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Have had a lot of people ask me, "What will happen in Portland, now that the feds are clearing out?" I've also had several people tell me. My gut reaction, that things would cool down bc demonstrators need an "enemy" to demonstrate ag, seems to have held true at the courthouse https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1289096964093534209
What's interesting: still no local police presence, though some part of the city is working in the bg, e.g., Lownsdale Square, staging ground/tear gas relief + comfort station, appears to have been cleared out. (This was it last Saturday.) https://reason.com/2020/07/25/portland-protesters-in-their-own-words/
Better shot of what park looked like, and speaking of Riot Ribs: they're gone, after taking in $330,000 in donations in 20 days. Here's their letter as to why they closed shop . And about that...
The Wall of Moms, too, imploded under allegations that its mission did not to support "anti-blackness," though its mission ever appeared to me to have the gals in yellow serve as camera candy and/or as human shields btwn demonstrators and the feds
There was also the matter of someone in Wall filing three 501c3 business registrations this past Monday or Tuesday, which means the enterprise lasted 10 days before imploding (I'm getting to a point here, stick with me) https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/07/portlands-wall-of-moms-crumbles-amid-online-allegations-by-former-partner-dont-shoot-pdx.html
I don't think demonstrations in front of the courthouse had much to do with BLM, it was a different kind of anger, at the feds, at Trump; this is pretty obvious. But a lot of people in the US have this antipathy and it does not create the boilover we see in Portland. What gives?
Someone over on @wethefifth's Patreon succinctly answered the question @mcmoynihan and I have been asking: What do they want? “They want to feel like activists. They want to feel like radicals fighting for a cause." IMO, this is true, and not just from the progressive element
Can you think of more catnip than telling a middle-class Portland mom she can be part of the revolution for justice simply by showing up in a yellow shirt? Effort equals results; this one crash-landed in 10 days. (Gotta say, I did not see that 501c3 move coming.)
As for the demonstrators against the fed building, people who have gained public recognition as both rioters and justice warriors, where do they go now? Where does that momentum and "I wanna fuck shit up" energy go? Where do the contributions the community wants to give them go?
I wondered on the phone yesterday with @kittypurrzog: do the demonstrations now head back to Justice Center and repeat what they did in my story below? Do they regroup and move underground? Does it all go pfft? https://reason.com/2020/07/23/what-its-like-to-work-in-the-portland-jail-during-the-george-floyd-protests/
I am glad for a lot of reasons the feds are leaving; @IwriteOK, who has outstanding coverage of protests,
wrote that he reported from Mosul in 2017 and what was happening at the courthouse "was about as close as you can get without using live ammunition." It did feel very hot
wrote that he reported from Mosul in 2017 and what was happening at the courthouse "was about as close as you can get without using live ammunition." It did feel very hot
I wonder again: where does that energy flow? Sure, it might go flaccid, but do people want to give up what's made them feel on the right side of history for the past month? Do they appreciate that implementation w/o ideals can lead to this kind of seepage? https://twitter.com/mgbelka/status/1288649434775957504?s=20
Maybe impotency is a thing to hope for. I prefer tame and lame, i.e., what someone messaged me he saw last night, to an escalation in violence, as interruptus as that might feel to some parties. DMs still open. Tell me what you're seeing.
