Mac the Rancher 🏁🐍 Profile picture
Sep 9, 2020 35 tweets 12 min read Read on X
And we're off.
A couple hundred deep tonight. Chants in front, Nipsey and YG blast from a car speaker in the back.
About 16 police guard the MAX tracks at Old Town Chinatown. A MAX train is stuck.

A member of press notes that even if the protesters move, the police cars are parked in the tracks.

The crowd debates making a hole for the MAX as LRAD blades to move. ImageImage
The People choose to move and heckle the police for blocking traffic. ImageImage
Traffic wars again.

We keep an eye on the cops as the crowd moves down to the next intersection.
The BLM guy is on the mic again. He elects to move when the LRAD starts with the warnings.

I still don't know his name.
Haven't seen any snack vans tonight, but this well lit wagon is holding down mutual aid on the go.

Up ahead police look to intercept the protest but the crowd takes a left. ImageImage
BLM guy does a live interview while marching.

A homeless white man pops out of his tent, throws up a fist and yells "Black Lives Matter!"

Police fake multiple rushes, scattering the crowd as the "Walk Don't Run Chants" fail their purpose.

Someone yells for a medic.
Standoff.

Only Brent Taylor is taking this seriously.
Someone just got arrested right next to the police. Looked to be a member of press.

This #3 is being especially spicy tonight. He definitely has aspirations of fascism.
Brent told me I couldn't stand here and take this picture...

...so I stood here and took this picture. Image
Another face off with the police, and we're back on the move.

Back to SW we go. ImageImage
Noticed that the Back The Blue billboard had been removed by Uber.

The protest arrives at the back of the JC.

As soon as the LRAD comes out, the crowd turns and heads to the park. ImageImage
Music Break.

People gyrate to WAP in front of the JC until LRAD comes out, then everyone moves to City Hall.
The dance party continues in front of City Hall.

Caught @MariahMacaronio in her element.
A small settlement occupies the center of Chapman Square.

With the mutual aid constantly under attack, I worry if these people are eating and being taken care of. ImageImage
Caught the flag bearer striking a pose. They've got two flags sewn together.

I'm just here for the visuals. Image
Trumpet Man has the mic and is giving a wildly articulate speech.

He shouts out @c3theguru and ceremonial grade hip-hop.

@Noshu4me shouts everybody out. Image
Freestyles commence. @Noshu4me introduces a youngin named Zion.
The freestyles continues. Jahdi gets a turn in.

DJ LRAD starts harrassing us as soon as I stop filming and everyone laughs.
A 16 year old named Arianna is talking about being whitewashed, protecting Black women, and listening to Black people.
The scene as LRAD tells everyone that the area is closed. Image
And they're rushing...
Cops continue to be aggressive for no reason.
@moneyrocket gets some shots in the intersection Image
Unscripted "FUCK BRENT TAYLOR!" chants break out.
Did some walking. Cops did some chasing.

Everybody knows Brent's name.
Cops stage in front of the World Trade Center. ImageImageImage
Cops get lectured for a couple minutes and then start chasing a man.
Man they arrested is maybe 140lbs, probably less.

Unsure if he's being tased or having a seizure.

Either way, not good.
This shit is not easy to watch.

People are PISSED. These cops have no answers.
The ambulance finally comes.

Dude has had 4 seizures. An officer searches his bag.

Many people are really shook up.
@MariahMacaronio is on the mic yelling at press for not recording the impromptu speeches.

Honestly, I'm not recording because I'm a little traumatized from what I just saw.
On one side of the street, BLM Guy is giving a speech about qualified immunity and future direct actions.

On the other corner, protesters are challenging a familiar press guy who has long claimed to be "neutral". ImageImage
I'm outta downtown. ✌🏾 Image

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More from @MacSmiff

Apr 18, 2022
Sitting here hungry, thinking about the first week of the 2020 protests when I tried to catch a gas canister off the first bounce and it ended up being a flashbang.

I ran around deaf and half blind for a while minute. Shout out to the homies.
We were real traumatized out there. Some of us have yet to recover.
It's hard to explain how watching our nightmares unfold from the hands of our city, state and federal government radicalized us and left us distrustful of everyone.

I truly thought I was going to be murdered by a LEO before I turned 40. And I was OK with that.

Strange times.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 5, 2022
Betsy Johnson has the support of the cops, big timber, the PDX business community and Nike. And when I say "support", I mean she has around $5M in campaign funds and no one else in the governor's race is anywhere near close.

Where is the resistance?
Betsy is a Joe Manchin style Democrat-turned-Independent.

Low scores on labor, environment, gun control, etc. Not a Republican in name, but for reasons unbeknownst. Johnson has a record of taking centrist and independent posi
Ever heard of People for Portland? The right-wing dark-money group who wants to ban homelessness by herding undesirables into forced shelters?

The founders are Betsy Johnson's advisors.

The right is running the table on us.
oregonlive.com/news/2021/12/p…
Read 10 tweets
Apr 4, 2022
This response is hilarious.

I made zero judgement on people who watch wrestling. Y'all on here making my point while asking what it is 🤣
America: Where everybody is ready to fake fight over things that don't actually matter instead of focusing on making the very obvious changes that are within reach.
America: Where everyone knows the fight is a ruse but we play along anyway because the alternative is actually fighting.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 29, 2022
Abolishing police without constructing and using publicly accepted restorative justice practices IN REALITY simply leads to increased public support of policing and vigilantism.

We have to create the alternative we want to see. We have to communicate it. We have to model it.
People keep asking where leftists collectively lost the carrot and its right there.

Why do mostly white anon leftists attack leftists of color? Because leftists of color typically work in actual physical communities where RJ is used in praxis.

So they call us all apologists.
For a lot of the Twitter-left, this is a show. Stirring up mess is the fuel for their ONLINE engagement, so they prioritize gossip as real work. Then they log off.

But if we look at this behavior through an restorative justice lens, what space is created for change? Zero.
Read 13 tweets
Mar 29, 2022
I think it's weird when people get mad at normal questions in anticipation that the honest answer might damage their worldview.
People get so focused on searching for The Truth that they build and create schools of thought that narrow their perceptions.

This is normally what religion does, but nowadays people just create dogma as we go along.

Thus we always need to clarify terms. Start on the same page.
Maybe it's just how my brain works, but how can we discuss something if we don't have a shared comprehension?

It's a red flag for me when people don't want to (or can't) explain what the words they use mean.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 28, 2022
I don't know but when I was in 1st grade, we went on a field trip and some boy pushed me - the only Black boy in the class - into a duck pond.

After being fished out (I couldn't swim) I was forced to forgive the other boy and left to dry off while the other kids played games. 🤷🏾‍♂️
Far worse things have happened since, but I hadn't thought about that in a while and it popped out as the moment I stopped fucking with people.
It was also an early example to me that white people def understand restorative justice when it comes to themselves.

The boy who pushed me never faced any consequence. Later that year, I quit school to homeschool. I don't recall how much this had to do with it. Might ask my mom.
Read 6 tweets

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