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Speaker 1: All media.

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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Robert Evans here and it could happen here

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Speaker 2: a podcast about things falling apart and sometimes putting them

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Speaker 2: back together. I'm writing this after flying back from Texas

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Speaker 2: where my Ted died, to Portland, waking up and basically

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Speaker 2: immediately interviewing a group of protesters in Arcada, California, at

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Speaker 2: the cal Poly occupation in Humboldt, and then driving to

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Speaker 2: Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where there has also

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Speaker 2: been a campus occupation, And both of these occupations have

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Speaker 2: some stuff in common, and I wanted to talk about

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Speaker 2: what was happening with both of them because I think

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Speaker 2: it's relevant, and obviously it's relevant to what is currently

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Speaker 2: one of the larger stories going on in the country

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Speaker 2: right now, which is that a series of occupations on

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Speaker 2: campuses protesting the Israeli genocide and Gaza have spread to

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Speaker 2: more than one hundred schools in the United States. You

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Speaker 2: will have heard of this now. We have covered some

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Speaker 2: of this in recent episodes, particularly what was going on

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Speaker 2: in Colombia at least at the initial stages of that,

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Speaker 2: and today again I'm here to talk about two occupations.

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Speaker 2: One of them is at cal Poly Humboldt in Arcada, California,

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Speaker 2: and another is at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

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Speaker 2: As an out of side, I have lived in both

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Speaker 2: of these cities, which is peculiar. It doesn't really mean anything,

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Speaker 2: but I thought it was weird, and obviously I still

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Speaker 2: live in Portland. Protests started in Arcada first. On October

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Speaker 2: twenty second, twenty twenty four, students on the cal Poly

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Speaker 2: Humboldt also called CPH campus occupied Seamen's Hall. These students

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Speaker 2: were not members of any specific group, but we're all

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Speaker 2: acting in solidarity with GAZA, and we're inspired at least

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Speaker 2: partly by the solidarity encampment at Columbia University. It started

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Speaker 2: with a small number of people, about forty five or so.

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Speaker 2: These are a mix of students, some alumni, and a

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Speaker 2: few random Arcade Arcada is a pretty progressive town. You

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Speaker 2: might call it Hippi. That's generally the reputation that it has.

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Speaker 2: Campus police showed up. There was a series of negotiations,

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Speaker 2: which here means they told everybody to leave, and at

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Speaker 2: that point the police began escalating things. Because the Arcada

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Speaker 2: police force is pretty small, cops were called in from

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Speaker 2: the surrounding area, quite a few of them. There were helicopters.

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Speaker 2: It's much more of it to do than this fairly

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Speaker 2: sleepy community in the Redwoods is used to having. Community

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Speaker 2: members started to show up as well because hey, something

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Speaker 2: was happening. A ride up from Crime Thinks website describes

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Speaker 2: what happened next quote, Police from every department in the

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Speaker 2: county showed up, including a helicopter, canine units, and off

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Speaker 2: duty police. Students responded by swarming them. The cops initial

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Speaker 2: plan to carry out a mass arrest was thwarted by

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Speaker 2: a series of clashes both inside and outside of the building.

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Speaker 2: The occupiers beat back police advances despite facing brutality unlike

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Speaker 2: anything we have seen over the last day of struggle

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Speaker 2: in Humboldt County. Again, it's a pretty sleepy place. There

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Speaker 2: were two arrests and a number of injuries. The arrests

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Speaker 2: were apparently quite ugly, but police were unable to clear

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Speaker 2: out the occupation. Barricades were thrown into place as the

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Speaker 2: fighting continued off and on, until a crowd of people

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Speaker 2: from the surrounding community, including other students and faculty, showed

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Speaker 2: up outside and effectively surrounded the police. After six hours,

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Speaker 2: the police retreated. The university declared a lockdown, and the

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Speaker 2: students were able to spend the next few days extending

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Speaker 2: their defenses as well upset, as well as setting up infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: including a kitchen. Early on the morning of the twenty ninth,

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Speaker 2: a team from It Could Happen Here sat down with

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Speaker 2: two of these students to discuss the occupation.

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Speaker 3: I go by Stinger online, and I have been part

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Speaker 3: of the occupation since I think the morning of day two.

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Speaker 3: I think there's been night after the pops tried to

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Speaker 3: enter the bar arcaded building and got pushed back. I

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Speaker 3: think I've been here since the morning after that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Blue, And what's been your history with this?

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Speaker 4: I came here on Tuesday morning. I just attended a

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Speaker 4: meeting with everyone, and I've just been here helping at

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Speaker 4: the MAC, mainly because I feel like that's where I'm

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Speaker 4: the most useful.

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Speaker 2: What's the MAC.

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Speaker 4: The MAC is the Mutual Aid kitchen. We've been handing

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Speaker 4: out food, and I've just been helping prepare food for

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Speaker 4: people and trying to let other people involved do more

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Speaker 4: things because I know I'm the most useful in the

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Speaker 4: MAC personally, rather than being anywhere else doing anything else.

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Speaker 2: By the time we talked to them, the rumor mill

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Speaker 2: widely expected the police to carry out a major attempt

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Speaker 2: to clear the occupation that night. As I write this

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Speaker 2: ten thirteen pm PST on the twenty ninth of April,

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Speaker 2: local police have just given Siemens Hall a dispersal order.

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Speaker 2: So we'll see how that goes. Hey, everyone, Robert here,

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Speaker 2: we saw how it goes. Police cracked down, arrested a

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Speaker 2: bunch of people and ended the occupation. We will talk

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Speaker 2: more about that a little at the end of the episode.

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Speaker 2: But because their initial efforts to clear out the occupation failed,

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Speaker 2: police have had to spend nearly a week watching and

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Speaker 2: waiting as students dig in.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, police have not tried to like actively push us

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Speaker 3: out like we've seen on other campuses, where like they've

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Speaker 3: totally like rated and like worn down tents and everything.

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Speaker 3: And I think we also, I think a big part

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Speaker 3: of it is like logistically, we're in a small city

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Speaker 3: and we don't really have the police force necessary, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: which is why they've been trying to call you know. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: then tried to call officers from other places because especially

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Speaker 3: like I feel like in the evenings especially, we have

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Speaker 3: a lot of people both from the community and students

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Speaker 3: on campus who have been occupying the quad. But what's

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Speaker 3: so funny is that our main intention was not like

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Speaker 3: the original intention was not to barricade that building. It

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Speaker 3: was just going to be occupied, not barricaded. But because

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Speaker 3: of police actions, I feel like we've actually stepped up

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Speaker 3: more so. They kind of shot themselves on the foot

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Speaker 3: with that one.

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Speaker 2: This is a pattern we've seen a few times in

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Speaker 2: recent years. In late twenty twenty, Garrison and I reported

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Speaker 2: from an eviction defense at the famous Red House in Portland.

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Speaker 2: The basic idea is that local protesters were trying to

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Speaker 2: stop police from serving an eviction during the pandemic. There

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Speaker 2: was a clash outside the house and some arrests, but

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Speaker 2: police pulled back when protesters were still on the ground

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Speaker 2: and in numbers. Said protesters began to fortify the area

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Speaker 2: around the house and eventually the entire neighborhood. By the

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Speaker 2: time the police realized what was going on on, they

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Speaker 2: had a nightmare on their hands, an occupation that would

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Speaker 2: have been impossible to clear without significant violence. The end

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Speaker 2: result of the situation was that the city government essentially

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Speaker 2: negotiated an end to what was happening rather than just

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Speaker 2: sending the police back into evict residence. There is much

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Speaker 2: more to the whole situation than that. This is something

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Speaker 2: people still get angry about because the patriarch of the

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Speaker 2: family at Red House was a weirdo sovereign citizen type.

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Speaker 2: But the goal at the time was to stop evictions

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Speaker 2: during the pandemic, and the tactics of the day worked.

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Speaker 2: The cops backed off, the city came to the negotiating table.

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Speaker 2: It was a successful action, whatever you think about the

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Speaker 2: individuals involved in it. After the call that Garrison Mia

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Speaker 2: and myself had with those Humboldt students and we will

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Speaker 2: hear more from them later, I got a message from

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Speaker 2: a source that an occupation was also brewing on the

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Speaker 2: Portland State University campus, or rather that it was going on,

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Speaker 2: and folks were worried things were about to escalate. But

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Speaker 2: don't you escalate until you've listened to these ads. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: here they are, We're back. Actions at Portland State University

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Speaker 2: started on Thursday the twenty fifth, and it was initially

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Speaker 2: pretty simple. One tent and one banner strung between trees

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Speaker 2: in front of the Branford Price Miller Library steps social

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Speaker 2: media did its thing. Once this first tent was up,

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Speaker 2: and the encampment slowly grew to maybe half a dozen

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Speaker 2: tents by midnight. At around one twenty am, the police

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Speaker 2: swept the encampment. Only a few people were awake and

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Speaker 2: less than twenty people were present against maybe forty riot officers.

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Speaker 2: The police pushed people out of the encampment. They went

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Speaker 2: straight for the supply tent and took everything, loading medical equipment, food, etc.

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Speaker 2: Into City of Portland trucks and hauling it away. It

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Speaker 2: was a bad night for a lot of people. But

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Speaker 2: what I gleaned from interviewing some of those folks was

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Speaker 2: that they had learned one crucial lesson, which was that

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Speaker 2: Portland police weren't willing to fuck with people or property

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Speaker 2: that was sitting on the PSU steps. This is probably

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Speaker 2: a jurisdictional thing. School properties the responsibility of the PSU

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Speaker 2: Campus Police PPB could police the park outside, but either

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Speaker 2: couldn't or just didn't want to be arced in dealing

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Speaker 2: with the complications that might be caused by going into

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Speaker 2: school property themselves. So the school had to deal with

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Speaker 2: the unenviable complication of the fact that these were their

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Speaker 2: students protesting at a famously progressive school and having their

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Speaker 2: cops cleared them out, especially if it caused violence or

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Speaker 2: somebody got seriously hurt, would be a real pr headache.

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Speaker 2: The administration at Humboldt University and famously progressive ARCATA ran

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Speaker 2: into a similar problem. In the days after the police

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Speaker 2: backed away from their initial confrontation, students developed a list

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Speaker 2: of demands by consensus. Here's one of our sources from

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Speaker 2: the Humboldt occupation again and their description of the demands

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Speaker 2: have been cut together from a longer interview. Some crosstalk

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Speaker 2: has been edited out to make things flow a bit

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Speaker 2: more clearly. Anyway, here's those demands.

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Speaker 3: Okay, So students, with the mediation of faculty, have reached

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Speaker 3: out to administration in hopes of re engaging negotiations. So

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Speaker 3: we would like administration to agree to the following through demands.

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Speaker 3: One de escalator, we demand the immediate removal of police

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Speaker 3: from university campus. We also demand the immediate re enrollment

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Speaker 3: of students who have been suspended. And it probably is

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Speaker 3: to not suspend, resuspend, or expel any student protesters as

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Speaker 3: a result of these accusations, because they were claiming you

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Speaker 3: know that we had committed property damage and trespassing it

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Speaker 3: and things like that, and that was a lot of

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Speaker 3: the reasons that they gave for suspending us, like in

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Speaker 3: the email we received about interim suspension. Two was diabest.

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Speaker 3: We demand that the Kalipoly Humboldt Foundation commits to an

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Speaker 3: audit and subsequent divestment from any funds related to Israel,

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Speaker 3: Israeli products, or Israeli companies, and this includes those that

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Speaker 3: own factories on stolen Palestinian land in Israel. There are

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Speaker 3: four specific funds that at the minimum, we demand the

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Speaker 3: divestment from within the next six months. These were TILCX, DFSTX,

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Speaker 3: fe UPX, and DOODFX. And we did research into these

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Speaker 3: holdings that these funds have and how the companies that

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Speaker 3: they may have holdings in are connected to Israel. So,

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Speaker 3: for example, TILCX, their top three holdings are in Qualcomm,

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Speaker 3: Wells Fargo, and Chubb. Qualcom is an information technology company

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Speaker 3: that does the majority of its technology development in Israel,

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Speaker 3: so they have like factories there and that's kind of

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Speaker 3: where they develop their smartphone chips and tracking intelligence, which

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Speaker 3: is kind of like two of the main things that

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Speaker 3: they work on and sell, and then Wells Fargo was

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Speaker 3: part of a five hundred million dollar loan deal with

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Speaker 3: multiple other lenders that support that was supporting Elbet Systems,

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Speaker 3: which is an Israeli military weapons manufacturer. So those are

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Speaker 3: like two of the big ones just from the first

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Speaker 3: fund that we had looked into. And our third demand

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Speaker 3: was declare in solidarity with universities across the globe and

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Speaker 3: for all Palestinian people, including their martyers and refugees. We

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Speaker 3: demand a ceasefire statement from KLi Pally Humble calling for

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Speaker 3: an immediate and permanent ceasepire in Palestine, and we encourage

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Speaker 3: all other California State universities and universities of California to

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Speaker 3: do the same. As we were writing this, it was

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Speaker 3: we found out that the faculty administration had released a

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Speaker 3: ce spire statement, I believe, but the actual like university

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Speaker 3: like admin had it like the whole university admin, but

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Speaker 3: like the faculty had released a c spire statement. Faculty specifically,

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Speaker 3: I know there's there's definitely faculty that have There's some

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Speaker 3: faculty who have been with us since day one, like

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Speaker 3: camping out with everyone since day one, and it's like

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Speaker 3: a lot of the faculty. We like, we are totally

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Speaker 3: comfortable putting our trust in like some of these faculty,

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Speaker 3: Like if there was an emergency, like I would call them,

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Speaker 3: you know, like if there was an emergency on campus

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Speaker 3: where like I was about to be arrested, I'm like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna call up this like professor. Like they have

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Speaker 3: been and they have been like trying to you know,

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Speaker 3: update us with whatever they hear from Admin. But just

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Speaker 3: in like the past few days, we've actually kind of

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Speaker 3: discerned that upper admin has sort of cut off contact

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Speaker 3: with lower admin and faculty. And this is something that

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Speaker 3: we talked about with faculty members as well. Because of

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Speaker 3: the significant faculty support that we've been receiving, Administration is

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Speaker 3: literally just not telling faculty anything anymore.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it really seems like it's turned into just this

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Speaker 5: pure conflict between everyone who is part of the process

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Speaker 5: of an education fighting against the admin who are not

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Speaker 5: part of that process, who are trying to stop everyone

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Speaker 5: with cops.

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Speaker 2: Back in Portland, that first failed encampment brought more people

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Speaker 2: out the next day, Friday, the twenty sixth, and by noon,

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Speaker 2: more tents and a few banners had been set up.

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Speaker 2: Student organizations had put together lists of demands. Now these

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Speaker 2: demands have varied and have been edited a few times

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Speaker 2: after long democratic consensus sessions by people present. The list

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Speaker 2: I was presented with when I showed up on Monday

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Speaker 2: included three demands. Number one, p you should release a

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Speaker 2: statement condemning the genocide of Palestinian people with weapons provided

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Speaker 2: by the US. Number two, the university should end the

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Speaker 2: sale of Israeli products on campus and any programs that

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Speaker 2: involves inding students, employees, or faculty to Israel. And number three,

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Speaker 2: the board of trustees should terminate all relationships with Boeing

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Speaker 2: and other companies complicit in the ongoing genocide. Their list

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Speaker 2: included Leopold, an Oregon based company who makes rifle scopes,

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Speaker 2: but also companies like Intel and Hewlett Packard. Boeing was

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Speaker 2: the company I heard reference most by protesters. The aerospace company,

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Speaker 2: which is involved in the manufacture and design of just

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Speaker 2: so many weapons, has a partnership with Portland State University.

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Speaker 2: Later on Friday, the same day that these lists of

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Speaker 2: demands started coming together, the school president and cut announced

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Speaker 2: a pause to the school's relationship with Boeing to address

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Speaker 2: these protester demands. Precisely. What pausing this relationship means is unclear,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of the people I talked to felt

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Speaker 2: like it essentially meant nothing, but cut wrote quote, PSU

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Speaker 2: will host a forum at which these concerns can be

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Speaker 2: carefully framed and debated. We will organize a two hour

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Speaker 2: moderated debate in May to include faculty and student voices,

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Speaker 2: so you know whatever that means. By late in the

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Speaker 2: day Friday, media had started showing up in numbers to

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Speaker 2: report on the occupation, which was still quite small, but

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Speaker 2: bigger ones were happening all over the country, and if

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Speaker 2: your local news you want to do anything you can

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Speaker 2: to tie your area into whatever the big story is nationwide,

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Speaker 2: so you know, good excuse to show up. There was

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Speaker 2: also some conflict between local student groups at this point

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Speaker 2: and unaffiliated groups of activists, some of whom were also students,

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Speaker 2: over whether or not to keep occupying over the weekend

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Speaker 2: and keep attempting to you know, keep an occupation in

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Speaker 2: place despite police crackdowns, or to save their strength for

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Speaker 2: a new concerted push on Monday. At any rate, some

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Speaker 2: people stayed, and by seven pm that night Friday night,

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Speaker 2: the Portland Police Bureau showed back up in full riot gear.

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Speaker 2: Park rangers told protesters to exit the park area, and

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Speaker 2: a stand off ensued. While some protesters confronted police head on.

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Speaker 2: A smaller group of activists used this as a distraction

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Speaker 2: to move a number of tents onto the library steps,

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Speaker 2: having noticed that PPB didn't seem to be willing to

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Speaker 2: go directly onto campus property. Once this was done, the

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Speaker 2: folks confronting the riot line gradually pulled back to the steps.

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Speaker 2: The police seemed confused or at least put out by this.

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Speaker 2: They left for a while, then returned briefly to cut

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Speaker 2: down the banners hung on the trees. I was told

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Speaker 2: a number of people mentioned this kind of laughingly when

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Speaker 2: I was around that the way in which the police

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Speaker 2: justified this was that a recent anti camping public camping

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Speaker 2: measure meant to target the homeless specified that the kind

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Speaker 2: of thing that a banner hung again like Basically, the

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Speaker 2: fact that the banner touched trees in two different areas,

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Speaker 2: or like touched two different trees meant that it would

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Speaker 2: count it as a tent, and so they were allowed

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Speaker 2: to take it down. It all sounded pretty silly to me,

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Speaker 2: but students and others on campus property in the library

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Speaker 2: were left to barricade the area around the library at will.

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Speaker 2: They started with palettes brought by an anonymous benefactor. Both

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Speaker 2: sides of the staircases into the library were initially blocked.

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Speaker 2: This only lasted until Saturday morning, when Anne cud, president

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Speaker 2: of the university since August of twenty twenty three, visited

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Speaker 2: the encampment. Different protesters I have talked to related this

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Speaker 2: event in different ways. Some described her visit as essentially chill.

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Speaker 2: Others described Anne as quite angry and even threatening them.

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Speaker 2: I was not there. The end result was an agreement, though,

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Speaker 2: If protesters allowed students to continue to have access to

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Speaker 2: the doorway into the library so students could still use

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Speaker 2: the library, PSU wouldn't send in their cops or call

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Speaker 2: in the city cops to clear out the occupation. After

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Speaker 2: what one source described as much heated discussion, protesters agreed

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Speaker 2: to this arrangement. Now, variations of stuff like this are

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Speaker 2: common in occupations in schools that get this far. School

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Speaker 2: faculty are often sympathetic to student actions, or at least

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Speaker 2: to the students taking part in them, and supporting crackdowns

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Speaker 2: is dicey for the administration at Humboldt State University. The

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Speaker 2: administration attempted to de escalate and eventually euthanize the movement

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Speaker 2: by trying to provide a safety valve, a way for

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Speaker 2: students who'd had enough to leave, along with the suggestion

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Speaker 2: but not the actual legally binding promise that they wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be punished if they did. And here's another clip from

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Speaker 2: that interview. I understand that the school even set up

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Speaker 2: basically a booth where you could come and officially like

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Speaker 2: de register yourself from the protests in order to not

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Speaker 2: get expelled or something like that. Is that a like

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Speaker 2: I think you're It was unclear to me from what

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Speaker 2: I read like exactly how that system was supposed to function,

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Speaker 2: but it seemed kind of shait.

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Speaker 6: So they wanted us to So they set up a

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Speaker 6: table by one of the exits, and they wanted us

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Speaker 6: to like give them like our information, and they were like,

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Speaker 6: if you do this, you won't get immediately arrested.

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Speaker 3: But keep in mind, they said, not immediately we arrested.

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Speaker 3: And they even clarified like in their alert about this.

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Speaker 3: They were like, by the way, this doesn't protect you

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Speaker 3: from any future consequences, So it was like, why would

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Speaker 3: we do that? Then? What is that doing for any

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Speaker 3: of us? I don't think a single person took that opportunity.

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Speaker 2: Back in Portland. After the detunt with the school administration,

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Speaker 2: things continued awkwardly but smoothly. For the next day or so.

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Speaker 2: Protesters continued to fortify the library defenses while students entered

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Speaker 2: and exited and used it at will, although the school

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Speaker 2: did shut it down early on Monday. In the meantime,

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Speaker 2: protesters use the small space available to them to set

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Speaker 2: up minimal infrastructure as an humble, small kitchen tent was

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Speaker 2: put up, along with a large dra medical tent, a

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Speaker 2: designated smoking area tent, and an art station for people

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Speaker 2: to make signs to hang from the barricades. Donations began

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Speaker 2: coming in on Saturday night and flooded in on Sunday,

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Speaker 2: the point that by Monday protesters had stopped accepting donations

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Speaker 2: of a lot of stuff like food and water, but

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Speaker 2: also things like batteries and generators because they just didn't

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Speaker 2: have room to take any more of them. During these

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Speaker 2: weekend days and nights, those of the encampment discussed demands,

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Speaker 2: their plans, and strategy for the future. One topic of

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Speaker 2: discussion involved the houseless. Would local houseless people be welcome

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Speaker 2: inside the encampment and would they be welcomed to some

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Speaker 2: of the donated resources. The ultimate decision, and I hear

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Speaker 2: that this was not a particularly controversial one, was yes.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I should also note here that the Humboldt students we

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Speaker 2: talked with claimed that their school's treatment of houseless residents earlier,

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Speaker 2: like a couple of years ago, was one of the

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Speaker 2: inciting incidents of this occupation. Obviously, the genocide in Gaza

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Speaker 2: was the spark and purpose for why why the occupation

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Speaker 2: it Humboldt happened, and why this occupation at PSU happened.

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Speaker 2: But nothing happens in a vacuum. And I wanted to

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Speaker 2: include this bit from the interview because I think it's interesting.

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Speaker 7: We're joking that this is like the third strike for administration,

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Speaker 7: because in twenty twenty two, the La Times released an

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Speaker 7: article about how administration was kicking homeless students off campus

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Speaker 7: for living in their vehicles. Jesus, and I believe our university,

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Speaker 7: out of all the cal States, has the highest rate

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Speaker 7: of homeless students. Yeah, and so this kind of this

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Speaker 7: outrage a lot of people, including people on campus. We

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Speaker 7: actually had a few days encampment on campus for that too,

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Speaker 7: I believe, and I feel like that never really got

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Speaker 7: the It got partially resolved, but Admin was like really

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Speaker 7: fighting against all the possible options because there was like

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Speaker 7: a couple of people arguing that, like we keep in mind,

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Speaker 7: I don't even think these people were from campus, but

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Speaker 7: apparently the two people like filed complaints about how the

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Speaker 7: people are living in their cars were like messy or something,

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Speaker 7: and so one of our requests was like, Okay, maybe

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Speaker 7: like we could get a few more gumpsters or trash

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Speaker 7: cans in the area where people are living. Yeah, And

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Speaker 7: I'm just totally fought back against that, and so that

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Speaker 7: was like what we're jokingly calling, like, oh, that was

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Speaker 7: like strike one and then strike two.

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Speaker 3: We were saying, is the faculty strike that happened earlier

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Speaker 3: I think this semester that was I think all over

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Speaker 3: the state, But it really only lasted like one day,

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Speaker 3: despite the momentum for possibly lasting longer than that. And

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Speaker 3: Admin wanted like sent out an email saying like if

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Speaker 3: your faculty isn't holding classes, put their names here, and

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Speaker 3: obviously all of us were like, what are you talking

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Speaker 3: like you want us to, like, you're asking us to

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Speaker 3: snitch on our professors of faculty right now. So that's

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Speaker 3: what we're joking his life strike too, because we're like, oh,

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Speaker 3: we're not doing that. And then this is what we're

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Speaker 3: calling strike three. And I was like joking earlier to everyone.

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Speaker 3: I was like, strike three and we're out. Strike three

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Speaker 3: and they're out, and everyone was like, yeah, I freaking hope.

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Speaker 2: So campus occupations like this are always complex things, not

408
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Speaker 2: just in the different motivating factors that come together to

409
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Speaker 2: make situations like this possible, but in the ways in

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Speaker 2: which extant student groups and organizations that arise spontaneously due

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Speaker 2: to the pressures of the moment, interface and interact. When

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Speaker 2: I arrived at the encampment at about one PM, I

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Speaker 2: was introduced to several media liaisons for the occupation. They

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Speaker 2: were extremely careful with what they said. A lot of

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Speaker 2: it was just kind of repeating the list of agreed

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Speaker 2: upon demands that the protesters had come up with. I

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Speaker 2: did ask about a few other things. I wanted to

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Speaker 2: know how protests in twenty twenty in protests on other

419
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Speaker 2: campus had impacted the tactics being seen here. The most

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Speaker 2: common response, I got to my questions where variations of

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Speaker 2: that's not something we'd like to talk about. But they

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Speaker 2: did go into detail in a couple of things, and

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Speaker 2: one of those was what it would take to actually

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Speaker 2: conclude this occupation. They noted that if representatives of the

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Speaker 2: campus administration, including the president, were to come to them

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Speaker 2: and make concrete steps to divest from Boeing and other

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Speaker 2: military contractors that the school currently has a direct financial

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Speaker 2: relationship with, that that could be the basis for moving

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Speaker 2: forward in some way to start reducing the extent of

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Speaker 2: the encampment. Possibly, so that seemed to be kind of

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Speaker 2: their line, if we actually see some real evidence that

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Speaker 2: the school is divesting from these military investments that they have,

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Speaker 2: will be willing to negotiate further. But what the school

434
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 2: has done thus far, basically just announcing a pause and

435
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 2: saying we'll meet about the Boeing thing later, that's not enough.

436
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 2: The liaise I talked to also made it clear that

437
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 2: they found the wide wave of campus actions around the

438
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 2: country inspiring and that that had had an impact on

439
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 2: how things were being carried out at PSU. I was

440
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,200
Speaker 2: pretty impressed by their message. Disciplined to be honest, As

441
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 2: a journalist, you want people to talk to you, but

442
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 2: actions like this are dangerous, and cops aren't the only danger.

443
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 2: Anytime your movement gets pressed, the attention that it attracts

444
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 2: will also attract grifters, particularly of the right wing variety,

445
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 2: people who want to find someone they can catch saying

446
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 2: something aggressive or dumb, or that just sounds bad out

447
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,400
Speaker 2: of context. You, as organizers and activists, want to keep

448
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 2: attention on your goals and message and away from that

449
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 2: kind of bullshit. I should also note that there were

450
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 2: some mentions of their desire that the campus essentially carry

451
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 2: out an amnesty policy for people who had already been

452
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 2: involved in the occupation, so that nobody would get kicked

453
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,680
Speaker 2: out of the school as a result of their participation

454
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 2: in this movement. I've heard similar things from the protesters

455
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 2: and Humboldt. Yeah, it was an interesting conversation. And what's

456
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 2: also interesting are these ads and we're back as my

457
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,199
Speaker 2: time at the protest on Monday, war On Individuals from

458
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 2: the occupation would occasionally march through the crowd and around

459
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 2: the encampment, which grew at its height of the day

460
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 2: to around five hundred or so people. In the late afternoon.

461
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 2: This was a mix of protesters, including people from a

462
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 2: march that had formed elsewhere and ended up at PSU,

463
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 2: and some bystanders, a lot of whom were students sitting

464
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 2: nearby dorms. People who were members of the occupation would

465
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,439
Speaker 2: ask passers by and media not to film protesters and

466
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 2: encourage folks to get involved and help with the occupation.

467
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,879
Speaker 2: Pamphlets on their goals were handed out, and pamphlets on

468
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,439
Speaker 2: radical political action were passed around. There were also some

469
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 2: people tabling for different causes. There was one group of

470
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 2: people who were taking down folks information in order to

471
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 2: support essentially a ballot measure that would increase the tax

472
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 2: on corporations worth more than twenty five million dollars that

473
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 2: were based in the city of Portland, which sounded nice

474
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 2: to me. And in addition to that, there were people

475
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,919
Speaker 2: who were working to organize a you know, you know,

476
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 2: one of those Sorry is very late, but essentially how

477
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 2: people are a lot of people are attempting to get

478
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 2: people to organize to like register is unaffiliated and the

479
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 2: primaries especially in order to like, you know, make a

480
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,479
Speaker 2: statement to the Biden administration about their support of Israel.

481
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 2: There were folks who were trying to raise and get

482
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 2: people involved in that as well. So again, you know,

483
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 2: it was like many protests of this size involved a

484
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 2: lot of people. Sometimes in the past, especially in Portland,

485
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 2: I have seen kind of more extreme and yeah, let's

486
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 2: say extreme activists get angry at stuff like this, particularly

487
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 2: when it's asking for folks to fill out or sign petitions.

488
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 2: There's some concern obviously that that could effectively dos people

489
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,400
Speaker 2: who were there. I've always found that concern a little silly.

490
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 2: I think people can be trusted to kind of measure

491
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 2: their own threat matrix and decide am I going to

492
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 2: be doing anything at this protest? That means I shouldn't

493
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 2: put down on a piece of paper that I was

494
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 2: around here that issue I didn't notice at this protest.

495
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 2: Everyone seemed pretty copasetic and as a general rule, it

496
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 2: was quite peaceful. Folks seemed more or less on the

497
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: same page. The mostly masked protesters that I met were

498
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 2: a pretty diverse lot, and this included a number of

499
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 2: Muslim students, at least one of whom I watched prey

500
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 2: before taking their place on the barricade. I also noticed

501
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 2: numbers of students in his jobs watching from nearby windows

502
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 2: and eventually from the park out in front of the occupation.

503
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 2: From conversations I had on the ground, I became aware

504
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 2: of the fact that several student organizations were hesitant to support,

505
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 2: particularly the weekend occupations, as they had had concerns for

506
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:05,480
Speaker 2: the safety of their Palestinian members. One particularly salient fear

507
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 2: was that foreign students who participated and were arrested might

508
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 2: risk not just their academic status but their ability to

509
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,000
Speaker 2: stay in country. And I know that a number of

510
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 2: the protesters I met there who were particularly you know,

511
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 2: white folks, felt like one reason they needed to participate

512
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 2: was that they could participate without taking that kind of risk.

513
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 2: On for the largest portion of the day Monday, I

514
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 2: watched as activists reinforce the barricades on one side of

515
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 2: the library, and the crowd grew quite large in the park.

516
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 2: Some signs I saw among the crowd and on the

517
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 2: barricade included mass college protests are always on the right

518
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,920
Speaker 2: side of history, and fuck your homework. People are dying.

519
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 2: There were speeches, but not much in the way of

520
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 2: action until very late in the day, when all but

521
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 2: maybe one hundred and fifty or so of the crowd

522
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 2: had filtered away. My notes at the time say the

523
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 2: big change happened around fifty five pm. By this point

524
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 2: in the early evening, I had seen very little of

525
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,479
Speaker 2: the police. Every now and then, a few PSU cruisers

526
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 2: would come by circling the area, and small groups of

527
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 2: four or five hecklers carrying makeshift fishing poles with donuts

528
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 2: on them would run beside the squad cars, basically trying

529
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 2: to like tempt the police officers to go grab the donuts.

530
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 2: This seemed to demoralize the campus officers enough that they

531
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 2: mostly stayed away. I believe that at this point the

532
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 2: city's plan and the administration's plan was to avoid doing

533
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 2: anything fucked up and violent in front of such a

534
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 2: large crowd, because that would be to risk restarting the

535
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 2: whole twenty twenty Portland protest cycle. Again. Remember, it's not

536
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 2: just as simple as can we crush this protest? But

537
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 2: if we go kick all these people out now and

538
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 2: a bunch of them get seen in broad daylight getting

539
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 2: beaten and gassed, does that mean we have to deal

540
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 2: with thousands of people in the street tomorrow. Honestly, staying

541
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 2: away was the smart play on behalf of the police,

542
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 2: and as a result of them making the smart play,

543
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 2: protesters in the encampment were themselves confronted with a choice.

544
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 2: The space that they had been allowed by the school

545
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 2: to occupy in the sort of weird Dayton situation had

546
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:15,840
Speaker 2: been filled both with donations and just the number of

547
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 2: people who were inside the occupation. There was no room

548
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 2: to make it any bigger. So their next options were

549
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 2: either number one, expand the occupation to the park and

550
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 2: the Portland Police Bureau has the ability to legal ability

551
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 2: and obviously the gear to clear out the park. In addition,

552
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 2: just from a tactical level, it's difficult to defend an

553
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 2: encampment in that park the way that it's set up.

554
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 2: You really don't have. You know, you're kind of surrounded

555
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 2: on all sides. The police can really mess with you.

556
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 2: I've been gassed in that park a few times, I'm

557
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 2: quite aware. The other option they had was take the

558
00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 2: entire library building and force a response from both PSU

559
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 2: and the city government. This would obviously give them warm

560
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 2: boom to mendover, give them more room to take in

561
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 2: more people, and it would force an escalation with the

562
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 2: city government and with the school, which is you know

563
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 2: what they were looking for. Again, this is overall about

564
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 2: particularly their school, not divesting from companies that they see

565
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 2: is complicit in the genocide in Gaza, and about you know,

566
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 2: wanting to force a response from that school's leadership. You know,

567
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 2: there's a lot more to it than that, but that's

568
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 2: what they were trying to do, and that's what they

569
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: chose to do. A little before seven pm, someone on

570
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 2: a bullhorn came out and began asking all of the

571
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 2: people who were still there who was willing to engage

572
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,240
Speaker 2: in real militant action, and for those people to come

573
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 2: help occupy the library. Those who were less willing to

574
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 2: risk charges but still down for the cause should form

575
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 2: ranks out in front of the property. There were people

576
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 2: with shields, etc. They were looked like little bitty phealanxes.

577
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 2: You know, people had a mix of umbrellas and shields

578
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 2: and you know, usually two lines thick or so of

579
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 2: people linking on arms. And I thought at first they

580
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 2: were just kind of getting ready for the police to

581
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 2: come in to sort of resist the charge if they

582
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 2: occupied more of the library, But that's not what happened.

583
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,839
Speaker 2: For a few minutes, different organizers kind of put these

584
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 2: groups of people together and drilled them, walk them through

585
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 2: basic tactics, talked about what they should expect, and not

586
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 2: long after this, two different PSU police cruisers began to

587
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 2: approach from two different streets both of these different groups

588
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 2: of people. These little platoons split up and one would

589
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:33,720
Speaker 2: confront each vehicle. The officers were badly outnumbered in both cases,

590
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:39,240
Speaker 2: and they pulled back and essentially left the library without

591
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,880
Speaker 2: anyone really watching over it. The activists who were inside

592
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 2: the library used this as an excuse to occupy the

593
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,359
Speaker 2: rest of the building. Once the police cruisers had been

594
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:52,200
Speaker 2: forced back, the protesters from these platoons started grabbing heavy

595
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 2: objects that were just around them on the campus and

596
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 2: dragging them back to fortify the entrances and exits to

597
00:34:57,600 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 2: the structure. Much of this took the form of bl

598
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 2: black clad activists swarming onto a sports field behind the

599
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 2: library and grabbing soccer goals, football training sleds, and other

600
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:08,959
Speaker 2: heavy pieces of equipment and using them to wall off

601
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 2: exits and entrances to the ground floor of the building.

602
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 2: I watched one group of protesters cut through locks to

603
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,439
Speaker 2: liberate a pair of dumpsters, which quickly found their way

604
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 2: into the barricades in the front of the structure. I

605
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 2: did not enter the library, fairly certain that would have

606
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 2: been illegal, but I did see numerous people running around

607
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,319
Speaker 2: on floors above ground level setting up the space for

608
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 2: a proper occupation. I was told by at least one

609
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 2: person that activists were purposely keeping the interior space accessible

610
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 2: to those with wheelchairs, and there were a number of

611
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 2: folks with wheelchairs who I saw outside at the occupation.

612
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,439
Speaker 2: I did not see any specific people inside. I left

613
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,240
Speaker 2: after nine pm, having been on the ground and wearing

614
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 2: my armor for about eight hours the day after landing

615
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 2: back in Portland. That was all I had in me,

616
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 2: but quite a few people were still present, both outside

617
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,239
Speaker 2: and inside the library when I left. Roughly an hour

618
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 2: after I got home and started writing this episode at

619
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 2: about eleven pm PST, a series of frantic late night

620
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 2: phone calls resulted in the president of PSU, Portland Mayor

621
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,880
Speaker 2: Ted Wheeler, the Chief of Police for Portland and the

622
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 2: City DA Mike Schmidt, holding an emergency press conference. Local

623
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 2: KTU reporter tan vy Varma summarized the conference message this

624
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 2: way on Twitter. Quote. PSU president said the protesters have

625
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:25,479
Speaker 2: damaged property and have broken into the library. She says

626
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 2: she cannot entertain property damage or breaking an entering. She

627
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 2: asked them to choose to engage civilly. She says they'll

628
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,719
Speaker 2: be asking PPB to remove the trespassers from the library.

629
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,759
Speaker 2: PPB Police chief says he'd like to resolve this with

630
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 2: no force or arrests. He has asked those who are

631
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 2: breaking the law in the protest to stop. It's unclear

632
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 2: to me at present how many of this is going

633
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 2: to shake out. As I type this, the occupation at

634
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 2: Humboldt is under heavy attack and it sounds like it's

635
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 2: going to be quite ugly. Hey everyone, so you know

636
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 2: again this is a little messy because I wrote this

637
00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,239
Speaker 2: late last night. I woke up in the morning to

638
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 2: listen to the edit of it and some things that

639
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 2: happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning. About twenty

640
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,280
Speaker 2: five people were arrested after more than a hundred riot

641
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 2: officers arrived at the cal Poly Humboldt campus and cracked

642
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,839
Speaker 2: down on the Gaza protest occupation. Riot police arrived around

643
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 2: two thirty am. Legal observers say, no injuries. It's kind

644
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 2: of really unclear to me how bad it was. What

645
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:27,000
Speaker 2: actually happened. But you know, quite a few people have

646
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 2: been arrested, and at this point it looks like they're

647
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 2: being charged with some pretty narly crimes conspiracy, I think,

648
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 2: assault on a police officer. So this is one of

649
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 2: those things that's going to be an ongoing story. The

650
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 2: university accused the occupiers of doing more than a million

651
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 2: dollars worth of damage to university property. I'll actually just

652
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 2: read a quote here from an MSN article. Those arrested

653
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,359
Speaker 2: faced a range of different charges depending on individual circumstances,

654
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 2: including unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers, and others.

655
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,919
Speaker 2: In addition, students could face discipline for conduct violations, while

656
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 2: any university employees arrested could face disciplinary action. That's them

657
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 2: quoting a university news release. So that's kind of where

658
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 2: we are with cal Poly Humboldt. I wanted to note

659
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 2: that the folks that we talk to, who I hope

660
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,320
Speaker 2: are doing well, had requested that we send people to

661
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 2: donate to a bail fund if at all possible. If

662
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 2: you want to find that and support the Humboldt protesters,

663
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:30,280
Speaker 2: you can go to rally dot org slash arc bailfund.

664
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 2: That's rally dot org slash AARC bail fund, so that

665
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 2: would help out with those folks who currently need it.

666
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 2: There has also been a request to call the university

667
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 2: and request the release of Humboldt protesters for Palestine. The

668
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 2: CPH University police phone number is seven oh seven eight

669
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 2: two six five five five five. There is a suggested

670
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 2: script which I'm going to read here. Hi, my name

671
00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 2: is blank, and I demand the immediate release of the

672
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 2: arrested Humble student and faculty protesters for Palestine. They should

673
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 2: not be charged, let alone rated an attack for being

674
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,440
Speaker 2: on the right side of history. They include, but are

675
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:13,359
Speaker 2: not only, Fern McBride, Olivia Fox, Jared Cruz, Ruhala Agacella,

676
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:18,799
Speaker 2: Lana Word, Alison Merton, Isaiah Morales, and Adelmi Ruiz. So

677
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 2: that's where things are with Humboldt University. My thoughts are

678
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 2: with the people who are arrested, the people who were

679
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 2: forced out of the occupation. As of the recording and

680
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:33,400
Speaker 2: airing of this episode, the occupation at the PSU library

681
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 2: is still in progress, and what will happen there is

682
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:42,760
Speaker 2: less clear. Throughout today Tuesday, the police and city government

683
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 2: have made some pretty aggressive statements about clearing out the

684
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:50,080
Speaker 2: occupation about you know, criminal behavior there being unacceptable about

685
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:54,840
Speaker 2: their suspicion that there's been significant damage done to university property.

686
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 2: For their part, protesters have promised they will not damage

687
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 2: any books. You know, We're going to see what's going

688
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,600
Speaker 2: to actually happen. What is clear to me at this

689
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 2: point is that in the last day or so, the

690
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 2: situation has gone from managed something where the police were

691
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,680
Speaker 2: every now and then clearing out tents and it was

692
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 2: relatively under control, to something so out of control that

693
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 2: it necessitated a late night press conference by the whole

694
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 2: city government. So we will see where everything concludes with

695
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 2: the PSU occupation, if the police come in and carry

696
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,919
Speaker 2: out a raid as was done an Humboldt, or if

697
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 2: the university administration is willing to actually come to the

698
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 2: table and make some of these solid steps towards divesting

699
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 2: the university from companies like Boeing, which is what the

700
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:44,359
Speaker 2: protesters are demanding. All really unclear, but yeah, we will

701
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 2: continue to cover this and you all continue to be

702
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 2: angry about bad things, and yeah, I don't know, I'm

703
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 2: still very tired. Good luck to everybody who is out

704
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 2: there in the streets. Robert Evan, and I wanted to

705
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:05,520
Speaker 2: give an update on Wednesday night. I'm recording this around

706
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,800
Speaker 2: four point forty pm on Wednesday, but a day after

707
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 2: I recorded the original ending to this, some more stuff

708
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 2: has happened. The occupation has continued. You know, on Monday night,

709
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 2: only a small number of people stayed behind. I think

710
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 2: there may be something like a dozen I was told

711
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 2: who actually slept in the library that night. There was

712
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 2: kind of an anticipation that the cops could come at

713
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 2: any minute. The next day, word spread about the occupation

714
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 2: and there were a lot more people in the library

715
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 2: on Tuesday night, and as a result, it seems as

716
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 2: if plans that had initially been down for the police

717
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 2: to rate on Tuesday night were canceled. The Government of

718
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 2: Portland published an article today and I'm going to quote

719
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 2: from it here. The Portland Police Bureau places an emphasis

720
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 2: on de escalation and time is a key de escalation

721
00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 2: tactic that we use whenever possible. That has not been

722
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 2: my experience with them. If police action can be delayed

723
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:00,400
Speaker 2: to a time when conditions are safer, we will do so.

724
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 2: An example of this occurred Tuesday evening. A plan was

725
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:06,400
Speaker 2: in place to resolve the library incident. However, conditions changed

726
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 2: and the incident commander made the decision to delay for

727
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:11,279
Speaker 2: the well being of all concerned. My guess is that

728
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 2: the conditions that changed largely were how many people were

729
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 2: on the ground, as well as the fact that they

730
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 2: didn't feel comfortable with their understanding of how much access

731
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 2: students had gotten. You know, they didn't have a full

732
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 2: operational plan involved. The police publication notes that there was

733
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:29,399
Speaker 2: a rumor circulated that the planned operation was scuttled due

734
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 2: to a decision made by the DA's office. This is

735
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 2: because the current District Attorney, Mike Schmidt, is considered a progressive.

736
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,879
Speaker 2: He made a decision not to prosecute all of the

737
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 2: acts that he could have prosecuted in twenty twenty and

738
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 2: has been kind of consistently attacked by the police and

739
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 2: by conservatives in the city for this decision ever since.

740
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 2: Schmidt did prosecute quite a few people in twenty twenty

741
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:54,400
Speaker 2: and beyond, and his from the beginning of all of

742
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 2: this said that his office will prosecute students and anyone

743
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 2: else involved with the occupation. I think this is just

744
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 2: election you're messaging by the police going after Schmidt because

745
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 2: they want more of a hardliner in. In either case,

746
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 2: nothing was done Tuesday. The occupation continued to spread on

747
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 2: Tuesday night. Students had a movie night. On Wednesday night.

748
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:19,839
Speaker 2: As I basically, as I record this, there's a barbecue

749
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 2: and a lot of this is occurring kind of outside

750
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:25,239
Speaker 2: of the library and like the law and area around it.

751
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 2: The idea basically being to keep numbers up in and

752
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 2: around the library occupation to make it more politically costly

753
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 2: and just harder for the police to actually force everyone out.

754
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,760
Speaker 2: While all this has been going on, faculty and student

755
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 2: organizers have been meeting with the president of the university.

756
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 2: Students refused initially to come to a negotiating table unless

757
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 2: the demand their demands for full amnesty were guaranteed for

758
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:53,759
Speaker 2: students and non students who were taking part in the occupation.

759
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 2: This is something when I talked to folks on Monday night,

760
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:00,800
Speaker 2: the focus was on There was some time talk of amnesty,

761
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:02,560
Speaker 2: but a lot of the primary thing I was told

762
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:04,760
Speaker 2: about was that the school needed to divest from Boeing

763
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:08,840
Speaker 2: and other arms manufacturers. The demand for amnesty has grown

764
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 2: as the occupation has become more of a real thing,

765
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 2: which it had started to be by the end of

766
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 2: my time there. On Monday, there was some initial talk

767
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:19,640
Speaker 2: from the university president that she was willing to not

768
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 2: press charges if the students who were involved agreed not

769
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:25,839
Speaker 2: to violate the student Code of Conduct for the rest

770
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,759
Speaker 2: of their time at the university and basically handed all

771
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 2: of their names over to the university. That was not

772
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 2: an agreement that wound up coming through, very similar to

773
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:37,359
Speaker 2: what we saw at Humboldt right where you've got this

774
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,480
Speaker 2: the school being like, well, we'll offer some sort of amnesty,

775
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 2: even though we can't really promise full amnesty because the

776
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 2: DA can choose to prosecute people still, but if you

777
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 2: sign your name up on this list that you were

778
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 2: here in committing crimes, will kind of try to do

779
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 2: something that did not wind up de escalating the situation.

780
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 2: And as I record this, the library at PSU is

781
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 2: still occupied by students. We'll see how all of this goes.

782
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 2: You know, I've heard a number of things from inside

783
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:09,479
Speaker 2: the occupation. It's kind of one of those things where

784
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,400
Speaker 2: the full details of what's happening will shake out. It's been,

785
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 2: as these things always are a little bit messy. The

786
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:17,480
Speaker 2: first night I was there, and up through you know,

787
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,560
Speaker 2: a sizable chunk of Tuesday. You can find articles from

788
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 2: media who showed up saying that protesters wouldn't let them in.

789
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 2: And then at some point the people at the gates

790
00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 2: so to speak, changed and a number of press got

791
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 2: in and took some pictures of the occupation. You can

792
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 2: find those online. There's a lot of local reporters koyn

793
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 2: and whatnot who have published different things about the occupation.

794
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 2: It's been interesting to see like the reactions of different

795
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 2: reporters because they change based on like the kind of

796
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:47,879
Speaker 2: the reporter who's there, and kind of I think, how

797
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,399
Speaker 2: personable they are with people and the folks that they

798
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 2: wind up meeting. So you'll you'll find some local reporters

799
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:55,800
Speaker 2: being like everyone was really nice, and some local reporters

800
00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:58,600
Speaker 2: being like everybody was really mean. They wouldn't let me in,

801
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:02,319
Speaker 2: And it's you know, these are not uncommon things to

802
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 2: encounter when you're seeing press interact with a protest like this.

803
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 2: One of the things I do find interesting that has

804
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 2: been emphasized to me by some of the older protesters

805
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 2: who have been taking part in aspects of this occupation

806
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 2: is that the student protesters who are organizing and leading this,

807
00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 2: who are of course younger and we're too young to

808
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 2: have generally been involved in like twenty twenty stuff, are

809
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,840
Speaker 2: really open minded, you know, despite kind of political disagreements

810
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,560
Speaker 2: that may exist between people, there's this understanding that like

811
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 2: folks are a lot less ossified and their beliefs about

812
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 2: what constitutes valid action and what constitutes, you know, how

813
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 2: people should proceed with things like generally. That has been

814
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 2: impressed upon me by some of the older activists is

815
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,840
Speaker 2: that these younger student organizers seem much more open minded

816
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:53,480
Speaker 2: and optimistic about accomplishing things and trying new things. And

817
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 2: this is definitely a different kind of occupation Portland has seen.

818
00:46:57,719 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 2: I noticed some of that on the first night earlier

819
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 2: in their core I made that comment about how I

820
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:05,040
Speaker 2: noticed that people were out kind of taking petitions and

821
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 2: whatnot for different bills, taking advantage of the fact that

822
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,240
Speaker 2: there was a crowd who had gathered for the protest,

823
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:12,840
Speaker 2: and that in the past I had seen folks like

824
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:16,279
Speaker 2: that have issue with members of the crowd and I

825
00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:19,239
Speaker 2: didn't really notice that this time. And I guess maybe

826
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:21,319
Speaker 2: that comes down to some of what some of these

827
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:23,839
Speaker 2: older activists have told me, which is that a lot

828
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 2: of the student organizers here are kind of less set

829
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:29,200
Speaker 2: in some of their ways.

830
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 4: You know.

831
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:33,040
Speaker 2: We we'll see as this all continues to develop. There's

832
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 2: a very good chance that by the time you hear

833
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 2: this episode by Thursday morning, the police will have raided.

834
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 2: That's definitely been happening all around the country. You know,

835
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 2: as we have researched and recorded these episodes, there have

836
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 2: been police crackdowns at Columbia University, at UC San Diego,

837
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 2: at UCLA. We've seen, you know, a lot of pretty

838
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:57,640
Speaker 2: hideous things on the news in regards to these student occupations.

839
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,520
Speaker 2: And there's a very good chance that Lynd will have

840
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 2: joined that parade of ugly videos by the time this

841
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 2: comes up. But as I record this, there's a barbecue

842
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,279
Speaker 2: going on, and I hope that will be the case

843
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:14,800
Speaker 2: tomorrow as well. Bye.

844
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:19,320
Speaker 1: It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

845
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,200
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

846
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:25,359
Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

847
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,560
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can

848
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:31,319
Speaker 1: find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at

849
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,560
Speaker 1: Coolzonemedia dot com slash sources thanks for listening.