Do Justice, Make Peace: BLM Protests 4 Years On
Looking back on a summer of protest and Trump's authoritarianism.
Four years ago today I began writing about the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland. Despite being a homebody, I did have a long history of participating in progressive protest. I had thought to support the protests from home, as best I could, and avoid the consequences of exacerbating my anxiety. But when the first stories came out in mid-July 2020 of police snatching individuals off the street without the niceties like Miranda warnings that are normally mandatory for a lawful arrest, I knew I had to act. Supporting from home no longer felt sufficient. It no longer even felt ethical for me.
Having made my way to Portland by the 18th, my best friend and I headed downtown to one of the two areas of focussed protest. While the first of those areas was outside a Portland Police Bureau precinct and thus the clashes there were between protesters and local cops, the downtown protests focussed on a federal courthouse and jail. This meant that the mayor was ultimately in charge of the response outside the precinct, but where I was protesting authority passed through a maze, making accountability diffuse and difficult. It’s not even certain to say that all responsibility ultimately traced to Donald Trump, since the federal court system has its own marshals authorized to provide court security. The courts are not part of the executive branch and not under the direct control of Trump. Rather, ultimate authority there passes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who largely escaped criticism.
But we do know that Chad Wolf, who in the summer of 2020 was Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, sent a special unit (much like a SWAT unit) of Border Patrol officers to Portland to confront protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. Wolf’s entire “acting secretary” status was ruled unlawful just a few months later, but even if Trump hadn’t given him authority illegally, the behaviour of these officers at least is something for which Trump can ultimately be assigned responsibility by any fair minded person.
I wrote extensively about my experiences at the time. All of that writing was originally published (if you want to call it that) as comments in the open threads at Wonkette. Even from the beginning I cross posted some of that to the FreeThoughtBlogs incarnation of Pervert Justice, mostly because the audiences of FTB and Wonkette do not overlap too much. But I did not copy everything. I recognized too late that much of that was going to be lost. In fact, my very first FTB post on the protests is still up, but the uploaded photos have somehow been corrupted or lost and no longer display.
Over the next two weeks or more I’ll be diving in to what it was like to experience those protests 4 years ago, what some of the messages of the protests were, and what this says about the threat from another Trump term. In the meantime, though, I began my posts with some pictures and I will reupload some of those here.
The Ewoks!
I spoke to this person about her shirt. She said she was part of a group of people that was doing the networking and connecting for the protests. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the ewoks did tons of organizing as evidenced by their log traps and whatnot, and were absolutely necessary for eliminating the shield generator to make the raid on the 2nd Death Star possible, but the humans and the ship pilots got all the credit. She said their aim was to be like the Ewoks: worry about the organizing, not about the credit.
The purpose of the shirt, then? She said it wasn’t about getting notice or credit either. The purpose of the shirt was because it allowed people to recognize them and ask them for whatever they might need. The Ewoks wouldn’t necessarily provide it, of course, but because they’re the networkers, they know exactly where to go and whom to ask to get what you need.
The Graffiti.
Picture of the park-side entrance to the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse late on July 18, 2020. Obviously there was graffiti everywhere at the courthouse, and truthfully there was a huge amount around the downtown area. While the media (especially right wing outlets like Fox News) outrageously exaggerated the level of damage or destruction done during the protests, if anything they underreported the graffiti. Because many downtown businesses were closed for COVID, a large number of windows and doors were boarded up. While the graffiti was far more intense at the courthouse than anywhere else, you could find some level of protest themed tagging 5 or 6 blocks away.
I did misreport one thing at the time. That first night downtown I was told by a small group of people that the graffiti in this picture was all new within the last 24 hours. They insisted that the feds painted over it daily, and then protesters would put the new graffiti up hours later. I was, in this case, too credulous, treating multiple people in the same group as if they were confirming each other instead of treating them as a single source. Had I been more skeptical I would have realized that there was no fresh paint scent when taking this photo. Subsequent days at the protest it was clear that the graffiti hadn’t been painted over, but any correction I might have made at the time is lost in unsearchable comments.
One thing that struck me about the graffiti is the clash between pacifism and violent rhetoric, and between hope and despair. One reads, “I love you Mama, Papa, Babies, but no one taught me to love you.” Two others read, “Yum Bacon,” and, “Kill all cops.” The violent rhetoric is disturbing, but also is overrepresented. The most respectful protesters were also the protesters who were least likely to spray paint a building.
Blue Lives Murder.
This is my favourite graffito from that first night, found approximately two blocks from the main protest focus. Anarchy and Peace are seen together, in love and holding hands in a way that we might imagine signals each supporting the other. While below is the tag, “Blue Lives Murder.” Happy and hopeful, shocking and blunt: this image has a complex message about both why protesters are present and what they (or at least some of them) want: more freedom, more peace, and more love.
Time To Rest.
A number of people volunteered to help with first aid, including nursing students and EMTs. Each clearly wore symbols or shirts with writing that identified them and the type of help that they could offer. As a result, some of them were inundated with requests for help. This EMT up in a tree was resting in the park across the street from the courthouse where they could still see the action, but could take a break after an exhausting period on duty.
And that’s Pervert Justice, too, taking a break to make some (hopefully healthy) food. All rights are reserved, but if you’d like to use a picture, feel free to ask. PJ will be back with more in this series soon.
Love this post! Thanks for the flashbacks - the images and text were great. Looking forward to your upcoming project of the next couple of weeks. Gracias!