arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

On Thursday, September 26, between 150 and 200 people gathered at Congress Square to protest the War on Iraq that the Bush Administration is threatening. A mix of peace activists, anarchists, veterans, children, and students, the protestors performed a puppet skit (featuring a three headed monster representing Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, and Saddam Hussein) before the group took to the streets in chanting, drumming, music-making, dancing, and singing. The march which snaked throughout the Portland downtown tied up traffic for over two hours. The rally occured without any violence or property destruction on the part of the protestors.

Police presence built steadily throughout the rally, culminating in a police car with megaphone announcing imminent arrest for anyone who didn't move out of the streets when the group had returned to Monument Square. Many protestors commented that this was the largest police presence they had ever seen at a protest or rally in Portland. Portland Police Chief Mike Chitwood arrived in person to attend to the situation (who, in addition to becoming known for implementing increasingly draconian policies during his reign in the Portland Police department, which is currently under investigation for racially-motivated brutality, was also Lieutenant in Philadelphia at the time of the bombing of MOVE [http://www.moveorg.net/home] in 1985). Three people who didn't comply quickly enough or at all, or who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, were handcuffed and taken to an armored police bus. Three people were arrested in Monument Square.

One of the arrestees, Nick, dropped his backpack on the way to the bus. This reporter picked up the bag, but was confronted several minutes later by a police officer demanding the bag be returned, first claiming that Nick wanted his bag back, and then, when the reported moved to confirm that Nick had truly requested his bag returned, the officer changed his request, stating that he was demanding it back. The bag was returned. According to one protestor, Sarah, Nick fell on the way to the bus and a police officer hit his head against the curb.

After these three arrests, the march continued down to Commercial Street in Portland's Old Port. The protesters resumed chanting, drumming, and dancing in the streets until again being ordered off the streets or else risk arrest. Again, those who didn't comply quickly enough or at all, and those who challenged the order, were arrested. According to one of the Jesse, one of the participants, Jamie, who was also involved with the march, was standing on the sidewalk, holding her bike with it's tires on the street (as they are legally required to be. The police pulled her off her bike, and it is yet unknown whether her bike has been returned.

The violence of the arrests escalated. Many people passively resisted arrest, but none that this reporter or others observed were at all violent. This reporter overheard one of the arrestees arguing with police that her wooden noisemaker that she was holding at the time of arrest was not used as a tool of resistance or assault, which is appeared the police were claiming. Another protestor, Christopher McCadden was violently tackled by police. His shirt was pulled over his head as he was being tackled and beaten, and afterward as he was being walked to the bus. According to eyewitnesses, Jesse and Tes, officers refused to answer repeated questions for their badge numbers. This reporter interviewed eyewitness Tes Wilder.

Reporter: So what was your experience with this situation?

Tes: "I only got involved with this demonstration as I was walking down the street. I had heard about it in advance, but I didn't really know anything about it. ...I know that it was absolutely a peacable demonstration, and we walked all the way from Monument Square downtown after a few people were arrested. I only saw a few of the arrests, and all by one of the arrests - I think I saw five - and all but one of them were relatively peaceful, people who crossed police lines and the cops just took them and walked away with them, and that was that. But this one guy, when we were down on Commercial St., I didn't see what he did, I think he probably tried to walk out and cross the street, or got too far out off the sidewalk. The first thing I saw was that he was running, and that there were several cops, four or five at least, running after him, into the crowd of us. I got an elbow from someone in a blue uniform in the face and kinda got knocked off to the side, tripped over my skirt, it took me a minute to get myself sorted back out. And then a bunch of us huddled in a doorway. Right there, I was only a few feet from the man - they took him down to the ground and they had several officers holding him down, holding onto his arms and legs, and one of them was grinding his face into the bricks. He started bleeding, the woman next to me started crying, he was trying to curl up into a ball, I guess so that they couldn't hurt him, and they were pulling on his arms and legs to keep him from curling up, I dunno why. When the blood started coming, I mean I was shocked, the woman next to me said that this is the kinda thing that she wanted to call the cops [about], because someone was getting beat up, but it was the cops doing the beating up. It was probably only a minute or so, two minutes, but it felt like a lot longer than that before they got him up and hauled him away. He looked pretty bad. I think it was the side of his face that was bleeding, I didn't get a good look at him."

"They had the side of his head, most of the front of his face, shoved into the bricks. There was a pile of blood on the sidewalk, I got his blood on my skirt. I was very very close. We got people to take pictures of the blood after, except it didn't look like much, just a little puddle of blood."
"We were all kind of in shock, I didn't know right off why there were people shoving through the crowd like that, why there were cops coming in at us, I thought for a second that we had done something wrong, that we were about to be arrested or beat up, so we were all trying to get out of the way. I know they hauled him off later along with an older gentleman. When he [the man who was beat up] first came into the crowd there was an older guy that grabbed him, and again I don't know what he was trying to do. It looked like he might have been trying to pull him back or get him to stand up or get him to accept arrest instead of getting beat up? Or get him away from the cops? I really don't know. I know they arrested both of them in the end."
"The only thing he did to resist was to try to get away, and when that didn't work he tried to curl up in a ball so they could kick him. I mean I've seen people do that, and they didn't kick him. They just used excessive force in restraining him. I've got some training in non-violent restraint and when you're five on one you don't need to hurt people to keep them still."
"Afterward I talked to one of the cops as I was walking away, he was in plain clothes and a couple of us were discussing the police actions, and he told me they had no choice but to do what they did. And I told him that I didn't think that that made any sense, that crossing the street's not a violent action and doesn't deserve a violent response. And he said that they can't have people blocking off the streets, and they have to draw the line somewhere. I said that I just couldn't see that they had to hurt someone in order to draw that line."

Reporter: Could you describe the cops you saw involved with this?

Tes: "I couldn't describe the ones I saw holding him down, I couldn't...next time it happens I'll try to pay more attention to get faces and numbers and such. But I was so shocked and I was scared. I mean, I know this sort of thing happens, but I've been in demonstrations in big cities and not gotten to witness the people getting hurt or arrested. And I mean in my own little home city of Portland, that is the safest city on earth as far as I'm concerned, where I've been stomping around alone and never even felt scared for six years. And I'm watching the police, that I have depended on and trusted to keep me safe, beating someone up. I didn't catch their faces...they were all white, and actually I think they all had dark hair. The one I talked to after was a tall thin white guy with a shaved head, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't one of the guys holding him [the man who was beat up] down."

Three people involved in the march identified one of the cops involved in the assault as the same one who demanded Nick's backpack. He refused to give his badge number or identify himself. His photo will be available here soon.

As Chris was being attacked, another protestor, Walter Beasley, was standing on the sidewalk loudly yelling "No American Blood for Iraqi Oil" and "This is what a police state looks like!." According to the Chitwood talking on ABC News Channel 8 Portland, Walter knocked him down, but as of yet there are no non-police witnesses to this event. According to Walter, Chitwood pointed at him, and Walter, who was standing legally on the sidewalk was tackled by about six police officers, one of whom had a thumb in his eye, one pressing into his neck, and on pulling on his testicles, and others holding him down. According to Tes, at approximately the same time that the police jumped Walter a voice from the crowd shouted "He's the leader!." According to Walter, Chitwood jumped on top of him, fell down, regained his balance and sprayed either pepper spray or mace directly in his face. Walter says that he kept asking the officers to just cuff him and let him breathe, while they told him to stay still, but when he stilled they would bear down harder. They eventually cuffed him and held him against a police car. This reporter saw him thrown against and held against the car by Chitwood and another officer. Walter was yelling in pain and calling for water. The water not supplied by the police but instead eventually by a nearby protestor. After being released from jail, Walter was sent to the hospital where he will be returning for a sonogram to find out the extent of damage to his carotid arteries. He also has neck and back pain, a numb right hand, and an abrasion on his cornea resulting from it being impacted by a foreign object.

Fourteen people were arrested on charges of assault, blocking traffic, and resisting arrest. According to ABC news Channel 8, Police Chief Mike Chitwood was knocked down in the scuffle of arresting protestors. Twelve are currently released on bail, two are waiting for money (the jail will not accept checks.) Lisa Hopkins, who was very vocally protesting against her and others' arrests, faced the highest bail, at $240. The list of arrestees, according to the Cumberland County Jail follows:

-Christopher McCadden
-Mary Libby
-Lisa Hopkins
-Shannon O'Connor
-Cary Losneck
-Thomas Winton
-Joseph Domand
-Constantine Duffy
-Peter Engler
-Jamie Mandrake
-Daniel Pepice
-Nicholas Jackson
-Walter Beasley

Many photos of the march, play, and arrests will be posted on this website on Friday.

All people who are concerned about this situation are asked to call Portland Mayor Karen Geraghty at 761-8376 to express concern, call for heavier investigation of the Portland Police Department which is already under investigation for charges of police brutality, and to ask that the assault charges against peaceful protestors be dropped.

Please add more information to the comments section or write or call Hillary if you have more experiences of this event to add to this article.