http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2012/11/03/photos-occupy-protests-government-austerity-at-lloyd-centerpolice-pepper-spray-20 Comments On: PHOTOS: Occupy Protests Government Austerity at Lloyd Center—Police Pepper Spray 20 by Sarah Mirk en-us Copyright 2013 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Thu, 23 May 2013 22:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by The Showstopper]]> Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:52:28 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by callie]]> Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:51:59 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Nabeeh Mustafa]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:56:23 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by surrealanya]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:52:43 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by SaintFrancisDiningHallHater]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:28:57 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by knotty_grrl]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:21:54 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by knotty_grrl]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:17:38 -0800 Portland Mercury All kinds of change are sure to be happening now, I'll bet.
Posted by frankieb]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 07:52:17 -0800 Portland Mercury
I wouldn't put it in my eyes, though.
Posted by jamdox]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 03:54:13 -0800 Portland Mercury
And I see at least one person holding a message protesting the wasted trillions of military spending. He's holding a drone labeled U.S. Army and it has signs above it saying "fund education, not war." Of course the CIA also has some of its own drones and is asking for more of them right now -- as the false dichotomy presidential candidates express the "need" to cut Social Security, Medicare, etc.
Posted by Lisa Savage]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 03:33:52 -0800 Portland Mercury
What do Mitt Romney supporters have to do with anything? Both the democrats and the republicans share quite a bit of the blame for destroying social services. I'm not seeing any Obama signs in those photos, are you?

As for all this "public disorder" that you are so concerned about, get a life. There is exponentially more public disorder in the relatively small town that I come from on any given night than happened here. I guarantee that you've spent more time whining on the internet tonight than anybody spent being blocked in traffic during the protest.
Posted by only_greece]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:42:00 -0700 Portland Mercury
What if Mitt Romney 1% supporters started blocking traffic, transit, camping in parks, breaking windows, etc. to protest (I dunno, protesting the 47% who don't pay taxes, or something silly) and argued they had a Consitutional right to do so (i.e., free speech)?

You'd be on here, much like I am, saying they didn't have such a right, their interpretation of the Constitution is bogus, they're entitled, etc. I'd agree with you completely in such a conclusion.

It's a TWO WAY STREET. We have laws to protect the 100%, and there's good reasons we do. This is not about ideology.

It seem the supporters of these groups want to talk about the issues.

Guess what: When you block the streets illegally, we're not talking about the issues; we're talking about how you're entitled and how police officers are peppering protesters. Is this the narrative you wish to discuss? I dunno, it seems any public disorder is a victory in your book. Good luck with that, because you're failing in the public eye.
Posted by ws]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 00:15:59 -0700 Portland Mercury
Seriously. It's a turf war to the cops. That's all. They even say that they'll protect us if we'll only fill out a little piece of paper. Raw power tripping.
Posted by NCaleb]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2012 00:06:19 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by surrealanya]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:17:37 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Spindles]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:07:05 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by surrealanya]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:40:36 -0700 Portland Mercury
So you ride the bus for more than just work... welcome to the club. You must be pretty happy about the recent cuts to Tri-Met that have hampered public transportation services and raised fares by 45 cents a ride (that's a 25% increase over the course of one year, unprecedented in this city). That's what austerity looks like, and it creeps into the seams of our everyday business like an insidious black mold in a home that's not maintained. Our communities are our homes and it's our duty as members of the community to maintain them.

And when it comes to entitlement... that's an interesting thing to bring up. I remember when I was a kid, my parents' generation looked down on the people who served us our food, or cooked it. They would say "If you don't want to end up going to college, you need to stay in school, and get a college education." And that's exactly what I did. But now that tuition has doubled, debt has ballooned to $1 trillion (~24,000 dollars average per student), and there are no jobs other than flipping burgers (Economic Policy Institute cites a 53% unemployment or underemployment rate for college graduates), we're called "entitled" because we want something better. We want we were promised, and what we deserve. We're doing everything society told us to do and getting fucked harder for it. That's the "entitlement" you speak of. That's austerity.
Posted by fish_hog]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:56:51 -0700 Portland Mercury
As your second hunch, it makes me giggle that you think people en masse taking the streets just like, happens overnight. N3 has been organized for for months. As much as I'd like to think the average person just has time to get into the streets non-stop around the clock because the police are cool with it, I'm not that naive or uninformed. Which is why I organize, rather than pout about what's going on and wait for other people to do things to make me feel better.

Your argument seems to largely be, "it would have made the police feel better if you'd had a permit!!" I wonder why that is the important narrative to you. When slashes to our public investment are targeted at every public sector except the police, why should their personal need to feel powerful over others be our focus of intent?
Posted by lucyparsons]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:37:26 -0700 Portland Mercury
It's not the police's job to fill out the permit. That's the group's job to fill it out. Did they do so? Probably not.

The very idea that the police even do this part of the process is ridiculous and gets at the whole "entitlement" thing I mentioned.

Here's a start:

http://www.portlandonline.com/omf/index.cf…

@lucy

I ride the bus for more than just work. You didn't ask me. And no, I don't want you to block transit, for the record.
Posted by ws]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:35:23 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by lucyparsons]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:20:01 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by fish_hog]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:19:01 -0700 Portland Mercury i know.
Posted by Jm34]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:16:25 -0700 Portland Mercury
The police and city would have worked with this group, it could have been orderly, and people wouldn't have gotten peppered. If the police lets this group block traffic without repercussions (e.g., use of force like pepper spray), they have just sent a message that this type of behavior can go on and that everyday citizens cannot go about their business without a protest occurring randomly and without warning.

This is not a hard concept to understand here. Nothing I have said in this thread is "scathing" or out-of-this-world unreasonable. It's just plain logical.
Posted by ws]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:11:33 -0700 Portland Mercury
Lastly, no one was claiming to "represent" anyone. We are concerned people affected by austerity acting together. I know, mind-boggling that other people don't just sit around and whine and expect other people to do things for them! You should try it sometime.

PS I have to say, I can't imagine that you care about the populations that you referenced in your post, given that you rather handily glossed over the fact that the Portland Police's macing of high-schoolers, elders, and families with children, who comprised the majority of those at the front of the march who were attacked.
Posted by lucyparsons]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:57:11 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by lilith29]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:44:42 -0700 Portland Mercury