A liberal girlfriend of mine sent me this essay.
It's written by a liberal girlfriend of hers who lives in Portland. My girlfriend said it's OK to post this; she thinks that it deserves a wider audience. I agree.
> From Leni Tupper
> I joined the wall of moms at the protests at the Portland justice center and the federal courthouse last night. I made sure to talk with some Black and brown organizers before I went, to check that they didn’t feel that us middle-aged, mostly-white ladies were taking away from the activists who have literally been there every night for 53 nights (many of whom are moms themselves, it’s worth noting). Everyone assured me there was nothing but love for the moms.
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> Except from law enforcement. The feds tear gassed us without warning, while they hid inside the comfort of their federal property. Once we got gassed and were trying to leave, they threw flash bangs, pepper balls, and tear gas cannisters at us (including expired ones- a friend kept the empty. In case you don’t know— I didn’t—expired tear gas can convert to cyanide). I could barely see the lines of unidentifiable men in camouflaged army fatigues approaching the crowd through a thick layer of smoke.
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> Each corner we tried to calmly exit by, there were more hazy goons throwing more tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs. A friend I was with shouted, “I don’t like this way!” as we waded through a cloud of gas. But when we turned around, we saw every other way out only had more.
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> These are not your everyday cops in riot gear, holding a line, whose faces you can see and whose humanity you can at least imagine. I know that PPB has done all the same messed up shit and is working with the feds, but being attacked by nameless, faceless, camo-clad agents of war who only appear in a cloud of smoke and gas feels different.
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> They were not dispersing the crowd, they were punishing us.
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> I am proud to say that last night’s protest was one of the biggest since George Floyd’s murder. PPB and now federal agents try to quell the protests, to punish the protestors into submission. But the people only come back stronger, in larger groups.
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> Please don’t buy the media and right-wing hype trying to cast protestors in a negative light. The worst that protestors have done is vandalize some property— primarily property that represents systemic injustices against Black and brown folks. And please don’t buy into the good protestor/bad protestor trope, or throw your respectability politics at the activists who are in the struggle. When people are literally fighting for Black lives, don’t police how exactly they do it. They get enough of that from the police and now the feds. Those are the only people who are being violent; those are the only people who deserve your scorn.
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> Being a respectable middle-aged mom did not keep me from being tear-gassed. Being respectable does not save Black lives. In the words of Assata Shakur, “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
friend in Portland, CP!
Bookmarking!
May I suggest sending this to some of the best at CNN and MSNBC? Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, and Rachel Maddow at MSNBC — and I don’t know who at CNN except I have seen some good reporting when I’ve gone by.
That is, if it is okay with your friend. She provides an invaluable eye-witness account.
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