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Oregon

Federal Judge Finds Portland In Contempt For Use Of Tear Gas

December 1, 2020 Conrad Wilson, Oregon Public Broadcasting. , , ,
Late Monday, a federal judge in Portland found the city in contempt of a court order that limited police officers’ use of tear gas and other crowd control devices during racial justice protests. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marco Hernandez said that, on June 30, the city violated his order several times. The order, issued on June 26, mandated police limit their use of tear gas and other crowd control devices to instances in which the lives and safety of police or members of the public were at risk. It also said that such devices “shall not be used” against people engaged in passive resistance.

Oregon City Voters Recall Mayor

November 12, 2020 Jayati Ramakrishnan and Kale Williams, Oregon Live. , , ,
Oregon City residents voted to remove Mayor Dan Holladay from office after a committee mounted a monthslong campaign to recall him. The Clackamas County elections website at 8 p.m. Tuesday reported that of more than 13,500 votes cast, 68% voted in favor of ousting the mayor, while 32% voted not to recall him. Oregon City has 26,259 eligible voters, according to the elections website. The ballot question asked residents, “Do you vote to recall Dan Holladay from the office of Mayor?”

Oregon Becomes First State To Decriminalize Small Possession Of All Drugs

November 4, 2020 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. , , ,
Voters in Oregon approved a historic ballot initiative that would decriminalize possession of smaller amounts of all illegal drugs and funnel tax revenue from legal marijuana sales into addiction treatment, potentially providing an early model for combating deep racial disparities in the criminal legal system and significantly slowing the war on drugs. Now that Measure 110 has passed with nearly 59 percent of the vote, racial disparities in drug arrests are expected to drop by an astounding 94 percent, according to an analysis by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency.

The Next Steps In Eviction Defense

September 29, 2020 Portland Emergency Eviction Response. , , ,
Oregon - Here in Portland, there are signs that the movement for Black lives and the movement for actually affordable housing are increasingly intersecting in all kinds of ways.  Among the networks engaged in popular education and resistance organizing efforts around housing issues, you’ll find groups normally focused on the massive problems of killer cops and institutional racism, such as Don’t Shoot PDX.   Outside of the home of a family facing foreclosure in North Portland on Mississippi, you’ll find people who have long been involved with the daily protests that have been going on in Portland since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th.

Volunteers Mobilize In Aftermath Of Oregon Fires

September 27, 2020 Shane Burley, Al Jazeera. , , ,
Portland, United States - Hunter Bombadier has spent the better part of the past year protesting for an end to police violence and anti-Black racism – and supporting communities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. That is how the 33-year-old member of Symbiosis, a network of left-wing organisations across the United States, was ready to help when massive wildfires broke out south of Portland, Oregon, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. “We were able to use the programming and infrastructure we already had,” Bombadier told Al Jazeera in a recent phone interview.

Oregon Can’t Fight Wildfires Because Its Helicopters Were Sent To Afghanistan

September 12, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. , , ,
More than half a million Oregonians have been forced to flee their homes, as wildfires continue to ravage the West Coast of the United States. Amid record-breaking temperatures, the wildfires, which have charred one million acres of land, have caused the sky to turn a terrifying shade of red, with many comparing it to Mars, hell, or the apocalypse. Air quality in Portland, the state’s largest city, is currently the lowest in the world, below even that of infamously polluted cities like Delhi and Beijing.

Central Oregonians Stall ICE Bus With Impromptu Protest

August 14, 2020 Emily Cureton, OPB.org. , , ,
An attempt by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to detain two men in Bend did not go as planned Wednesday afternoon, after hundreds of protesters stalled the action for more than 10 hours, leading to a standoff with Border Patrol agents later that night. Immigration attorney Micaela Guthrie, who was among the first advocates on the scene, said the men were taken into custody in the morning, then loaded on to two buses. One man was detained at a gas station and the other was pulled over in his car, the men told a translator by yelling through the closed windows of the bus.

What Are Trump And His Goons Up To?

July 23, 2020 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
First and foremost, it is a political stunt to capture the law and order crowd and press on divides between the coastal cities and inland voters. But it’s also more sinister than that. The use of federal forces is designed to weaken local accountability by freezing out local government that constituents can reach. Portland's mayor might not even have opposed some "help" from the feds, but he wasn't asked. In other words, this wasn't mutual aid. This was indeed an invasion. An alphabet soup of federal agencies have been employed to crack down on police brutality protests, including the National Guard, the US Marshals, and the Secret Service (the National Guard being the only one of these organizations whose mission even arguably includes civil unrest). But the highly publicized Portland kidnappings or detentions, depending on which you want to call them, were carried out by Customs and Border Patrol, specifically the Border Patrol tactical squad which is called BORTAC .

Portland’s Wall Of Moms Joined By Dads With Leaf Blowers

July 22, 2020 Chris Walker, Truthout. , , ,
In response to the use of tear gas being utilized by federal officers against demonstrators, including a group of moms, in an uprising in Portland, Oregon, this week, a like-minded dads’ group encouraged others to show up to the event with leaf blowers in order to dissipate the chemical agents. Uprisings in Portland have happened nightly since the end of May, in response to police violence against Black Americans, including renewed attention to Jason Washington, a Black resident of the city who was shot and killed by police in 2018. Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as federal officers began appearing at the events. Last week, there were reports of agents in unmarked vans stopping next to protesters, whisking them away in the vehicles without stated justification and without identifying who they were.

Oregon Officials Decry Federal Agents After Protest Clashes

July 19, 2020 Andrew Selsky and Gillian Flaccus, AP News. , , ,
Militarized federal agents deployed by the president to Portland, Oregon, fired tear gas against protesters again overnight as the city’s mayor demanded that the agents be removed and as the state’s attorney general vowed to seek a restraining order against them. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum also sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court Friday night. The complaint alleges that unidentified federal agents have grabbed people off Portland’s streets “without warning or explanation, without a warrant, and without providing any way to determine who is directing this action.” Rosenblum said she was seeking a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.” Federal agents, some wearing camouflage and some wearing dark Homeland Security uniforms used tear gas at least twice to break up crowds late Friday night, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Proud Boys, Outnumbered By Anti-Fascists, Get Police Escort After 30-Minute Rally

August 19, 2019 Christopher Mathias and Andy Campbell, Huffpost.com , , ,
PORTLAND, Ore. ― A few hundred fascists once again invaded Portland for a much-anticipated rally Saturday, but this time were mostly deprived of the violent spectacle they crave, as a much larger group of anti-fascists made them know they weren’t welcome in this city. The fascists belonged to far-right groups including the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and the Three Percenters. And whereas at previous Portland rallies these groups have often confronted and attacked anti-fascist protesters, this time they were barely given the chance to do so. Upon arriving at Tom McCall Waterfront Park around 11.am. Saturday, they were kept separated from their foes by concrete barriers and a phalanx of police.

Oregon Teachers Are Walking Out, Forcing 600 Schools To Close

May 12, 2019 Holly Yan, Cnn.com , , , ,
Tens of thousands of frustrated teachers were airing their grievances at protests across the state Wednesday. But unlike with other teacher walkouts, these educators aren't fighting for higher raises. They're fed up with overcrowded classrooms and a lack of support staff, including school nurses and mental health counselors. "Nearly 45% of all reported classes in Oregon have 26 students or more," said John Larson, a high school English teacher and president of the Oregon Education Association.

King County Poised To Lock Out Fossil Fuels

January 29, 2019 Eric de Place and Ahren Stroming, Sightline.org , ,
King County is poised to join the ranks of Northwest communities that are locking out coal, oil, and gas developments. Later this month, County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove will introduce legislation to prohibit major new fossil fuel infrastructure, including gas pipeline expansions. It’s the right time for King County to act. Over the last decade, Northwest communities have faced down an onslaught of proposals to build coal export terminals, oil-by-rail transfer depots, petrochemical refineries, gas export sites, and more.

Oregon Again A Battlefield For Fracked Gas Pipeline And Jordan Cove LNG Terminal

January 26, 2019 By Simon Davis-Cohen, Desmogblog.com , , ,
When the incumbent Democratic Governor Kate Brown defeated Republican Knute Buehler in a contentious race for Oregon’s governorship, many in the state’s climate movement let out a momentary sigh of relief. Brown had promised to “lead on climate” while Buehler had pledged his support for new fossil fuel infrastructure. Now, residents are working to hold Governor Brown to task over what they see as the most pressing climate issue facing the state: the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and its Pacific Connector Gas pipeline.

How Tre Arrow Became America’s Most Wanted Environmental “Terrorist”

January 14, 2019 By Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, Counterpunch.org , ,
That Tre Arrow, a tree-hugging vegan who espouses non-violence and lives by the airy and nebulous philosophy of Gaia, would top the FBI’s Most Wanted list, only reaffirms the notion that the Bureau’s energy is being exerted in specious directions. On August 12, 2008, after a tumultuous seven-year investigation, Arrow was sentenced in Federal court to six-and-a-half years for lighting three cement haulers ablaze at the notorious Ross Island Sand and Gravel in Portland, Oregon, as well as firebombing two trucks and one front loader owned by Ray Schoppert Logging Company near the timber town of Estacada, Oregon. The acts were in protest of the Eagle Creek timber sale in Mt. Hood National Forest in the late 1990s.
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