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1. A couple of weeks ago the uprising of Moms against the feds in Portland made national headlines for turning around Trump's incursion
2. Last night Portland Police appear to have targeted a leader of the Moms movement, Demetria Hester, for arrest
3. Hester, who is black, was nearly a victim of the MAX train slasher, Jeremy Christian.
At Christian's sentencing she called out the cops for racist policing
Christian's outburst against her made news: "I should have killed you b*itch"
At Christian's sentencing she called out the cops for racist policing
Christian's outburst against her made news: "I should have killed you b*itch"
4. During a demonstration last night, Hester was snatched off the street by @PortlandPolice https://twitter.com/cdsupriyadi/status/1292717276047671297
County arrest records show her still in custody:
6. The Washington Post is rightly treating this as national news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/portland-demetria-hester-arrest/
7. Head of the prominent local civil rights group Don't Shoot PDX is calling for a state investigation https://twitter.com/TeressaLRaiford/status/1292785636278067200?s=19
8. @jaketapper you recently had Portland police commissioner/mayor @tedwheeler on your show. you too @BWilliams -- may I suggest a followup
9. I cannot describe to my national colleagues adequately enough what a fucking trip Portland is right now.
10. For all the talk about secret federal police, the PPB are effectively secret police right now. Officers are covering their name badges. The mayor is allowing this. Instead cops have numbers (on the backs of helmets) that only PPB itself can decode. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/for-portland-police-to-provide-the-name-of-an-officer-at-protests-you-have-to-give-them-the-officers-names-first.html
11. So a famously unaccountable police bureau (where even people who erect shrines to Nazi-era German officers of collaborate with Proud Boys keep their jobs), has created a Catch-22 system where you the public can't identify an officer without knowing their name.
12. When I asked PPB for a rundown several weeks ago of officers subject to disciplinary action (this was after a federal judge decried their beating and tear gassing peaceful protesters) I was told that information wasn't available and I'd have to file a records request.
13. Now the bureau appears to be targeting Black activists for arrest. (The bureau, it seems, has a pattern of this activity -- previously arresting folks like @TeressaLRaiford and @GregoryMcKelvey )
14. When you find yourself watching video snippets of protesters being clobbered and can't for a moment tell whether it's Minsk or Portland, that's fucked up.
15. Semi-secret police. Arresting dissidents. This is an affront to liberal values. And it's happening in one of the (ostensibly) bluest cities in America.
16. At the same time, and in apparent contravention of city policy and a federal court restraining order, the Bureau is threatening to arrest and even arresting journalists trying to document this activity https://twitter.com/7im/status/1292529474185998336?s=20
17. The feds may have pulled back, but the dynamics that made Portland the epicenter for Trump's experiment in fascism persist on the ground here. It's troubling to say the least.
18. Jail update. It looks like Hester has been released on her own recognizance and that the $4,000 bail demand was dropped
