Thread by @45thabsurdist

I arrived at Irving Park just in time to hear “stay together stay tight! And the beginning of the “FUCK 12” chants, as a crowd of a few hundred moves into the street. I think we’re at night 86 of #blm and protests against racist policing in Portland. #PDXprotests

And for the first time since they started, I see umbrellas being used for keeping rain, rather than projectiles, off people’s heads. Weird.

“Out of your house and into the streets!” Chants the crowd. Before the gentrification of NE Portland, Irving Park was a major hub of protests in the 60s and 70s. And a bunch of those were, likewise, against racist policing.

It’s been a long summer. Lots of neighbors out in their yards, enjoying the warm rain, and cheering on the march.

This crowd has a good motobloc contingent in the front as well as the rear. There were just two firework set off, in a way that seemed celebratory. Aimed into the sky even. All manner of things being used for weird and inventive purposes tonight.

The crowd had chanted “slow in the front protect the back” which is good tactics, but there’s been very little traffic of any sort outside of the motobloc. Sometimes it’s fun to imagine anyone ever trying to enforce march permits in this town ever again.

This summer may have also permanently unseated “whose streets our streets” as the default chant. Every time it’s come up in the last months, it’s rapidly been transitioned to “whose streets? Chinook streets! Where do we stand? Stolen land!”

The crowd made the interesting choice to bypass NE 6th as they approached the N Precinct. Opting to avoid this welcoming party by the PPB motor pool, in favor of whatever they’re likely to find on the MLK side.

Perhaps on account of the rain, the police have opted to sit in their cars with floodlights. @LCRWnews tells me that, as I was coming around the building, the vehicles were initially unoccupied?

Ok, after this LRAD, there have been some mild shenanigans. A few eggs have landed near the cruisers. And I’ve seen two bottles break on the pavement well short of the vehicles. Safe to say no officers are in any danger.

Speaking of shenanigans, we have one protester taking some liberties.

Not sure what the metallic “ting” noise is. Something light and metallic being dropped on pavement. Could be a spoon for all I know. But it sounds like the pin from a riot grenade every time, and puts me a little on edge.

Officers believe there have been lasers, apparently. Haven’t seen that. One bottle landed at the front bumper of the middle cruiser, and something small glanced off one of the vehicles. Again, all officers are currently inside the building or vehicles, or well out of range.

This maybe wins for the most substantial shield I’ve seen so far. Looks like it could be the door to a ship, if that ship was covered in tape.

Sometimes I still think about that time PPB said that protesters hurt their eyes by shining bright lights.

I have just heard Technotronic’s “pump up the jam” played in a shield wall for the first time.

The playlists and chants keep shifting, however the crowd tactics, on the other hand, have definitely standardized as the summer has worn on. The shield wall currently looks a little like the dugout of a very weird sporting event, with a similarly laid-back vibe.

In the absence of barricade materials, the barricade Doozers have opted for a game of “move the cones and caution tape closer to the police.” LRAD again, same message. Nothing thrown since last time, that I’ve seen.

Caution Tape update: it’s on the front bumpers. LRAD update: police now reminding everyone not to enter or remain on property of north precinct. Since the Blazers Boys & Girls Club building is just south, folks seem to be assuming that’s not PPB property.

Police have now specified that they mean “move off of NE Emerson east of Martin Luther King Boulevard”. Hey PPB, you lurkin on my feed?
Couple of rounds of something like sand or salt. Knocked off someone’s goggles.