WEBVTT - Why Portland? 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:14.760 At around ten thirty pm on May nine, a crowd 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.520 of more than a thousand people gathered in North Portland's 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.600 Peninsula Park and marched downtown to the Justice Center, headquarters 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.840 of the Portland Police Bureau. The direct inspirations for the 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.560 march were the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.920 Many in attendance also had a strong desire to express 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:35.160 solidarity with protesters in Minneapolis. That's what brought Chris Wise, 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.800 volunteer protest medic out into the streets that first night. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:44.279 Initially I came out because as an African American, you know, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.800 it was that that straw that broke the camel's back 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:55.000 on just like one death too many. We are murdered 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.440 by police and other law enforcement agencies at a rate 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.440 of three to one when compared to the average white American. 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.880 And those numbers get a little funky because you know, 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.400 obviously more white people die a year than black people 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:16.360 in police related shootings, but there are also you know, 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:21.800 six times as many white people, uh then black people. Tristan, 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.880 another Black Portlander, didn't go out that night, but he 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.200 watched everything that happened on the live streams honestly, like 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:34.680 my my first um impression was that it probably wasn't 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:36.880 going to be much, you know what I mean. I 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.160 didn't expect it to blow up the way it did. 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.000 I kind of felt like because I've I've seen it 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.560 happen in the past, where you know, there's will be 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.600 some kind of like something happening like nationwide or another 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.200 city in Portland will kind of like you know, show 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.760 up and solidarity for it, and it might become something, 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.280 but usually it's kind of like a one off. So 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.360 that's kind of what I was expecting, and so I 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.640 was pretty surprised to see like how quickly grew and 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.760 then also how like how the police were responding like 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:14.600 and like a very tear guys kind of way. Mariah 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.040 is a photojournalist and a lifestyle photographer. She was out 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.320 at Peninsula Park for the very start of the march 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.959 was the beginning to you know, something that not a 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:25.440 lot of us knew we were going to get into, 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.640 you know, but gosh, I remember being at Peninsula Park 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.640 and it was really great to see everyone there, and like, 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.960 it just reminds me of some I hate that it's 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.280 like a routine thing for us because it's you know, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.880 why we're still fighting. And while we've been fighting so strong, 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.400 but you know, when someone gets killed by you know, 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.920 via police brutality, everyone meets up. You know, maybe we 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.359 protest for a few days and like you know, quote unquote, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.080 we go back to like normal life. But you know, 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.200 we already haven't been a normal life since it's been 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.239 a pandemic this whole freaking year. But it was really 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.200 beautiful to see all the people and all the signs 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.640 and the speeches. The side walks bordering Peninsula Park were 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.240 filled with different slogans and exhortations written in chalk. One 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.079 of the most striking statements was make the moment count. 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.120 As it turned out, the city of Portland took that 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.919 to heart. The crowd at Peninsula Park marched nearly five 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.280 miles to downtown Portland. There they merged with a crowd 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.240 that had gathered around the Justice Center. The moment both 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.360 groups met was powerful. You could taste the energy in 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:35.400 the air. Portland's Black Lives Matter protests had actually started 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.839 several days earlier before that mass gathering. On the twenty nine, 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.920 a handful of activists of color had begun occupying the 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.680 steps of the Justice Center immediately after George Floyd's murder. 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.920 One of them was Tracy Molina, an Indigenous portland Er 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.160 better known as Colsca. Well. I remember it wasn't not 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:58.560 long after the George Floyd's story broke. A lot of 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.760 us wanted to do something here, but I think most 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.560 of the regular organizers kept saying wait, you know, let's wait, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.360 let's wait for this, let's wait for that. And then finally, um, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.000 then Danielle James, I think she's a pretty prominent black 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.359 activist in this community and stood up against Patriot Prayer 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.200 and Proud Boys and other white supremacist for years. Um, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.719 it was kind of the spark for that. You know. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.760 She was said like, we shouldn't wait in the night, supporter, 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.160 I said, I don't think we should wait either. I 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.279 think we should do something now. And so we ended 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:37.880 up the seven ten thirty all meeting at I and 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.440 starting to protest there, and then we moved. Um, sometime 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.240 after midnight, we moved over to the Justice Center and 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.839 slept on the steps there and planned to to occupy 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.800 it as long as we could. And so we stayed 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:57.360 there and then um, there was only maybe like four 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.920 of us that slept on the steps, and then then 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.200 next day, like at ice, we had about thirty or 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.440 forty people. And then the next day after we stayed 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.559 on those steps, I would say there was about forty 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:09.599 or fifty people that showed up in the afternoon and 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.400 they did a direct action or we blocked off the 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.239 streets in front of the steps of the Justice Center, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:18.719 and I think they did it also did it die. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:24.400 And that night there was also impromptu direct action or 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:29.120 some people, some young women sat on sat in the 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.679 doorway of the Justice Center and they brought riot police 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:33.480 out for that. And there was at that time there 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.200 was only about twenty of us and only like six 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.920 people participating in the sit in, but they still brought 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.200 riot police out and they were violently removed. That made 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.440 the news because one of the women, one of the 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.719 women that was hit with a baton, was she was 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.200 actually pregnant, a black woman. And the only way us 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:55.720 the why I know that for sure is because after 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.440 she was in the ambulance, she came I don't know 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.080 if she went to the hospital, but after she was 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.880 in the ambulans, she returned paperwork from the as proving 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.159 that she was pregnant. And was, you know, showing some 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.760 of the police officers that were still standing around. But yeah, 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.240 that's how the first few days went. And then um, 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.680 then we we all, um, we're going to have a 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:24.800 rally at um and Insula Park. And then I agreed 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.520 to do part of the opening. And when I was there, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.640 more and more people kept coming, and I was surprised 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.640 at there are so many. I don't know, maybe a 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.080 thousand people that there was a lot, there was a 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.320 lot of people there. Was surprised, and it just kept 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.480 getting bigger and bigger. The now merged crowd, which numbered 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.960 at least a couple of thousand people, marched back to 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.039 the Justice Center. For a few minutes, they stood outside 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.119 chanting George Floyd's name. The police were nowhere to be seen. 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.320 While most of the crowd stood out in the street, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.440 a hundred or so people gathered in front of the 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.000 windows of the Justice Center. They started spray painting slogans 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.640 on the glass. A few people peered on the doorway, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.800 someone lit a small fire out in front, and then 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:17.400 quite suddenly, one person broke a window. The first broken 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.000 windows set off a frenzy, and soon people were using 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.440 their feet, rocks and any tools they could find to 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.800 shatter every exposed piece of glass on the building. With 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.720 the windows shattered, protesters ran into the Justice Center, ransacking 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.760 police offices and setting small fires. The Portland police arrived 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.480 a little bit later and began showering the crowd with 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:42.640 tear gas and flash band grenades. Though no one knew 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:44.880 it at the time, events had just been set into 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.440 motion that would lead to more than a hundred consecutive 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.760 nights of protests and tear gas. The Portland Uprising had begun. 0:07:52.000 --> 0:08:03.120 We should probably start by talking a bit about the 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.040 definition of a riot. Legally, anything the cops declare a 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.480 riot is a riot. May nine is generally referred to 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.480 as riot night, because after the crowd was dispersed from 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.040 the Justice Center, hundreds of people ran through the streets 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.360 of Portland's luxury shopping district, smashing up high end chain 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.239 stores while the police chased after them. It certainly felt 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.000 like a riot, but a number of the folks that 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.720 we interviewed actually disagreed. Alan Kessler, a Portland based lawyer, 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.199 pushed back on that description. I guess I disagree that 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.000 even the first night was a real riot. I mean, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.959 there were some shops goot burg Old, there were there 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.880 were something stolen. Um, there was a fire in the 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:53.880 in the j c. Um, I'm not sure that that. 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.160 I don't. I don't know the intent there right, like 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.520 looking at the fire, looking at the Piddale fire as 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.280 I've seen, I don't know if anybody means to burn 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.840 the buildings down or to y. Yeah, I don't know. Uh, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.200 it didn't seem like it. It doesn't seem it. If 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.920 I were going to burn down the building, I would 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.120 use a hell of a lot more accelerant. Then it 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:19.400 seems like people are using. Um, I don't know. Uh. 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.679 I was struck by even on even on that night, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:33.120 I was struck by uh, excuse me, Oh yeah, that 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:40.640 was a lot more context. Yeah, please don't. Alvin Kessler says, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.800 I'm trusting you all the freedoms in your hands straight 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:54.959 to Andy. So Um. Now, even that night, I was 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.640 struck by Commissioner Fritz U, who I have absolutely no 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.959 love for, h who seemed just horrified that that goocy 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:10.319 got robbed. And uh, and I didn't seem able to 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.120 put that in any kind of context. Um, Yeah, I don't, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.400 I don't. I didn't. I didn't see that as a riot. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.680 I didn't think that people, uh I wanted to just 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:22.880 break shit. I think even then it was it was 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.760 still it's political. It was it was a protest and 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.360 it you know, I wouldn't recommend that people break stuff, 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.680 for steal stuff, for set stuff on fire. But I 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.560 understood the upset and I yeah, I just didn't see 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.960 in those terms. Um, And it didn't seem like I 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:44.840 don't remember that anybody died. I'm sure somebody was hurt, 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.520 but I don't remember that it was particularly severe that evening, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.959 Like I don't. I don't remember that as a as 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:53.959 a violent knight. I remember it as a night of 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:59.199 property damage. Yeah. Yeah. And I wasn't making a legal distinct. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.559 There was more of a oral argument, like I think 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.400 people put a moral import behind riot and it I 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.440 don't think it was that. I don't think it was 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.080 I don't think it was a breakdown in civilization. I 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:18.360 think it was a uh, extremely heartfelt uh frustration with 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:23.640 a system that wasn't meeting people's needs. Max Smith, a 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.199 Portland based activist in live streamer, called it a riot 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.000 light I called like a riot light that night. I 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:31.920 think I was like that seems like a little kind 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:33.720 of a riot light. They broke a couple of windows, 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.320 you know, they sacked the Apple Store. Of course, you know, 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.480 some opera students are gonna, you know, take that opportunity 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.560 if something is, if things are getting broken, someone's gonna 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.040 rob the Apple store. It's it's it's dumb because you're 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.600 gonna get caught, but go ahead and rob the Apple store. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:48.880 But you know, that's kind of what I thought of it, Like, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.800 some stuff is gonna get broken. That's what happened. And 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.080 I actually thought the police, you know, I thought that, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.720 and actually thought there was going to be some change, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.000 which we saw a couple of things, like they started 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.679 talking about, you know, canceling the the d v R 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.640 T and the cops in schools and things like that, 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.600 and uh and since then, it's it's it's been fairly tame, 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.280 and we haven't seen a whole lot of progress, So 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.280 you know, I felt like it worked a little bit. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.240 The point Mac made is one that a lot of 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.680 activists would agree with property damage, they argue is not 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.839 nearly in the same moral realm as injuring or killing 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.200 human beings. Mac himself was not out on the twenty nine, 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.360 but he was most directly inspired to start protesting because 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.079 of something else that happened that day, hundreds of miles 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.600 south of Portland in San Jose, California, there was a 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:42.440 guy named Derek Sanderland in San Jose and he was 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.960 protesting for you know, he was prochasing against the murder 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:53.200 of George Floyd in solidarity with Minneapolis. And I remember 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.960 waking up and getting on my phone and kind of 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:01.600 just flicking through things and seeing that this man had 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:06.720 been shot in the testicles with a rubber bullet and 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.160 it like required like emergency surgery and he's probably never 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.800 gonna have kids. And I'm looking at this dude and 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.640 he's like twenties seven years old. He's like a black dude. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.920 He's got dreads, he wears glasses, he's got a scrappys 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.560 beard like mine, you know. And I'm looking at this 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.280 guy like, man, that could have been me. And then 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.920 I keep reading and he was like he was like 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:35.080 a teacher. He taught the police about like not targeting 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.240 people or whatever, like you know, de escalation tactics or whatever. 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.840 And I'm like, you're telling me they shot a dude 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:47.080 that that trains them, Like this has got to be 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.200 one of the craziest things I've ever heard in my life. 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.160 And he could have died from this, you know, And 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.120 that just made me so mad. And I was like, 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.800 it's even if it wasn't you know, it wasn't me. 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.640 It could have been me if I would have been 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:04.160 out there, And so I was just like, that's insane, 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:05.800 Like this should not be a thing at all. This 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.079 shouldn't this just this, this can't be realized. Many protesters 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.319 and some journalists will argue that most of the riots 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.720 Portlands saw this summer, we're not cases of protesters rioting, 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.880 but we're instead cop riots. After all, if people breaking 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.280 windows and looting an Apple store is a riot, then 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.520 police driving into crowds, throwing grenades at random, and tear 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.200 gassing hundreds of innocent motorists probably counts as a riot too, right. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:55.320 Riot we Broke was not the first night of Portland's 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.320 bill and protests, but it was the night that set 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.840 the tone for the next hundred plus nights. There was 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.320 tear gas, flash bangs, armored cops fighting demonstrators who were 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.640 armed with in the beginning, cardboard signs and water bottles. 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.880 Now we're going to cover a lot of ground in 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.800 this series, and it's probably best to kick this off 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.000 by giving everyone an overview of what exactly happened in 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.080 Portland from late May to the end of September, because 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.920 the mainstream media only really showed a portion of this story. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:23.840 Late on the night of the twenty nine, the people 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.560 of Portland learned that their mayor, Ted Wheeler had actually 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.760 been out of town visiting his mother. His first response 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.160 to what had happened was a tweet that started with 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.920 the word enough in all caps and ended with a 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.200 promise that he was coming back now. Now was also 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.680 in all caps. City Commissioner joe Anne Hardesty, who was 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.360 acting president in the mayor's absence, declared a state of 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.440 emergency and enacted a curfew from eight pm until six am. 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.840 At this point, Portland was in the same boat as 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.120 many other American cities, including New York and Los Angeles. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.200 In Portland, the curfew was not enough to clamp down 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.760 on unrest, quite the opposite. In fact, local activists like 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.280 d s A member Olivia Cutty Smith were inspired. I 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.000 just thought that it was it was not like anything 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.320 I've ever seen before. I've never seen that level of 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:15.280 um destruction happened at a protest before. It was exciting. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.760 I was like, we're going to start. This is huge, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:20.520 this is going to take off all across the country. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.560 It's happening in Portland, it's having in Minneapolis, like this 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:28.240 is the start of a revolution, um, you know, and 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.720 even knowing that that might not be true, that that's 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.520 the feeling that I had. That night, several thousand people 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:38.400 gathered again and one nearly ten thousand Portlanders marched to 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.840 the Justice Center. We actually sort of organized the protest 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.560 behind the scenes um and got like ten thousand people 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:52.080 across the bridge, which was offer um. And yeah, it 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.680 was just it felt like the sky was a limit 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.360 at that point, like I can't believe there are ten 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.920 thousand pep while showing up every single night like this 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.359 does never happened before. We have to turn us into something. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.200 Both times, police eventually dispersed the crowd with indiscriminate tear 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.760 gas use and liberal clubbing with truncheons. Thousands of protesters 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.439 were gassed, but so were hundreds of motorists who happened 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.160 to be out on city streets and dozens of houseless 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.199 individuals who were gassed in their tents for no apparent reason. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.080 The curfew was rescinded in early June. It clearly hadn't helped. Next, 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.120 the city began to build what would become a massive 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.639 fence around the Justice Center. The protest movement started to 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.879 splinter between a large group of demonstrators who engaged in 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.320 daily marches that avoided police contact, and a smaller group 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.280 who repeatedly confronted police at the fence. At first, Portland 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.760 police would gas and grenade any group of people that 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.040 drew close to the fence, along with any motorists who 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.439 happened to be driving nearby. Protesters started calling at the 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.359 sacred fence because law enforcements seemed to value it more 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.600 than the physical well being of Portlander's The first fence 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.320 war between protesters and police lasted host of June. There 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.159 were occasional protests at other police buildings like the p 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.239 p A, headquarters of the Portland Police Union, and the 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.760 North Precinct. Smaller groups of activists also engaged in what 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.879 was briefly a nationwide practice of pulling down statues of 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.800 famous white supremacists. On June eighteenth, a small number of 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:22.199 mostly teenage Portlanders toppled a statue of George Washington. This 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:26.480 prompted President Trump to create an executive order to protect statues, monuments, 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.439 and federal property. He sent dozens of federal agents to 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.439 Portland to enforce this new order. The first time the 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.679 Feds made a large appearance was on July four. That 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.080 night was a turning point for a number of reasons, 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.440 after weeks of declining numbers. More than a thousand Portlanders 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.240 showed up outside the Justice Center to shoot commercial grade 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.879 fireworks at its windows. They fired a few with the 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.359 adjacent Federal courthouse as well. The police l rad a 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.639 car mounted loudspeaker started warning everyone not to shoot the 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.600 court house, so, of course, the entire crowd swarmed around 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.399 the building and continued shooting it with fireworks. Suddenly, wooden 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.159 hatches opened up on the front of the fortress like building, 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.359 and the Federal Allegiance inside began tossing out tear gas 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.520 grenades and shooting impact munitions into the crowd. For a 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.199 few minutes, the scene resembled a cross between an acid 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.760 trip in a medieval siege, with protesters bombarding the courthouse 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.520 with fireworks while the Feds inside pumped out gas and 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:28.680 riot munitions, Yeah, everybody. Eventually the fight spilled out into 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.480 the street, and for several hours, Portland police and Department 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.480 of Homeland Security agents engaged in a running battle with 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.280 hundreds of protesters. Fireworks provided the activists with their first 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.240 weapon that could disrupt a police riot line, while law 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.439 enforcement responded by escalating physical violence even further. I was 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.720 walking up from the j C Up towards the park blocks, 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.840 and there was a person who was essentially having an 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.360 asthma attack and a cloud of tear gas, and they 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.520 had one buddy with them, and it was just such 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.800 an impossible project for that one buddy to sort of 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.119 haul them out of tear gas while they're having an 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.640 asthma attack and like a panic attack and really having 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.159 her off time. Everything got more serious after the fourth 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:12.720 the federal agents started responding to protests downtown more often 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.879 than the Portland Police Bureau. A week later, federal agents 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.199 almost killed a protester named Donovan Labella by shooting him 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.639 in the forehead with a less lethal round. Slowly, the 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.320 mainstream media began to realize that something strange and terrifying 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.720 was happening in Portland. The national interest was finally peaked 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.240 a few days later when camo clad Feds in a 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:36.400 rental band started kidnapping people off the streets. In early July, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.000 the fourth accepted most nightly protests only numbered a few 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.600 dozen to a hundred or so protesters, but national media, 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.680 in the specter of federal snatch fans panicked Portland's liberal majority. 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.680 By mid late July, thousands upon thousands of protesters were 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.880 showing up in the street every night. The time between 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:58.760 July thirty, dubbed the Fed War, is the stuff most 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:04.040 Americans saw from Portland in the news. Moms and dad's, veterans, doctors, chefs, 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.320 and students gathering in front of the Federal courthouse, chanting demands, 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.120 banging on doors, setting fires, ripping off plywood covering the windows, 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.080 and repeatedly tearing down that massive fence. Whenever the federal 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.880 agents came out, a shield wall of protesters would form, 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.160 deflecting metal tear gas canisters and flash bangs up into 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.280 the air. People armed with leafblowers directed gas back at 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:28.160 the Feds. In response, the Feds started using experimental new weapons, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:32.160 including a pesticide sprayer jerry rigged di spew poison gas. 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.240 Seeing the police attack people, especially the FEDS when the 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.080 Feds came, when they came started attacking people like like 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:41.200 in the smoke. After I got like a gas mask 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.399 and started going into the smoke, you know, and seeing 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.520 what was going on in there, I was pretty I 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.760 was pretty uh disturbed by seeing the way that they 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:56.919 were like beating people under the under the cover of 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.960 tear gas. That was, um, that was a prize for me. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.200 I'd heard people saying, I've got I ask it in there, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.000 but I didn't know it was going down like that. 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.840 As July came and went, so did the visible federal 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.120 presence downtown. Most of the more liberal types packed it up, 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:14.920 calling the protests a success. But while the days of 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.440 walls of camouflaged Fed's head temporarily ended despite reports of 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.560 their withdrawal, federal presence in Portland lingered on for weeks. 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.160 Dedicated activists were not fooled by the faux withdrawal. They 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.680 knew the work was far from over. Throughout August, protesters 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.840 gathered in front of police precincts, city buildings in Portland's 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.520 ice facility. Sometimes they engaged in property damage, but more 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.639 often they just stood in the street yelling at the 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.480 cops until they were inevitably charged by riot lines. It 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.920 was in August that Portland first saw right wing counter protests, 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:49.200 generally framed as back the Blue or MAGA gatherings. Sometimes 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.080 these escalated into street brawls between Proud Boys and left 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.480 wing activists. On several occasions, Proud Boys and other right 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.840 wing vigilantes through home made explosives and shot paintball guns 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.920 into crowds. Five rounds were even fired into the air 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.160 and into crowds. The escalation continued until a Trump caravan 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.800 of vehicles waving flags drove through Portland in late August. 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.760 Several Trump supporters fired paintball guns and mace into the 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.800 crowds as they drove by. The whole awful day ended 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.560 with a member of the right wing street gang Patriot Prayer, 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.640 being shot and killed by a white BLM activist after 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.199 charging him with a can of mace. Throughout all this 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:29.359 Portland's BLM marches occurred every single night, right up until 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.719 late September, when a series of devastating wildfires overwhelmed Oregon 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.280 and blanketed the city of Portland in a thick haze 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:39.240 of poison. The nightly marches were halted, and the various 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.080 mutual aid organizations that had started up to service the 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.520 protests turned their efforts to meeting the needs of evacuees. Meanwhile, 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.000 right wing activists blamed the fires on Antifa and spent 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:52.840 several days setting up a legal arm checkpoints and threatening 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:55.959 people with rifles. When the rains came and the air cleared, 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:59.080