A crowd gathered before the Justice Center on Nov. 29 to further protest the non-indictment decision of the grand jury in the case of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. An hour and a half prior, Wilson resigned from the Ferguson Police Department. Reverend Jesse Jackson addressed the protesters, who seemed more collected than Tuesday night’s demonstrators. Later, protesters participated in a collective march through downtown Portland.
“In a real spiritual sense, tonight Michael Brown is more alive than his killer. For we feel the spirit of justice and decency around the world. People [are] marching in Portland, Seattle, in Mississippi and Maine. People are marching in Hong Kong and London. The people are marching all around the world saying ‘Forwards by hope, not backwards by fear.’ We are not going back. We are not going back,” Jackson said.
Speeches from Jackson and several Portland activists preceded the march and had a similar theme: civil disobedience is a weapon which violence dismantles. Many activists encouraged protesters to remember that the protest would be most successful by not engaging police and creating more violence.
“We must take the pain of Ferguson [and transform it] to the redemptive reconciling hope of love. Red and yellow, brown, black and white—we are all precious in God’s sight. Everybody is somebody,” Jackson said.
Despite pleas from the organizers of the protest to not engage the police, several protesters used the march as an opportunity to instigate clashes with officers. One protester danced on a still-occupied police SUV. When the protester ran away and escaped arrest, police formed riot lines, and when protesters didn’t back away, began using flash grenades against the crowd.
Within the demonstration, protesters argued whether they should instigate officers by storming the Broadway Bridge. Relations boiled over as a black protester asked white protesters to stop engaging the cops. “I’m not even a minority, I’m out here, I’m willing to bleed for you!” a white protester yelled back. “Don’t tell me what to do, I do what I like,” another said.
In front of the Portland City Jail on SW Second Ave, protesters staged a die-in by laying in the street and playing dead to symbolize the people fallen victim to police brutality. Officers declared that anyone participating in the die-in was under arrest. Nine adults and one juvenile were arrested. Police reports maintain that no reporters were arrested, despite speculation on Twitter. As the die-in demonstrators were rounded up, they broke into chants:
“We didn’t break the law! We didn’t break the law!”
Because of a long day’s travel, Jackson did not march with the protesters. Instead, he held a brief press conference inside the Justice Center, during which he elaborated on the importance of unity in civil disobedience.
“We’re building walls where we should be building bridges. The result behind those walls is ignorance and fear and hatred and violence. There’s too much hatred and too much violence. We must fight this force with all our might to maintain our struggles,” Jackson said.
