More "largely peaceful" Portland protests

[GMDino]

More on the riots, how they are declared and how the police often use force without declaring a riot anyway.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/27/906729976/police-declare-portland-protests-a-riot-but-this-definition-could-be-rooted-in-r

Quote:On May 29, the first night of mass protests in Portland, Ore., police declared a riot after thousands of people poured into downtown, started a small fire in the ground floor of the Multnomah County Justice Center and looting broke out.


They declared a second riot the following night. On both nights, officers used tear gas to disperse crowds. But then for nearly a month, police continued to use teargas without declaring a riot.


Alarmed by the frequency and amount of tear gas being used, state lawmakers passed legislation during an emergency session in June to address racial justice and policing. They hoped to raise the bar on tear gas use by making it only acceptable to use during a declared riot.

On Day 79 of protests against systemic racism and police violence demonstrators went to Penumbra Kelly building in East Portland.
Jonathan Levinson/OPB
"We were hearing that people were getting caught in these tear gas deployments," said State Rep. Janelle Bynum, one of the bill sponsors. "And they felt like they didn't have any warning. They felt they were trapped."


The bill was signed into law on June 30. That evening, police declared a riot for the first time in a month and blanketed a North Portland neighborhood in tear gas. Between June 30 and Aug. 27, police have declared 20 riots.


"What I didn't expect was for the bar to be so low," said Bynum, who said the history of these laws are also relevant to the moment.


"A lot of the riot and crowd control philosophy and statute was developed around the '60s and '70s when protests around some of the very same things ... rights for Black people. ... were taking place in the state and particularly in Portland," Bynum said.
On some nights, police have declared unlawful assemblies within minutes of protesters arriving.


"But then the riot part? Who knows," said Folasade Ogunfiditimi, a protester who's been coming out since the end of May. "Like a half-empty water bottle maybe? 
Somebody could walk on their property and they declare it a riot. It could be anything or nothing."


Ogunfiditimi said she's been protesting because Black lives matter and policing, with its history as "slave catchers," is a fundamentally corrupt institution.


And she said the way the police are treating protesters proves the demonstrators' point. She said on most nights they use excessive force and, just as the police spotlights got even brighter, she pointed and said it's like psychological warfare.


"They're very finicky, very emotional," she said. "They show in their actions they don't care what they do."