Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

News Two sides of the May Day march…

Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, May 2 at 11:02 AM

Yesterday’s May Day march went off pretty calmly with 3,000 people marching through downtown:But legal observers say the cops appeared to be making a special effort to prevent certain segments of the march from going off route—perhaps attempting to avoid a repeat of March 18’s spontaneous, un-permitted protests outside the Justice Center:“What our legal observers noticed as they followed the cops is that they were also following the black-clad kids around for most of the afternoon,” says Alejandro Queral of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center—which yesterday demanded the police bureau stop using rubber bullets, pepper spray and mounted patrols at city protests.

Queral is concerned that yesterday’s large police presence, which seemed to be focused on the “black-clad kids,” sent an intimidating message not just to the kids but to the rest of the people marching. “Is this really necessary? There is no need for the police to use intimidation tactics,” he says.

We’re awaiting a call back from the cops to find out if any arrests were made.

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Comments

I was walking on the sidewalk adjacent to the immigration march (on my way somewhere else) yesterday and line of about 15-20 bike cops came up behind me - some sort of c.o. who was in front of me (not on a bike) in the middle of street yelled to the cops behind me (this is when I became aware of them, bikes are quiet and the march was loud) to just "run him down".
Had they "ran me down" I would have been really pissed, thankfully the bike cops behind me were not as much assholes as their boss which allowed me enough time to move out of the way before one of them decided to follow orders.

Posted by Dex | May 2, 2007 1:41 PM

The most interesting thing I saw was before the march started. Around 5pm, I saw Rosie Sizer in the park blocks, just standing around on the outskirts, but still a part of, the crowd (with a few other cops, but still). I even saw a few black bloc kids talking to her in what seemed to be a relatively friendly dialogue (I couldn't hear, for all I know, they were chatting about the weather, but still). Somehow it seemed pretty heartening to me.

Also, Scott Moore: I was the Michael that said hello to you briefly on 5th & Washington. I forgot to mention that you might know me by my pseudononymous blogtown name...

Posted by no one in particular | May 2, 2007 1:43 PM

Hey, thanks, Michael. I forgot until after you left that I should have said, "Hey, check out the blog if you haven't already!"

Posted by Scott Moore | May 2, 2007 4:33 PM

Agree with no one in particular - Chief Sizer is very reasonable, and probably the best choice to try to reform the police department.

The problem with the PPB is a cohort of officers that Mark Kroeker tried to recruit and promote - ones with an attitude that they're above the law. Lt. Mark Kruger, a villain of the Bush and Iraq War protest, is the prime example of this.

Watch him be promoted to captain, though.

Posted by Aaron V. | May 2, 2007 11:48 PM

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