Portland BLM Protest

First off, I am totally and completely in favor and sympathy with the Black Lives Matter protests, both in Portland and nationwide. I live quite near downtown Portland so I have a front-row seat to the news coverage of this particular protest.

First off, some of the real facts:

• The City of Portland is not shut down by the protests. Far from it. The protests happen in the evening and it only covers a few city blocks in downtown Portland. It sadly does affect business in the downtown area but it is far from widespread or city-wide.
• The protests are mostly non-violent and free of vandalism. The violence and vandalism has been committed by people not associated with the protest who are using the protest as an excuse and cover to commit violence and vandalism.
• Most of the police actions to “break up” the protests have been in direct action to “protect” the federal building which did suffer some vandalism in the early days of the protest by some protesters. Now it seems to be a target of vandals; the protesters disassociate themselves from current action against the federal building and I believe them in the main.
• The federal “officers” who came to Portland at the behest of Donald Trump exacerbated an already troubled situation. The fact that they were contract (mercenary) officers was proven by the way they acted.

There has been a killing associated to the protest, with the alleged shooter killed while being apprehended so things have not really settled down.

Now we are getting counter-protests from right-wing, pro-Trump supporters. I find it interesting that pro-Trump supporters object to a Black Lives Matter protest given that Trump is not a racist (tongue inserted in cheek),

The issues seems to be that we have a daily news blurb of the “Portland BLM protest is in its (fill in the blank) day today and tear gas was/was not used and (fill in the blank) protester and (fill in the blank) police were hurt. Next in the news …”

In short, the Black Lives Matter message is being lost. It has gone on too long with nothing accomplished. It has been over a hundred days and it can and probably will go one more with no meaningful results.

I have a suggestion that is not perfect but is better than this.

Meet with the mayor and (hopefully) the governor. Negotiate some kind of council or committee to discuss your issues in the future. I know it will probably do no damned good but it will be a venue for you to be heard. Then arrange for a big march through the City of Portland on a Saturday and ask the people of the city to come out (facemasks and distancing to be required) and show their support. Then go home!

That does not mean that when some jackasses do another horrendous action that you cannot be out on the streets protesting again. The difference is that it will be new and meaningful instead of just another day in an increasingly diminishing impact of you point of view.