Thousands of people turned out on bikes to honor Alex Pretti and all victims of ICE and Trump’s fascist regime. At one point the line of people stretched from the Moda Center along the Eastbank Esplanade all the way to the Tillikum Bridge. The ride went from Irving Park to South Waterfront where a rally was being held.
Video and more photos below…
Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)
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fwiw the bikes in the crowd made it really hard to get away when ice started gassing us all. it might be worth thinking about in the future for crowd awareness – stick to the edges or lock up elsewhere if you’re going to an area that might turn spicy unexpectedly. i think a lot of us were pretty naive going into yesterday and were harmed by underestimating the potential for danger
There’s no enough poles or bike racks in the neighborhood to hold even half the bikes at that protest
This comment is peak Portland. Amazing.
You make a good point jack. Bikes in crowds are very unwieldy. I always try to leave my around the edge to be more nimble, but I totally understand why folks would keep theirs next to them. I don’t know if this is a fixable problem though because the nature of these mass events is that it would be difficult to communicate with everyone. I do think just some additional general awareness from bike ride organizers to remind folks to park and walk might be helpful in the future. This is what organizing is all about! Thinking through details like this to make protests more effective and safe. Thanks.
Yeah, I’ve found this is good practice, especially for tighter marches in areas like this. When things are a little more thinned out it’s fine, but this was a large group in tighter streets. Understandable how folks were naive to that this time, but just notes for the future.
Unfortunate that you blame bicycles. You could just as well apply the same to people who cannot run very well, people who carry signs, people with children. All of these make it difficult to disperse when illegally attacked by the rogue authorities we are protesting, but arguably make the demonstration more obviously peaceful, diverse and effective.
Sorry about my bike in your way, it’s not very normal for me to get gassed.
Next time I’ll make sure to check which way the wind is blowing.
Great images of an impressive turnout, Jonathan!
What a fantastic video Jonathan. You captured all of the key vantage points and the message was loud and clear.