with them for a while and tried to come up with a way to keep them safe, but luckily they were able to access a nearby safe house and get off the street for the night.
The last of our team got out safe, and we left the area as quickly as possible. I don't really have a satisfying conclusion to this. I stumbled up the stairs into my apartment, and as my boots caught the light, I realized they were stained with blood and vomit. This would have been upsetting enough, but what really got to me was that I was stained with the blood of men and women I deeply respect. Men and women who fight every day to make America a better place, and are called terrorists and are met with wanton violence for trying to speak their minds.
My only solace is that I know this will not slow them down, though they may need some days to recover, sure. But the events of last night will only make them push harder to make their voices heard over those that would use violence and intimidation to drown it out. These are some resilient and amazing people leading this movement, and it’s going to take more than an army of drunk Nazis and violent police to keep them down.
Multiple social media posts such as this one corroborate what is stated above.
Video originally posted by Alt Right counter-protesters heading toward the march:
Video of police attacking protesters over the barricade:
Portland, August 22nd
The Patriot Prayer Rally organized by the Alt Right, kicks off midday in downtown Portland on August 22nd. Multiple counter protesters attend, their live streams catching multiple incidents of intimidation and violence, including the use of mace and pointing of guns. No arrests of Alt Right protesters are made, no riot declared.
Pictured below is Alt Right protester Alan Swinney aiming a revolver at counter protesters with his finger on the trigger. Photo by @pnwantifascist
Photo below by Donovan Farley captures the moment after a wheelchair bound BLM protester was mace by Proud Boys:
The following report by a local photojournalist details the events of the protest following the Alt Right Rally. Note the stark difference in how people throwing water bottles are treated vs Alt Right protesters who were entirely ignored while macing people and pointing firearms with fingers on the trigger.
8-22-20 Portland Protests Report. Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
10:48 March from Normandale Park to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office got blocked by officers on the 84 overpass. Crowd dispersed and regrouped at the MCSO. The LRAD had made announcements to stay off the property right when the group had arrived. Probably a few hundred people here. Riot vans drove by the east side of the precinct (away from the main crowd), pointing their guns at us (a small group on the sidewalk) for seemingly no reason.
10:55 LRAD is making targeted announcements, telling people to stay off the property, calling out people under the trees and then announced "press and legal observers, we appreciate you being here observing and reporting, but please do not interfere in police work."
11:05 A guillotine with a teddy bear (seemingly a reference to Ted Wheeler aka Tear Gas Teddy) has been placed in the parking lot of the MCSO. More LRAD announcements to stay off the property.
11:38 "This has been declared an unlawful assembly because people are firing paintballs and throwing projectiles." I have not observed anyone throw projectiles, aside from a few water bottles.
11:59 Police start dispersing the crowd from the east, launching tear gas and less-lethal ammunition. I watched someone with a shield push back hard against an officer's batons, but the officer repeatedly struck them and pushed back hard, beating the shield as hard as possible until they stumbled over a bus bench. Also watched several officers rip someone from the crowd on the sidewalk, almost break their arm while they were kneeling on his back, rip his mask and goggles off, then let them go. They've pushed us down 44th, deeper into the neighborhoods, and declared the gathering a riot as soon as they reach the next major intersection.
12:11 During the push to the intersection, I watched multiple press members get beaten and thrown around on the sidewalk, despite complying with orders or trying to argue their legal right to film, including one instance where a press member was thrown into the bushes and then promptly pushed by another officer who told them to stop hiding in bushes. Several press friends were maced during this push (there is a temporary restraining order that makes it so officers can not touch press or legal observers). After kettling people at a major intersection, they fired off one last round of gas, one of which seemed to be nausea inducing as even after the smoke cleared, I instantly started retching and coughing harder than any other gas ever makes me. Officers retreat. Crowd is headed back to the MCSO now.
12:17 Back at the building now, LRAD says this is an unlawful assembly (first time I've ever heard it be demoted from riot back to unlawful assembly).
12:30 "This remains a riot" declares the LRAD. Crowd is just chanting and holding space in the street. I depart at this point. The rest of the report is an on the ground account by a fellow reporter (something to note, two friend were called fat by an officer and told to get back in their pig pen).
(Editor's Note- 2:10 AM: Cops made another push, more of the same behavior from before, targeted arrests and beatings, lots of mace and tear gas, this time officers pushed the group into a wall where they had to climb over in order to avoid being beaten or maced. Seems like the crowd mostly dispersed after recovering from the second push)
Here's corroboration of events by independent journalist Benjamin Tier available here, as well as livestreams of the events.
April Gallaty was born into a military family. Her father was a Vietnam veteran who ran for Sheriff when she was a child, and many members of her family and extended family are either active duty or retired military. She has a strong respect for the military, she says, but “a healthy distrust of the police state” that came from growing up around such distrust.
“I grew up in a house with guns at the ready for an emergency,” Gallaty said. The implied emergency that needed to be prepared for was, Gallaty recalls, “if the government oversteps its boundaries.” She had gotten away from this worldview and line of thinking, describing it as “extreme” and “crazy.” But as doubt arises that Donald Trump will accept election results in November, (1) his attempts to undermine the validity of the election and to delay it, (2) and the recent advent of federal agents taking protesters off the street in unmarked vehicles, (3) Gallaty is reconsidering this opinion. “I am starting to realize that…what I thought was my ‘crazier’ family member’s delusions aren’t so delusional.”
“I was watching friends get pummeled every night on their feeds on Facebook and YouTube,” Gallaty said. “They were being attacked from my perspective, yet the news was saying the protesters were rioting and it was being insinuated that the entire city was on fire and it was pure bedlam. Well, how the heck would I know? I’ve been hiding in my house since March and not been around the city much.” So, out of a mixture of guilt, curiosity, disbelief, and a hope for answers, Gallaty went to a protest. “I was curious if it was as bad as I was seeing on TV.”
She later shared a write up of what she saw and experienced on Facebook, leading in with the statement that “[t]he protesters aren’t as violent as you are being shown on the news, the city isn’t under siege 24/7 and we need to organize in new ways.”
In all of her discussions about the Black Lives Matter movement, the Portland protests, and her involvement in both, Gallaty remains conscious of her privilege as a middle class white woman. The intersection of white privilege and class privilege is often an important one to acknowledge in discussions of race relations in America, as these things coupled together often lead to a significant difference in lived experiences as compared to those who do not share white and/or middle-class identities, (4)(5) something Gallaty is keenly aware of. “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to put my redneck days behind me,” she said. “I’ve married well…I just happily skipped into a middle-class status and did all the middle-class status things…I was even fortunate enough to be able to buy a second home and rent out the other one in all my years of middle-class white life.”
Intersectionality describes the effects of intersecting social identities and classes, such as race, gender, orientation, and more.
Gallaty wasn’t blinded by her privilege—rather, she was able to see that what had worked for her didn’t seem to work for others who didn’t share the benefits of being a member of privileged social classes. “[W]e’ve watched our neighbors and friends struggle to get ahead,” she said. “If they had one little mistake on their record, the struggle to get ahead was even harder for them. If that person was female, a person of color, any part of LBGTQ+, etc, the struggle compounded on them even more for each…addition to their description.”
What Gallaty is describing is the theoretical framework of intersectionality in action. Intersectionality was coined by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 “to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap.” Intersectionality has become a hot topic in activism of all varieties, as employing an intersectional framework into activism ideally allows activists to see, understand, and address the different lived experiences of the populations they advocate for. “The lived experiences—and experiences of discrimination—of a black woman will be different from those of a white woman, or a black man, for example,” (6) and that means that the needs of different people will be different based on their intersecting identities.
Much like intersectionality, different forms of systemic power and institutionalized violence can intersect to either harm or privilege different groups at different rates/levels.
“People are struggling and it is people close to me that I care about,” Gallaty said of watching these effects in real time. “I…see that more people can’t make the system work for them like it has for me. That tells me that something is wrong with the system. And honestly, I have the same worries as anyone. One major health problem and all my cushions would be gone, so I recognize I don’t have it as good as I pretend to…
“I was dumbfounded at what I was beginning to realize. Why isn’t the system working for everyone? Hell, I deliberately wear purple hair and cover myself in tattoos and I still get away with a lot because of my credit score and credit card. Why isn’t everyone around me having my luck? They asked for advice and I gave it and it’s not working? …So, what’s going on? Could it be my skin color?”
It is this understanding that primed Gallaty to be receptive to the message of the Black Lives Matter protests. Early in the evening on her visit to a protest, before the protests began, she observed vehicles with no license tags entering and exiting the IRS building. “I watched a truck go in and it had no license tag,” she said. “Wait? What? Why, that’s illegal! …My inner Karen was incensed.
“Then, the part of me that is the white woman, law-abiding citizen in me thought, ‘No. That was probably a new car. Waiting on tags. Whatever. The police won’t do illegal things to their own neighbors. I mean, they say these are out of town Feds, but they won’t let them get away with shit like that.’ When I tell you that white women are trained to expect the best behavior in authority and excuse little transgressions, I am not lying. It’s hard to get out of that habit.”
Axis of dominance, privelege, and oppression
Many of us who are white have been strongly socialized to assume best intent on the part of authorities, in particular with regards to police. Police have, after all, been sold to us as people who “Protect and Serve” since the 1950’s, and in recent decades we’ve been inundated with more police procedural dramas than can easily be counted. America’s culture of hero worship centered around the police is blatant when considering the special deference cops facing charges are often greeted with in court. This is “thanks to the widespread perception that they are heroic public figures valiantly trying to protect us,” wrote David Feige for Slate. (7) It is this culture, coupled with laws such as qualified immunity which effectively shelter police officers from accountability, and recognizing and changing this is a key piece of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I went to see what was going on for myself because I am just like every person who has excused transgressions from officials thinking that it won’t happen again or that it can’t happen again,” Gallaty said. “But it does happen over and over. The officials are getting greedier and bolder and more open about what they think they can and will get away with. I realized in the heat of things and after going over the experience, that the city of Portland might be the easiest target for our cowardly president to make an example out of and he will kill people to do it. I really don’t want to see anyone else die and I want the BLM Movement to keep its momentum without all this extra added interference.”
While federal agents have reportedly withdrawn from Portland since the time of this interview (8) (though some protesters on the ground dispute that this is true), the effect lingers. In late July mayors from across the nation urged Congress to block Mr. Trump’s intended “surge” of federal agents into cities including Seattle, Chicago, and Kansas City. (9) Nonetheless, many protesters are waiting for the next blow.
“People I’ve shared microphones and a beer with are getting beaten to death and getting PTSD from being attacked,” said Gallaty. “The [knowledge] of the POC who’ve dealt with this all this time hit me really hard. I was ashamed, disgusted, and pissed. The BLM [movement] needs to be focused on Black Lives and not dealing with the extra added stress of an up and coming police state…”
Many activists and protesters want us to remember how and why this movement started — to fight unjust and unequal policing of black people and black communities. Photo by @perrygraphs
Indeed, Black Lives Matter activists have expressed frustration at the message being lost amid the rise of violence in Portland. There is a prevalent anxiety that the protests in Portland have shifted focus in response to the violence of local police and federal agents. Furthermore, that violence has had the desired effects for many would-be protesters and folks who have been active in the protests: there is a fear of being brutalized or having one’s life massively disrupted by arrests. Gallaty herself admits to being afraid in the face of these tactics:
“I’m scared to stand up for [this movement],” she said. “I do know this is wrong and it is distracting us from our focus…the focus on BLM was right and the government is scared of that. I’m scared that if we let the government come in and beat down our people to stop what was originally peaceful protests, they will come in anytime they decide they don’t like something we do. After that, it’ll go beyond us to other cities. What will stop them from coming for you next? That’s not a democracy, that’s a police state.
“It has been reported that the reason the extra goons are being sent into Portland is because the people holding the protesters back are getting tired,” Gallaty said, referring to protesters’ beliefs that the federal agents allowed for local police officers to recoup and prepare to come back in force. Because of this, Gallaty advocates for increased daytime protests as well. “Those of us who can hang out during the day need to organize and go hang out where the police and federal agents are coming into and out of the building and take pictures of their cars and their faces if we can…I also think we need to start disrupting and keeping the numbers up on a consistent basis throughout the day. The bigger the crowds during the day, the bigger the impact it will make because they won’t have the ability to get in or out and they won’t get any real sleep or rest. Our only and best peaceful option is our numbers.
“We (middle class white folks) have all been conditioned to think the system is this great and wonderful thing that will protect us and take care of us if we just behave and do what we are supposed to,” Gallaty said. “It’s too easy for ‘average white American person to dismiss this as something that is just the ‘bad people of the city’ causing trouble under the guise of the BLM movement because it only happens at night. The activities of the protest need to be visible during the day. The federal officers need to feel the weight our numbers…[and] the people that hold onto [belief in the system] are the ones that need to be mobilized because they won’t believe it until they see it.”
“The only thing we have at our advantage is numbers. We have to come out in force and this will mean so many disruptions in the real world for a lot of people and it means not hiding behind our responsibilities and our comforts and fail-safes as a reason to stay home. If we let our neighbors fail, we fail,” Gallaty said, highlighting the importance of setting aside worries about comfort and wealth. “They know the BLM movement is valid and for some reason don’t understand that it will help all people in the end,” she said, stressing that the movement stands to improve the lives of everyone by securing better civil rights and creating momentum for greater equity.
“Again, and it can’t be said enough, [the presence of the federal agents is] completely distracting from the BLM movement,” Gallaty said. “We can’t seem to make it just stop without rolling over to the federal government at this point and I don’t think that’s an option. I don’t want that…
“I want to organize people to come out during the day, starting in the early morning one morning soon and stand outside and take pictures of the unmarked cars and their drivers going into the buildings for the police station and IRS parking. Also, it’s going to have to be a large number of us to make it effective.”
For plans such as these, the timing couldn’t be better. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on American communities and systems since February, revealing the weaknesses in our health systems and social safety nets and causing upwards of 160,000 confirmed deaths. Widespread lock-downs have, however, freed up time and energy for many people who are often too overworked and too concerned about making ends meet to deeply invest in activism. Black Lives Matter isn’t the only civil unrest that has occurred during COVID-19 lock-downs—there have been rent strikes and worker strikes across the country. America has arguably been at a tipping point for years, with the wealth gap having more than doubled between 1989 and 2016 (10) and racial bias and discrimination becoming increasingly visible with the advent of the internet and camera phones. In many ways, America has been a tinder box for decades, and COVID-19 is assisting with the lighting of a match—if not itself being the inciting spark.
“I think we need to keep the streets as full of people all day long, as much as possible,” Gallaty said, hoping for sustained and organized pressure on the local government and police bureau. “Hopefully, that will translate into a changing of shifts to the evening protesters and try to keep it going for several days….Wouldn’t it be nice if we were the lead city in showing the US how to manage making things right for the POC in our city and state?
“Buildings can be cleaned. Lives cannot be restarted. Eyes can’t be fixed. Holes in foreheads leave permanent damage,” Gallaty said. “I want Portland to be a shining example to the rest of the US, not a warning.”
(1) Panetta, G. (2020, July 19). Trump hints that he could refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election if he loses. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-suggests-that-he-wont-accept-the-2020-election-results-if-he-loses-2020-7
(2)Donald Trump suggests delay to 2020 US presidential election. (2020, July 30). Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53597975
(3)Katie Shepherd, M. (2020, July 18). ‘It was like being preyed upon’: Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/17/portland-protests-federal-arrests/
(4)Emba, C. (2016, January 16). Opinion | What is white privilege? Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/01/16/white-privilege-explained/
(6)Coaston, J. (2019, May 20). The intersectionality wars. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination
(7)Feige, D. (2015, May 25). The Myth of the Hero Cop. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/05/the-myth-of-the-hero-cop-police-unions-have-spread-a-dangerous-message-about-americas-law-enforcement-officers.html
(8)Baker, M., & Kanno-youngs, Z. (2020, July 29). Federal Agencies Agree to Withdraw From Portland, With Conditions. Retrieved August 08, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/protests-portland-federal-withdrawal.html
(9)Wise, A. (2020, July 27). Mayors Demand Congress Block Trump From Deploying Federal Agents To Cities. Retrieved August 08, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/07/27/895904023/mayors-demand-congress-block-trump-from-deploying-federal-agents-to-cities
(10)Schaeffer, K. (2020, May 31). 6 facts about economic inequality in the U.S. Retrieved August 08, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/
Benjamin Tier is a tour guide, comedian, and writer turned independent reporter. His first Black Lives Matter protest was in St. Augustine, FL, and after relocating to Portland, he began following Teresa Raifford, the founder of Don't Shoot Portland who ran for the office of Portland mayor in 2020.
“I listened [to] black mothers saying, 'How fast is my son supposed to walk? How slow? What kind of clothing should he wear? What exactly can he do to not appear as a threat?'” Tier recalled of the Mothers 4 Sybrina rally he attended in Florida. “I'll never forget how so many white men...walked by with their families and yelled, 'Get over it!'”
Tier describes his history of activism as “showing up, listening, and signal boosting.” He has a strong focus in keeping people informed, especially those from across the country who may not be aware of the prevalence of racism and police violence in the Pacific Northwest. “I insisted that the police and right wing violence here could happen anywhere,” he said.
It is perhaps Tier's activism in raising awareness and keeping people educated that paved the way for expanding into independent reporting. “A friend of mine helped me secure press credentials, not that they really seem to matter much,” Tier said, referring to wave of police violence against journalists which has swept the nation but seems to have been especially prominent in Portland.
“My goal is to elevate the voices and perspectives of the more radical elements within the protests, as I feel they are often overlooked.” Tier has raised concern about the degree to which more radical voices—especially the voices of activists of color—are undercut, dismissed, and ignored in broader dialogues that seek to appeal to a centrist audience. “Local leadership and corporate media are perpetuating a 'good protester vs. bad protester' narrative, heavily implying that it is only a bunch of violent white kids on one side and gentle, quiet Black people on the other. This is of course...serves to erase the BIPOC voices that are calling for more than conciliatory piecemeal reforms.”
Of this trend toward the erasure of radical voices within the movement, Tier said that “There have been a lot of efforts to pacify, de-radicalize, and co-opt the movement. I can't say I know everyone's motivations but the perpetuation of the 'good protester vs bad protester' is an attempt at de-legitimatizing efforts toward actual change. There are plenty of protesters themselves who can naively fall into this trap. 'If we just do what the cops want, they won't hurt us.' Well, they will still hurt you, and furthermore, now you're not actually standing up to them.”
Tier has primarily heard misconceptions about the movement second hand, but this has changed as he's delved deeper into independent reporting and more people have began following his reports from the protests. “There seems to be this pervasive myth that the city is in complete chaos. The protests themselves are usually contained to small areas downtown or in North Portland. Any time they expand beyond that is usually a result of the police brutalizing people and chasing them around.”
Tier's reference to police “chasing” people evokes the more brutal imagery that has been arising from the Portland protests, including videos of police lines advancing on and becoming physical with protesters. Many protesters, including a street medic we interviewed for our debut Stories From the Front Lines, have talked about being boxed in or “kettled.” In these situations, the protesters' movements can be manipulated by the staging of police lines. Many protesters assert that this tactic has been used to escalate tensions or provoke violence, therefore enabling the police to declare and otherwise peaceful protest a riot.
“Part of the myth is that there must be rioting every night,” Tier went on to say. “Outside of a few random broken windows, the only real looting happened for two nights way back in May. People seem to want to believe that the protesters themselves are violent looters, because Americans have this deeply ingrained obsession with property. I would ask these folks, 'What matters more to you? A well-insured corporate building? Or a human life?'”
Discussion of the degree to which Americans tend to value property over black lives, as exemplified by the national response to looting in the immediate wake of George Floyd's death as compared to the response to police brutality throughout the years, became a center-point discussion around the protests in late May and early June. In the Minneapolis protests reports came out of bad-faith actors destroying property, presumably to undermine the movement, while protesters attempted to prevent such destruction. One notable example was of a man with an umbrella and mask breaking the windows of a local AutoZone. (1) In Portland, the police made a bid to cite property damage (to the tune of $23 million) caused by the protesters, as a historically proven means to undermine movements that challenge the status quo and systems of power. This number, as it turned out, was largely the result of COVID-19 closures on a Portland mall, not damage from protests. (2)
Increasingly, the dialogue around property destruction during times of civil unrest has expanded to include discussion of property destruction as a valid means of challenging institutions of power and systemic oppression. (3) The rallying cry that “Property can be replaced, Black Lives can't” became a poignant response to anxieties about property destruction in the early days of the Minneapolis protests.
“I don't think [people concerned about property damage] can wrap their minds around the fact that the police response to protesters is extremely disproportional,” said Tier, “as that is too threatening to their comfortable, orderly worldview...People need to know that this movement is about justice over order...the people on the streets are not going to be scared away anymore. The ultimate goal of this movement is to create a better world for everyone, and if you feel threatened by that, what is it you actually value?”
The disproportionately violent response of police at Portland protests are not Tier's first brush with such violence or threats of violence. His experiences at marches such as the rally in St. Augustine has prepared Tier for the reality of clashing with police and right-wing instigators. “Both groups...display similar patterns of instigating, escalatory behavior,” he said. “Additionally, being threatened by armed dudes in [a] pickup truck with American flags all over it is nothing new. That's something I dealt with quite frequently in Florida.”
“There are definitely fascists who drive around the protests looking to antagonize people. Additionally, Andy Ngo [a conservative social media journalist who has been reporting on the Portland protests] has a bunch of followers who jump at the opportunity to dox anyone who has been arrested,” Tier said. “My friends have had cops show up to their doors at weird hours...demanding a conversation but with no warrant. I personally have been intimidated by a police officer taunting me and pointing his gun from his cruiser.”
Photograph of Mayor Ted Wheeler speaking with protesters in Portland. Some protesters have taken to calling Mayor Wheeler "Tear Gas Teddy" due to his resistance to limiting the use of teargas by law enforcement. Photo by Zackary J. Perry. @perrygraphs on Instagram
Despite harassment, threats, and escalations of violence, protesters continue to show up in Portland and in other cities across the country. The protests, many will say, are working, pointing to major victories such as the disbanding of the police force in Minneapolis.
In Portland, the story has unfolded differently. “There have been a lot of small policy victories and electoral resignations, but most importantly the intensity and duration of these protests have laid bare just how impotent our elected officials really are,” Tier said. “Our supposed 'progressive' leaders use a lot of hollow words to condemn systemic racism and violence, but when put to the task of action, they fall miserably short. It is important that people see...and remember this. People who seek power in our current system have very little genuine interest in changing it.”
One such politician protesters have expressed frustration and lack of faith in is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. “Wheeler is despised,” Tier said, stressing that Mayor Wheeler is not an ally to the movement, and that the feds are not markedly worse in their treatment of protesters than the Portland Police Bureau. “[T]he feds are virtually indistinguishable from [PPB] in terms of their behavior.”
As a result of Black Lives Matter, America is having a more nationally-engaged conversation about race and racism than has been seen since perhaps the 60s. “On a social level, people are having all kinds of conversations that they probably wouldn't otherwise be having,” Tier said. “We're being forced to very seriously imagine how to rebuild our society, and how to care for and about each other. Going forward, I want to see us build a system with leaders who are not beholden to corporate interests or police unions. Ideally, I want to live in a city where when I witness or experience an emergency situation, I have services I can call that will provide people who are properly trained to handle that specific situation.
“Everyone should have access to food, healthcare, and a roof over their heads,” said Tier, referring to the argument that meeting people's basic needs helps reduce crime by taking preventative action addressing the root causes of crime. (4) This argument, prompted by the Black Lives Matter protests, is gaining greater traction as the debate over police defunding and/or abolition has entered mainstream discourse.
Despite the heavy nature of much of the news coming out of the protests, Tier describes an incredibly lively, hopeful, and sometimes pointedly jovial undercurrent to these protests. While acknowledging the overwhelming whiteness of Portland, Tier described the protests as “some of the most diverse events I've attended in this city...I've seen so many openly queer people putting their bodies on the line night after night. We have moms, dad, vets, doctors, nurses, lawyers, chefs, servers, and so many other everyday people from all walks of life showing up and holding it down.”
The momentum of so many people of such diverse backgrounds coming together paints a potent and powerful picture, as does the willingness of protesters to engage in pointed jests. He described a scene in which “someone brought a bunch of pig feed” which was used to throw at cops, who later ignited the feed with a flash bang and started a fire. Another recent moment featured “This is America” by Donald Glover blasting from a speaker at one end of the block while another speaker at the other end of the block played the “Imperial Death March” of Star Wars fame.
“The feds were shooting and tear gassing us from behind the courthouse fence,” Tier said. “I stood in the middle and danced with a bunch of other journalists and protesters.” These moments of levity and embracing whatever might come, he said, showed “the authorities and each other that we are not scared. Courage,” Tier said, “is contagious.”
At the end of the day, Tier expresses an almost aggressively positive outlook when he invites people to join the protests. “I'd encourage people who are supportive but haven't yet attended to step outside their comfort zones...and stick around when shit gets weird. You don't have to be on the front line, but you really need to experience the unity....of your community firsthand so that you can see how the rest of us can be optimistic about the future.”
(1) Perez, M. (2020, July 28). Mystery 'Umbrella Man' Vandal From Minnesota: Police Say He's A White Supremacist Instigator. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/07/28/mystery-umbrella-man-vandal-from-minnesota-police-say-hes-a-white-supremacist-instigator/
(3) Lossin, R. (2020, June 11). In Defense of Destroying Property. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/blm-looting-protest-vandalism/
(4) Pearl, B. (2019, October 2). NeighborhoodStat: Strengthening Public Safety Through Community Empowerment. Retrieved July 29, 2020, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2019/10/02/475220/neighborhoodstat-strengthening-public-safety-community-empowerment/
Videos of police lines advancing down Portland streets toward protesters, against a backdrop of tear gas and flash bangs, have been emerging from Black Lives Matter protests since late May. It looks more like a scene out of The Hunger Games than a night in one of America’s reputedly most liberal cities. The videos, photographs, and on-the-ground reports coming out of the nightly protests paint a picture of a totalitarian police state, complete with attacks on journalists and legal observers These reports often include attacks on medics and destroyed medical supplies.
We spoke with Yenta (who used an alias to protect their identity due to recent threats and harassment), who became an educator after witnessing inequity in the public school system. Beyond joining the Women’s March and being a member of “Never Again Action,” a Jewish group committed to liberating those held in ICE concentration camps, they hadn’t done much activism prior to serving as a medic at the recent protests.
Yenta attended their first protest on May 30th, a mere five days after the death of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, which triggered nationwide protests against police brutality and racist policing. Despite a curfew in the downtown area, a small gathering was planned to occur just outside the curfew area. The intent was to stand on the sidewalk holding signs in solidarity for Black Lives Matter.
Flashbang Mid-Detonation. Photo by Zackary J. Perry, on Instagram @perrygraphs
Oregon, and in particular Eugene and the Portland, has long held reputations for being hubs of progressive liberalism. Unfortunately, this overshadows the deeply segregated and racially charged history of Oregon, which only repealed its “Exclusion Law” in 1925.
Section 35 of the Oregon State constitution dictated that “No free negro or mulatto not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside or be within this state or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein; and the legislative assembly shall provide by penal laws for the removal by public officers of all such negroes and mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the state, and for the punishment of persons who shall bring them into the state, or employ or harbor them.” (1) It is due to such laws that to this day that Black citizens make up only 3% of Oregon’s population (at the time of the 2017 census). (2) Portland continues to be an incredibly white city, and due to this history of segregation and the legacy of continuing overwhelming whiteness, Oregon as a whole has been described as continuing to be a “white utopia” (3) and deeply entrenched white supremacy continues to assault its (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) BIPOC population.
Moms for Black Lives Matter. Photo by Zackary Perry, on Instagram @perrygraphs
Policing tactics and city and state responses to the recent protests in Oregon have shed light on this continuing problem in Oregon. Seeing the response of violence and/or threat of violence not only from white supremacist civilians, but also from the police themselves, caused Yenta and their protest group to “[realize] we needed to really commit ourselves to helping the movement.”
Yenta describes themselves as having fallen into the role of medic. “I brought first aid supplies to a few protests, as I have some first aid certifications and experience, and I wanted to be prepared. I met a few other folks who were like-minded, some of them being actual doctors and EMTs, and we quickly congealed into a tight-knit response group.”
In protests across the nation medics have taken to wearing red crosses to identify themselves to fellow protesters and to police. Despite the fact that the red cross has been associated with medical services since the First Geneva Convention (4) there are those who believe that the symbol is an Antifa symbol and implies an intention to incite violence.
Lone Drummer. Photograph by Zackary J. Perry, on Instagram @perrygraphs
“I feel like it goes without saying that this is insanely ridiculous,” Yenta said. “[T]hose of us in this role [are] frequently targeted by police and Neo-Nazi groups, oftentimes…while we’re giving care to a patient.” Yenta’s first-hand experience corroborates reports out of protests nationwide that medics have been specifically targeted by police officers, having medical equipment confiscated and destroyed, presumably in an effort to make protesting more dangerous and thus discourage attendance.
“In the early days [of the protests] I had several friends who were shot with pepperbullets or directly with tear gas grenades while walking home from work after a curfew had been announced three minutes before going into effect,” Yenta said. Similar reports of curfews being announced minutes before going into effect have been corroborated by timestamps on Twitter announcements and other press releases in Portland and Seattle, among other cities. Other than these incidents, the protests in had remained relatively small, and comparatively peaceful. It wasn’t until Yenta joined the protests in Portland that things got truly “hairy” as they describe them.
“Within minutes of arriving, the police gave a warning not to throw anything over the fence around the Justice Center. I watched a kid throw an empty plastic water bottle over, and from there it was game on,” they said. “It started…raining stun grenades, as police told us to exit to the south. We started moving that direction…but one officer with a 40mm gun broke from the line and skirted around us, so our only option was to either be arrested for not complying with police when asked to leave, or walk towards a man who had a gun pointed in our face at blank range.”
“Rubber” Bullet. Photograph by Zackary J. Perry, on Instagram @perrygraphs
The crowd became hesitant and another line of police blocked off the street protesters were being ordered to disperse down. “They boxed us in, shoulder to shoulder…then rolled teargas grenades beneath our feet and held us there as people coughed, gagged, and begged to be allowed to leave. I was wearing a gas mask…[and] had a shield…that I used to put myself in between the man with the gun and the rest of the crowd.”
It was at this point that Yenta was pulled behind the police line by their backpack. “They yelled for me to get on the ground, but they were so closely packed around me, I literally couldn’t move…I felt one of them rip my helmet off, and another punched me in the back of my head…I heard a few dull thuds against my body as they swung their batons into me.” The scene became blurry and Yenta doesn’t remember how, but they were “ejected from their line and back into the crowd of protesters.
“After I got my bearings, the police opened their line up and told us to walk down the street and leave the area. We all immediately complied,” Yenta said. “After walking with the crowd, all of us with our hands up, for about 100 feet, the officers pulled their batons and came running after us. It was terrible thing to see.
“Those of us who were slowed by the exposure to tear gas were dragged to the ground and savagely beaten. I watched in horror as they pulled a woman to the ground by her ponytail…I wanted to help but there was nothing I could do, as there were two officers right behind me with batons raised. Myself and another member of my medic team were separated from the crowd and forced to hide in a park until the police had passed.” When those in hiding felt safe to come out, they spotted police officers perched on a SWAT van, sharing a beer and laughing about the events of the night.
“The next day you saw that I several bruised ribs, a bruised trachea where they’d punched me in the throat, as well as a huge crack in my gas mask just above the left eye, coupled with a streak where the polish or paint of their batons had rubbed off,” Yenta said, referring to photographs of the physical damage from the attack that had been sustained during the protest. “Folks talk now about the feds being especially brutal, and they absolutely are. But the people who are only just now paying attention to Portland need to realize the police have employing similar tactics for almost two months now.”
Blood on the Sidewalk. Photograph by Zackary J. Perry, on Instagram @perrygraphs
Many protesters nationwide have reported that the police aren’t the only threats they’re facing. In addition to being identified via social media and arrested or otherwise intimated and threatened in the aftermath of protests, many report that civilians in their own communities are posing a serious threat. Activists have reported everything from graffiti on their homes, finding nooses in trees on their blocks, to being confronted with guns on or near their property.
“…[P]eople have experienced brutal backlash from police forces and Neo-Nazi groups for participating in community organizing and protests,” Yenta said. “Some of them are fully in hiding at this point. Almost everyone I know who has participated…have had to establish networks of safe-houses…Some of my medics have been followed home from protests by police and subject to ‘wellness checks’ in which the police demanded to speak with them. One of my team members was pulled over twice coming back from a protest…I can’t give specifics without endangering my team.”
For all the violence that protesters have been subject to, many point to the fact that these protests are, in fact, working, though there is much work left to do. “So far, these protests have brought many facets of systemic racism to light. Lots of people are educating themselves and opening their minds to experiences beyond their own. Colorado ended Qualified Immunity, and many more small victories [have been won]. Even…symbolic concessions that major brands are doing are a good sign. They aren’t particularly helpful, but it still shifts the cultural paradigm away from accepting racism as a facet of American life.”
One thing Yenta wants people to know when they are staying up to date about the protests is that “most mainstream media is doing a terrible job of covering these protests.” While the protests had grown smaller near the end of June, many protesters expressed frustration on social media that the movement had not ended but was being treated by news media as though it had. This is not an issue restricted to conservative news outlets, but has been apparent in liberal media as well.
“I’ve stood right next to reporters, witnessed the same things they did, and when I read their recounting of the events that happened, they will sometimes be outright lies,” Yenta said. “I’ve had to wipe teargas out of the eyes of reporters from major news stations, teammates of mine have had to bring them out of panic attacks or traumatic shock after they experienced police brutality, only for them to be forbidden to report on it or use the footage.
“For people that would like to help but can’t…due to COVID [or] disabilities or any other reason, I’d ask that you reach out to local community organizers and see what they need. If that’s not an option, the NAACP, and ACLU are always great options for donations. I’d also recommend trying to find mutual aid networks that are helping give food, medical supplies, and other resources to protest ‘hot zones’ like PDX.”
Since this interview, protests have once again escalated nationwide in response to the deployment of federal agents in Portland. Oregon State officials and Portland City officials have repeatedly stressed that the violence of the feds has only escalated situation in Portland, as reports have continued to surface of unidentified federal agents in unmarked vans pulling protesters off the streets. Such incidents markedly do not involve Miranda rights, and those who have experienced it have sometimes reported being held in undisclosed locations with large groups of other protesters.
(3) Novak, M. (2015, January 21). Oregon Was Founded As a Racist Utopia. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040
(4) The history of the emblems. (2007, January 14). Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/misc/emblem-history.htm
The following firsthand account comes from one of our trusted contributors who wishes to remain anonymous for their safety. It has been lightly edited for typos and inclusion of sources when applicable.
"Last night, at the federal courthouse in Eugene, a large protest took place. When I arrived there appeared to be several hundred people chanting, clapping, and cheering.
There were also about 50ish counter protesters. Many of them had shields painted red, white, and blue with slogans like "all lives matter", and "back the blue."
Side note: I find it funny that they had shields. BLM Protesters often bring shields to deflect rubber bullets and other impact munitions from the police. These people are usually given fist bumps and sometimes a knowing wink and a nod from local police, as I've seen several times at previous protests. These folks will commit assault, sometimes with a weapon, and police will literally turn their backs in order to have deniability.
As things got heated, my team had finished our sweep of the perimeter and wanted to be nearby the action in case there was a fight and someone needed medical. When we were about 30 feet away, a pistol shot rang out, and several dozen people ran in the opposite direction. Myself and my team honestly thought it was a firework. I'm very familiar with the sound of gunshots, but I hadn't realized how different a gunshot will sound in a crowd of people, as opposed to at a shooting range or in the woods.
The man who fired his gun took off running. Supposedly he was caught by some protesters and roughed up. But I can't confirm that. The shell casing on the ground confirms that there were shots fired."
Screenshots referring to that incident:
Photo by Jordan Blaisdell
Screenshot by Cienna Jade
Screenshot by Cienna Jade
"Shortly after, a man who refused to take a detour around the protest entered into a standoff with one of the people providing perimeter security by blocking the road with their bike.
The man became increasingly frustrated until he produced a pistol, pointed it at the crowd and said: "I'll fucking kill you all." People started preemptively calling for medics, so my team took a position and our lead went over what to do in case of a GSW.
Eventually, this man either realized he was being foolish, or that if he fired his weapon he would quickly be incapacitated by the crowd. Regardless, he drove off.
Over the next hour or so, protesters and counter protesters got into various scuffles. At one point, someone from the "Wall of Moms" group based out of Portland, was sprayed in the face with wasp killer, for some reason a favored weapon of the All Lives Matter movement. Many of them had cans of it attached to their shields. Other protesters were stabbed with American flags that had the end of the pole sharpened, and more still had their lives threatened as shotguns and assault rifles were leveled at them (which is a felony, pointing your gun at somebody in any situation other than self defense is a crime, and a 60-year-old white, suburban mother telling you you're a racist shouldn't make you "fear for your life").
Eventually the protesters decided they had had enough, and started (nonviolently) pushing the counter-protesters out. Most of them left in a huff fairly quickly but a lone man with a loaded AR15 who never took his finger off the trigger, tried to hold out. He threatened several times to unload his gun into the crowd. I think the only thing that eventually convinced him to leave was when he realized many of the protesters were also armed. They just weren't waving their guns in the air (because that's basic gun safety).
After the last of the counter-protesters left, it became a march. A car immediately drove through the protest at about 20 mph. Luckily, everyone managed to get out of the way, and there were only a few minor bumps. This person was obviously trying to cause harm to as many people as possible by using his vehicle as a weapon.
The rest of the march to the jail was uneventful. Just as we got there, an officer on the roof with a megaphone told us: "You have no right to protest on the Sheriff's property."
Protesters appeared to be getting rowdy. I couldn't see what exactly was happening as I was in the back of the crowd, but there were definitely a few small fireworks lit off in the parking lot.
After that, the officer on the roof told us that if we did not leave, we would be subject to impact munitions and chemical weapons.
Eventually the crowd decided to march on. We marched through a few blocks of the Whitaker, and turned back towards downtown roughly without incident. At about 8th and Olive, one of the few Neo Nazi counter-protesters that had been tailing the crowd and antagonizing people eventually took it too far, and it appears someone sprayed him with some kind of aerosol. My team ran up to de-escalate as well as treat anyone affected by chemical weapons, however everyone seemed physically fine. Whatever was in the aerosol was entirely harmless, however we now were faced with a counter-protester in a balaclava, phone recording in one hand, and a 6 inch fixed blade knife in the other. His friend, who I have seen antagonizing and trying to bait people into fights at several protests, had his hand on the butt of a .45 at his hip.
Folks demanded he go home, and leave the crowd. As the man holding the knife and recording insisted to the future audience of the video that they had attacked them despite their being unarmed. (He was careful to keep his big ass knife out of frame.)
Eventually, it was de-escalated, however they continued to follow us for several more blocks. Eventually they ducked down a side street and out of sight. Im sure I'll see them again.
The crowd moved on, back towards the general direction of the courthouse, and campus. We could see things were escalating, so we decided to move our cars closer.
As we were almost to the car, we saw about 10 cop cars take off towards the protest. By the time we had gotten to them, it had been declared a riot. To the best of my knowledge, this is due to graffiti being sprayed on the Wells Fargo building, as well as the Elkhorn tavern getting their windows broken.
A quick aside in regards to the Elkhorn: this wasn't random vandalism, the owner of the Elkhorn has been witnessed going on several racist tirades, usually to justify why he'll never hire a black person. He also encourages customers not to wear masks in his restaurant, advertising it as a "freedom zone" while risking the lives of his underpaid employees. He also started an anti-homeless group called Wake Up Eugene.
We maneuvered our cars around, deciding what our next move was. We ended up at a a parking garage with a good vantage of the situation. The crowd went by, followed by the police, one of them was on a loudspeaker with a monotone voice repeating that the crowd needed to move to the West. As the crowd walked to the West, under police order, tear gas and pepper balls began to be used.
We moved our car to intercept the protest in order to treat any wounded. But even from several blocks away, the tear gas was thick.
I had no gas mask, and neither did my teammate who was driving. Unfortunately my teammate has asthma so they were unable to stick it out without serious risk to their health and safety, so I tied a vinegar soaked rag around my face, put on some goggles, and jumped out of the car alone. I wandered through a thick haze of gas. Trying to find my team, or any wounded.
Let me just speak to how surreal this situation is for a moment. There were shouts and screams in the distance, it was hard to see further than a block due to gas and smoke. This was 6 blocks away from where I used to work. Three blocks from where i saw my first concert. As a car sped down the road towards me, I darted into a familiar alley. I often took this alley as a shortcut home after a night on the town. I would take this shortcut as it was peaceful and separate from the noise of a bustling and thriving downtown. And now it's a war zone choked with chemical weapons in the midst of a pandemic.
The gas was getting to me--choking my throat, burning my lungs and nose, starting to make me panic. This panic would normally be abated with a deep breath and concentration, but that wasn't an option anymore. I emerged from the alley and found my team.
I overheard folks with press badges insisting that tear gas hadn't been used. They also said they weren't in the crowd when munitions were deployed. The fact that my arms and face still burn while typing this beg to differ with their assertion.
We walked with the small sputtering remains of the protest back to the courthouse, when we spotted police and federal troops charging across the parking lot of Whole Foods toward our group. We decided it was time to go.
We sprinted down a street perpendicular to their approach to break their line of sight, but there were riot officers charging down the next block over as well. We prepared to make a mad dash towards downtown, but as we crossed the street, a member of my team screeched to a halt in front of us in their car and yelled for us to get in.
We hopped in and took off just as the light turned green, and we were safe.
Seven were arrested, maybe a dozen injured. I hate to think of the fate that those without such a reliable team faced after we made our escape.
In closing, I'd like to point out the disparity in treatment between protesters and counter protesters, as well as the kinds of crimes both parties committed.
Protesters moved construction equipment to create roadblocks to keep from being victims of vehicular homicide, spray painted walls, and broke windows.
Counter protesters sprayed people with poison, tried to commit murder with a vehicle, and discharged a firearm into a crowd on federal property."
The following video from another source shows disparity in police targeting. In the first few seconds of the livestream clip, the man in the red shirt with the vest appears to punch the kid on the bike in the head. Moments later, the blonde teenager in the white shirt is arrested with excessive force.
In another example of who is targeted, a man is arrested for crossing the street. His charge is "resisting arrest." Do keep in mind the many eye witness accounts detailing direct violence against protesters by counter-protesters and the arrest ration of the two groups for this particular night being 6:1.
In an attempt to close this post on a somewhat positive note, protesters continue to look out for one another and express community solidarity.
Tweet reads: "Someone left what looks like an emergency eyewash station outside a local business." -@CFrancisOLeary
As of July 17th, reports began pouring in about protesters in Portland, Oregon being taken by unidentified federal agents, blindfolded, forced into unmarked vans, detained without their rights being read, and without probable cause.
Since this news broke, several eerily similar stories have surfaced from across the country--many of these having taken place as far back as June. We'll be posting them here as we find them. If you know of an incident we've missed, please comment with details of where and when it happened and provide a link if possible.
We will continue updating this list as more stories come out. We know of at least three more, though we're having a hard time tracking down the screenshots and what not for them right now. There have been social media posts from Oakland, Austin, and Seattle so far of the same thing happening.
I am guilty of forgetting I am an outlier in many of my friend circles and many of you have never, ever conceptualized a society without a police force. Big new ideas like that can be extremely difficult to grasp without a framework to support it, so I am going to try to give you a bit of one so you can at the very least conceptualize what people are talking about when they say “abolish the police,” even if you still do not find yourself agreeing with the stance itself.
Now, this being an incredibly broad and dense topic, I’ll be focusing exclusively on what policing has been and meant in the US. Before we dive into reasons for abolishing the police, let’s cover where they came from. There certainly weren’t any police forces when the colonies were first being founded and, to the best of my knowledge, none of the First Nations had any form of policing at all comparable to what we see today. What the colonies had instead (for the most part) consisted either of local militias (so volunteers who trained regularly) led by elected sheriffs, or mercenaries paid for by wealthy, private interests. The militia plus sheriff/constable mix was largely referred to as a “watch” and it was informal and communal—everything was up to the discretion of the community and their (often elected) leader as to what needed policing and what did not. Hired guards (for example, to make sure your indentured servants and slaves don’t run away from the horrors of harvesting indigo) operated entirely at the discretion of the company or individual who had hired them and their main concern was protecting profits above all else.
These two structures were the primary ways policing in the colonies was organized and they continued even has America claimed its independence from Britain. The first bureaucratic melding of the two into what more closely resembles police forces we have today was in Boston, Massachusetts in 1838. Other major cities quickly began following suit, converting their informal militias into bureaucratic entities accountable to a centralized city government. There is not much evidence for the “need” to do this. There are tons of documents of people decrying the filth and degeneracy and violence of the "mob," but when searching for numbers to corroborate those claims that the American public was completely out of control, they’re just not there. Things like alcohol consumption, arson, medical needs, etc that we can find records for today don’t really match up to the world those decrying the “chaos” of the times insisted they were witnessing.
This effectively means, from the get-go, policing wasn’t established as a norm for the safety of the public, but for the aesthetics of the rich. There was no interest in helping those they called degenerates, they just wanted them swept off the streets and out of their view. They also wanted to have more control over their employee’s habits—hangovers cut into profits, after all. It was a lot cheaper to hire former militiamen etc than it was to hire mercenaries to implement this kind of “order.” From the very beginning, the entire purpose of the police force was to enforce the vision of order the wealthiest citizens had for the city while doing everything possible to protect their profits. From the very beginning, police brutalized and harassed houseless people and immigrants, poor women and black folks. Their primary objective was never public security, health, or happiness, it was first and foremost always appearances and profit.
Now, that’s just how the North did it. The South’s police forces grew directly out of slave patrols. Slave patrols were largely made up of landless whites paid to catch runaway slaves by any means necessary and bring them back to the plantations they’d escaped, to terrorize and abuse slaves in order to deter any thought of revolting, and to punish any slave who’d been accused of breaking any rule on the plantation. They were notoriously cruel. Following the Civil War, instead of disbanding all slave patrols, they were instead reorganized into the South’s policing forces.
Okay, so that’s where they came from, as succinctly as I can manage. They were very literally organized to oppress all working class people for the sake of business profitability, and also to terrorize black and POC people so they’d “know their place.” Now, we’re going to move on to how ineffective modern police forces are in terms of what people assume they’re meant for (protecting and serving the people rather than protecting and serving business and white supremacist interests).
I’ve seen a lot people over the past few years recoil hard to the idea you cannot trust police or that they need to be disbanded altogether and the most common, knee-jerk response is: “well, who are you gonna call when something bad happens?” Rather than answer the “who” part of that question (I’ll get to that next, though), let’s first tackle the assumption within that question that police fundamentally help bad situations rather than make them worse. They certainly don’t have a good track record for helping if there’s ever a black person or person of color who’s in danger. There are multiple accounts of people calling police to help someone they just wanted to be checked in on only for the officers to arrive at the scene and shoot dead the person they’d been called there to help. Multiple accounts—so many it’s folly to consider them “isolated incidents.”
Police are also notoriously bad at helping when it comes to violence against women. It’s pretty hard to ignore their own admitted rate of domestic abuse, the nationwide backlog of untested rape kits, the many restraining orders that were never enforced and so women were stalked and murdered anyway, domestic abuse calls ending in no charges or jail time and only making the abuser angrier, the women police themselves have raped, the women and girls police have blamed, shamed, and laughed at for being raped, etc. Police do not help women. All of this compounded with a culture that largely still hates women and can’t address its internalized misogyny, adds up to a tiny percentage of violent crimes against women ever being reported, with a tiny percentage of that tiny percentage ever seeing a courtroom, and a tiny percentage of those tiny percentages ever resulting in actual jail time for the abuser.
Those numbers seem at odds when compared to the alleged goals of police forces until you realize those alleged goals (protect and serve the people; keep the peace) are essentially just there for PR purposes. Functionally, police forces today are no different from how they began. This is evidenced by wealthy people and businesses almost never being charged when they’ve committed a crime but the poor are relentlessly bullied (e.g. arresting immigrants working without a visa instead of arresting company owners hiring workers without visas). They’re also, functionally, still slave patrols. The over incarceration of black Americans is well documented and indisputable and it is no coincidence that is so and prison is the only legal avenue left in this country for slavery, per the Constitution. Just this year during the pandemic, garbage workers, mostly black men, went on strike in Georgia protesting their low wages for their high risk, necessary occupation. They were promptly replaced with prison labor, the modern day slavery system (human trafficking aside).
Now, let’s get back to the “who” of “who are you going to call when things go bad?” The most simple answer is: someone who knows what they’re doing. Under our current system, we call people (police) to come help with a cornucopia of difficult and delicate problems and those people have less training for that position in society than hair stylists receive for trimming our split ends. They are not required to have clear concepts of the laws they’re enforcing or their nuances. They are not required to learn multiple languages. They are not required to learn cultural differences or practices. They are not required to learn about neurodivergent persons and how to effectively communicate with them. They are not required to learn about physical disabilities. They are not required to learn about trauma responses. A big part of the reason they aren’t required to learn all that is because it’s just too much—it would take a lot of time and money to do all that training and that’s completely opposite the point of the police. They’re meant to save wealthy people time and money, they are not meant to be assets to overall public health.
So, when it comes to “who are you gonna call,” a huge chunk of that answer is going to have to be mental health specialists. Occasionally, you’re gonna need a detective, a skillset definitely not exclusive to police departments. Sometimes who you need might just be a journalist, a meter maid, or the fire department. Maybe who you need is a mediator, negotiator, or just some security back up. Every good part about the policing profession exists independently outside of it.
Now, I know at this point some of you are probably still resisting all this information pretty hard. That’s okay and I just want to remind you at this point that I am not trying to convince you this is the way. I mean, I personally think it is imperative the police be dismantled in order to move forward but this is not my attempt at a persuasive essay, this is purely an attempt at exposition to help you try to understand how anyone could possibly think this is a good idea. Typically, when I get to this point of the explanation with a friend who’s never truly tried to conceptualize a world without police, they throw their hands up and say: “But what about the violent drug addicts? What about home invasions and hostage situations? What about terrorism?!” To address these concerns, we’re going to split this up by the groups perpetrating them: unorganized, petty crime and organized crime.
First, petty crime. Almost all of it is a condition of poverty and here is where my stance in disbanding the police really cements itself—in order to safely and effectively do so, all people would first have to be guaranteed healthcare, housing, and income security because meeting every person's most basic needs is the very best method to reduce crime and violence. There’s a reason petty crime isn’t common in wealthy white neighborhoods and it has everything to do with resources, overall health, and lack of desperation and nothing to do with race. With adequate distribution of resources to every single human being, there is largely no need for police.
Second, organized crime. Now, it’s always difficult for me not to laugh when someone earnestly asks what are we going to do about terrorists without police as though the police themselves are not terrorists. True terrorism (not “antifa,” not anarchy graffiti, not Muslims exercising first amendment rights) requires a lot more training and a lot more intelligence and ability to grasp complicated concepts than the vast majority of police officers have or are capable of. True, some of them would probably be super helpful as infiltrators into the Ku Klux Klan given the high percentage of known KKK members in police forces, but that’s assuming their loyalty truly is to the American public as a whole and not just to white supremacy, which their actions prove again and again it is not. Either way, they aren't particularly effective entities against organized crime and that's probably why we have completely different departments for that sort of thing. (Just to clarify: calling for the complete disbanding of the police still leaves organizations like the FBI and CIA intact). Police are not handling international terrorist threats, their solve rates for murders are abysmal and often highly suspect when they are “solved,” they typically show up long after whatever violence they’re called to help with has occurred, and they are doing almost nothing when it comes to fighting the biggest terrorist threat in America, which is white supremacist groups.
Now, an idea many on the Left stand behind is the concept of the community guard. At its core, it essentially calls for a return to the “watch” style of policing—an informally organized militia with an elected leader. I personally recoil very intensely at this concept since it’s very literally what our current police system was born out of and relies on the assumption there are some good and fair people in every community who are willing to protect any and everyone within that community and I'm personally just way to cynical to see truth in that view. I have a really hard time setting aside my skepticism that such a thing is still essentially just a police force with a different name, but I will try to convey what advocates of this idea claim.
Firstly, the main difference between a community guard and a police force is no special powers. They’re all still just citizens, including the leader. They’re all, theoretically, subject to the same laws, courts, and penalties as anyone else. Secondly, the community is policing itself. People who live in Oakland are the only ones who can police it. You can’t live in Springfield and then go to work policing Eugene. You’re directly accountable to your community—they know where you live, they know who you are and so trust needs to be mutual at all times. Third, they receive no funding beyond community support. Many advocate for something similar to how AA and NA groups are run, i.e. accepting no donations or affiliation with any company or political party, being solely self supported by its members and community and them alone. This (largely) removes the dangers of militarized weaponry being used against citizens, and arbitrary policing done according to profit instead of need. The idea certainly has it merits. I don't personally see how it could be worse than what we have now, though I'd like for us to aim for even better.
To summarize and highlight the purposes of this piece:
American police were founded to protect wealthy business interests and to enforce white supremacy.
They have abysmally low success in terms of creating safer communities and helping victims of violence.
Many of the roles police fill in society are already entirely separate professions that often require more oversight and accountability than the police force does.
Almost all policing is made completely unnecessary when every person has equal access to food, housing, and healthcare.
This was intended as exposition, not persuasion. The goal was to help you understand why anyone would advocate for abolishing the police, not to convince you it's right.
I make no attempt to hide my bias and the side of the argument I am on.
I will be including more sources for my many claims in this piece later on.
