PDX Protest, Day 62 — Cloaks and Daggers

Ok, well technically this is gonna cover Day 61 as well, since I only posted the Boog letter yesterday.

But first, some news.

On first read, it looks like Oregon Governor Kate Brown said that the feds are gonna leave Portland, while DHS acting Secretary Chad Wolf and president trump have said “bullshit, we’re staying.” In actuality, Brown is carefully overspeaking so that it sounds like she’s saying more than she is. So here’s my read on what’s really happening, based on the various statements that have been made.

• ICE and CBP (incl. BORTAC) are leaving downtown starting tonight and ending ???, but remaining in Portland for now.
• FPS will be remaining at the courthouse, cuz that’s where they live anyway.
• These forces are being replaced with Oregon State Police, who will be coordinating with FPS in a way that PPB is currently forbidden from doing.
• The US Marshals SOG is from the Department of Justice, not Homeland Security, and so Wolf has no authority over them. I expect them to stay downtown.
• If Wolf decides that the federal buildings are safe from graffiti, water bottles, and fireworks, he’ll send at least a healthy chunk of ICE and CBP away from Portland. Otherwise he’ll be like, “Yeah nope, you guys can’t handle it,” and send the troops back into downtown.

The USMS SOG is gonna be the sticking point tonight. They wear camo, and so are obviously feds. The misunderstandings based on Governor Brown’s tweet are going to lead to a ton of upset and accusations of broken agreements.

Cuz there aren’t enough accusations flying around already.

Last two days have been full of ’em. Tuesday especially. Numbers have dwindled to a thousand or so since the weekend, and the infighting seems to spike at these times. Lately there’s been people seemingly related to Portland Protest Bureau screaming not to shake the fence or start fires, saying “I know it’s just a bunch of white people!” at which point a couple Black people will turn around and be like, “Actually no.”

I don’t know what’s up with this group. I can’t tell if they’re playing psygames or just that oblivious to the fact that there are indeed Black people who espouse civil disobedience. They just seem so damn ready to slap accusations on anyone. They’re worse than me with nazis, man, lol.

Two more groups of note were present, both from out of town. Black Unity is a reformist organization out of Eugene that has been seemingly allied with PPrB ever since PPrB came out as a named organization. RevCom are Revolutionary Communists out of Chicago, who seem to be after a particularly Soviet style of socialism, led by Chairman Bob Avakian. What’s striking to me is how directly opposite RevCom stands to reformist parties. And indeed there were some fights to be had between the two approaches.

The nights with lots of fights always just have a weird vibe. Everybody feels it, and most use that same word. It feels… out of place. Unnatural. Which is why I start questioning intent and looking for psyops. Which only contributes to the weird vibe. A positive feedback cycle of suspicion rather than violence.

Last night had a mindfucky feel to it, in a different way, with the feds being very active both unpredictably and like clockwork.

Gas, flashbangs, and pepper balls came out right at 11. Nobody I was following saw anything that might have prompted it besides the clock itself. The feds popped out, fired off a bunch of rounds, then… went right back inside, leaving everybody just… confused.

11:30 they came out and did it again, only this time they dropped the canisters inside the fence and used leaf blowers to push it towards the protesters, which I thought was funny. Somebody caught a photo, too, of a… fog blower thing? Like a cross between a fog machine and a leaf blower. I don’t know if the tank could be filled with, like, CS fog juice or something, or if it was just for visual effect.

Feds hopped inside and FPS declared an unlawful assembly and asked peaceful protesters to move east, which is a very uncommon direction. It’s always west or north.

Waves of pepper balls came every five minutes or so, just… cuz. They pop back out at 11:45 on the nose for a heavy gassing, firing high over the fence. Canisters coming down hard, hitting people with force. No head trauma. Lots of helmets. Then they pop back inside. Like the worlds shittiest game of peek-a-boo.

Right at midnight a line of feds flanks from the south on 3rd, surely having come from the Green-Wyatt building. Some feds were spotted heading north on 2nd, behind the courthouse.

An aircraft caught my attention, particularly loud and particularly overhead of me at SE 27th and Hawthorne. Not the small plane I’ve been hearing for months (though I could still hear that as well). Choppier propellor sound. Not a helicopter. I heard it for the first time two nights ago, so I think it showed up over the weekend while I was out of town. The field recorder didn’t turn on in time to get a recording of it, but I did see it. It flew west, toward downtown, and curved north, where it did these large, back-and-forth arcs, which was a very strange pattern. Meanwhile the small plane I’m used to hearing did the small circles that I’m used to seeing.

When I got back to my van, the feds on 2nd had swung around and flanked from the north while what looked to be PPB officers were scattered in Lowndale Square. With the fence to the front, cops to the back, and feds to either side, this crowd was well and truly kettled. People were scared. Real scared. The mass gassing and arrests without escape seemed imminent.

My notes are not great here, but one of the fed lines dropped a little gas to cover an unprovoked retreat. Then the other did. A cluster of protesters had formed on 2nd somehow, and feds rushed in with a couple targeted arrests before retreating into a side door of the courthouse — a tall, metal roll-up door that got stuck three quarters of the way down. A Black protester raged, kicking at the door while getting shot at in the legs. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Kick. “Let’s go!” Until the door got fixed.

More feds wheeled around to flank from the east out of nowhere. Must have come out a back door. Then they back off. Protesters follow them to an even bigger roll-up door. As it closes you see “FUCK 12” emerge, followed by the circled A of anarchy.

Finally, the feds out front in the courtyard retreat.

Nobody knows what to think. Everyone’s disoriented. None of that made any sense. The kettle fake-out, ok, sure, they were flexing. “We could do this to you, if we ‘needed’ to.” But everything after that had no rhyme or reason to it.

Feds emerge from the East. Shoot a bunch. Go back.

Yeah, exactly, like that.

People throw bags of trash over the fence into the courtyard. “Feed the piggies!” Feds come out to shoot and gas them. Numbers are down to a hundred or so. Not enough leaf blowers to keep it contained.

Seems to be variety to the gas emerging over the last few nights, too. Some of it’s green. And there’s these canisters that glow red while dumping out some kind of thick black smoke. If they’ve been identified, I haven’t seen it happen. Feds are pretty protective of their riot pokemon, shooting anyone who gets close.

A snatch attempt was made into an unmarked van. Since “attempt” was used, I assume it failed. Only attempt I heard about.

Feds in the courtyard go back inside at exactly 2am, and twitter goes quiet.

Just utter nonsense. Fucking mindfuck terror tactics. What else could it be?