Last night, Thursday, just like on Wednesday night, there was a peaceful protest against the Trump win. On Wednesday night it was peaceful but after the protest, there was a lot of graffiti left by Trump supporters, including swastikas, on buildings. Then came last night. The peaceful group assembled in Pioneer Courthouse Square (we’re talking Portland, Oregon) and began their march. Somewhere along the way, outside groups joined in and hijacked the main protest. The outside groups included at least one anarchist group that has been active here in Portland in the past. There were other groups but, because I am not sure of who, I won’t name them. Suffice to say that they were not the peaceful group which began the evening.
It turned violent. It turned ugly. It turned destructive. There were fights. There was spray painting. There was smashing of windows. There was rock throwing. There were fires in the street. The police were severely outnumbered. The group was about 4,000 protesters against a tiny police force. Portland has a total of 500 police, however they weren’t all on duty because things had been so peaceful. So there were just a small number of police against the 4,000 and that made it far too dangerous for the police to go in and break it up. So they marched and destroyed and rallied and got brave.
I wasn’t even aware of it. I had checked in around 6 pm when everything was peaceful. I forgot all about it. Then when I went to bed around 11, I turned on the TV. Lo and behold! There it was. Live. My heart sank. I hate to see that. There is no reason for it. None at all. I was tuned in to the TV coverage. The protesters were very angry. They would not disperse even when riot police confronted them and warned them repeatedly. Even when they were attacked by rubber bullets they remained. It was ugly. It was scary.
Finally, TV coverage ended when the police began to arrest people and things seemed to be cooling off. That’s when I tuned off too. That’s when my heart ached. That’s when I began to write this. I had other plans for today’s blog post but they, like the peaceful protest, were hijacked by these violent anarchists and whatever other groups were out there. My heart is sad.
The only good thing is that the police and the media are aware that the groups that were responsible for the violence and the vandalism were not the original group. That means a lot to me. And I hope that it will become clear to people when it is reported in the media in a couple of hours.
Hopefully, I can gather myself enough to post later on what I was originally going to post.
Violence is not okay. Vandalism is not okay.
I sympathize with your disappointment at the violence and vandalism. That is terrible. And it is good of you to differentiate for us between the original protest and the behavior of the anarchists. But on the other hand, I think it was in bad taste even to stage the peaceful protest. How wonderful for you US citizens to have the pleasure of living in a democracy. And wouldn’t it be much better, after having an election, to first wait and watch with open minds, what the new leader will do before protesting? I remember, in the past, they used to talk about giving 100 days grace period to a new president. Part of democracy is the willingness to accept the vote, and pitch in afterwards for the welfare of all the nation. To those of us who are watching from outside of the country, it seems that there are a lot of sore losers moaning and groaning before there’s reason to. I heard the words of Pres Obama and Hilary Clinton, and they seemed much more tolerant than these protesters.
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What we are seeing here in the United States is a sharp rise in hate speech and violent acts against those who supported Hillary Clinton. Disabled people have been taunted. Muslim women have been physically attacked and beaten. Latino students have been assaulted and beaten and otherwise threatened. All this since Tuesday. Then there is the fact that this president elect is moving forward in preparation to take away women’s reproductive rights, affordable health care, and so much more. People here are genuinely afraid. There have also been scattered reports of suicides since election day. Fear is a horrible thing and that’s what we’re living with.
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We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy, but that point aside—the election put into power a man who has been openly misogynist and racist in his speech and platforms. You’ll recall that within 24 hours after Brexit, hate crimes rose sharply. The same thing happened here within 24 hours of the election. I have several friends in France, Australia, and the Netherlands, all of whom have expressed to me that the EU is horrified by Trump’s election…they’re moaning and groaning themselves, and are disinclined to give him a chance.
The protests are in support of children afraid to go to school. They are in support of people like a local Pulitzer-nominated author who is the mother of three adopted black children, and who was followed around her neighborhood by a woman in a car yelling “Trump will get you, nigger-lover.” The protests are in support of LGBTQ people who fear that at best their marriages will be annulled, and at worst they will be murdered. They are in support of people of color born in America who fear that they will be deported, and immigrants who took incredible risks to come here, hoping to escape places like Aleppo. The protests are in support of women’s reproductive rights, so that a woman carrying a non-viable fetus will not be legally forced to carry it full term.
Protesters were not challenging the results of the election. They were letting the president-elect know that he has a dissatisfied sector of the electorate that will be making their voices heard as much as possible.
Via Facebook, the organizers of the peaceful protest raised thousands of dollars today to restore the damaged property, even though they had nothing to do with the rioters.
And no, I did not attend or support either the protest or the riot.
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Thank you, David. I think you summed it up beautifully. I don’t have it in me this week. I’m just spent.
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How awful. Hopefully it will begin to settle over the next short while. Thugs only look for trouble and often have no interest in whatever the protest is.
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The good thing, Tric, is that within hours of the vandalism, there was a FB Event setup for volunteers to go down there and clean up. Lots of people went over with their own supplies and did the clean up work. They also set up a Go Fund Me account to help the businesses that suffered damage. It was the bright spot in all of this.
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That is the America you must harness and believe in.
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Thanks for sharing this Corina and I stand along side you in the need to ensure equality and respect for all people. I am praying that now the election is over, Trump will settle down and get back in his box.
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