The initial police response, shown in “Red House Miss No Mississippi” on Tuesday, was harsh and spectacular.
William Travis, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, said: “We heard neighbors knocking on the door to get out and support the cause.
The fate of the small red house on North Mississippi Avenue has been taken up by social-justice activists who lost a black and native family, who had lived there for decades, camping on the property in the months following the Keynesians, with no prepayment.
But after the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Suburbs and Portland police officers, who now own it and plan to demolish it, stormed in to respond by arriving to “re-secure” his home, protesters quickly rallied – and found strength.
Then, another longtime resident of the neighborhood, Brad Ness, said the protesters’ massive objects arrived, slashing iled throats on the street, and stripping body armor and knee pads.
In the following hours, Ness said, he saw truck loads of wood, car tires, fencing and other materials unloaded for the forts, which now close the street around the red house.
The detainees decide to catch the police at the bay by stopping household, luggage and other protective gear. They have choked rocks and bricks, and they have put up domestic spike strips to puncture the tires of any obstructing vehicles.
Their blockade stretches from North Skidmore Street to Blandena Street, along North Mississippi and Albina Avenue, with groups of black cloth guards at each intersection, up to the second block.
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Mayor Ted Wheeler has said he will not allow protesters to establish an “on tonamus zone,” like one of the activists who tied the knot in Seattle last summer. He said he has empowered police to gently “use all legal means to end illegal business” in the North Portland neighborhood.
So far the police have been away. Portland Police Chief Chuck Love gave a video message to people in the barricaded zone on Wednesday morning: “Leave him behind. Put down your weapons and let the community return to order, ”he said.
Lovele tweeted in another statement this afternoon that Portland police “share community concerns about barriers, business and criminal activity in northern Mississippi.”
“We are aware of the stockpile of weapons and the presence of weapons; We are aware of the dangers to the community, the media, the police. … This Portland police will enforce the law and use pressure to rearrange the neighborhood if necessary, ”he said.
But the activists at the scene show no sign that they are letting their guard go or are thinking of going out.
Opposition parties and the Kinney family held an afternoon news conference in front of the Red House, asking the public to stay with them.
“Help us occupy this land,” said activist and community organizer Ragina Reg. “Help us do this so we can protect other families that they are going to do this. This … because of the anti-blackness within the system they will target other black and brown families. “
By blocking the streets the protesters are creating a collective sense of purpose. A group led by Deadtria Hester, a black activist, held a prayer circle on Wednesday morning during Portland’s protests against police violence and systemic racism this past summer.
“The world is watching us,” Hester said in a prayer circle, adding: “It is our duty to fight with every breath, soul and heart.”
Seeing the scene, William Travis said the street blockade “makes it really inconvenient for neighbors and residents, but the protest is inconvenient.”
For his part, Brad Ness, a longtime fellow local resident of Travis, believes the city is handling the situation incorrectly.
“I don’t understand why Wheeler and (the police) allowed them to strengthen the thing all day,” he said of the barricades. “This is ridiculous.”
He said a “big snowflow” should be brought into the city to clear the streets and disperse workers and campers. “He’s going to take it.”
Meanwhile, other people in the neighborhood are trying to go about their day. Just outside the occupied area, the popular Albina Press Coffeehouse remains open and runs a fast-paced business.
A woman who said she lives just two gates north of Barricade Avenue said police have been significantly absent from the area since Tuesday morning, and during that time the barricades became increasingly layered.
“Honestly, I think it’s weird,” he said. “It definitely creates a strange tension in the neighborhood.”
– Oregonian
