PROTESTS, CROWD CONTROL,
and the SIEGE of a NEIGHBORHOOD

As this issue of the PPR goes to press, the Portland Police Bureau just completed a crowd control training exercise on March 16th. It remains to be seen whether the Bureau's recent relative restraint in crowd control situations is the beginning of a more civil relationship between police and protesters, or merely a tactical lull in police hostilities.

Police presence at a December 16 march against US imperialism was relatively low-key, even as over 100 marchers took the streets, briefly rallied inside Pioneer Place shopping center, and burned flags on the transit mall. Although police refrained from violence and harassment, several officers violated Police Directive 312.50 by not wearing proper identification.

After the march left the shopping mall, police deployed two Rapid Response ("riot") units. The riot cops briskly tailed the protest, but did not interfere or make arrests.

Police presence at two protests during a visit by President Bush on January 5 was heavier, and featured the imposition of virtual martial law along NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Hundreds of protesters gathered near NE MLK and Monroe, where police had erected barriers to keep the crowd away from the youth employment center that Bush was to visit. Police issued several orders to disperse, and deployed a line of riot police when the crowd refused to move. The usual tense standoff ensued, but ended when protesters disbanded to converge upon the site of Bush's other stop at Parkrose High School.

Meanwhile, many residents along MLK had been ordered via computer-generated phone calls to be out of the neighborhood or sequestered inside their homes during the Presidential visit. When three residents who had not received such a call attempted to leave their home and join the protest, police officers ordered them inside. The young women were exiting through their back yard when they were accosted, dragged down the street and handcuffed. Two were arrested (though not charged with a crime), while the third was released.

The second protest, at Parkrose, was occasioned by an even heavier police presence. Plain-clothes officers videotaped and photographed protesters while State Police in riot gear kept the crowd far from the school where Bush was delivering a speech.

After protesters occupied the intersection at NE 139th and Shaver for about thirty minutes, Portland Police dispersed the peaceful crowd in a relatively non-violent manner (only one instance of hair-pulling was reported).

We're looking forward to seeing the freshly trained cops interact with crowds to see if the new low-arrest, low-brutality PPB continues.

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