Witnesses Describe Police Attack On Anti-Bush Protest In Portland
"They were not police; they were paramilitary troopers."

Portland, Oregon -- www.authenticpress.net

After a long period of militarization of domestic police forces, and with
draconian laws in place such as the USA Patriot Act, it seemed only a matter
of time before overt and violent repression of civil dissent would begin. It
began Thursday in Portland, Oregon.

A peaceful march estimated at upwards of 3000, including families with
children in strollers and elderly in wheelchairs, gathered in downtown
Portland. The march was organized to protest visiting President George W.
Bush's new forest initiative, the impending war on Iraq and the
administration's repeal of civil liberties. Police herded the marchers into a
confined area near Bush's hotel, then attacked from at least two directions
with batons, pepper spray and rubber bullets.

Members of the media were deliberately targeted. According to the website of
Portland Fox affiliate KPDX, police working in coordination with the Secret
Service pepper sprayed reporters, producers and photographers covering the
march. According to an article on the KPDX website:

"Several of our own KPTV/KPDX employees were sprayed. One of them was
photographer Beth English. Her tape shows that a police officer takes a dead-
on aim at her face. Beth was treated and released."

Full report: http://www.kpdx.com/Global/story.asp?S=907583&nav=2cFk3gTHAqwk

Troy Pickard, opinions editor of the Panther Newspaper at Chapman University
in Orange, California, said he was shot with a rubber bullet at close range. A
picture of Pickard taken just before the shot was fired showed no provocation
on the part of Pickard or the protestors at a barricade set across their path
by police.

"I had come up for a few days and I stumbled into the protest, not even
knowing one was planned," said Pickard, 20. "In the course of my photography,
I was shot in the right shoulder by a police officer from a distance of 15
feet."

Protestor Hope Marston from Eugene, Oregon said it appeared as though police
in riot gear were stealing for a fight before the attack.

"I actually watched a line of them, beating their black jacks against their
boots in a Hitleresque rhythm," said Marston. "They were not police; they were
paramilitary troopers."

Protestor Jason Maxfield was also at the front of the crowd and had a clear
view of the orchestration of the attack by police.

"The police mobilization/attack seemed to be planned and orchestrated rather
slowly," said Maxfield. "I watched an officer who appeared to be in command
walking up and talking to each officer on the front line. Then one of them
started lifting both arms and lowering them rapidly -- presumably some sort of
signal -- and suddenly the whole line of them burst forward into the crowd. It
certainly didn't seem like they were responding to any threat."

Activist Kyrstin Westwind, a self-employed organic baker who has worked with
environmental and consumer protection groups around Portland and worked on
Ralph Nader's presidential campaign, further described the attack by police.

"What began as a wounderfully peacful and respectful march turned suddenly
into a police riot," said Westwind. "People were being hit with tear gas and
rubber bullets at point blank range, riot police were striking people with no
obvious provocation [and] squad cars were plowing through the crowd before
folks had any opportunity to move."

Westwind, who has medical training, brought water and eyewash in case teargas
was used. She said she witnessed and elderly man from her own neighborhood
suffer an athsma attack because of teargas fired by police.

"This situation represented a clear medical emergency," said
Westwind. "Trained volunteer medics repeatedly approached uniformed police
officers (regular uniforms, not the ones in riot gear) seeking an
ambulance/paramedics for this gentleman and the police repeatedly refused to
make the call or allow access to phones."

Donald Joughin, who attended the protest with his wife and three small
children, described how police attacked from the rear of the crowd.

"The march stopped at the intersection of 2nd and Alder,” said Joughin. “We
could not see why from our position on the southwest corner of the
intersection. Police quickly moved up behind us and a moment or two later
sprayed pepper spray into the crowd from the northeast corner of the
intersection. The crowd ran toward us to escape the spray."

Joughin asked a police officer how he could get out of the crowd with his
small children, and the officer pointed in the direction of the northeast
corner, where police were pepper spraying protestors. Seeing the situation
getting out of hand Joughin yelled for the officer to let him through the
barricade.

"He looked at me, and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed directly at
me," said Joughin. "I was at an angle to him and the spray hit my right eye
and our three-year-old who I was holding in my right arm. In the same motion
he turned the can on my wife who was holding our 10-month-old baby and doused
both of their heads entirely from a distance of less than three feet."

Despite the danger posed by pepper spray to small children, it took several
minutes of pleading by protestors who were helping the family before an
officer in charge finally let the family through to seek medical treatment.

"I yelled at them to let us pass for about two minutes and finally some
officer up the line nodded me and the baby through," said Joughin. "They were
not going to let my wife and other children out. But after a few minutes of
pleading from the crowd and another signal from up the line, they let them
out. As we passed, the officers were laughing and said something to the effect
of 'that's why you shouldn't bring kids to protests.'"

KPDX also quoted Portland police saying that children should not have been
brought to a protest, indicating an attitude on the part of police that
violence is inevitable in any such demonstration. A police spokesman told KPDX
that members of the media should not expect immunity if they cover a protest.

"There are people who have been apparently pepper sprayed and apparently a
reporter or reporters," said police spokesman Henry Groeper in a statement to
KPDX . "You get into the crowd, we're not here to control you. You're there to
film. But if pepper spray is deployed, I'm sorry but you're gonna be a part of that."

[Buddy Grizzard is an independent writer, researcher and musician from Atlanta, Georgia. Buddy has worked as a volunteer on the campaigns of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Georgia Green Party gubernatorial candidate Nannette Garrett, and publishes Authentic Press, available in .pdf format at www.authenticpress.net.]