Tuesday Round-Up
It was a smoky, windy, and yet all-too-typical Labor Day Weekend here in Portland. Here’s what you may have missed.
Keeping it 100: The BLM/Police Brutality protests in Portland marked their 100th night on Saturday. PPB celebrated by arresting 59 people, only eight of whom were hit with charges DA Schmidt will pursue. PPB also declared a riot much earlier in the evening than usual, shortly after 9 p.m., before shooting protestors with impact munitions and teargas. One local claimed the gas seeped into their home where their one-year-old was sleeping. PPB may think that they can operate with more impunity than usual in eastern Portland, but it’s not the first time that they’ve had this particular issue with teargas, which has a tendency to drift, due to physics and such.
The Times is On It: The New York Times parachuted in a reporter from San Francisco to note the “political chasm” between Portland and the “rest of Oregon.” The article was mocked by locals, as you might expect. The two cities the article cited are Sandy and Gresham, and the story features quotes from the chair of the Multnomah County GOP, who basically exists only to give trollish quotes to credulous reporters, as he’ll never hold an actual political office. Gresham is part of the Portland Metro area. Sandy isn’t, but it’s not that far outside of Portland, either, only about an hour from downtown. Now, is there plenty of pro-Trump, anti-protest sentiment in Oregon? You bet. There were also quite a few BLM protests outside of the city, for example in Prineville. Protesting against the police and/or systemic racism outside of Portland can come at great personal risk, because everyone is out of their gourds with panic at the approach of antifa. In Klamath Falls locals swarmed the town’s largest flag to protect it, lest antifa come to do whatever it is they are supposed to do. Open an airline office, presumably. Nevertheless, it’s always fun when the Times does a self-own writing about where you live.
Side note: Sandy is also home to Joe’s Donuts, which, irrespective of your political persuasions is one of the state’s finest donut emporiums. If you drive past it on the way to Mount Hood on 26 you should turn around and get a donut re-up post-haste.
At Least They Stayed Above Water: The Proud Boys and other right-wing militia types gathered themselves for another Trump Cruise on Monday, driving from Clackamas Community College (motto: “We never approved this gathering!”) to Salem, where they attacked BLM protestors. Two of the Proud Boys were arrested and later released. Reports counted the number of cruisers at about 1,000. As tough and antagonistic as they all like to present themselves… one of the Proud Boys asked for a sticker from the Oregon State Police on their way out of the capitol. Could we mitigate the alt-right by just giving them swag? Possibly!
Baby We’re Burnin’: Much of the state is on fire, including near Detroit Lakes, Ashland, fires in Southwest Washington blowing smoke in our direction, and heavy winds knocking over trees and power lines. Perfectly relaxing and cool on top of everything else.
Hans Linde: One of the state’s preeminent jurists passed away last week. Judge Linde was responsible for the ruling in 1982 that paved the way for Portland to have as many strip clubs as it does, protecting nude dancing under the first amendment. Read Susan Shepard’s piece on Linde’s influence here and his fascinating Times obituary here.