On Oct. 29, protesters from the Occupy Portland movement expanded their occupation into the Pearl District at Jamison Square, despite being warned by City Commissioner Randy Leonard that the Jamison Square occupation would not be supported by the city.
As promised, the protesters were met with police force, resulting in 27 arrests. However, those arrested were quickly released and were having breakfast back in camp on Sunday morning.
On Oct. 29, protesters from the Occupy Portland movement expanded their occupation into the Pearl District at Jamison Square, despite being warned by City Commissioner Randy Leonard that the Jamison Square occupation would not be supported by the city.
As promised, the protesters were met with police force, resulting in 27 arrests. However, those arrested were quickly released and were having breakfast back in camp on Sunday morning.
“We were surrounded by riot cops, maybe 30 people were sitting in the middle and 27 were arrested,” said Patrick, a protester who has been with the movement since its Oct. 6 inception. He declined to give his last name.
Patrick described police in “hard riot gear,” and stated that the police, when asked if they would arrest protesters, responded by saying, “Not unless Sam Adams wants us to.”
As the protesters in other cities have been met with police resistance, the movement in Portland decided to stand in solidarity with them—a statement represented by the occupation of Jamison Square.
“It was something that was supported by the general assembly and was in support of the other Occupy cities that have been mistreated, mainly Oakland,” Imre Ilyes, a PSU alum who works with Occupy Portland, said of the decision to occupy Jamison Square. “The hard part was the police were mostly sympathetic.”
The Portland Police Bureau said that they have spent $186,400 on overtime costs as a consequence of the Occupy Portland movement.
“We don’t control the police force, we don’t control the police,” Ilyes said. “Having any police down there was not necessary—that is the city’s call to have police come down and pay that overtime. I can’t take responsibility for 200 cops coming down to remove essentially 20 people.”
Ilyes argued that because of the police focus on the protesters, other parts of the city that have had issues in the past week have been neglected—especially North Portland, where there were three shootings last week.
Regardless of the arrests that occurred on Saturday, there has been relatively good communication between the city and the Occupy movement. The communication between the two groups is in stark contrast to the crackdowns on Occupy movements across the country. In Oakland, Calif., Occupy protesters last week were met with police force that included tear gas and flash-bang grenades.
“I would say one of the major reasons we have this luxury is Sam Adams is not up to be re-elected,” Patrick said in regards to the city’s willingness to let the demonstrations continue.
“We’re in a progressive town, and we’re in direct communication with the police, the mayor and the fire marshal. We have liaisons to all of them. We listen to what they say,” Patrick said. “If we were being beaten with sticks, we wouldn’t have time to talk.”
Pink Martini, a band with local roots, played a benefit concert for the Occupy movement on Friday in front of around 5,000 people at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Organizers of the concert had been communicating with the protesters for some time and did not accept donations at the concert.
Protesters are planning an Occupy Bagdad Theater event on Nov. 8. It will be a comedy show to support the movement.
The Occupy Portland movement has abandoned efforts to become a registered nonprofit in the wake of the finance committee’s alleged accounting errors. Estimates of misplaced or unaccounted for donations run as high as $20,000, though Occupy Portland said that the apparent financial mismanagement is simply miscommunication. Former head of the Occupy Portland finance committee Reid Jackson declined to comment.
The protesters are also continuing to encourage people to move their money into local credit unions.
“I heard OnPoint had so many transfers they needed to hire people to handle them,” Patrick said. “Everyone should do research and see what fits them.”
