Earlier in Delta Park, some yelled ‘get him’ to a bicyclist passing through and then pursued and stopped and harassed him – before letting him pass thru pic.twitter.com/I5KUReLQ0R
— Maxine Bernstein (@maxoregonian) September 26, 2020
On at least two occasions Saturday, people riding bicycles through a public park were stopped and questioned by armed individuals with no authority to do so. Later in the evening in downtown Portland a man was shoved from his bike onto the ground by Portland Police Bureau officers for no apparent reason.
“I was questioned by a person with a helmet and AR-16 style rifle. The only answer I would give was that I was trying to get through the park.”
— Reader Stephen V.
As you probably know, a group known as the Proud Boys — designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — held a rally in Delta Park on Saturday. The event spurred concern from every level of government — including the Governor’s office. Many worried about interactions with other protestors in the area — including one event that was behind held very close by.
In the end there were no confrontations because the groups never interacted with each other. The Proud Boys might have been afraid and/or embarrassed because they didn’t have nearly as large a turnout as they hoped for (200 or so instead of 10-20,000).
But that didn’t stop the heavily armed group from commandeering a public park. At one point they set up a checkpoint and hassled visitors for no reason whatsoever. One bicycle rider was caught on video by The Oregonian as he tried to ride through the park. Keep in mind the path through Delta Park is a key north-south bicycle route in the area that offers a direct between north Portland and Jantzen Beach/Vancouver. In the video the Proud Boy members forcibly stop the man’s bicycle and appear to ask him several questions about his intentions. They can then be heard telling him he must bike through and exit the park without stopping.
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One of our readers shared via Facebook that he too was stopped at the checkpoint. “I rode part way into the Delta Park group,” he wrote. “I was quickly questioned by a person with a helmet and AR-16 style rifle. The only answer I would give was that I was trying to get through the park.”
Both of these situations are absolutely unacceptable. It’s still unclear why Oregon State Police and other law enforcement officials stationed at the park didn’t take action to break up the checkpoints and/or hold people accountable for these illegal confrontations. OSP said in a statement that they’re investigating a separate assault of a journalist in the park and that they stopped several people for traffic violations.
Police move in fast and arrest a delivery driver, he says he’s not even part of the protest pic.twitter.com/pky8WS6Rec
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) September 27, 2020
Hours later when Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protesters gathered downtown, a video emerged from an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter showing PPB officers throw a bicycle rider to the ground. The man on the bicycle appeared to be unaware of the situation and was reportedly just out delivering food to someone prior to the incident. We haven’t heard if an investigation into this arrest has been initiated. If anyone has details, please let us know.
Innocent people being caught up in these protests by unaccountable, unhinged and heavily-armed individuals is extremely concerning. It seems as if our local and state police are getting more aggressive and brutal, even as protests against this very type of treatment have gone on for well over 100 days.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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This report is just another way that the City of Portland (PBOT+ Parks) shows how well it understands the value of this important regional bike highway through Delta Park / NoPo for the last 50 years since built…basically not much, as they only drive their car / or are driven past it on up high on the highway. Even though the City controls this access and land 100%…you would not know it from the substandard marked crosswalk(s) between play fields and parking, lack of southend sidewalk and safe / legal bike access to it from the MAX station, and how illegal / poorly managed sport event parking creates hazards for other park users or pass by trips.
It’s no secret that police departments nationwide have been heavily infiltrated by assorted white supremacists. Some departments actively recruit them. Don’t know about PPB but I suspect so. New normal in the land of the free, home of the brave?
No secret at all: in an era when “politeness”, “individualism”, “a sense of urgency”, and even “objectivity” are considered signs of white supremacy, it’s clear that nearly every organization has been thoroughly infiltrated.
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-characteristics.html
Hello Kitty comes to the defense of white supremacists, surprising no one.
Did you even follow that link? It’s comically absurd.
The link posted is barely relevant to the discussion, unless that website is the only authority/evidence on white supremacy in police departments. I believe this is called a “red herring”.
So, yes, HK decided to find a red herring in defense of white supremacists infiltrating police departments. Weird move, right?
The definition of “white supremacy” somehow seems relevant to a discussion of “white supremacists” (especially with so many competing definitions floating around) so maybe it’s not so weird.
If police departments have been “infiltrated” by people being able to view the world beyond their own personal perspective (i.e. objective reality), that would be a good thing. If their ranks are made up of people supporting the abhorrent philosophy of the Proud Boys, then that would obviously be bad.
Diluting the concept of white supremacy as much as some so-called progressives have leads to confusion even among obviously intelligent people like yourself about what constitutes “defending white supremacy”. That you could construe my comments above (or anything else I’ve written) as supporting extremist infiltration of police departments only illustrates the absurd conclusions this confusion can lead to.
If that wasn’t your intent, then your reply to Dave is completely pointless.
Progressives are free to apply to be police officers.
And they do – I’ve known several. The problem is the corrupted culture within the agency that aggressively dissuades others from attempting to fix it. Who wants to work in an environment with coworkers that daily press their extreme right wing beliefs on you? Unpleasant at best, discouraging to say the least.
So did those folks automatically become bastards? Because ACAB 🙂
Why would any self-respecting progressive join a white supremacist force dedicated to the worst villainy in the US?
They want to be the change they want to see in the world. I’d love to hear you have that comment with all the BIPOC who serve as the police. Heck, you should go for a drive-along once you are able.
How is participating in an oppressive, racist organization “changing the system”?
I’ve known/know many cops in lifetime. I’d say 25% were “good” people in the sense that I’d be able to drink a beer with them. 100% of them helped supply the prison industrial complex with fresh meat to put through the grinder though so, ACAB
It depends how you participate. If all good people step back, then we’re stuck with those who step forward.
My brother tried. He was rejected because he was too skeptical of authority figures. I’m not making that up. Personality-wise, there can be a narrow window you have to fit through. Which I find disturbing.
You can also be reject due to high IQ. https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
My Brother Tried????!!!! One person…so you’re going to categorize everyone as BAD because your BROTHER, didn’t make it? They look for things like PTSD and other types of psychological problems which would negate their admission into the Police Department. In other words, you cannot enter the Police force if you’re psycho. Racism exists in the minds of those who are truly RACISTS pretending to be Progressives.
I thought the organizer of this rally made a comment to the effect that weapons or violence were not welcome? They never received a permit to hold a rally in the park, yet they felt empowered/necessary to operate an armed checkpoint. This just demonstrates how afraid and exclusive this group is. Quite the opposite of Portland’s civic values. The police performance/inaction in this instance is not surprising.
Jonathan…don’t be naive. The police did not stop the checkpoints for the same reason that they don’t confront Antifa protesters who stop car traffic. What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.
PPD often acts to disperse crowds with the reason given that they are blocking the roadway for cars. They have published this as the reason for dispersing crowds many times.
And are we really going to compare simply standing in the right of way, with running a heavily armed checkpoint to block access to the right of way. That’s not really the same thing. One of them is a felony.
I agree that the armed guys blocking the road is totally unacceptable. My point was more that many get exercised over this issue, and ignore that when Antifa blocks the streets, they are not waving bikes through.
Uhh Steve. PPB violently disperses leftists from roadways (not to mention sidewalks and public parks) literally like 5 nights a week.
You should read more.
Only the ones who riot. We’ve all seen enough videos of ANTIFA harassing law abiding, driving members of the public on downtown city streets (while cops stand by) to know this is not true.
Untrue – ask the medics and journos about that.
Are you saying someone could set up an armed checkpoint for cars on a major Portland roadway, and there would be no PPD response at all?
We’ve already seen checkpoints on Portland roads setup by ANTIFA members and other protesters that have gotten no police response. These have been filmed and documented.
Anyone who has been to a protest march has seen cyclists blocking roadways for the marchers and selectively letting people through – I’ve witnessed this myself on Williams. Personally, I don’t have much of an issue with it, but it happens.
Whether they are armed (in the sense of firearms) or not, I cannot say. Other weapons, likely.
So really, what is the difference? You have people with no authority to do so blocking the travel of others who are proceeding legally.
What’s your evidence for the likelihood that corkers are possessing weapons? That’s a pretty bold and unsubstantiated claim.
The evidence that proud boys have weapons is pretty clear.
Not really. I’ve seen knives on them and canisters of chemical spray.
Right, because as a neutral and reliable source, there’s no way you would ever, say, pull a claim out of your … air. Link to footage, or you saw Scheisse, Parteigenosse.
Please link video in which a gun carry group of any kind halted car traffic all day on a Portland roadway, with the police watching, and the police did nothing. If you have video proof, then lets see the video.
deflection and whataboutism 🙂
This link is the closest matched event I could find, and there was a significant law enforcement response. The Sheriff made a point that such armed checkpoints would not be allowed.
https://bikeportland.org/2020/09/18/armed-vigilantes-have-set-up-roadblocks-on-the-historic-highway-in-corbett-320967
https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/480310-387736-multnomah-sheriff-armed-citizens-checkpoints-are-illegal-
“So really, what is the difference? You have people with no authority to do so blocking the travel of others who are proceeding legally.”
That may be true looking at only the blocking side of things.
From the blocked person’s standpoint, there’s a huge difference between being totally exposed to several people surrounding you, and stopping your bike by force, and being protectively enclosed in a several thousand pound vehicle that can only be stopped if the driver chooses not to run over the people blocking. If you’re in a vehicle, and things get scary, you know you have the ability to plow through the people in your way to save yourself. In fact, people have done that and not been charged with anything. The “line that can’t be crossed” is if somebody breaks your vehicle’s window or opens a door–breaking through the protective barrier. The bicycle rider is already in that totally unprotected situation from the outset, without the near-guaranteed escape method that the driver has.
In other words, stopping people is a stupid thing to do no matter who you are.
No.
In general, the mechanism of protest is to obstruct congest city streets to 1) show how many individuals agree with a cause and 2) draw attention to the cause and force a conversation.
When white people (the ruling class of America) dress down with riot gear, black guns and pistols, they are enforcing the status quo. This is not protesting, it is oppression.
Just because you are white does not mean you cannot be oppressed. Most Americans are ignorant of the discrimination against poor whites (couldn’t vote, couldn’t get jobs because of slavery competition) going on during the first century of our nationhood.
You sound like you get all of your protest news from Andy Ngo’s twitter feed.
I can speak from firsthand experience that police disperse protesters who are not engaged in the act of rioting. Like almost every night.
My understanding is that most nights (at least since the peaceful protests petered out) protestors threw objects at the police before the police declared a riot. Since it sounds like you’ve been there more than I have, can you confirm whether or not this is true?
I can confirm a lot of things!
On many occasions I have been out and PPB has declared an unlawful assembly without anyone throwing anything at officers. On other occasions I have seen projectiles thrown in the direction of officers which precedes an unlawful assembly declaration.
I would note that the most commonly thrown projectiles are half-empty water bottles. PPB officers are outfitted in full riot gear. Nothing I’ve seen thrown at an officer presents even a tiny threat to their safety.
I would also note that at these demonstrations, the number of people engaged in destructive behavior are outnumbered 20 to 1 by people just standing around, chanting, etc. One of the most striking things I’ve witnessed is PPB’s consistent willingness to indiscriminately beat and teargas hundreds over the criminal behavior of a small handful of people. It’s pretty clear that the criminal behavior is a pretext and what they really want is to send a message to those protesting against their chosen profession.
This is the case in every “violent” protest I’ve been part of or seen. I know you mistake me for a right-wing nut job because I often argue for reason and sanity, but I’ve participated in a number of protests and demonstrations supporting left-wing causes over the years (as recently as this summer), and even when things get completely out of control, it is never the case that everyone is misbehaving.
If you really believe that the police are using criminal behavior as a pretext for cracking down (which I am sure is true at least some of the time), then giving them that justification is just playing into their hands (even if it’s “only” throwing water bottles), while simultaneously discrediting the purpose of the protest (evident in the falling public support for BLM as the protests have hardened and shrunk).
But I believe providing that pretext is intentional; the current protests in many ways resemble a Proud Boys rally, with grandiose proclamations of high purpose (free speech, battling oppression, etc.), but ultimately driven by a desire to engage in theatrical street battle with a designated enemy. Without a police response, the motivation for the protests is lost. A peaceful afternoon sit-in with minimal police presence wouldn’t be nearly as fun, would it?
Finally, if you think you’ve been illegally deprived of your rights to protest by being wrongly swept up with violent protestors, then sue. A court injunction would be far more powerful than even the best shield. The dearth of such cases suggests that the police are acting in a broadly legal manner.
Haha, no. But I’ll leave figuring out how this is wrong as an exercise for the reader.
I agree that it is an intentional tactic of some protesters to commit petty crimes, like throwing water bottles, to provoke a response- a response that is almost always a massive overreaction. By exposing the fact that cops can commit indiscriminate violence against an entire neighborhood for the actions of a few and face no personal or professional consequences, they are exposing how broken and unaccountable the system of policing is.
I have mixed feelings about the tactic but I don’t believe that it discredits the movement for racial justice. I think there are certainly people who find clashes between police and protesters to be a valid reason to stop supporting Black lives matter and focus on chiding protesters instead. I also think that were it not for those clashes, those people would have found some other reason to drop their support because the actual implications of Black lives mattering make them uncomfortable.
To your suggestion that everyone sue the city as a means for getting justice, I can’t tell whether you’re serious or not, but this is laughable. The city is currently being sued over police response to protests and it has not changed police behavior. Suing the city also requires resources that most people do not have. And finally, even if they receive some sort of judgement, because of qualified immunity and iron-clad police union contracts, we, the tax payers are the ones who pick up the tab for that judgement, while violently abusive cops get to keep their jobs and nothing changes.
I totally understand the goal of provoking an “overresponse”. However, that mission was accomplished long ago, and while you may not feel that continuing with that tactic discredits the movement, others do. I frankly see no downside (and in fact considerable upside) to ensuring everyone enjoys the full rights they are entitled to, so I disagree that support for BLM has fallen because people suddenly realize the implications. Many people are simply exhausted by the tactics and the inability of protestors, having long ago made their point, to pivot to a more productive strategy.
Before or after things were declared a riot? If you’ve been there and seen things thrown at the police, shouldn’t you have stopped those bad apples?
Cops get paid 6 figures and can’t be bothered to police fellow officers committing abuses against Black and brown communities.
I get paid zero dollars and have no interest in policing protester behavior that doesn’t cause actual harm.
Maybe when my George Soros money comes in?
What technique would you recommend that I use to stop a person or group of people who have chosen to throw things at armored, trained professionals armed with deadly weapons? Approach them while jangling my keys and making myself look as large as possible?
You may not be able to stop them, but I would recommend you stay far away from such a person group, just as you would if they were throwing sticks at a hornet nest.
I think that the motives for why the police act the way they do is pretty clear.
Far-right group coming to town? More overtime!
A little extra brutality directed at the protesters to make sure they keep coming back every night? More overtime!
Federal agents coming to town and inciting local hatred for the leader of the federal government? More overtime!
I did some rough math: approximately $5.7 million on overtime in just a few months. We have around 900 officers with the PPB. This means an average of ~$6000 extra pay in overtime for the officers working these protests. In addition to all the homophobic chicken sandwiches they’ve been fed on city money.
At this point, it honestly feels like both sides are serving each other’s ends by getting caught in this cycle. I stand with the intentions of the protesters but I wonder if there is a way to show discontent without lining the pockets of those you’re protesting against? Or way to do it without producing violent media; half of which will be shown here and the other half on Fox News. I certainly don’t have the answer but I’d love to start examining this movement with an outcome-oriented strategy.
Here are some ideas: Electing like-minded leaders would be an excellent place to start. Promoting fully baked policy solutions over counter-productive sloganeering would be another. Working with opponents, rather than demonizing them, on areas of alignment (there are some pretty obvious areas of common ground between police and defunders) would be a third.
It’s not just $6000 in extra pay. That overtime spikes their pensions, too.
An armed checkpoint is in no way comparable to blocking (mainly motor vehicle) traffic. If “antifa” set up an armed checkpoint at a protest, they’d get swarmed by PPB et al within minutes.
And as far as riding a bike through a protest that’s blocking the road, I’m almost certain no one would stop you, or even say anything to you, as long as you weren’t riding aggressively.
Protest fatigue.
This just shows how vulnerable bike riders are, we aren’t in cars and now subject to gun checks and police body checks. Which just shows how much PDX bicycling activist have shown up and supported #BLM activists. We have been a vital and threatening support crew to #BLM. I wish #BLM would show cyclists some love. Instead we have Lew Frederick supporting Tear Gas Teddy. Sarah absolutely deserves the support of PDX #BLM leaders. Of course cyclists are now targeted with a spoiler mayoral campaign. There are no saviors here, but patriarchy is lining up against the the only woman who has the chance to win.
Who wants to start a recall petition for Frederick?
Going by PPD Twitter, it seems like the most common reason PPD declare and unlawful assembly is that the crowd is blocking right of way for cars.
PPDs definition is…
“an unlawful assembly that constitutes a clear and present danger of riot, disorder, interference with traffic upon the public streets or when another immediate threat to public safety, peace or order appears.”
Portland defines a “street” as…includes any street, avenue, boulevard, alley, lane, bridge, bicycle path, road, walk, public thoroughfare or public way, and any land over which a right of way has been obtained, or granted and accepted for any purpose of public travel.
The definition clearly includes the path through the park, yet no unlawful assembly was declared. It looks like PPD is not following their own definition.
It’s not a big mystery why the cops turn a blind eye to right-wing paramilitaries
I think there should be in investigation into whether PPD worked together with the proud boys to create a scare to generate support for PPD being deputized as federal agents in preparation for the event, apparently until the end of the year. I think PPD was frustrated by the city oversite, especially with regard to the use of tear gas. Now, as federal agents, PPD has independence from city oversight and can take direction from federal agents and adopt fed policies and practices at will, without city government interference. The inflated attendance numbers were only a scare tactic to create support for the federal deputations.
It looks like today the city figured this out, but too late now.
https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-mayor-withdraws-consent-for-police-deputization/
I haven’t said or typed the words “defund the police” up to this minute. But to me, a police officer deputized by the feds is off the clock. Let Barr cover the payroll.
The situation in the video is actually pretty terrifying. You’re riding in a park and suddenly someone grabs your wheel and you’re instantly surrounded by several masked people in protective gear, and possibly armed. You’re at their mercy. Are they going to steal your bike? Beat you? or only beat you if you don’t cooperate with them?
As others have said, that’s way beyond having someone get in your way when driving. It’s more like a group of people surrounding you, opening both your front doors, grabbing your steering wheel, and taking your keys. Police need to treat it like that.
Interesting. Grand theft auto of a vehicle and in this case a bicycle which is
a vehicle under Oregon Revisted Statuates.
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/814.400
Grant theft auto isn’t a defined crime in ORS but knowingly taking control of another’s vehicle unauthorized is a felony.
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/164.135
“(1)A person commits the crime of unauthorized use of a vehicle when:
“(a)(A) The person knowingly takes, operates, exercises control over or otherwise uses another’s vehicle, boat or aircraft;
“(B)The person is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the owner of the vehicle, boat or aircraft does not consent to the taking, operation or other use of, or the exercise of control over, the vehicle, boat or aircraft; and
“(C)The owner of the vehicle, boat or aircraft did not consent to the taking, operation or other use of, or the exercise of control over, the vehicle, boat or aircraft;”
Not sure, but I think a bicycle is considered a vehicle only under Oregon’s Motor Vehicle Code, which covers moving violations, but I think felonies may be under another part of the ORS. Anyone know the scope of the bike-is-a-vehicle statute for sure?
All the guns but where’s the gunplay? All they do is carry ’em around.
Waiting for 45 to drop the Green flag.
Yeah it’s not much fun when the shoe is on the other foot is it?
Maybe you can link us to the Antifa bike route roadblocks you seem to be referring to?
That little Proud Boys party was a big nothing compared to the four months of Burning, Looting, and Murder we’ve been living with.
So, you don’t have it, then?
I did a search for “Portland Looting”, because I am not aware that this has been a pervasive, ongoing issue. The top search results were entirely from right wing news outlets such as Breitbart and Fox. Talk about your lamestream media.
I rode through the park and checked out the rally. There were 3 percenters doing security with AK-47s in the open.
They walked right past the police cars.
BLM supporters would have been shot.
You’re right and what’s more, innocent bystanders would have been shot, tackled, harassed and arrested.
Is there a legal defense fund set up for the food delivery person who was viscously attacked? I’m hoping he will have enough funds to launch a civil suit.
I love how the organizers of PB event harassed journalists because they were violating “our safe space.” Yes, they used those words.
Usually their Mom guards the door to the basement.
Did anyone else notice (in the Delta Park video), that when they had the cyclist captured and encircled, there was another Mensa society candidate (these Mensa membership rituals are getting tougher and tougher aren’t they?), that appeared at about 15 seconds into the video that appeared to be doing something rather “curious”. Notice that as the person enters into the scene and approaches the “cycling terrorist”, their right hand is empty while the left hand is holding a small carry bag. The empty right hand disappears into the bag and then re-emerges with some sort of device. It can be seen being held in the right hand of the Mensa candidate for the remainder of the footage as the cyclist makes his way out of the mob. The object is slender and appears to be about 5 inches in length and also gives a metallic shine when it reflects off of the sun when the subject turns to escort the dangerous cyclist away.
I doubt that the metallic appearing object is a small flashlight, to be used to help the hapless and thankful cyclist through the park by shining a light to his destination, because, golly, it isn’t night time. Perhaps it is lunchtime and Einstein is preparing to cut open his box lunch that Mommy made for him…
Because it is such a curious thing to do, perhaps our friend at the Oregonian can have some of her constituents (in the photo and video department) enhance that portion of the video and help determine what this object is? After all, we want Mom to rest assured that little Johnny did remember to eat his lunch.
There are lots of people here trying to justify the behavior of “their side” and condemn the behavior of “the other side”, but it sounds like you’re drawing distinctions where there isn’t much difference. Maybe just stop putting random passersby into situations where they’re fearful?
“It seems as if our local and state police are getting more aggressive and brutal, even as protests against this very type of treatment have gone on for well over 100 days.”
JMaus, you do realize the irony in your conclusion? 100 nights of being consistently verbally and physically assaulted, little wonder these human beings are becoming testy. I hope your city recovers; I miss it.