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So, the Portland Protest Bureau, who kind of "officialized" their organization yesterday (or two days ago?) Is suspect to have spoken to/made a deal with cops (or feds? Since the sit-in was at the courthouse) to permit their activity in front of the courthouse -
- the reports I've seen (I hadn't arrived yet when this happened) are that, between speakers, a member of the group explicitly mentioned this deal with the cops. Which, y'know, is a pretty big red flag. My personal experiences with this group are pretty neutral -
- I've seen members of their group do/say things I don't agree with (most principally, putting the fence back up one night after it was torn down), but they're pretty good at getting a crowd going and keeping them together. They tend to play things really safe -
- including taking the group away from the justice center or (on the 4th), trying to steer us from returning to the JC after getting pushed out (citing concerns about police presence on the way back, which there wasn't much). They've also been pretty adamant about not fucking w/-
- the federal courthouse (again, citing concerns about dangers the feds might pose vs the cops, but also saying things like "our issue isn't with the feds, it's with the police". Kinda strange imo to try and distance the two entities). Anyway, after the sit in ended, the group -
- moved in front of the JC, giving speeches. I was at the vigil, and a woman came near the vigil with a bullhorn announcing that a) if you were arrested, DO NOT shout your full name out to the public (protest bureau had, minutes earlier, advised people do that), and b) -
- the people with the protest bureau were working with cops. Her main point: don't talk to cops. Don't work with cops. Don't trust people who do. Pretty much the whole crowd moved to gather around her, and protest bureau people approached with their own bullhorns -
- to argue that they weren't working with the cops, but I don't think they were very convincing. Someone (unsure if associated with protest bureau), accused original bullhorn woman (I'll call her D, as I heard that in reference to her) of being drunk, leading to quite a few -
- protestors to chastise the accuser/step in between D and the bureau. After some argumentation, wherein both sides called for unity but D clarified that any divide is created by people who choose to work with cops, D called for people to move away from bureau folks and -
- to the back of the JC. From there, periodic verbal scuffles (and one physical, though tangentially related I think) occured, mostly between D and bureau folks who followed us back here. Eventually, the apparent leader of the protest bureau appeared and spoke to D -
- they seemed interested in de-escalation of this kind of infighting, stating that we should save disagreements for when we're off the field. A sentiment I'd agree with in a context that wasn't concerning potential cop collaborators. When confronted with the bureau's -
- apparent deal with the cops, the leader denied this, but stipulated that it could have been of their members. Which, for a one day old organization, is not exactly a good sign of leadership
I took off after that, but that's my perspective of last night
