Bicycles and the people who ride them have a long history of joining social justice movements in Portland. During the Occupy Portland protests in 2011, an ad hoc group known as “Bike Swarm” played a key role in protecting protestor encampments from police officers. A version of Bike Swarm returned in 2020 and supported the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
The latest example will happen later today when anti-ICE groups and Vision Zero advocates come together at City Hall.
This unification of activists happens when Portlanders face threats that present themselves on the street — an environment where bicycles are often more adaptable, powerful, and effective than feet or cars. The current threat too many Portlanders face is federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrolling streets. Earlier this week, City Councilor Sameer Kanal reported that two North Portland residents were “kidnapped” by ICE.
Councilor Kanal also appeared at Bike Happy Hour last week to share an update on his work to strengthen Portland’s sanctuary city status and to encourage bike advocates to stay connected to Council’s Community and Public Safety Committee meetings (which he co-chairs).
Later today, folks will have a chance to show support for immigrants and/or safe streets when advocates for both issues will converge at Salmon Street Springs for festivities ahead of City Hall rallies and a City Council meeting where a Vision Zero resolution is on the table.
Activists with Revolutionary Bicycle Club (RBC), whom some of you might recall meeting at Bike Happy Hour back in May, or more recently when they protested my interview with Mayor Wilson, are leading a ride to the Vision Zero parade in coordination with Revoke the ICE Permit PDX, a group calling for the City of Portland to revoke the permit that allows ICE to operate out of a building on South Macadam Avenue.
Organizers with RBC are appealing to safe streets advocates when they write in the description of today’s ride: “This is the moment to understand that our struggles are inextricably intertwined! From ICE kidnappings to car-culture domination, our streets have been made unsafe because we have allowed that to happen.”
RBC’s presence could make for an interesting contrast with the bike parade and popsicle handout being organized by City Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane as part of her push to raise awareness for Portland’s Vision Zero commitment. RBC is asking folks to wear red and black to show solidarity with immigrants. Councilor Koyama Lane is asking folks to wear (traffic cone) orange.
No matter what color you wear, what type of activism you prefer, or what group(s) you support, I hope you consider showing up to Salmon Street Springs at 4:50 for the gathering and/or making your way to City Hall for the rallies and 6:00 pm council meeting.
It’s time to show up and unite to keep our streets safe!
— Please note: I can’t make it to Bike Happy Hour or these events today (my son has a cross country meet and my knee has had a recent setback). Folks will still meet in the Rainbow Road plaza from 3:00 to 6:00 pm, but I encourage everyone to attend the Vision Zero parade and council meeting if you’re able!
CORRECTION, 9/18 at 7:40 am: The initial version of this story said one of the two people who were taken by ICE agents was waiting outside a school with their teenage child. That was not accurate. According to Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, both men were pulled over while driving. I regret the error and any confusion it may have caused.
Thanks for reading.
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ICE and their mission is abhorrent to me. But what can Wilson and City Council actually do here? I suspect it’s nothing. They can do nothing here. The current administration doesn’t seem bound by laws or decency, so “revoking the permit”, if this is even a thing, seems incredibly pointless and won’t actually change anything. ICE isn’t gonna pack their bags and meekly shuffle out of Portland no matter what Wilson or City Hall says or does.
PTB. I disagree! I would think that City Council and the Mayor would do everything they can do throw sand in the gears and make ICE in Portland and Trump’s life as close to hell as possible. Trump lives for validation and praise, and the opposite is also true. When he knows people are not afraid of standing up to his bullying, he is more likely to shirk back into his shell and call off his goons. That ICE building in in our city, so City Council definitely has some leverage. Even if it’s a small lever, they better damn well pull it as hard as they can.
Hey, I’m open to be proven wrong but I fail to see what meaningful action Portland can take here. There’s clearly a hierarchy of power and unfortunately Trump and the Federal Govt. is at the top. We can’t even ticket vehicles driving with no plates or keep autos off the MUPs, but yeah, maybe we can run ICE out of town, somehow.
I guess you and I just disagree on how to act when you are not at the top of the power structure. Like I said, I fully expect and will demand – and even participate in! – defying the power at the top when I feel they are acting in bad faith and against my values and beliefs. I feel like we are at that point with Trump. So even if I game something out and think the chances of success aren’t necessarily good, I will still die trying because the moment we let power-hungry goons think they can walk all over us is the moment our lives as free Americans lose meaning.
ICE enforcing federal immigration law is being walked on by power-hungry goons and that reduces the freedom of, ya know, actual Americans? More so, you’re willing to die for this cause over of all the issues facing Portland that are entirely within the control of the city and self-inflicted?
This is like how Gavin Newsom is talking of late, this completely fabricated, not remotely believable aggro tone, but he runs the 6th largest economy on the planet, not this place wherever towards the bottom it ranks in just about every category.
Not sure I completely follow your comment… but yes, I am much more concerned about everything the Trump Admin is doing than anything that is happening in Portland. The power of the federal gov’t — especially in the hands of an autocratic, unprincipled bully — is much more of a concern to me than any local power. And the idea that I don’t care about local causes is laughable. Also, I have a principle that I don’t tell other people how to feel about their activism because I know how personal and emotional activism is to folks. I would suggest you do the same and consider that people can have different ideas of how to respond to things than you might and that’s OK.
Sorry for the confusion, I was trying to understand the connection between ICE enforcing federal immigration law, and your comment about the lives of Americans being less free as a result of this action. That doesn’t make sense to me.
I know you care deeply about the city, which is why I find it unbelievably wasteful for the city council to spend any time waging a battle they can’t win, appears largely performative, and is the type of press that does not encourage investment and improvement in the city. Trump will not roll over from some permit being revoked and may be far more inclined to remove considerable funding from the federal government that the city relies upon.
The only “actual americans” that exist are the Indigenous people of this land. You know, the people the colonizers committed genocide against to steal their land to set up our white supremacist nation.
ICE isnt protecting the freedom of Indigenous people at all, instead they are getting deported.
And which iteration of conquered indigenous people are you most concerned about, the ones who had it before us, why not the ones before that, or before that?
Which indigenous people are being deported? Where are they being sent?
Have you heard of the Navajo?
Most academics beleive the American Continents had no humans until 20,000 to 16,000 years ago, at the same time cultures in Asia and Europe who themselves had displaced earlier waves of humans, were making elaborate representations of their culture on cave paintings and developing the Indo-European culture, language and religion.
Thus placing the migration and settlement of America by so called “indigenous” cultures firmly within the realm of a dateable and coherent world history full of migration, settlement and displacement
It seems Sky, you are in favor of Central and South Americans migrating to the United States in the present era, but not in favor of the migration of largely poor and desperate Europeans to America up to ca 1900–why?
I guess i should point out i don’t agree with ICE apprehensions outside of border areas but your, and the typical emotive left wing justifications just fall flat to me. There are better arguments.
Some smaller-scale genocide occurred 20,000 years ago so the far larger genocide of native americans 3-6 generations ago is somehow excusable???
I am fiercely opposed to the immigration of white people to America up to ca 1900 and am currently tinkering with my temporal fold flux-capacitor to address this issue. /s?
“he is more likely to shirk back into his shell and call off his goons”
I mean, f^ck lC€, but we should expect actually the opposite to happen. He is chomping at the bit to send in his troops. Not saying stay silent, but we all need to be aware of what is coming.
Lets just do nothing then and allow the complete fascist take over of our state.
Thank you. This is what I was trying to say with my initial comment but apparently I got too wordy and it came out wrong. I’m glad that you were able to distill my ramblings down into precisely what I hope to see happen. Thank you, Sky!
Maybe not very much, but the point isn’t that anyone is trying to get Wilson to unilaterally dismantle ICE. This is a caricature. The point is to resist, slow things down, actually MAKE the federal government use force or tricks or just illegal action, rather than just preemptively roll over for them.
Example of the kind of thing that can be done: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORPORTLAND_ENT/bulletins/3f3278c
Woah, a land use violation? Spectacular use of speaking truth to power. Maybe the feds can just detain them in tents under a highway overpass, because it sounds like indoors in a climate controlled facility is just a bit too inhumane for Portland.
If you would rather do nothing, go ahead, but I’m happy for anyone who can do something to do it, even if it’s small.
Yay!!!! Let’s all enjoy popsicles while we contemplate the violent killing of our neighbors on our streets and how VZ hasn’t worked! That’s so appropriate. I wonder if the other group will have animal crackers or cookies and milk. To further infantilize the horrors on our streets? To attract more people to the cause? To insult the victims? To clarify that whomever planned this spectacle does not understand the gravity of the issues? All of the above?
I feel you on this one Anonymously outraged. I’d just say to keep an open mind and see how the event turns out. I’ve often been surprised when my speculation about an event turned out to be wrong. I also think there might be a place for a VZ event that is about joy and community-building — which are two very powerful elements of successful organizing. And what if it’s time to change VZ advocacy tactics? I don’t recall ever seeing a VZ event framed in this way. I also always say that when we make judgments about things we need to look at the messenger and decide if they are credible and sincere. In this case I believe Councilor Koyama Lane is sincere and acting in good faith, which is another reason I think we should give this a chance. Thanks for your comment.
RBC. Great. A group whose vocal representatives have a glorified and narcissistic view of themselves and what their occasionally violent actions actually do.
It’s been a mystery why you support this self-aggrandizing club who seem to have trouble distinguishing their own rhetoric and drama from the world as it is or even the world as it can be.
The irony of them handing out “this machine kills fascists” in the wake of their own fascistic methods of shouting/screaming down others and seemingly existing to simply cause noise to drown out others’ views instead of debate is par for the course. The fantasy of their own importance is seemingly more important than any positive or measurable results that they could actually obtain.
Be safe out there!
Hi Jake9,
My job is to share information about our community and help connect dots when I can. Whether I support or oppose a group or person in this community is always secondary to that (unless in a rare case where I feel a person is dangerous or should not be supported for some other reason, in which case I will share that feeling and back it up with evidence).
Please note that I will often share information and events from groups whether I personally support them or not. Readers will have information and can make up their own minds about how to proceed – just like you’ve done here!
I’ll add that it becomes a bit more complicated because I will often separate the issue/cause a group is working on from the group itself. That is to say it’s possible that I support a cause, but I’m not ready to say I support the group or its members specifically.
Shouting and screaming down others is not a fascistic method. Claiming it is just shows an ignorance on fascism and is a way to confuse people about what is and is not fascist.
It seems you are very comfortable with the fascist takeover.
Surprise, the genocide denier also doesn’t know what fascism is.
I think it’s more like “does not care about fascism” because they erroneously believe it won’t effect them, their family, or friends.
Okay, if you just want to post silly goofball stuff than I have good news for you. People can finally live the persecution complex fantasy of having an out of control government be after you. All you have to do is go to the rosecityantifa site, make a lot of positive statements on it, post a bunch of blac block selfie pics of yourself breaking Starbucks windows on social media and if this turns out to be accurate, you too can be persecuted for your beliefs (well, and the vandalism).
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5509256-trump-anti-fascist-antifa-movement-terrorist-organization/
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-antifa-terrorist-organization-2131645
https://apnews.com/article/trump-antifa-terrorist-protests-0c6353e2c3da13da1596b3857cb59922
“Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death.”
Thoughtcrime is very different than breaking windows or belonging to (what is now, or will be once rump’s idiotic goons figure out a way to make it so) a terrorist organization.
This take is so boring, yet baffling.
Who is self aggrandizing? Do you even know what narcissist means?
How in the world can the message “let’s protest ICE” be narcissistic? Do words even have meaning? They don’t “think they are important”, they’re human beings, they see an obvious injustice, and they know that their voices can have some impact. Like literally everyone else.
Nevermind, I know what you think about other words that you equally misunderstand.
Why are you carrying water for the people who completely derailed your interview and wasted everyone’s time? I was there and it was a complete disaster of performative, narcissistic scolding. Zero minds were changed and I suspect tonight will be no different.
A journalist with a backbone would distance themselves from any group attempting to undermine a public conversation (and their own work!) but here we are, BikePortland pretending that it’s all hunky dory and not a toxic, abusive form of bullying that turns people against public safety causes.
I’ve just about had enough of this charade, and you should too.
While I do think that the city’s actions are limited, protesting authrotarian behavior is its own reward.