This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Occupy Police Break Out Pepper Spray, Make Arrests at Occupy Portland Chase Bank Protest
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 4:40 PM
Update 11/18:
The official tally of arrests is 15 from the Chase Bank protest. Police booked six people in Multnomah County jail and cited the rest for criminal trespass or disorderly conduct.
Update 5:30PM: Everything's cool now, guys! The police made several arrests inside the Chase Bank ATM lobby, then, essentially, immediately disappeared. There are still a handful of police officers on street corners around Pioneer Square and roughly 150 protesters in the square, but everyone's just hanging out. As quickly as the scene exploded, it quieted down.
Original post:
Police have deployed pepper spray and are making arrests among a crowd of 40 Occupy protesters who have occupied Chase Bank on Pioneer Square this afternoon. This news is breaking, so check back for updates.
An estimated 200 police officers were deployed this afternoon in the face of a 300-500 person anti-bank protest that looped through downtown this afternoon. After unfolding a banner and raising an American "distress" flag at Wells Fargo on SW 5th, the crowd moved to Bank of America on SW 2nd, taking over the doorway for an hour-long dance party. Several people also slipped notes under the door of the BofA, including one scrawl that read, "You helped make me homeless."
Then, the protest moved up SW Morrison to Pioneer Square, where squadrons of police in riot gear kept the road clear... but made the crowd tense (though this dude's dance certainly helped diffuse some of the tension). As the trucks full of riot police drove up SW Morrison, someone started blasting the Star Wars Imperial March, leading the crowd in a chant of, "ALL HAIL THE EMPIRE!"
Numerous people have been complaining that police are covering up their names and refusing to give out business cards. Well, it turns out that the new city rule that says police must do both of those things only applies to Portland police—not other cities' officers working under their jurisdiction. Portland has been bringing in dozens of police from all over the state as protest crowd control.
After the first use of pepper spray by police, this guy walked up to the protest front line with his toddler:
Although, that little fella should probably get a fucking job already, am I right?
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Some fucking parent. His parents outta bitch-slap his ass for stupidity.
Yet another reason not to identify with 'occupy'.
God I hate seeing kids used for political purposes.
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Is tomorrows gather called N18 or will they go back to the OccuFail name?
Really? Really? you think BANKS are the problem? You had a real chance today to make a real statement. and your statement was: "Banks bad, credit unions good?" Sure this is true enough on a base level but it is in no way the SOURCE of the problem. The whole problem is that you are the 99%, right? and they are the 1%? Well why don't you instead direct your anger at the politicians that are allowing the banks to get away with this? It makes way more sense to blame the court that failed to prosecute than to blame the criminal. We need to GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS by making it illegal, perhaps even unconstitutional, for private interest groups to contribute huge sums to any political campaign. If you had marched on that premise, I might have joined you. Instead I just laughed at your dumb asses getting arrested and pepper sprayed. You want a fight? Well I can guarantee you the police will bring it. The next time, how about making it for something intelligent and worthwhile?
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Really? Really? you think BANKS are the problem? You had a real chance today to make a real statement. and your statement was: "Banks bad, credit unions good?" Sure this is true enough on a base level but it is in no way the SOURCE of the problem. The whole problem is that you are the 99%, right? and they are the 1%? Well why don't you instead direct your anger at the politicians that are allowing the banks to get away with this? It makes way more sense to blame the court that failed to prosecute than to blame the criminal. We need to GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS by making it illegal, perhaps even unconstitutional, for private interest groups to contribute huge sums to any political campaign. If you had marched on that premise, I might have joined you. Instead I just laughed at your dumb asses getting arrested and pepper sprayed. You want a fight? Well I can guarantee you the police will bring it. The next time, how about making it for something intelligent and worthwhile?
You said Occupy needs to get the money out of politics by going after the politicians. How is going after the money not the same thing? I think we can all agree, regardless of our political leanings, that our politicians are bought out. Well if we cant go to were the buck stops, let go to were it starts. With the banks that failed our economy and then got massive payouts with our tax dollars. Join us before they eat your home and job as well.
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And then the money in politics thing is largely addressed with an immediate fix for Citizens United.
Those two are just the start, and the protesters are very aware of the greater context. Your rambling is directed at the wrong people.
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i'm not doing anything about the income inequality in america, and haven't done anything in response to the financial crisis of 2008.
i feel qualified to judge all the people in the protest and make snap judgements about them based on what i read online while sitting in my house.
what a bunch of jerks!
Guys, stop inconveniencing and pissing off your friends and neighbors! Go where you can make an actual difference. Get the anarchists out (anarchy is entirely temporary and they only function as agents of chaos) get rid of the crazies and go tell the people that can actually work toward overturning unwise policy and so forth. C'mon, neighbors! Get it together! You're losing support quickly.
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