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Police brutality at Occupy Portland today
October 30, 2011 By 9 Comments
About Jeremy BloomJeremy Bloom is the Editor of RedGreenAndBlue.
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I followed the whole event on TV, stream and twitter. The police were not perfect, but they weren’t that bad, either. The protesters also were not perfect, with several of them trying to start fights with the police while other protesters tried to calm them down.
I’m a strong believer in the Occupy movement. I even thought keeping Main St. shut down was a good idea. I can’t support occupying a neighborhood park where kids play. Having the right to do something doesn’t mean it is a good idea.
I don’t really support the police kicking the protesters out, either. The do still have the right. But I’m extremely disappointed in the protesters for causing this problem. Our enemies want to divide us, let’s not take actions that divide ourselves.
Was also there and this report is overblown. I am not sure about what happened once they were in the van, and I was shoved a few times by police, and physically run into by police on horses trying to force me away from those sitting in the circle, and trying to prevent me from taking pictures.
That said, most police officers present with kind and respectful, doing their job. Compared to Oakland this was about as good as things can get with police doing arrests.
I still think the Portland police department has handled the entire Occupy situation very well compared to the rest of the country and it’s unfortunate our local Occupy got 0 news coverage until some people get arrested.
Some things I noticed were a deliberate campaign of trying to mess with us psychologically. There were hours of just shows of force and what I believe were plants who were trying to rile up people and scare them. One man did not like it when I video taped him, and he was yelling “fuck the swine” and appeared to be a random guy passing by, not part of the movement.
A number of drunk people walking by joined in and began heckling the police — some of them street kids yelling some pretty incoherent and outrageous things.
We really GOT to get better at policing our own. I requested that an obnoxious girl who was screaming incoherent babble into a megaphone nonstop if she could refrain from screaming because no one could understand her, and someone yelled “go home, yuppie” at me (after I had been marching all day, and participating in the GA that decided to stay in the park).
This shit has to stop, I don’t care if they are street folks walking by, plants by the police, trolls, or just angry teenagers who haven’t figured out how to be tactful yet. Everyone should be welcome, but we need a way to shut people up that are basically there just to start trouble or make the movement look stupid.
Some juggalo kid was freaking saying he was going to come back with a gun. And no one said anything to him.
These people are making this look BAD. And saying there was “police brutality” is ridiculous. The police response was stupid and exaggerated, but it wasn’t police brutality.
Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf? We can’t call “police brutality” every time police officers just arrest people or it won’t hold any weight when Oakland level stuff happens.
Watched the whole thing on TV and other than one of the protesters being a bit chubby and making handcuffing uncomfortable; there was no police brutality involving the sit-in group. They were peaceful and so were the cops. Please make realistic headlines or nobody is going to believe you..
Did you read the article? That’s a report from someone who was THERE. Her friend was injured by being manhandled by the police.
Even when cops aren’t literally busting heads, they’re often more physically harsh than they need to be.
Demonstrators are trained in passive resistance, part of which is going limp upon arrest.
Maybe that’s not necessary in the current circumstance, but it does make it more difficult for the police than simply leading off a walking arrestee. This can be annoying, and some police officers respond by pulling, yanking, or jerking on people as they carry them off, which can cause injury.