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Speaker 1: Business declared Riley Broom Groom broken out windows of vultable

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Speaker 1: businesses in alloy in district members and also drawn projectile

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Speaker 1: to believe must impiately leave the area bail You're to

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Speaker 1: adhere to this order MA subtrict due to a roust,

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Speaker 1: citation or crowd control agents, including but not limited to

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Speaker 1: tread and or impact weapon, leave the area immediately. A

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Speaker 1: phrase you'll hear thrown around often at Portland protests is

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Speaker 1: diversity of tactics. It's a civil revolt organizing principle that

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Speaker 1: dates back to at least around the nineteen sixties and

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Speaker 1: was popularized by people like Malcolm X. Diversity of tactics

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Speaker 1: emphasizes making periodic use of force for defensive or disruptive purposes,

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Speaker 1: stepping beyond the limits of non violence, but also stopping

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Speaker 1: short of militarization. It's about promoting solidarity between those who

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Speaker 1: practice peaceful protests and those who are more militant. As

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Speaker 1: Malcolm X put it, our people have made the mistake

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Speaker 1: of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as

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Speaker 1: we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with

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Speaker 1: each other just because we believe in different methods or

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Speaker 1: tactics or strategy to reach a common goal, Taking their

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Speaker 1: cues from Malcolm X. Younger and more militant Black liberation

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Speaker 1: activists increasingly supported this approach, with Gloria Richardson of the

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Speaker 1: Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee declaring in nineteen sixty four

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Speaker 1: that the federal government would only be compelled to intervene

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Speaker 1: on behalf of integration only when matters approached the level

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Speaker 1: of insurrection. While support for a diversity of tactics was

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Speaker 1: foundational to struggles throughout the later half of the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: the phrase itself was popularized by the protests against the

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Speaker 1: Republican National Convention and Saint Paul Minnesota. In two thousand eight,

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Speaker 1: a broad coalition of labor, anti war, anti globalization, liberal

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Speaker 1: and leftist groups drafted the Saint Paul Principles, which read

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Speaker 1: as follows. Number one, our solidarity will be based on

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Speaker 1: respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of

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Speaker 1: other groups. Number two. The actions and tactics used will

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Speaker 1: be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.

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Speaker 1: Number Three. Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to

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Speaker 1: the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow

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Speaker 1: activists and events. And number four, we oppose any state

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Speaker 1: repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption, and violence. We

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Speaker 1: agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others.

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Speaker 1: The principles were a rough compromise, the common ground that

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Speaker 1: most of the ten thousand protesters who gathered in the

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Speaker 1: Twin Cities to face down heavily militarized police could agree to.

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Speaker 1: Twelve years later, spurred on by the murder of George

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Speaker 1: Floyd in Minneapolis, the national Uprising of would grapple with

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Speaker 1: those same debates over acceptable and useful tactics. They would

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Speaker 1: find no easy answers. Here's Garrison in Portland. There has

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Speaker 1: been even further distinction between peaceful protests i long preplanned

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Speaker 1: marches with speeches and no property damage, and non violent

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Speaker 1: protests where people aren't physically harmed but protesters do engage

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Speaker 1: in property destruction for various reasons. It's often said when

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Speaker 1: these different types of protests can happen simultaneously, both a big,

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Speaker 1: more liberal one and a smaller radical one, that's when

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Speaker 1: you can get the most reforms. As the Wilife explains here.

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Speaker 1: Note the audio is re dubbed. I do think that's important,

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Speaker 1: Like if if we have to work inside the system

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Speaker 1: and are not able to outright destroy it, that is

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Speaker 1: definitely an important aspect because it gives it basically gives

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Speaker 1: the people in charge in this case, will say Ted Wheeler,

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Speaker 1: there are two options you can go with in his mind,

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Speaker 1: the violent rioters wanting to destroy everything, or you can

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Speaker 1: go with the with the peaceful ones. He's left with

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Speaker 1: two options, and he's always going to take like the

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Speaker 1: peaceful liberal marches. And at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: it's not nothing because they're still out there, demand of

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Speaker 1: school resource officers out of schools, the gang Task Force gone,

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Speaker 1: and so it basically makes them choose. And I guess

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Speaker 1: if we're working in the system, any progress is good.

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Speaker 1: Despite police and the media's insistence, vandalism and violence are

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Speaker 1: not the same thing, but there still is a public

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Speaker 1: perception that anarchists, protesters, and rioters are quote destroying the

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Speaker 1: city unquote. Tristan notes how violence and vandalism are misconstruted

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Speaker 1: and exaggerated in press coverage. I think the kind of

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Speaker 1: the most damaging thing or like the worst kind of

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Speaker 1: counter um like narrative is basically just around the like

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Speaker 1: vandalism that goes on and like uh really kind of

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Speaker 1: blowing that out of proportion and and and trying to

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Speaker 1: act like that is going to uh like you know, ok,

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Speaker 1: it's distracted, Like there's this you know, narrative going around

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Speaker 1: that that's like distracting from the real purpose of the

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Speaker 1: move man that it's you know, like white anarchists like

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Speaker 1: trying to take the the attention away from like black

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Speaker 1: folks and as usually being pushed like really conservative black people,

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Speaker 1: and like you know, the kind of people who they

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Speaker 1: have a lot of influence with. You know, they'll see

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Speaker 1: like mainstream like in the VCP here in Portland, who

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Speaker 1: has always been tight with the mayor's office, really pushing

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Speaker 1: that narrative hard, and lots of other folks you know,

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Speaker 1: coming up to back them up. Yeah. So I guess

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Speaker 1: one thing that I've also seen is that there's this

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Speaker 1: conflation of like you know, they'll say like downtown is

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Speaker 1: deserted because of these protests because all the violence, but

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Speaker 1: downtown is deserted because of the pandemic and also despite

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Speaker 1: the plague and a record number of businesses shutting down

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Speaker 1: due to COVID downtown Portland is unfortunately quite active at

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Speaker 1: the moment. It is in fact not destroyed nor taking

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Speaker 1: enough appropriate COVID precautions, you know, And that's not like

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Speaker 1: that's like the most disingenuous thing anyone could possibly say.

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Speaker 1: And it's so it seems so patently obvious that it's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, like a red herring, but then people are

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Speaker 1: still like buying into it and to a certain degreer,

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Speaker 1: like echoing that sentiment, and it's just this is not

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Speaker 1: the case. And it's like and there's also this like

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Speaker 1: desire for for them to like they kind of say

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Speaker 1: that it's all white anarchists, but there's no way to

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Speaker 1: that for you to prove that because most of the

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Speaker 1: people who are doing this show are all blocked up.

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Speaker 1: And it's like so there's also this like kind of

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Speaker 1: subtext that they what they really want for these people,

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Speaker 1: They want to know who these people are, you know,

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Speaker 1: partially to like like you know, gratify themselves are trying

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Speaker 1: to be right, but also just so the fucking cops

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Speaker 1: from now them. You know. It's like it's like undercurrent

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Speaker 1: of like respectability, like if you know, they really cared,

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Speaker 1: they would like show their faces or something like that,

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Speaker 1: like I don't know. The vast majority of Portland protesters

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Speaker 1: do not partake in any political violence or even vandalism,

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Speaker 1: even at the riots that end in destruction and violence.

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Speaker 1: At almost every one of these protests, physical violence is

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Speaker 1: started and further escalated by law enforcement. Entire crowds get

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Speaker 1: punished for the actions of a few individuals. The more

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Speaker 1: rare alternative to this is quote unquote targeted arrests, that,

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Speaker 1: despite its name, are often not actually targeted at specific

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Speaker 1: individuals and instead just end up targeting people wearing black

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Speaker 1: clothes and those that don't run away fast enough from

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Speaker 1: riot cops. The people arrested in these targeted arrests often

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Speaker 1: get charged with a mix of small misdemeanors and sometimes

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Speaker 1: agregious felonies, most of which end up getting dropped due

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Speaker 1: to lack of evidence. When the arrests are specifically targeted,

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Speaker 1: it's usually for such quote unquote crimes as standing and

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Speaker 1: protesting on the driveway of the Ice building at one am.

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Speaker 1: The validity of property destruction has faced a lot of

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Speaker 1: criticism from pundance, politicians and even many protesters. For the

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Speaker 1: summer of twenty there was actually very little property destruction

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Speaker 1: save for the first riot night, as people were mostly

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Speaker 1: trying to repeat the occupy the areas around boarded up

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Speaker 1: police buildings. But as the summer turned into fall and

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Speaker 1: tactics evolved alongside the smaller crowd sizes, broken windows became

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Speaker 1: more common. Critics say that it is not strategic because

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Speaker 1: it does not help grow the movement, gain public support,

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Speaker 1: or by itself be enough pressure for instituting change. That

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Speaker 1: much is arguably true, but that assumes those were the

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Speaker 1: goals of the action in the first place, which is

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Speaker 1: usually not true. In a recent interview, local political consultant

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Speaker 1: and former activist Gregory McKelvey said this about the purpose

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Speaker 1: of vandalism such as breaking windows. Quote, Honestly, I think

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Speaker 1: in some cases the goal has been explicitly revenge for

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Speaker 1: night after night of tear gas beatings, disparate policing and

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Speaker 1: PPBS protection of the ice detention centers. However, again, we

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Speaker 1: must put ourselves in the minds as someone who probably

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Speaker 1: rightfully believes the world is ending, or at a minimum

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Speaker 1: is on the brink of being unrecognizable with incredible amounts

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Speaker 1: of death, pain, and climate chaos. If the world is ending,

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Speaker 1: some people are going to act like it. It's amazing

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Speaker 1: to me that liberal Democrats really do believe that we

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Speaker 1: are on the brink of something like armageddon and then

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Speaker 1: are shocked that some people behave like it. What did

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Speaker 1: you picture armageddon to look like? Public testimony unquote vandalism

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Speaker 1: like graffitia, breaking windows also serves as a demanding of attention,

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Speaker 1: while also symbolizing a direct attack on racism, class divides, capitalism,

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Speaker 1: or this datus quote itself. For years, people have tried

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Speaker 1: just asking nicely. Over the summer here in Portland, there

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Speaker 1: were thousands of people peacefully demanding a fifty million dollar

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Speaker 1: budget cut from p PPS two hundred and forty five

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Speaker 1: million dollar budget to then reinvesting community services. The minus

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Speaker 1: fifty million would bring the police budget down closer to

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Speaker 1: their twenty sixteen budget of only a hundred and ninety million.

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Speaker 1: Other demands include wholly abolishing and replacing the Portland Police Bureau,

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Speaker 1: dropping all charges for civil rights protesters, and that Mayor

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Speaker 1: Ted Wheeler resigned with none of those demands meant, and

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Speaker 1: politicians all but ignoring the peaceful demonstrations. People are angry,

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Speaker 1: so windows get broken, and this seems to be the

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Speaker 1: only thing that gets attention anymore and keeps the dialogue

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Speaker 1: about police violence active. Here's Tristan again. That's like I said,

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Speaker 1: I definitely feel like that kind of like vandalism should

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Speaker 1: be engaged with and like, uh, let's say a productive

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Speaker 1: kind of way. I don't necessarily think it's wrong, but

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Speaker 1: if it if you can't see, yeah, this is this

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Speaker 1: is a hard depart because I mean, it's totally valid

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Speaker 1: to be able to speak madness smash it. And I

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Speaker 1: guess in terms of like small businesses, um, I mean,

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Speaker 1: well I guess, okay, so one way that it's if

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Speaker 1: I think fully justified even if it is like a

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Speaker 1: small business, if they're like cop friendly, if they're like

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Speaker 1: cop adjacent, and like if they got like a Blue

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Speaker 1: Lives matter of fighting the window, like gloves off, I

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Speaker 1: don't give a ship. But you know, if it's just

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Speaker 1: like a random business, like probably don't you know, because

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Speaker 1: I mean, the cops are gonna they're gonna come at

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Speaker 1: you anyway, you know, whether you like break a window

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Speaker 1: or like you know, burn a cop car, right, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna arrest you. And they're probably arrest you even if

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Speaker 1: you don't do that. And so it's really just a

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Speaker 1: matter of like, which of those two acts is actually

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Speaker 1: going to like materially deprived the police of the ability

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Speaker 1: need commit for Here's another quote from Gregory in his

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Speaker 1: recent interview at the will Emit Week quote for generations

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Speaker 1: like mine and the one after. Gregory is in his

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Speaker 1: late twenties. By the way, we have been told our

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Speaker 1: entire lives that the world is about to end if

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Speaker 1: nothing is done immediately, and that all of the evils

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Speaker 1: of our world, climate, chaos, racism, the ills of capitalism,

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Speaker 1: and more are all inexplicably linked. In my mind and

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Speaker 1: in the minds of protesters, these things are objectively true.

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Speaker 1: So if the young person has told the world is

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Speaker 1: ending and then told to sign up to testify or

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Speaker 1: go vote, that does not meet the urgency of the moment.

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Speaker 1: Destruction is a natural reaction to feeling desperate, helpless, and

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Speaker 1: an imminent doom. The solution to all this would involve

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Speaker 1: actually addressing the legitimate issues that are killing us all

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Speaker 1: with the urgency that's necessary. The politicians who are acting

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Speaker 1: like everything is fine as the world literally burns, or

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Speaker 1: say they care about these issues but don't actually do

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Speaker 1: anything to fundamentally to fix them are only making the

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Speaker 1: problems worse and people's desperation worse. And then when both

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Speaker 1: liberals and conservatives alike make more of a fuss about

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Speaker 1: a broken Starbucks window than the literally hundreds of people

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Speaker 1: beaten and gassed in the streets by the cops afterwards,

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Speaker 1: that only further proves the protesters point. We pro it

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Speaker 1: would be remiss to talk about tactics without mentioning the

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Speaker 1: influence Hong Kong's protests have had on the Portland Uprising

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Speaker 1: and BLM protests in general. The militant protests in Hong

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Speaker 1: Kong sent shock waves across the world months before the

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Speaker 1: COVID pandemic. Hong Kong protesters used tennis, rackets and umbrellas

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Speaker 1: to deflect police projectiles, and traffic cones and water bottles

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Speaker 1: to contain and diffused here gas grenades. All of these

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Speaker 1: tactics were adapted at various points throughout the Portland protests.

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Speaker 1: At a PPB press conference back in July, the Deputy

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Speaker 1: Chief featured an infographic describing the different rules protesters took

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Speaker 1: up in the Hong Kong uprising. P PB also tweeted

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Speaker 1: out the graphs saying, quote, we have seen all of

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Speaker 1: this demonstrations in Portland, unquote knowingly or unknowingly, the PPB

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Speaker 1: had aligned themselves with the Hong Kong police and their

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Speaker 1: crackdown on the Hong Kong protests, arguably the most widely

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Speaker 1: accepted and praise protest movement of the last decade prior

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Speaker 1: to the George Floyd protests. Here's Deputy Chief Chris Davis

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Speaker 1: introducing the graphic at his July eight press conference. So

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Speaker 1: now I want to talk just a little bit about

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Speaker 1: some of the in in broader terms, some of the

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Speaker 1: tactics that we're saying. We'll make this available as a

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Speaker 1: PDF for you. This is not sacred information here. This

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Speaker 1: we got this off the internet. Um, this picture popped

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Speaker 1: up a lot on social media and on the internet

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Speaker 1: right as events began. I'm not sure exactly what the

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Speaker 1: origin of this is. We're still working on trying to

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Speaker 1: figure this out. But this is not our diagram. We

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Speaker 1: got this off of off of the internet. The graphic

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Speaker 1: that he showed was originally based on the Hong Kong

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Speaker 1: protests and designed to assist protesters. It outlines the anatomy

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Speaker 1: of a typical protest laying out the different protest rules

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Speaker 1: that people can take on to achieve their goals. It's

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Speaker 1: important to note that one person doesn't need to be

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Speaker 1: stuck with a single purpose for one day. The rules

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Speaker 1: people take up and the actions they do can be

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Speaker 1: semi fluid. The graphic gave each of these rules kind

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Speaker 1: of silly names and well designed based on a different struggle.

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Speaker 1: Each of these rules was represented in some form in Portland. First,

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Speaker 1: our support rules that people can do from home if

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Speaker 1: they are unable to attend in person. These include graphic

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Speaker 1: designers who make posters, banners, and infographics, and people who

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Speaker 1: work online comms listening to police scanners and signaled usting

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Speaker 1: information about police activity and location from on the ground

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Speaker 1: sources and then distributing the information via apps like Telegram,

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Speaker 1: Signal and Twitter. Moving on to at the actual protest

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Speaker 1: in the back, barricaders people who build barricades out of

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Speaker 1: usually found objects. In Portland, we've seen these have two

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Speaker 1: main purposes. One to help prevent vehicular attacks on the

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Speaker 1: crowd and too quickly erect obstacles as police are chasing

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Speaker 1: the crowd to hopefully slow the police down. Up Next,

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Speaker 1: medics and people who help with tear gas or pepper

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Speaker 1: spray exposure. Medics all have different skill ranges, and in

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Speaker 1: Portland have had to deal with minor medical issues like

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Speaker 1: tear gas, but also broken bones, head trauma, seizures, and

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Speaker 1: gunshot wounds. They often stay towards the back of a

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Speaker 1: protest to both have a safe place for treatment and

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Speaker 1: in cases where an ambiliance has to be called in

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Speaker 1: closer to the middle. We have people that were playfully

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Speaker 1: referred to in the Hong Kong graphic as fire squads

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Speaker 1: and range soldiers. Fire squads are protesters who used water

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Speaker 1: and traffic cones to suppress and extinguished tear gas canisters.

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Speaker 1: Portland police even began collecting and confiscating city traffic cones

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Speaker 1: so that they wouldn't be used this way. Another anti

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Speaker 1: tier gas measure we've seen is simply heat resistant gloves

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Speaker 1: used to chuck tear gas back at cops or away

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Speaker 1: from crowds. Hockey sticks and lacrosse sticks have also been

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Speaker 1: used to relocate tear gas canisters. During the Fed War,

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Speaker 1: this group also came to include people with leafblowers who

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Speaker 1: did a really good job at keeping gas at bay.

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Speaker 1: Range soldiers are protesters who throw water bottles, paint, balloons,

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Speaker 1: and other random trash to help inhibit police from advancing

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Speaker 1: beside them are light mages and fire mages. Light mages

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Speaker 1: use lasers and flashlights to obstruct surveillance cameras, drones, and

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Speaker 1: stop police from being able to aim and identify protesters.

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Speaker 1: While effective when used in the large numbers seen in

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Speaker 1: the Hong Kong protests, isolated lasers did very little to

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Speaker 1: obscure cameras or disrupt police surveillance, although the FEDS and

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Speaker 1: PPB officers did report some ice strain due to the

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Speaker 1: laser targeting. Portland police have even described being quote unquote

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Speaker 1: struck with objects including lasers. For example here in this

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Speaker 1: audio courtesy of local street reporter Jasper Florence, jets, models,

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Speaker 1: borders and lasers. These objects are hard and traveling at

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Speaker 1: high rates of speed. With these strike officers inter believed

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Speaker 1: to be coming up shots. Fire mages are protesters who

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Speaker 1: are prepared to set fires. Often these are two barricades

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Speaker 1: and dumpsters. Although Portland's months of protests saw extensive use

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Speaker 1: of fireworks and at least four molotov cocktails, half of

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Speaker 1: which actually hit fellow protesters, Thankfully, no one was permanently

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Speaker 1: injured by Molotov's in Portland during now closer to the

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Speaker 1: front piece the protesters who make up the bulk of

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Speaker 1: any marcher action and could also include people who don't

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Speaker 1: want to fight but join hand in hand with the

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Speaker 1: front liners and conservist human shields. During the fight with

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Speaker 1: the federal forces, thousands of Portlanders made up of the

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Speaker 1: peaceful crowds, while the Wall of Moms acted as a frontline,

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Speaker 1: often protecting people who were throwing tear gas canisters back

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Speaker 1: at the Feds. Another role showcased on the graphic is

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Speaker 1: what's referred to as a flag bearer. Their job is

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Speaker 1: to signal and warn when riot police are approaching. In

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Speaker 1: Hong Kong this was done via flags and signs, and

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Speaker 1: in Portland this was done by someone with a sports whistle. Then,

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Speaker 1: of course we have front liners people up at the front,

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Speaker 1: some ready to take various direct action and others with

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Speaker 1: umbrellas to guard against projectiles and cameras. And then at

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Speaker 1: the very front, shield soldiers or shield bearers with shields

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Speaker 1: made out of foam would or sometimes umbrellas. In July,

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Speaker 1: Portland got pretty famous for its shield wall. But like

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Speaker 1: everything else, needs to be a tactic that's carefully applied

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Speaker 1: under certain conditions, or it can actually be a hindrance.

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Speaker 1: In theory, shield walls serve two main purposes to deflect

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Speaker 1: against projectiles and offer a first line of defense from

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Speaker 1: charging enemies or people attacking with batons. Shields are effective

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Speaker 1: at stop immunition fire, but when facing bullrushes, shields are

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Speaker 1: grabbed by police and used to gain leverage on protesters

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Speaker 1: to push them onto the ground or destabilize them so

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Speaker 1: they can be attacked and arrested. One element of a

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Speaker 1: truly effective shield wall, whether you're advancing or simply holding

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Speaker 1: your ground, is people behind the shield wall throwing projectiles,

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Speaker 1: because often merely a shield wall alone isn't enough to

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Speaker 1: deter people, which is why when law enforcement brings out

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Speaker 1: their shields, they also have people behind them shooting grenades

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Speaker 1: to your gas at pepper balls. Another advantage of the

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Speaker 1: shield wall projectile combo is that shields can be used

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Speaker 1: to visually obstruct the police from seeing who is throwing objects,

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Speaker 1: making them targeted arrests more difficult. But you better be

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Speaker 1: confident in your throw or you might hit your friends.

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Speaker 1: Although even having a shield in the first place makes

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Speaker 1: you more of a target for arrests, and if you

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Speaker 1: touch an officer with your shield, let's say, by an

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Speaker 1: officer charging directly at you at full speed, you can

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Speaker 1: get charged with assaulting a police officer. Probably the most

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Speaker 1: effective shield wall we've seen in Portland was not used

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Speaker 1: against the PPB or the Feds, but the Proud Boys

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Speaker 1: and other street fascists. On August two, all these different

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Speaker 1: elements came together in a rare instance, a strong, tight,

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Speaker 1: interlocking network of shields with support from behind, enough to

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Speaker 1: stop incoming attackers and folks behind the wall throwing rocks,

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Speaker 1: water bottles, and fireworks. Altogether, it was enough to break

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Speaker 1: the far rights more disorganized and individualistic shield wall. And also,

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Speaker 1: of course, the Proud Boys don't have arresting powers, so

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Speaker 1: people are more free to push back with their shields.

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Speaker 1: Other consideration for shields depend on what your objective is

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Speaker 1: and what tactics do you use to achieve that objective.

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Speaker 1: In the fall, as crowds thinned and protests began to

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Speaker 1: move faster, the large, bulky shields were largely abandoned by

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Speaker 1: some protesters in favor of umbrellas. Shields can be heavy

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Speaker 1: and awkward to move with. Plus there's getting the shield

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Speaker 1: to the action, carrying it around, and then figuring out

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Speaker 1: what you want to do with it afterwards. These are

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Speaker 1: all added considerations, particularly if you want to leave a

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Speaker 1: protest more covertly. As great as it may be to

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Speaker 1: have a wooden, foam or plastic shield in the moment

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Speaker 1: as you're deflecting grenades or pushing off someone, it may

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Speaker 1: not be worth all those extra tradeoffs, especially if an

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Speaker 1: umbrella can suffice in your immunitions shielding needs. Umbrellas are

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Speaker 1: more of a multi use tool that can adapt to

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Speaker 1: different situations and even be concealable, especially collapsible ones. While

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Speaker 1: not as sturdy as a shield, umbrellas are generally less

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Speaker 1: suspicious than huge wooden shields. A reinforced banner can also

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Speaker 1: provide some protection from unitions while also sending out a message. However,

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Speaker 1: some places have legal restrictions on what banners can be

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Speaker 1: made of. Throughout the summer, nightly actions focused on direct confrontation,

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Speaker 1: with police often returning to repeatedly confront the same riot line.

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Speaker 1: By August, while protest tactics remained largely unchanged, the Portland

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Speaker 1: police tactics began to change PPB alternated between knights of

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Speaker 1: brutal bul rushes and physical violence with only few arrests,

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Speaker 1: and other knights where they conducted mass arrests of entire crowds.

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Speaker 1: There are By fall, smaller crowd sizes and less frequent

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Speaker 1: actions required protesters to change up tactics as well. Repeated

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Speaker 1: direct confrontation with riot lines was in many ways a

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Speaker 1: habit picked up from the days of mass mobilization at

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Speaker 1: the fence, and such confrontations took arrests for granted. Protesters

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Speaker 1: were being treated as disposable. When Portland had been the

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Speaker 1: focus of national news, facing down police lines reliably generated

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Speaker 1: front page coverage of police brutality, But by early fall

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Speaker 1: Portland was no longer the focus of attention, and over

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Speaker 1: time the shock and awe of footage showcasing police brutality

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00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: wears off, even as people keep getting hurt. By October,

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Speaker 1: nighttime actions began to involve smaller crowds of people on

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Speaker 1: Black Block smashing the windows of banks, real estate firms,

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Speaker 1: and Starbucks coffee shops and then attempting to vanish into

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Speaker 1: the night. These actions raised familiar objections from the more

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Speaker 1: moderate sectors of the movement. And fit the right wing

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Speaker 1: narrative of the destructive antifa boogeyman. But as we touched

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Speaker 1: on earlier, these actions were not to gain good optics,

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Speaker 1: but instead to vent frustration that the previous demands for

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Speaker 1: change had not been met and to create an economic

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00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 1: cost for the city in maintaining the status quo. These

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Speaker 1: marches echoed the black block snake marches of the nineties

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Speaker 1: anti globalization movement, and to a lesser extent, the b

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Speaker 1: water mantra of the Hong Kong protests. Though in Hong

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Speaker 1: Kong crowds routinely targeted civil infrastructure, this shift in tactics

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00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: resulted in less arrests on average. The smaller crowd size

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00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,159
Speaker 1: made the diverse rules the larger demonstrations impossible, and the

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Speaker 1: prevalence of vandalism meant that those who were arrested could

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Speaker 1: face some harsher charges. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has admitted

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Speaker 1: to the difficulty of combating such attack and disappear actions, saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: they pop up wearing black from head to toe, They

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Speaker 1: go down streets relatively quickly, then they disappear into the wind.

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Speaker 1: Those tactics have evolved to agree where we now find

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Speaker 1: the law enforcement tools we have in place are dated.

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Speaker 1: Since the summer of seventeen, the image of black clad

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Speaker 1: Antifa militants has loomed large in the nation's imagination. The garb,

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00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 1: which Wheeler describes as black from head to toe, is

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00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: of course black. Block counter surveillance tactic, which originated in

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Speaker 1: Europe in the nineteen eighties and was first popularized in

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Speaker 1: the United States during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Traditionally,

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Speaker 1: block serves to protect the identity of individuals involved in

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00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,120
Speaker 1: militant action, and people in block provide a defensive front

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00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 1: line in larger protests, specifically in confrontations with police and

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00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: the far right. Theoretically, blocks should make it difficult to

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Speaker 1: identify a wars gender, race, and age. This has led

431
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:07,200
Speaker 1: to activists and block being glossed over as young white anarchists,

432
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 1: which Costa takes issues with people keep hearing that and

433
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 1: believing in it does kiss off some people of color

434
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: to hear that, but it's not true. There are there's

435
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 1: plenty of people of color that are in block, and

436
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,879
Speaker 1: there's plenty of people in color. I would say the

437
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: only people that are the main people that whose ideas

438
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: are listened to are people of color. Given the prevalence

439
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 1: of both CCTV and phone cameras in protest settings, even

440
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: the small details can be uniquely identifying. At a Seattle made,

441
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 1: a action in one activist was ultimately identified by his shoes.

442
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 1: As such, modern block often includes removing logos and other

443
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,120
Speaker 1: recognizable elements from clothing. This also means that moral patches

444
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: or more tactical looking gear can also be used to

445
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 1: identify the wear. Block is a tactic, not an organization,

446
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: uniform or identity. Here's an indigenous participant in the Wall

447
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: of Moms describing how she shifted from black block as

448
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 1: the protests continued. Yeah, I show up in block. I

449
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: just like started just I just went out with like

450
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:14,719
Speaker 1: a shirt and a yellow shirt and some like black pants.

451
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 1: And now I'm like cool block, like with everything. I

452
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: have a bulletproof stuff I was provided to me. Um. Yeah, so,

453
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 1: and transition has been crazy just a small amount of

454
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 1: lens yeah so. Um It's just I'm really big on

455
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 1: being autonomous, um and not really having any leaders or

456
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: things like that, and um, as I just want to

457
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: be another face in the crowd. I don't and I

458
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: don't I want to be unrecognizable. UM, so I think

459
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: that like that's by block block is so important, and

460
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: also don't want to be targeted UM, and I want

461
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 1: to be able to like protect other people around me.

462
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 1: It's my responsibility to make sure that, UM, I am

463
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: unrecognizable to like my other protesters and my friends, because

464
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: if something happens to me, um, you know, one wrong

465
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: move or getting docks or something like that can really

466
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: affect everyone around me. So that's why it was really

467
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: important for me to kind of transition into a block block. UM.

468
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: I've just been seeing so many of my friends and

469
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 1: comrades just kind of like getting docs, um, just being

470
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: recognized by like small things, even if they're in block blox.

471
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: So UM, it's just it's I just feel like it's

472
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 1: my responsibility. If I'm going to be out there, then

473
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: I need to be um like unnoticeable or unrecognizable. For

474
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: obvious reasons, block is only protective in groups and draws

475
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 1: the attention of law enforce mint. Another aspect of wearing

476
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: block is bringing extra clothes and figuring out when and

477
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: where you should take off your black block or d block,

478
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: as you probably don't want to get snatched up and

479
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: arrested while leaving. In action in Portland on January one,

480
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: people were arrested on a sidewalk after a protest many

481
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: blocks away just because they were still wearing black block

482
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: and in doing so much the supposed description of people

483
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: who vandalized a building I also wearing black clothes. Lots

484
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: of people actually wear normal clothes under their block, making

485
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: d blocking a little easier, but people still need to

486
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: choose a time and discrete place to take off their

487
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: black outer garments. Besides shields, umbrellas and block, the other

488
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: gear people have acquired and brought to the protests also

489
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 1: helped set Portland apart. James from Portland Action Medics describes

490
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: how the gear their organization provided mirror the evolution of

491
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: the movement. The summer got really really wild and um,

492
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: you know, first we we we had respirators, some of

493
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: us who are more seasoned protestmetics. Um, but they weren't

494
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: widely used because the thing about tear gases, like if

495
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: there's just a little bit of it, you can just

496
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: walk away and like it will burn your eyes, but

497
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: like if you just go down wind or upwind, but

498
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: it's fine most of the time. But that's not true

499
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: if they're using extraordinary quantities of it such that entire

500
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: parks are just full of gas. Right. UM. So we

501
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: went from the situation where UM, respirators were kind of

502
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: this niche like gear head thing to an absolute necessity,

503
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: basically overnight. UM. And then we learned a lot about

504
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 1: what kind of cartridges filter out COVID versus what kind

505
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: of cartridges filter out tear gas, and how to combine

506
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 1: them with each other. And then we were like making

507
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: little like tear gas canister snack packs for people that

508
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: are like these sandwich bags contain both together and you

509
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: should just plug them right in. We preassembled them for you.

510
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 1: Here's your gas mask. And then I was like, well,

511
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: what if we get full face gas masks that have

512
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: included ice shields. Um, that should probably happen because we're

513
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: in a pandemic. Portland Action Metics and others distributed hundreds

514
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: of respirators and began using three D printers to make

515
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: gas masks inserts for eyeglasses, as glasses are notoriously incompatible

516
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: with full face masks. As police violence continued and violence

517
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: from the far right escalated, James says, additional gear became necessary.

518
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,719
Speaker 1: I think it has mostly been in response to um

519
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 1: far right fighters coming into Portland that we have really

520
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: been um a lot more worried about gunshots intentionally being

521
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: fired at people, potentially in a mass way. Um. You know,

522
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 1: like all police come with guns and so that's always

523
00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: a possibility. But like we have yet. We saw some

524
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: brandnshing of firearms at people from the Feds over the summer,

525
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 1: but we have yet to my knowledge to see police

526
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: fire live rounds on protesters. Um. But the far right

527
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: like constantly run the round of the internet saying they're

528
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 1: going to shoot us just every day. And so you know,

529
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: depending on how seriously take um, it's reasonable to prepare

530
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: for sutras thing and so um, especially over the summer

531
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: as the rhetoric from the far right increased in extremeness. UM.

532
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: Plus the I mean basically, like someone's firing projectiles at

533
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: crowd inscriminately, then it makes sense to wear a helmet NFS,

534
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: regardless of who those people are. UM, And it's hard

535
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 1: to distincue it doesn't matter whether it's a cop or

536
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: a fascist that is not wearing uniform doing that, right. Um.

537
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: So there's that like throughout the summer, or people were

538
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: like I need ballistics. I need heavier ballistics. I need

539
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: a helmet, I need a better helmet. I need goggles.

540
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 1: I need better goggles. I need shadow proof goggles because

541
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 1: we've got seeing people just get really badly fucked up

542
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 1: by projectiles. Um, so there was that. But then yes,

543
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 1: specifically when it comes to gunshot wounds, we did a

544
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 1: lot of preparations, especially binding out to the election, frankly,

545
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:26,320
Speaker 1: because the rhetoric about what people wanted to do was

546
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: really scary, and it's it's always impossible basically to tell

547
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 1: how seriously to take these people. Other necessary gear is

548
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 1: ear protection for flash bangs. This can be little film

549
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: ear plugs or more bulky noise canceling headphones. Air protection

550
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: became very important during the Fed War, as flash banks

551
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,920
Speaker 1: from the Feds are way more powerful and damaging than

552
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:57,719
Speaker 1: the ones Portland police use. Here's Donovan Smith tear gas.

553
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 1: It was used almost every night and the more than

554
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 1: one days of protests in Portland, both by local police

555
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,400
Speaker 1: and then repped up again during the federal occupation. But

556
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: what exactly was this so called gas that was filling

557
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 1: the streets of Portland each night anyways? Well, turns out

558
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,320
Speaker 1: it's a wartime chemical band. By the nine Geneva Convention

559
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,800
Speaker 1: following the First World War, a protocol and nixing the

560
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:27,320
Speaker 1: use of poisonous gases during warfare was adopted, including some

561
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 1: lethal compounds like chlorine and hydrogen gas. And while its

562
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 1: name sounds like something that would make you feel similar

563
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: to cutting up onions at dinner, a deeper look into

564
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: its true effects began to open up a much clearer

565
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 1: picture on why it's been banned as a tool of

566
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 1: warfare for decades. Turns out, tear gas isn't even a

567
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: gas at all. It's sort of a chemical explosion, one

568
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: where a chemical powder gets heated up really quick and

569
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 1: mixed with the solvent and finally released as an aerosaw

570
00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,800
Speaker 1: and waila tear gas. It's sole purpose from there is

571
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 1: to induce pain. Dr Anita Randolph explains its effects here.

572
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,279
Speaker 1: She let a research paper on the effects of tear gas,

573
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: commissioned by Don't Shoot Portland's publish in late June, just

574
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 1: weeks after the uprisings begin. Tear gas is actually a

575
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: solid um, that's why they're packed in that canister um.

576
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: So there's a few chemical reactions that have to happen

577
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 1: to convert it to a gas like substance. So when

578
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 1: you're out there and you're getting tear gas, you know,

579
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: it's kind of like this white mist or white powder everywhere. Um.

580
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 1: And that's because it has to be heated up to

581
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,719
Speaker 1: be able to um be dispersed, right, and then once

582
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,400
Speaker 1: it disperse, you have to zig and then it just

583
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 1: allows it to spread over a larger radius. I think

584
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: in the paper UM, from our research, we showed that

585
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:55,960
Speaker 1: one canister tear gas can reach like a four squared radius,

586
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,879
Speaker 1: which is like a one loop around a track, which

587
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: is law cards right, because once you stretch it out,

588
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: that's a that's a lot of areas that it can cover. Um.

589
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,480
Speaker 1: And it's also like very potent to penetrate glass. Right.

590
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 1: So that's why people were dressing in layers too. Right.

591
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: Even me, I was like, oh man, when I learned that,

592
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 1: I was like dressing in layers, you know, people getting

593
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 1: tear gas or like shedding layers outside because it just

594
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 1: it just goes through and it just wants it's on

595
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:24,919
Speaker 1: your skin, especially when you're sweating and those glands are open.

596
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: It's just very painful. UM. I can honestly say I

597
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 1: don't I don't. I'm not too motivated to get tear gass.

598
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: The pain isn't just exclusive to humans. Similar reactions are

599
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:40,359
Speaker 1: caused in animals too, even causing death at certain levels

600
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 1: of the exposure. A twenty nineteen protests in Hong Kong

601
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,359
Speaker 1: saw a nearby veterinary clinic forced to evacuate all its

602
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 1: feline patients after police began shooting the so called riot

603
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:54,839
Speaker 1: control agents into the crowd of nearby demonstrators. Not all

604
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:57,359
Speaker 1: the cats could be moved in time, though in one case,

605
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 1: an eighteen month year old cat reportedly began clawing at

606
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: its eyes after inhaling the gas. While there's little documentation

607
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 1: on how tear gas affected the critters of Portland's they

608
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: certainly wore a feature of the protests, with one standout

609
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: being a three hundred and fifty pound llama named Caesar.

610
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:18,800
Speaker 1: His owner, a Central Oregan man, says he bought Caesar

611
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 1: to the demonstrations to boost morale and would quickly depart

612
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: with him when munitions began sounding off. And while Caesar

613
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: went unscathed, we cannot say the same with certainty for

614
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,440
Speaker 1: all our other furry friends. Another possible victim of Portland's

615
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,200
Speaker 1: bouts of chemical warfare was one of the city's pride

616
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: and joys its environment. Early in the protests, concerned eyes

617
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:44,280
Speaker 1: turned towards the Lambt River, the de facto divider between

618
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,919
Speaker 1: the city's east and west side. The thirteenth largest north

619
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: flowing river in the United States, The will LAMTT also

620
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 1: shares the distinction of being a Superfund site, meaning it's

621
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,959
Speaker 1: been pegged by the FEDS as one of the most

622
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: toxic sites in the entire country and not so distant

623
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:04,319
Speaker 1: relic of the heavy industrial activity, particularly along a ten

624
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,840
Speaker 1: mile stretch spanning from the Burnside Bridge to Sylvie's Island

625
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 1: and short the bollamt is no stranger to abuse, but

626
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: some began to wonder if all the cs gas and

627
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: pepper spray runoff was furthering those harms as clean up

628
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: crewise powerwashed the residue into storm drains leading to the river.

629
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 1: The city's Bureau of Environmental Services began vacuuming tear gas

630
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,279
Speaker 1: residue from the drains surrounding the downtown Justice Center in

631
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:35,280
Speaker 1: August during the FED occupation to prevent any toxic carms.

632
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 1: But despite a wealth of research on the effects of

633
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 1: tear gas, little seemed to be known on both its

634
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 1: short and long term effects on the environment, so the

635
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,640
Speaker 1: move came as a bit of a preventative shot in

636
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: the dark. According to the Bureau. At the very least,

637
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: the gas was an illegal discharge as no other substances

638
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:59,480
Speaker 1: besides rain water are allowed down the drains. Morgan from

639
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,840
Speaker 1: the Mutual a protest clean up group Team Raccoon, so

640
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: they could feel the remnants in the air returning to

641
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: ground Zerial every morning. Basically, we we got a little

642
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 1: bit of money from Mutually donations and we were wondering

643
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 1: what because part cleans are pretty low cost, you know,

644
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,879
Speaker 1: trash bags, trash grabbers, doesn't cost a lot of money

645
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,440
Speaker 1: to maintain that. So we were wondering, like, what do

646
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 1: we do with this money that will really help our community.

647
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 1: And we were noticing the air quality in Loudsdale and

648
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: Chapman getting worse and worse and worse because of the

649
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: tear gas and the chemical munitions every night. Even just

650
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,279
Speaker 1: walking through there during the day, you wanted to put

651
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 1: your respirator on. At the end of July, the move

652
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 1: led to a mass mobilization of respirators and on the

653
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:54,839
Speaker 1: ground research into the gas Morgan continues, so we we're

654
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 1: connected to some researchers who wanted to keep a certain

655
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:03,840
Speaker 1: level anonymity, and we decided the best way to do

656
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,840
Speaker 1: that was through us. We could accept filters from the

657
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,040
Speaker 1: protest community, and we could give them to the researchers.

658
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: The researchers could conduct their studies and the privacy that

659
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: they want, and we could use mutual aid money to

660
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: facilitate that. Meanwhile, city bureaucrats began running their own tests

661
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,479
Speaker 1: on the sediments collected from the nearby drains to test

662
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:32,120
Speaker 1: for the primary chemicals associated with tear gas, hexa villa, chrarium,

663
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:37,759
Speaker 1: pe joliot, barium, and sinai. The following month, the Barreau

664
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 1: released its finding, saying that while there were higher levels

665
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 1: of toxins at the source of the storm drains, by

666
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:46,720
Speaker 1: the time they hit the river levels were pretty much normal.

667
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 1: The results only accounted for the August round of chemicals

668
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: found in the river. B As officials insisted, however, that

669
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 1: the testing was thorough as an accounted for the build

670
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,400
Speaker 1: up of chemicals that have been deployed since of George

671
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 1: b uprisings in late May. This didn't stop five environmental

672
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 1: groups from teaming up to launch a lawsuit against the

673
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security, alleging they were out of compliance

674
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: with the National Environmental Policy Act by not conducting an

675
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 1: assessment on the impacts of their gas ahead of using it,

676
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:23,000
Speaker 1: breaking federal law. Represented by the a c l U,

677
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 1: the group seeked a complete savage and federal usage of

678
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 1: tear gas. DHS ended up pulling out before the ruling

679
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 1: was made, but the question continued to loom. What exactly

680
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: were the long term effects of tear gas. It's a

681
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:42,920
Speaker 1: question that's further complicated when considering the findings of Chemical

682
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 1: Weapons Research Conservatorium, who say during the FEDS occupation, a

683
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: mix of CS gas and toxic chemical smoke grenades made

684
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:58,240
Speaker 1: Hexa chlor thane or HC gas. HC is a toxic

685
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 1: compound band by the US military for its severe health effects,

686
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,200
Speaker 1: but was deployed repeatedly by federal agents against the people

687
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:10,600
Speaker 1: of Portland's easily identifiable by the way the canisters glow red,

688
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: continuously spouting dents opaque smoke for a minute or more.

689
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:19,719
Speaker 1: Juniper Seminists, who helped lead the research team, explains its

690
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,960
Speaker 1: effects here. Um I saw a number of people that

691
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 1: had basically chemical burns, the chemical miss burns UM that

692
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 1: they had never had with other gases. UM, the UH

693
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 1: stomach set of symptoms. So if you ingest it, which

694
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 1: you would do through gulping UM or just having your

695
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:46,160
Speaker 1: mouth I'll been walking through gas UM, that will cause vomiting, UM, nausea, UM,

696
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: and that whole kind of set of symptoms. Because your

697
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:50,920
Speaker 1: body wants knows that zinc is bad, it wants it

698
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:56,320
Speaker 1: out UM in your lungs. However, UM, what happens is

699
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 1: UM zinc chloride is really corrosive because of the chlorine.

700
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 1: Among the complications, a number of protesters reported having prolonged

701
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 1: regular menstal cycles, sometimes bleeding for weeks after exposure to

702
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 1: the gas. Oregon Public Broadcasting and spoke with twenty six

703
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: people attended the protests and self reported changes in their bodies.

704
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 1: Effects reported included trans people who would cease taking testosterone shots,

705
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 1: beginning to menstruate again. Others reported pain so uncomfortable they

706
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 1: had to take a trip to the hospital and one

707
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 1: month alone. Others reported multiple cycles for a long time,

708
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,120
Speaker 1: especially right now with COVID. We it's it's kind of

709
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,799
Speaker 1: hard to tweez out. If somebody has a long term

710
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 1: symptom that's gonna linger for a while. I think due

711
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, it's going to confound a lot of

712
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: these things, a lot more. Is gonna make it a

713
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:58,520
Speaker 1: lot more difficult to tweez out one from the other definitively,

714
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: you know. Um, But I do think it needs to

715
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: be investigated. I hope people don't forget about it, especially

716
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:09,760
Speaker 1: what the unhoused. You know, Portland has a really high

717
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,880
Speaker 1: number of unhoused individuals, and my heart broke for them,

718
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: like every day because you know, we back up and

719
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:21,360
Speaker 1: go home, but you know, we're we're in their space essentially.

720
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:25,000
Speaker 1: So if it's getting tear gas every single night constantly,

721
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: they're actually the ones that's getting exposed the most and

722
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: have the highest frequacy of exposure. Um. But for whatever reason,

723
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 1: it's not too many people advocating for them in this space.

724
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 1: So I just really wanted to throw that out there. Well,

725
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 1: no definitive links have been made yet between tear gas

726
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 1: and the regular cycles. The string of complaints made for

727
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,359
Speaker 1: yet another worry as protesters hit the front lines each night,

728
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 1: facing off with the police force armed with the band

729
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: war chemical whose true effects may not be known for

730
00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:02,719
Speaker 1: years to come. About a week after George Floyd's murder,

731
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 1: Don't Shoot Portland's lost a class action lawsuit against the

732
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 1: City of Portland's alleging indiscriminate use of tear gas an

733
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 1: excessive force at the hands of the Portland Police Bureau.

734
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: Shortly thereafter, U S District Judge Marco Hernandez ruled in

735
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:21,960
Speaker 1: their favor, placing a two week restraining order on the

736
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:26,479
Speaker 1: bureau until further court ruling. However, there was a catch.

737
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: In his ten page ruling, the judge wrote the following quote.

738
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:35,160
Speaker 1: In addition, tear gas you shall be limited to situations

739
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,960
Speaker 1: in which the lives are safety of the public or

740
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,000
Speaker 1: the police are at risk. This includes the lives and

741
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:44,279
Speaker 1: safety of those housed at the Justice Center. Tear gas

742
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 1: shall not be used to disperse crowds where there's little

743
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,840
Speaker 1: or no risk of injury. End quote. That little or

744
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: no risk left a lot up to interpretation for the

745
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 1: Portland Police Bureau. Governor k Brown signed a bill that

746
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:02,440
Speaker 1: had banned tear gas following Hernandez's ruling that followed similar

747
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:06,120
Speaker 1: directors in July, tear gas was banned only into the

748
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:10,879
Speaker 1: police declare riot loudly. Police had already been loosing their

749
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:14,840
Speaker 1: existing directors for when and when not to use tear gas.

750
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 1: Up until then, the only thing preventing thousands from being

751
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:23,000
Speaker 1: draped in wartime chemicals was officers on the ground declaring

752
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 1: the gatherer a quote unlawful assembly. After that, you'd have

753
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: to hear something like this a few times, the youth

754
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:36,880
Speaker 1: of tear gas, crowd control agent of or impact button.

755
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: Once this request for dispersal was given over the loudspeaker

756
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 1: a few times, it was up to the incident commander

757
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: to give the green light on firing the gas into

758
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 1: the crowd. After the so called temporary band, things pretty

759
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: much continued to follow this pattern from the police chief

760
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,320
Speaker 1: to the mayor. Officials at the city continued to argue

761
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: that tear gas was a key tool, and the cops

762
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: arsenal to this first protesters, but despite the questionable use

763
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:07,280
Speaker 1: of ports preaching the First Amendment, the gas often encroached

764
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:09,480
Speaker 1: on those who weren't even on the front lines of

765
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: the demonstrations. Tear gases grip loomed across the city, and

766
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 1: in the case of Demesia Smith, it followed her family

767
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 1: home and all of a sudden they've seen flashing lights

768
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: and looked outside and the whole p p A building

769
00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: was lined with riot officers. And uh, the last time

770
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:29,880
Speaker 1: we had protested, I don't remember the exact day. We

771
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 1: were downtown and it was the day it made news

772
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 1: that the police had tear gas. Like, um, there was

773
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,520
Speaker 1: a group of protesters that weren't a part of like

774
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,320
Speaker 1: a group of three thousand people, but the police like

775
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 1: tear gas everybody was that was down there. My son

776
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: was caught in the middle of that. So he's like

777
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,120
Speaker 1: already been like on edge about police. So he called

778
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,080
Speaker 1: me freaking out that the riot police were all front

779
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: of the building, in front of my mom's house, and

780
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:55,560
Speaker 1: he was like crying, like hysterically, like he didn't know

781
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 1: what was going to happen, and he was just telling

782
00:48:57,239 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 1: me to be careful. And there was no protesters. There

783
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 1: was just old police, but like their presence I had

784
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,880
Speaker 1: him freaked out and crying. So I'm leaving work and

785
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:09,919
Speaker 1: when I come home, so I can't park there, can't

786
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:11,719
Speaker 1: even get through to there because at that time, now

787
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:14,840
Speaker 1: the protesters have made it to the p p A

788
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: building as well as the riot officers. So I'm like

789
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,520
Speaker 1: circling around, circling around, and I couldn't park anywhere close enough.

790
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:25,839
Speaker 1: So I parked my car at home and walked all

791
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 1: the way through because I'm trying to get to my kid.

792
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:33,560
Speaker 1: So I'm walking through and uh, everybody, all of a sudden,

793
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 1: you just start seeing smoke whatnot. But again I'm in

794
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 1: mom mode and like, that's my house. And again I

795
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: already the police aren't. I've just witnessed the police not

796
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: acting right there in protests. Are like no, they're trying

797
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: to push me back, and I'm like, I've lived right here.

798
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:52,320
Speaker 1: You guys can see my ID. One days in, crowds

799
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:56,600
Speaker 1: continued to show up, and cops continued to guess. To Mr.

800
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:00,359
Speaker 1: Ender lives just off the Ventura Park in East Lane.

801
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: On a hundred night of protests, he found his neighborhood

802
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 1: blanketed in tear gas and I was like, oh jeez.

803
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:09,759
Speaker 1: So then at that point, we make our way past

804
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 1: tear gas again and uh basically climbed our little fence

805
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:17,640
Speaker 1: and jump over that to get inside our house and

806
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,440
Speaker 1: make sure all the windows were closed, and then we

807
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,480
Speaker 1: put towels under the the two kids rooms. I mean,

808
00:50:24,520 --> 00:50:27,319
Speaker 1: we have a at that point. We had a one

809
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,279
Speaker 1: month old child, two month old child, and a two

810
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 1: year old child, and uh, it's incredibly scary to have

811
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:39,000
Speaker 1: tear gas deployed. Um. It was more than one canister

812
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 1: of tear gas that was deployed in front of our house. Um,

813
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:43,760
Speaker 1: and you know have anywhere to go, So the police

814
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: are on all sides of my house. Um, there's loud speakers, UM,

815
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 1: loud noises, Uh, tear gas being deployed. I mean the

816
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,320
Speaker 1: streaming from my house was a war zone. Um. The

817
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 1: police turned it into a war zone. And the response

818
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,720
Speaker 1: was over the top. Um it was, in my opinion,

819
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:09,839
Speaker 1: meant to chill speech. And UM. I mean we don't

820
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 1: have gas mass in our house, and they don't make

821
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:14,920
Speaker 1: a gas mask for a two month old child, and

822
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 1: so our options is limited. I mean it's if it

823
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 1: was a private individual doing this, I could defend my house. UM,

824
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: but I don't have that luxury when it's the government

825
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,160
Speaker 1: doing it. A member of Team Raccoon have been cleaning

826
00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:32,080
Speaker 1: up trash and spent munitions at protests throughout the summer.

827
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:36,480
Speaker 1: After the ongoing gassing of neighborhoods, they shifted to supplying

828
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:40,000
Speaker 1: families with respirators for their children. What we found was

829
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:45,320
Speaker 1: that the best situation was three M respirator for ages

830
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 1: about seven and up and younger than that. What we

831
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:51,640
Speaker 1: do is we get something called the Bart system, which

832
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:55,760
Speaker 1: is a pressure positive hood that also has a straw

833
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:59,960
Speaker 1: and a sippy cup, and it's made for young children.

834
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,920
Speaker 1: And the pressure positive hood helps so they don't have

835
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:07,520
Speaker 1: to have anything strapped to their face. And UM, the

836
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:12,560
Speaker 1: motor keeps it keeps filtered air moving through the hood,

837
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:18,320
Speaker 1: so it never um, it never stops moving out and

838
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:21,240
Speaker 1: that's how they keep the tear gas away from children.

839
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 1: For infants, we weren't really able to find something that

840
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:32,480
Speaker 1: was super affordable and um easy to get, So for

841
00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 1: infants we basically suggest, UM what people do when UM

842
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 1: they are trying to keep tear gas out of their homes,

843
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,680
Speaker 1: roll up a towel and put it under the door. UM.

844
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:50,919
Speaker 1: Try to get as far away from windows or any

845
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:55,320
Speaker 1: exit points as possible if you need to evac, you know,

846
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:59,000
Speaker 1: try to make sure that you get too safe air

847
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. But there aren't a lot of

848
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 1: answers when you're talking about infant impact and tear gas

849
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:12,200
Speaker 1: or prevention from getting tear gas in infants lungs. As

850
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: the smoke from September wildfire settled over, Portland's Mayor Wheeler

851
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:20,239
Speaker 1: issued a ban on CS gas. Wheeler's police bureau pushed back.

852
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:23,200
Speaker 1: Both the police chief and their union had publicly rallied

853
00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:26,000
Speaker 1: against him, with the Portland Police Association launching a full

854
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:29,720
Speaker 1: on petition railing against the band. Then the smoke cleared.

855
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 1: Just days after Wheeler's ban, a familiar scene formed outside

856
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 1: the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Building, with calls by protesters

857
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:40,240
Speaker 1: to abolish ICE. A group of about a hundred gathered

858
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:43,000
Speaker 1: outside the facility and were met not by PPB but

859
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:47,040
Speaker 1: federal agents shortly after nightfall tear gas and sued alongside

860
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:50,600
Speaker 1: pellets and smoke bombs. Wheeler and Police chief level were

861
00:53:50,719 --> 00:53:53,239
Speaker 1: quick to announce that their bureau wasn't responsible for the

862
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:57,200
Speaker 1: night's chaos, which ended with nearly a dozen arrests. Protests

863
00:53:57,239 --> 00:53:59,640
Speaker 1: continued in much this way in the days following the

864
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:02,879
Speaker 1: wild fires, direct actions around town at night drawing out

865
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:05,040
Speaker 1: a few dozen people who would be met with police

866
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:08,359
Speaker 1: force and arrests, and while the police force had yet

867
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:10,279
Speaker 1: to cease the use of tear gas, had come to

868
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:13,040
Speaker 1: a halt since the mayor's ban. In the weeks leading

869
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: up to the election, much of the city's downtown corps

870
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 1: was boarded up, businesses feared of broken windows. At the

871
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,000
Speaker 1: local level, an unpopular mayor and police commissioner was set

872
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:24,919
Speaker 1: up for re election, with many constituents divided over whether

873
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:27,279
Speaker 1: or not to vote for his self described every day

874
00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 1: Antifa opponents Sarah Yanerone and a community led ride in

875
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:34,399
Speaker 1: campaign for Don't Shoot Portland's founder Teresa Rayford, who came

876
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,880
Speaker 1: in third in the primaries. This and other key council

877
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 1: races had many on edge for the future of the city.

878
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 1: On top of that, the decidedly blue Portland, which had

879
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:46,880
Speaker 1: just seen a fatal clash of Trump caravans and BLM protesters,

880
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:49,279
Speaker 1: waited to see if the forty five president who just

881
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,720
Speaker 1: occupied the city would occupy the seat for four more years.

882
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 1: Wheeler eaked out a win against his opponents, receiving less

883
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:58,920
Speaker 1: than the combined votes of Yann Eronne and the riding's

884
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:01,240
Speaker 1: but enough to secure his seat again to the lament

885
00:55:01,320 --> 00:55:06,560
Speaker 1: of many activists. Trump lost to Biden. Protests ensued later

886
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 1: that November. Yet another tear gas related suit was filed,

887
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: this time by inmates of the Justice Center. While the

888
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:14,520
Speaker 1: use of gas had come to a halt, their class

889
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: action suit turned its finger at the Moultnoma County Sheriff's office,

890
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:20,759
Speaker 1: alleging that from the first day of the protests, those

891
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:23,120
Speaker 1: caged at the Justice Center were left to suffer as

892
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:26,319
Speaker 1: gas from the outside seeped into their cells. More than

893
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:28,920
Speaker 1: three inmates joined in the suit, many of them had

894
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,200
Speaker 1: yet to be convicted and were awaiting trial. The suit

895
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:35,360
Speaker 1: described a number of alleged incidents of inmates coughing, wheezing,

896
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:37,960
Speaker 1: and kneeling over in agony in the weeks of protest.

897
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:40,360
Speaker 1: They were stuck in their cells, and some repeated a

898
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:44,960
Speaker 1: familiar refrain, one that sparked global uprisings, I can't breathe.

899
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,279
Speaker 1: Tear gas continues to be a tool used by most

900
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 1: urban police departments across the country. The nightly chemical warfare

901
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:55,200
Speaker 1: that police enacted on Portland streets, along with other munitions,

902
00:55:55,440 --> 00:55:58,280
Speaker 1: turned the city both into a battlefield and a testing ground.

903
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:01,720
Speaker 1: The true mental, physical, and environmental effects of the gassing

904
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:04,839
Speaker 1: may not be realized for years to come, but from

905
00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:08,080
Speaker 1: Portland to Hong Kong, one thing remains clear. While protest

906
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:10,880
Speaker 1: tactics may adapt over the years, the response of governments

907
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:16,400
Speaker 1: remains largely the same, suppress and silence dissent. Portland's continued

908
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:20,120
Speaker 1: to push back imperfectly, but with more skill. Some broke windows,

909
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,920
Speaker 1: while others simply claim their streets. Grabbed a bullhorn for

910
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 1: the first time and demanded to all who could hear

911
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: that without justice, there would be no peace. From optics

912
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:31,520
Speaker 1: to effectiveness, some on the so called left were split

913
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:34,600
Speaker 1: on which roads best aided in the liberation of black lives,

914
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: and while diversity of tactics got sticky at times, many

915
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:41,320
Speaker 1: will argue that the norm most protesters rail against is

916
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:44,759
Speaker 1: more insufferable. We quoted Malcolm X at the beginning of

917
00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:47,560
Speaker 1: this episode. One of the most popular phrases he's known

918
00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:51,200
Speaker 1: for is by any means necessary. As we reflect on

919
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:53,680
Speaker 1: the lessons of the ongoing movement for Black lives and

920
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:56,560
Speaker 1: the months of protests that took over Portland, will leave

921
00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 1: you with a more full version of that quote he

922
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:01,360
Speaker 1: gave during a speech at the founding of the Organization

923
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 1: of Afro American Unity in nineteen sixty four. We declare

924
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:08,040
Speaker 1: our right on this earth to be a human being,

925
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:10,319
Speaker 1: to be respected as a human being to be given

926
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:12,360
Speaker 1: the rights of a human being in this society, on

927
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:15,120
Speaker 1: this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring

928
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:19,480
Speaker 1: into existence by any means necessary. Last episode, you may

929
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:23,760
Speaker 1: remember us speaking with junior perseminists about chemical communitions used

930
00:57:23,800 --> 00:57:27,520
Speaker 1: by the FEDS and local law enforcement during the protests.

931
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:30,480
Speaker 1: We wanted to offer a correction about some of the

932
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:35,360
Speaker 1: statements issued during that last episode. Juniper Sminis is in

933
00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:39,200
Speaker 1: fact Dr Juni per Siminus, with fifteen years under their

934
00:57:39,240 --> 00:57:43,360
Speaker 1: bill as a quantitative conservation biologists and the research we

935
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:47,640
Speaker 1: said they helped lead with chemical weapons research Concertorium on

936
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 1: hex chlorothane gas or HC gas, there is so much

937
00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:55,200
Speaker 1: as help lead, but in fact spearheaded the effort with

938
00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:59,000
Speaker 1: the assistance of some volunteers. There's in fact a why

939
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:03,520
Speaker 1: ranging array of research and science regarding HC gas an

940
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:06,600
Speaker 1: tear gas out in the world, some dating bad decades,

941
00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: but even today researchers continue to unearth more understanding about

942
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:15,080
Speaker 1: what the real impacts of these chemicals are on humans,

943
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:19,960
Speaker 1: animals in wildlife, and the environment at large. Another thing

944
00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:24,520
Speaker 1: is scientists are sort of constant skeptics. So when we

945
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:27,960
Speaker 1: say that no definitive links have been drawn when it

946
00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:31,880
Speaker 1: comes to research, especially in the world of science. It's

947
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: almost an oxymoronic statement. Everything can be challenged to gain

948
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,960
Speaker 1: better understandings of the floating rock we live on and

949
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 1: everything else beyond it. What we do know for sure

950
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 1: is that the countless munitions unlesha on Portland's left, scores

951
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:52,240
Speaker 1: of protesters ailing as scientists continue to unearth new research

952
00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 1: on these chemicals. The Uprising team would like to offer

953
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:58,560
Speaker 1: our apology for the errors reported in that last episode.

954
00:59:01,120 --> 00:59:05,120
Speaker 1: Uh where the grandpops who couldn't fathom the obamasis, I

955
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 1: don't hate America just to me? And she keeps the

956
00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 1: promises teens looking like the sixties. It's crazy, a nationwide

957
00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:14,320
Speaker 1: deja who what my people post to do? Go to

958
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 1: schools named after the clan founder we're around town? Is?

959
00:59:17,800 --> 00:59:20,919
Speaker 1: I don't see why we're frowning Native American students forced

960
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:24,360
Speaker 1: to learn about wind o'pellah Sarah? How is that fair? Bro?

961
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 1: Some Euros unsung in some monsters get monuments built for them.

962
00:59:28,880 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 1: But it ain't be all a little bit of monster.

963
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:31,600
Speaker 1: We crook it