[thechat] Bush visit update

[Erika Meyer]

FWIW you may be right: the police did say that they didn't have info
on what exactly was planned for the demonstrations, that activists
weren't forthcoming with info.  They were expecting a couple hundred
of people, not a couple thousand, they said.

OTOH if they'd been watching Indymedia, they may have had a clue...
OTOH our police are just another underfunded public service...

So, similar to the WTO in Seattle, the cops were not prepared to deal
with the crowds and the logistics of moving the elite (aka donors)
thru the masses.

There is in Portland a lot of mistrust of police, and not without
reason.  But events like this make the rift worse.  We really need to
get a different chief of police, for one thing.  Our current chief
came from LA and people associate him with the Rodney King riots, and
strong arm tactics.  He may be a decent guy, I don't know... but he
is not well loved nor is he trusted.  His track record isn't the best.

I've kept a side eye on the activist community in Portland, and there
is a minority who want to f*ck sh*t up.  Unfortunately.  Even when
it's just 3 or 4 like that, it blows the whole concept of
passive/peaceful resistance to shreds.

In this case it was I think the main issue was poor planning, poor
police preparation, poor communication between activists and police,
and mistrust on both sides.

Erika

>% Something changed, and I think it was the Seattle WTO protests that
>% changed it.  There were lots of demonstrations in the 80s,
>% anti-nuclear demonstrations.  It wasn't like this.
>%
>% Erika
>
>>From where I'm standing (London), the reason's fairly
>straightforward.  We (anti-nuclear demos from 82 onwards)
>weren't so dumb as to arrange for thousands of people
>to come into the City, *and then make a point of refusing
>to deal with the police*.
>

--