Guest post by Michael Strickland
While Portland’s May Day protest was relatively calm compared to Seattle and other cities, there was no shortage of wackjobs taking to the megaphones to babble away incoherently.
Case #1, a “Black, Puerto Rican, trans woman” representing various student groups from Portland State University. She says she wants to “AGITATE AGITATE AGITATE” and “To radicalize my classmates who have not yet broken the capitalist notions of bootstrap mentality” while earlier saying “We’re young, idealistic radicals, who don’t understand the intricacies of policy and budgeting”… “I’m not concerned with militarization and austerity… I WANT TO SMASH IT! I want to draw clear lines in the sand: US vs. THEM!”
Then there’s this guy who leads a rousing chant of “UP WITH THE PEOPLE YEAH YEAH! DOWN WITH CAPITALISM BOOM BOOM” while miming a shotgun in his hands during the “BOOM BOOM” parts.
Next up is this lady who says “There’s only so long that you can hold blacks and whites and Puerto Rican’s and humans down, before we come together and burn your walls down” out front of the Multnomah County courthouse. She goes on to shout “I will come for you as you come for me and people! I’m not gunna shoot you like you shoot us, I’m gunna kill you with my words. I’m gunna kill you with your own laws! How much should I survive before I come for YOU?!?”
As the march wore on, winding through downtown Portland during rush hour, tying up bus and light rail transit lines, the police found themselves in a precarious situation, when their SUV with the mobile sound system was caught in the middle of the mob and surrounded. Bike cops moved in to try to make a path for the SUV to get out, when protesters started lobbing debris at the police.
The police eventually retreated, and were again pelted with debris and chairs, prompting shots of pepper spray and flash bang grenades.
So at the end of the day, one has to ponder what these “international workers day” protesters did to benefit anyone, or did they tick off the thousands of working class people who were caught in traffic in their cars, buses, and train lines or just trying to walk down the sidewalk to get their favorite coffee stand.
