PPB admitted after last Friday’s successful rally that they chose not to violently suppress the event because it would make them look bad.

Motorists high five demonstrators as the #EclipseHate march goes through Portland

Last Friday, many local activist groups and hundreds of Portlanders came together in solidarity with the community of Charlottesville as they mourned the domestic terror attack that injured 19 people and killed social justice activist Heather Heyer. Although there is plenty to be angry about: the demonization of leftist demonstrators, the murder of a peaceful activist, and the President’s defense of the white supremacists; the Eclipse Hate: Solidarity with Charlottesville, rally and march focused instead on love and the resilience of marginalized communities. Speakers shared positive messages encouraging people to put aside differences and build, in our own lives, the unity and acceptance we want for our country. Organized by a range of local groups, more than one thousand people assembled, rallied, created community art, and marched through the city declaring the message, “Eclipse Hate!”. By nearly all accounts the event was a peaceful and inspiring gathering which left people feeling empowered and resolved to move against rising white supremacy in our nation. At least one couple from Charlottesville attended the event and informed us that they found it powerful, moving and an important step in their healing process.

Photo via Bella Barcellona

So what made this event successful?

One aspect that cannot be ignored in the successful outcome of the rally and march was the police response. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) had just two officers in standard uniforms — not riot gear — in attendance. PPB did not attempt to direct the rally or march, and were non-confrontational throughout the evening. PPB’s decision, to leave the march entirely alone, worked. The Portland Tribune noted that “[the hands-off approach of the police] proved successful, as event organizers were able to keep things under control.” This is due in large part to Portland’s Resistance security team, Antifa, and others who helped the event go smoothly. However, when asked by the Oregonian about the reasoning behind PPB’s lack of intervention, Sgt. Jeff Niiya stated, “this is not a message you want to fight with. It would just make you look bad.” Given the violent police response and suppression of many other peaceful demonstrations over the past several months, the Police Bureau’s decision-making process is disconcerting.

Photo via Mark Graves

First, it sounds as though the Bureau chooses whether to declare a protest unlawful and deploy militarized riot police based on their level of agreement with the message of the protest. However, the First Amendment maintains no law can be made by Congress to abridge the freedom of speech. If the only criteria for an unlawful protest is that the police disagree with the message, our First Amendment rights are certainly being infringed upon. If the police skip out on events they don’t want to fight with, what does that say about those where they DO show up, with a phalanx of well-armed riot police ready to discharge their weapons at the first civic non-compliance?

By this standard: messages that PPB wants to fight are:

While paradoxically, messages PPB does not “want to fight” include:

Also importantly, PPB’s sentiments indicate that the Bureau cares more about how a response makes them look than they do about safety. The Portland Police are supposed to protect and serve the community, not their own public image. This is a very dangerous approach, especially given the violence we witnessed in Charlottesville and the rise of white supremacy in Portland. As organizers, we don’t know what police officers and bureau leadership believe will make them look bad. We used to think that it was bloodying and arresting peaceful old ladies. But then this happened:

Photo via Katu News

This uncertainty around PPB’s media optics adds a huge amount of unpredictability to organizing and makes it difficult for us to keep people safe and channel Portlanders’ frustrations into productive civic actions. Lacking clear guidelines on what types of actions will elicit certain police responses contributes to capricious decisions by heavily armed officers in needlessly confrontational situations and has resulted in the ACLU’s assertion that “no other police force in America uses crowd control weapons with the regularity of the Portland Police Bureau.”

Photo via Zachary Senn

Will PPB really allow the community to have peaceful protests without their intervention? Following the Eclipse Hate rally, PPB tweeted: “Tonight’s march has concluded. Though marchers did not follow all expectations, we are grateful it was peaceful.” What then, are PPB’s ‘expectations’ of Portland residents after a mob of white supremacists and Nazis overrun a town and kill a peaceful protester? After the President of the USA blames violence on ‘both sides’ multiple times? And what are appropriate ‘expectations’ when this happened less than two months after white supremacists rallied — with full PPB support — in Portland after executing two innocent people on a city train? Is it to warn that next time they might crack down if the message is something with which they disagree? Is it to assure the white supremacists in our community that they PPB will continue to attack protesters in the future when the focus of the action is protecting black lives?

Photo via Portland Tribune

PPB has shown they do not understand how to defend our First Amendment rights; they over-police communities of color, they continuously harass and arrest our houseless population, they frequently stand in solidarity with fascists, and they currently employ at least one known Nazi. So frankly, we don’t give a damn about their expectations. If peace, freedom of expression and solidarity with innocent victims aren’t in their expectations then they should reconsider their desired optics.

For a supposedly progressive city, our police force has suppressed peaceful protest with toxic displays of capricious, undisciplined violence. As the Eclipse Hate rally showed, there is a better way. We can do better. In our criminal justice reform platform Portland’s Resistance calls for a serious reconsideration of how PPB polices protests, and that starts first-and-foremost by ending the unnecessary, discriminatory, and hugely expensive over-policing of Portlanders exercising their First Amendment rights.