After a long period of militarization of domestic police forces, and with draconian laws in place such as the USA Patriot Act, it seemed only a matter of time before overt and violent repression of civil dissent would begin. It began Thursday in Portland, Oregon.

A peaceful march estimated at upwards of 3000, including families with children in strollers and elderly in wheelchairs, gathered in downtown Portland. The march was organized to protest visiting President George W. Bush's new forest initiative, the impending war on Iraq and the administration's repeal of civil liberties. Police herded the marchers into a confined area near Bush's hotel, then attacked from at least two directions with batons, pepper spray and rubber bullets.

Members of the media were deliberately targeted. According to the website of Portland Fox affiliate KPDX, police working in coordination with the Secret Service pepper sprayed reporters, producers and photographers covering the march. According to an article on the KPDX website:

"Several of our own KPTV/KPDX employees were sprayed. One of them was photographer Beth English. Her tape shows that a police officer takes a dead-on aim at her face. Beth was treated and released."

Full report: http://www.kpdx.com/Global/story.asp?S=907583&nav=2cFk3gTHAqwk

Troy Pickard, opinions editor of the Panther Newspaper at Chapman University in Orange, California, said he was shot with a rubber bullet at close range. A picture of Pickard taken just before the shot was fired showed no provocation on the part of Pickard or the protestors at a barricade set across their path by police.

"I had come up for a few days and I stumbled into the protest, not even knowing one was planned," said Pickard, 20. "In the course of my photography, I was shot in the right shoulder by a police officer from a distance of 15 feet."

Protestor Hope Marston from Eugene, Oregon said it appeared as though police in riot gear were stealing for a fight before the attack.

"I actually watched a line of them, beating their black jacks against their boots in a Hitleresque rhythm," said Marston. "They were not police; they were paramilitary troopers."

Protestor Jason Maxfield was also at the front of the crowd and had a clear view of the orchestration of the attack by police.

"The police mobilization/attack seemed to be planned and orchestrated rather slowly," said Maxfield. "I watched an officer who appeared to be in command walking up and talking to each officer on the front line. Then one of them started lifting both arms and lowering them rapidly -- presumably some sort of signal -- and suddenly the whole line of them burst forward into the crowd. It certainly didn't seem like they were responding to any threat."

Activist Kyrstin Westwind, a self-employed organic baker who has worked with environmental and consumer protection groups around Portland and worked on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign, further described the attack by police.

"What began as a wounderfully peacful and respectful march turned suddenly into a police riot," said Westwind. "People were being hit with tear gas and rubber bullets at point blank range, riot police were striking people with no obvious provocation [and] squad cars were plowing through the crowd before folks had any opportunity to move."

Westwind, who has medical training, brought water and eyewash in case teargas was used. She said she witnessed and elderly man from her own neighborhood suffer an athsma attack because of teargas fired by police.

"This situation represented a clear medical emergency," said Westwind. "Trained volunteer medics repeatedly approached uniformed police officers (regular uniforms, not the ones in riot gear) seeking an ambulance/paramedics for this gentleman and the police repeatedly refused to make the call or allow access to phones."

Donald Joughin, who attended the protest with his wife and three small children, described how police attacked from the rear of the crowd.

"The march stopped at the intersection of 2nd and Alder,” said Joughin. “We could not see why from our position on the southwest corner of the intersection. Police quickly moved up behind us and a moment or two later sprayed pepper spray into the crowd from the northeast corner of the intersection. The crowd ran toward us to escape the spray."

Joughin asked a police officer how he could get out of the crowd with his small children, and the officer pointed in the direction of the northeast corner, where police were pepper spraying protestors. Seeing the situation getting out of hand Joughin yelled for the officer to let him through the barricade.

"He looked at me, and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed directly at me," said Joughin. "I was at an angle to him and the spray hit my right eye and our three-year-old who I was holding in my right arm. In the same motion he turned the can on my wife who was holding our 10-month-old baby and doused both of their heads entirely from a distance of less than three feet."

Despite the danger posed by pepper spray to small children, it took several minutes of pleading by protestors who were helping the family before an officer in charge finally let the family through to seek medical treatment.

"I yelled at them to let us pass for about two minutes and finally some officer up the line nodded me and the baby through," said Joughin. "They were not going to let my wife and other children out. But after a few minutes of pleading from the crowd and another signal from up the line, they let them out. As we passed, the officers were laughing and said something to the effect of 'that's why you shouldn't bring kids to protests.'"

KPDX also quoted Portland police saying that children should not have been brought to a protest, indicating an attitude on the part of police that violence is inevitable in any such demonstration. A police spokesman told KPDX that members of the media should not expect immunity if they cover a protest.

"There are people who have been apparently pepper sprayed and apparently a reporter or reporters," said police spokesman Henry Groeper in a statement to KPDX . "You get into the crowd, we're not here to control you. You're there to film. But if pepper spray is deployed, I'm sorry but you're gonna be a part of that."

[Buddy Grizzard is an independent writer, researcher and musician from Atlanta, Georgia. Buddy has worked as a volunteer on the campaigns of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Georgia Green Party gubernatorial candidate Nannette Garrett, and publishes Authentic Press, available in .pdf format at www.authenticpress.net.]

I could not help but comment. Being an old anti- war protestor from the 60's, I find a lot of childlike whining from many of your submiters; the use of pepper spray is a humane way of dealing with crowds. You would prefer 12 ga rounds possibly?
I respectfully submit, if you cannot take being sprayed or batoned for your cause, ( and not whine about it) then save your outrage for the Russian Forces in the various former republics who have a cart blanche ticket to automatic weapon dissenters, and bury their victims with nothing more than a sack of lime.
I'm glad I can protest here, and still at worst,shed a tear or two and have three hot meals and a cot for a few hours before I am bailed out. If you cannot walk the walk, stay home.
p.s. Police are humans also, and calling them pigs, as well as not understanding they have a role in the circle of life is a shortcoming of the young and foolish.

Sign me: Stop your whining

Padriac

The time for peaceful measures is over, especially when jackbooted thugs in uniform think attacking small children is amusing. The next time some pig does that the kids' father, if he loves his kids, will kick the motherfucking pigs' asses to the curb. And should his friends join in they should get the same. A stick, rock, piece of asphalt does the job very well until a weapon of more fire power can be acquired.
I've loathed violence from an early age because I knew what I was capable of. But this shit has got to stop. And if those in authority refuse to obey their own laws the people being affected have the right-the obligation-to defend themselves and their families.

If they want war, let's show them war.

Well people, we knew this was coming so why are we using the same tired ineffective tactics against superior forces?
To the individual who wants to begin a real war, that is stupid.
We don’t have the armor or weapons to go toe to toe with a military force, duh.
This kind of talk will give the media a justification to label us as terrorists and police the very excuse they need to bring APCs and hard ammo into the equation.
I thought we were more intelligent than that.
Small mobil groups and tactics of confusion are what we need to exploit the weaknesses of large heavy police formations.
Stupidity will only work against us.

Forget rubber bullets and pepper spray. check your bowel and eyeball function and sense of reality next time you're in a protest crowd.

I recently looked up an old buddy from elementary school who I knew had joined up with the air force. he's a genius-level intelligence who I'd heard was doing some trippy work with plasma physics, cold-fusion, some such shit like that. anyway, I quickly found information online linking him to a new generation of what seem to be specifically designed "non-lethal" crowd-control weapons that use shit like microwaves, holograms, acoustic waves, flashing/strobe lights, and other crazy stuff. there's a story somewhere on global IMC about these kinds of weapons. They are designed to do stuff like induce vomitting and loss of muscular and general bodily control, disorient the victim, create hallucinations, and trigger epileptic seizures, among other stuff. These are very real. It was a strange feeling to see my old friend's name on an organizing committee for a very recent symposium to discuss these new weapons technologies. Spaced out between the seminars were golf tournaments and other relaxing games and fun activities. I remember my friend as a smart, fun, decent human being with whom I shared a lot of memories and good times. Once, when I needed a place to live for a few months as a homeless teen, his family took me in. This whole thing makes my stomach turn. All of this is so fucked. We are all fucked, and we are all stripped of our humanity.

I don't know, just thought this might add something to this discussion of separating out the police as "pigs" and not humans playing a role in all this, as well as the discussion about fighting back and the response that we don't have the power to compete head-on in "war." I don't have any answers about any of it, just a sick feeling in my stomach.

Wah! (whine whimper -they don’t like me anymore- sob)
To bad about the Mr. Admirer getting kicked off the boards of
SF IMC
Portland IMC
Here, we can let him post his own brand of spew (engaging in discourse with himself and the other clones in the kennel) until
he’s blue in the face.
He can always go to Palestine IMC where they let any rabid weasel
rant their hateful spew. Wah wah wah wah!
Why don’t I feel sorry for him?

our tactics are constantly evolving. we won't whither outside a locked door. we'll try the windows, the chimney, we'll pretend to be the milkman, we'll go under the wall, over the wall, around the back, etc....

however.... there does come a point at which violence is justified. if 'Terry Helton' were to kill a police officer who was pepper spraying a baby, i would defend Helton's action. i don't think i am unusual in feeling this way.

pacifism as pathology

read it again:
--....Joughin asked a police officer how he could get out of the crowd with his small children, and the officer pointed in the direction of the northeast corner, where police were pepper spraying protestors. Seeing the situation getting out of hand Joughin yelled for the officer to let him through the barricade.

"He looked at me, and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed directly at me," said Joughin. "I was at an angle to him and the spray hit my right eye and our three-year-old who I was holding in my right arm. In the same motion he turned the can on my wife who was holding our 10-month-old baby and doused both of their heads entirely from a distance of less than three feet."

Despite the danger posed by pepper spray to small children, it took several minutes of pleading by protestors who were helping the family before an officer in charge finally let the family through to seek medical treatment.

"I yelled at them to let us pass for about two minutes and finally some officer up the line nodded me and the baby through," said Joughin. "They were not going to let my wife and other children out. But after a few minutes of pleading from the crowd and another signal from up the line, they let them out. As we passed, the officers were laughing and said something to the effect of 'that's why you shouldn't bring kids to protests.'"....--

some people push back

"you will not be able to stay home....."

Hey Lynx-11
I don't know where you get them, but they're
great! Keep on keeping on.

I'd just like to commend the Bush Admirer for sticking up to the man brave enough to get rid of all that human rights crap on the Constitution while preserving my right to own and bear arms. I can't wait until he gets rid of the entire pain-in-the-butt Congress, which is always gettin' in the way. Why, as a devout Republican in Florida, who worships a god who only loves white Christians, but will tolerate partially mixed people that serve us well (Condileeza Rice and Colin Powell), I believe, we woulda solved t he whole election fiasco if we'd just stop having the darned things. Its a waste of time, t akes me away from staying home to watch Fox News and Married With Children, after a nice day of drinking beer, beating my wife, and making sure only white Protestant Christian AMERICANS are in my neighborhood. With all this, plus shootin' coons and squirrels for dinner, I ain't got time to protest 'bout nuthin. In fact, I love Bush enough that I can't wait until he sends in the troops to Iraq so that we'll have more oil for my monster truck. Fact is, I'm also glad we're finally gettin' that gas pipeline running through Afghanistan, too. Mebbie itll bring down my gas bill when we start sucking it our way. Once we've taken over t he world, life's gonna be a lot better for every white, Republican, Protestant Christian AMERICAN!

So, you people stop acting like you still have a right to freely assemble and associate, and freely petition your government for grievences. Stop acting like you still have a right to privacy. You oughta feel secure knowing that a fine man like Admiral Poindexter will be keeping a data base on you. Like Ollie North says, he's the best man for the job. If he can lie to that liberal congress and not go to jail, he can do anything for the right Americans. Now, get your butts to Church, the right Church and join the Republican party, because it's gonna be the only party in the nation! God bless America! The land of Bush, the future Ruler of the world!

I suspect that the deliberate brutality in Portland was to gauge public reaction to it. They want to know just how far they can go in stifling dissent before people will become outraged enough to oppose their tactics. Bless the people of Portland because outrage was widespread in the community.

I think it was good to dredge this back up because it demonstrates clearly just how corrupt our politicians are. Portland's beloved Mayor For Life Verz Katz (Ratz) our very own NYC transplant from the Eastern Elitists tried Ratfully to dimiss the excesses of the Pigs. Draw your own conclusions.

I hope the cops beat the shit out of you traitors, wherever you are!

Thump the traitors!

Imagine the sheer effrontery of thinking, even for a moment, that the Bill of Rights might apply to something you disagree with. Harummph!

All real Amurcans, like you I presume, believe that it is your right as an Amurcan to kill anyone in any country that dares to be in another country that has something we want - like OIL and Money.