As most of you have already heard, the big protest ride on Saturday turned ugly once it got to South Waterfront. What one BikePortland reader described as a “joyful” vibe at Irving Park in Northeast Portland where the ride met up, ended up with a full frontal assault on innocent people by federal officers outside the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters building on South Bancroft Street.
I left shortly after thousands of bike riders converged on Caruthers Park (a few blocks north of the ICE facility) for a rally organized by labor union groups. I didn’t experience the tear gas and flash bangs that have come to define the otherwise peaceful event; but asked for readers to share their memories.
Geoffrey Hiller, a photographer working on a five-year project about bike culture in Portland, was on the bike ride. He knew emotions were high after the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, but didn’t expect one of the many mass bike rides he’s documented in the past five years would end in him being tear gassed for the first time. “Once I got to Southwest I felt a huge shift of energy,” Hiller shared with me after the event. “The solemn feeling in the air was so different from the way the ride began.” As he walked with hundreds of other cyclists south to the ICE building, he heard the first loud bangs. “And a few seconds later I was engulfed in tear gas,” Hiller recalled.
“It was painful and all I could do was shoot off a few more frames and head back to the park to get my bike. It was awful seeing little kids and seniors affected by the nasty chemical gas.”
Another person who reached out to BikePortland to share their story, Eric Oliver, said he never thought he’d have his first amendment rights violently violated. Like many others, he figured since major labor unions endorsed and planned the event and it happened in daytime — not to mention the fact that all sorts of folks showed up — that it would be a safe event.
Here’s how Oliver describes what happened as he left the rally in the park and headed to the ICE building:
“The march was composed of lots of different types of people, including many families. I saw elderly people with walkers, canes, and wheelchairs. I saw kids, toddlers, and babies. I saw many people wearing symbols of their religious or union affiliation. The mood was lighthearted and folks were singing and chanting slogans.
A few moments later, I was about a block north of the ICE facility and I heard multiple explosions and saw munitions flying through the air and exploding, perhaps about six times. I saw clouds of smoke begin to billow. At that point I thought the smoke was a visual deterrent, but then people started screaming and running back north. Then, the chemical irritant hit my body and I understood what had happened. In a moment, the gas created a choking sensation in my throat and affected my eyes to the point that it was difficult to see through tears and the feeling of burning and inflammation. People had fallen to their knees and were grasping around crouched and with their arms out bumping into things. I held the hands of two friends, and the three of us proceeded north.
When we were finally in fresher air, we splashed our faces with water to relieve the burning sensation, though it still lingered on my body into the afternoon.”
Oliver said he was “shocked” the federal officers used chemical weapons as he felt the marchers posed no threat. “This was a simple and peaceful protest, which I understood to be protected by our first amendment constitutional rights.”
Kris Holmes also biked with the group to South Waterfront. She’s been to protests at the ICE facility when tear gas has been deployed, but said something was different on Saturday. “The amount they used on Saturday was astounding. I saw people holding their crying kids, running away from the gas. It kept spreading several blocks towards the park. It was awful.”
Reaction from local leaders to the conduct of ICE officers on Saturday has been serious. Time will tell if it’s enough to curb this fascist behavior. Given the way this Trump administration is going, I seriously doubt it this is the last time we’ll see ICE officers act like this. But given what I know about Portlanders, I also seriously doubt this is the last time we come together for a powerful — and peaceful — protest.
