The Education and Evolution of Occupy Portland

Day One of Occupy Portland, Oct. 6. The occupation lasted 40 days and 40 nights.

Occupy Portland marched into town on October 6 and promptly took over two (and sometimes three) forested city blocks wedged between the federal courthouse and the Portland building.

In the first week of the occupation, tents sprouted up slowly on the grass. The mud came quickly, but soon a thick layer of hay kept the mud from getting out of hand.
It was a beautiful place in that first week, full of euphoria, hope and promise.  Occupiers blockaded the street that runs between the two blocks, and the city adopted a laissez-faire attitude.  Mayor Sam Adams told the police that they were going to tolerate the illegal camping and the daily marches (without a permit) with good grace and a helpful attitude.  The occupiers, by and large, reciprocated by informing police of their routes and intentions.

During that first week I found myself drawn to the two downtown blocks repeatedly.   If I had a headache, it went away while I was at the occupation.  If I was hungry, somebody would give me a bowl of absolutely wonderful vegan stew.

A lot of hungry people started showing up.  As time went by and homeless people heard there was a place they could camp and get free food and access to other services (say, medical help at the First Aid tent), the populace of Occupy Portland became bigger and bigger. By the end of the second week there was no more space to be found.  The one restroom was overburdened.

The mentally ill also sought shelter there.  Counseling was made available.  Referrals were made whenever possible.  But because the emotional balance of the populace was getting shaky, fights began to erupt.

In that first hopeful week, nobody would have dreamed of picking a fight.  By the third week, one could often hear raised voices and evidence of disturbed thinking.  Organizers tried hard to discourage drinking or any illegal activity (aside from the urban camping), but things happen.  Things in tents happen a LOT.
The people who came to the occupation got support and services, but it became increasingly difficult for the consensus-driven movement to handle the amount of need that presented itself. But oh god, they tried. Dear lord, they did try.

All this just underscores exactly what sparked the occupation in the first place: income inequality. De-funding of government programs that would help some of these people.

Occupy Portland became unworkable by means of its success.

As a frequent visitor, I felt the mood shift.  I sobbed like an idiot through my first visit to Occupy Portland because the mood was so joyous.  It was like a whole community of passionate people discovered one another and it was beautiful. 

I didn’t cry in subsequent visits – that is, until the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 12.  Mayor Adams finally had enough, and gave the occupation until the stroke of midnight to vacate the parks. On Saturday I had to go down and gauge the mood.  I wanted to see if there were people determined to stay, and how many people were preparing to vacate.

Most occupiers were getting ready to leave, taking down tents and cleaning up the (admittedly messed-up) park premises. But there were a lot of people who had no place to go.

Cop in a face mask admires photos of herself mugging with colleagues as crackdown begins Nov. 12.

There was a jaw-dropping police presence surrounding and inside the park. Lots of cops were wearing face masks to avoid catching evil germs from the occupiers. I saw a gaggle of them mugging for their smart-phone cameras as occupiers attempted to clean up the encampment Saturday afternoon.

Thousands of supporters flooded the area and cheered as the midnight deadline passed and police did not advance. Occupiers held their ground and celebrated their victory. A lot of relieved demonstrators, exhausted from their all-night vigil/party, went home.

And that’s when the police advanced.  They rousted occupiers and cleared the parks.

By the evening of Nov. 13 the parks were fenced off and surrounded by cops in riot gear.

I didn’t know about any of that. I actually posted “Thank you, Portland Police” on my Facebook page Sunday morning, and went about my day.  I was getting ready to clean the kitchen floor when my phone rang and an activist friend in California was asking if I was getting arrested.  I pulled up the Occupy Portland Livestream feed, and five minutes later I was out the door.

We were holding the street outside the park, but police in riot gear were clearly determined to clear the street.

“Take off your riot gear. We don’t see no riot here!”

The local news reported that an officer was wounded by a projectile.  The occupiers pointed out the culprit to police and cheered his arrest.

The three blocks that had been our encampment were now fenced off and surrounded by cops in riot gear — doing nothing except looking menacing and collecting overtime. And these weren’t just Portland Police; there were cops from every remote corner of northwest Oregon. This crackdown is costing a fortune.

Emergency general assembly at Pioneer Courthouse Square

Typical to this movement, a General Assembly broke out in the middle of Main Street.  They laboriously took a vote as to where next to go. Like a lot of demonstrators, I find the democratic process quite tedious (“Enough talk – I have ADD!” one guy yelled) and when I heard there were a couple dozen demonstrators at Pioneer Courthouse Square, “Portland’s Living Room” right smack dab in the middle of downtown, I scampered over.

There, again, they were trying to have a mini-general assembly, but it was interrupted by the arrival of 1500 chanting demonstrators.  The main general assembly had voted to come to the square.

“Whose Square? OUR Square!”

The City of Portland was in the weeks-long process of reconstructing the official Portland Christmas Tree. The center of the square was barricaded and filled with huge fir boughs that are to be nailed into the Christmas Tree Proper.  (I have watched this process for years and always wonder why it takes two trees to make one Christmas tree. God is not the only one who can make a tree, apparently.)

“Mike check.” (“Mike check.”)
“Stay away from the Christmas tree.”  (“Stay away from the Christmas tree.”)

We all stayed away from the tree, but they put a hapless cop in there to protect it anyway.

The Occupation isn’t over, but the parks are cleared and fenced. The City has announced that occupations in any other park would be “inappropriate.” Demonstrators are deciding what the next move will be.  In the meantime, a question remains:

Where do the people in need go now?  For forty days and forty nights, they had a place to sleep and eat and find a friendly ear. Now the spaces under the bridges are getting full.  The disparity between rich and poor continues to grow.  The occupiers are gone, but the need goes on.  

That’s why we started this thing in the first place.