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It's May Day, and the people of Occupy Portland are holding both marching and occupying a foreclosed home. Join us as we follow them:
At the foreclosed home
12:04 pm: Protesters have tied red and black cloth to what remains of the old "for sale" sign. Protesters are holding the ends of the cloth, walking in circles and singing: "Wave and spin, this is how our work begins. Mend and heal, take this dream and make it real."
12:23 pm: The cloth on the pole was a traditional European ceremony called the maypole. Protest leaders are encouraging protesters to touch the maypole for good luck.
12:28 pm: Alisha Jackson, the former owner of the foreclosed home, watches with a smile as protesters continue to build a garden in her backyard.
12:44 pm: Occupiers that were blocking Bryant St. are beginning to leave to join other Occupy Portland protests taing place for May Day. About 50 protesters remain, listening to music in the front yard and building the garden out back.
12:58: Two Portland police officers stop on Bryant St. They say they want to leave only one car here and ask a volunteer legal assistant working with Occupy if the crowd will be behaved. The legal assistant assures police "Everything is fine." The police leave.
Meanwhile, at the March...
12:50: At the corner of Broadway and Yamhill. Protesters are now in the middle of the street.
12:55: Police are arresting people on the corner of Salmon and Broadway.
1 pm: People are knockin on the windows of the Heathman restaurant, singing "Solidarity Forever."
1:03 pm: "I'm cold! I'm wet! I'm not done fighting yet!"
1:13 pm: Riot police at 5th and Columbia.
1:29 pm: Police motorbikes in a line. Now outside the police bureau. Riot cops waiting outside, blocking the sidewalk. Protesters march past to the sidewalk across the street.
1:35 pm: Protesters marching up other side of the building. Some thank police as they walk past.
1:37 pm: On Madison. Crowd thinned greatly. Police stationed up near bridge. This march does not appear to be threatening critical mass. Kind of diffuse, less than 400 people.
1:40 pm: And suddenly all of #m1pdx turns on it's heel and starts sprinting back toward the parks. They ran back to meet the mounted patrol at the World Trade Center. Getting kind of testy here.
1:42 pm: Entering Pioneer Place Mall
1:45 pm: Protesters have congregated at ground level, chanting, "Shut it down!"
1:55 pm: Now exiting to northwest, pounding windows, screaming.
2 pm: Pioneer Place rent-a-cop tells me and @aprilbaer that protesters have spray-painted the mall. Refuses to provide evidence of graffiti.
2:01 pm: Re-entering Pioneer Square
2:30 pm: Where'd everybody go?" Jefferson Smith chuckles. Smith says he came to #m1pdx because "I want to be tutored by my own eyeballs." #m1pdx protestor says he's skeptical of Smith. "I'm not asking you to trust me," Smith says. Smith says he worries Occupy members are tempted to provoke confrontations to get headlines. "They're saying 'These guys work for Wells Fargo,' and I understand that." "But a guy coming in from Beaverton wearing a badge, that's not his fucking problem."
12:44 pm: Occupiers that were blocking Bryant St. are beginning to leave to join other Occupy Portland protests taing place for May Day. About 50 protesters remain, listening to music in the front yard and building the garden out back.
12:58: Two Portland police officers stop on Bryant St. They say they want to leave only one car here and ask a volunteer legal assistant working with Occupy if the crowd will be behaved. The legal assistant assures police "Everything is fine." The police leave.
Meanwhile, at the March...
12:50: At the corner of Broadway and Yamhill. Protesters are now in the middle of the street.
12:55: Police are arresting people on the corner of Salmon and Broadway.
1 pm: People are knockin on the windows of the Heathman restaurant, singing "Solidarity Forever."
1:03 pm: "I'm cold! I'm wet! I'm not done fighting yet!"
1:13 pm: Riot police at 5th and Columbia.
1:29 pm: Police motorbikes in a line. Now outside the police bureau. Riot cops waiting outside, blocking the sidewalk. Protesters march past to the sidewalk across the street.
1:35 pm: Protesters marching up other side of the building. Some thank police as they walk past.
1:37 pm: On Madison. Crowd thinned greatly. Police stationed up near bridge. This march does not appear to be threatening critical mass. Kind of diffuse, less than 400 people.
1:40 pm: And suddenly all of #m1pdx turns on it's heel and starts sprinting back toward the parks. They ran back to meet the mounted patrol at the World Trade Center. Getting kind of testy here.
1:42 pm: Entering Pioneer Place Mall
1:45 pm: Protesters have congregated at ground level, chanting, "Shut it down!"
1:55 pm: Now exiting to northwest, pounding windows, screaming.
2 pm: Pioneer Place rent-a-cop tells me and @aprilbaer that protesters have spray-painted the mall. Refuses to provide evidence of graffiti.
2:01 pm: Re-entering Pioneer Square
2:30 pm: Where'd everybody go?" Jefferson Smith chuckles. Smith says he came to #m1pdx because "I want to be tutored by my own eyeballs." #m1pdx protestor says he's skeptical of Smith. "I'm not asking you to trust me," Smith says. Smith says he worries Occupy members are tempted to provoke confrontations to get headlines. "They're saying 'These guys work for Wells Fargo,' and I understand that." "But a guy coming in from Beaverton wearing a badge, that's not his fucking problem."
WWeek 2015