#PortlandProtests
Tonight I experienced something that felt like war.

Teargas. Flash bangs. Rubber bullets. Crowds running and screaming. Separated. Walking around the streets of Portland looking for a group of people. Windows boarded up. Graffiti everywhere.

The police speeding up and down the streets, sirens blaring, loudspeaker roaring, riot trucks with ten cops pinned the the side. Smoke in the streets, fireworks going off.

My eyes burned. My skin burned. I couldn’t breathe. It tasted awful.

Flash bangs are LOUD. They sound like bombs. Or what I imagine bombs sound like. It’s scary.

Being shot at is scary. When you’re holding your hands up saying “don’t shoot”, it’s scarier.

Listening to young black people plead with the police to just care about their lives was, in a word, heartbreaking. Especially as officers laughed and smirked in response. Literally.

The dystopian pandemic nightmare scene made me feel like I was actually really high and wasn’t experiencing what I was experiencing. But now that my body is finally reacting to what happened

I know it was just a coping mechanism to feel numb because I was actually walking through a dystopian hellscape of sorts.

The protest I joined was peaceful and remained peaceful until 8PM. Curfew time. While there was an asshole (or two) trying to agitate the police, the rest of the crowd remained peaceful and called on them to stop.

The police reacted anyway. And immediately. That’s when the tear gas started. And then all hell broke loose. Everyone separated. The police tried to intervene with what was coming across the bridge.

10,000 protestors.
Holy hell.
The show of support is fucking amazing.

When I left there was still a huge crowd peacefully chanting and asking the officers to please kneel with them. It sounds like I left right before things got crazy again.

What a beautifully tragic terrifying yet inspiring moment in history. The people are hurting and the pain is so real. I don’t know what the start of a revolution looks like but maybe it’s thousands of people all over the country getting together and demanding better from the law

enforcement that is supposed to serve and protect them? For black lives and George Floyd and all of the many names the black community is asking us to say.

Maybe this is the start?

#BlackLivesMatter #portlandprotest