There is intense national focus on the nightly unrest in Portland. The protests are often framed as violent, and this weekend, our streets saw deadly violence.
But before protesters took to our streets in May, the violence was already there — the systemic and state-sanctioned violence against Black lives. We need to stay focused on the reason protesters are in our streets: to surface the deeply rooted racism that results too often in the deaths of young Black people. We need to remember that protesters are in the streets now because not enough was done about it before.
Pundits are now pontificating election strategies while reviewing footage of skirmishes in our city center. Tragically for our nation, the instigator-in-chief Donald Trump is peddling violence against the fight for human rights for his personal gain. Extreme hatred and distrust, plowed into entitlement and fear, sows violence. And with elections just ahead, we are in the harvest season.
For the last two weekends, right-wing extremists have come to Portland with the expressed intent to threaten, intimidate and assault Portlanders who are marching for Black lives — literally under the banner of Trump.
Mayor Ted Wheeler condemned the call for violence from the White House on Sunday, as he should. And while he also blamed Trump for the division in our nation that’s manifested in blood spilled on Portland streets, he’s failed to address the same division in his own community. The chasm between Black Lives Matter protesters and a city government that refuses to hear their pleas is getting deeper by the day. As mayor and police commissioner, Wheeler has the utmost obligation and ability to turn the cries in the streets into meaningful reforms to the way the city is policed, but he hasn’t.
Instead, it was under Wheeler’s watch as police commissioner that Trump supporters were afforded protection of the police while exercising their First Amendment rights. The same bureau continually subjects Black Lives Matter protesters to intense use of force for the same. It’s a constant pattern, seen again and again: Portlanders march in the streets to demand the recognition that Black lives matter, and then politically motivated instigators redirect the message through violence — with the police at their side.
It was just one week earlier that police declared a massive street fight a riot and deployed tear gas only after right-wing activists left the brawl in downtown Portland.
Wheeler’s office has been unsuccessful, or unwilling, to stop the retaliatory aggression against protesters, in actions far removed from the duty of public safety. Too many police officers act as though they were thrust onto a stage to play roles in a battle, rather than serve the public in a city that cherishes protests as civic engagement.
Calling out the hatred spewing from Washington, D.C., falls flat if we’re not willing to fight it head on in our own city. If we are going to demand better, we have to be better.
There are calls for Wheeler to move the bureau to City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s oversight. Hardesty, one of the city’s top critics of the Portland Police Bureau, has asked for the job, and she’s announced she’s working on a plan to transition the bureau to her portfolio whenever the mayor is ready to do so.
Hardesty is right in calling out the inconsistent policies and messaging from the Police Bureau, and the perception of an alliance with white supremacists that has eroded community trust after seeing police treat Patriot Prayer and Proud Boy members with privilege and Black Lives Matter protesters with violence.
The pattern of violence against peaceful protesters is well documented across all media, and no excuse has justified the comparison with how heavily armed, right-wing, pro-police demonstrators — including those well-known by police to have open warrants — proceed unimpeded while police look on.
(While Oregon allows the open carry of firearms, in Portland, it is unlawful for any person to knowingly possess or carry a firearm in or upon a public place, including while in a vehicle, recklessly having failed to remove the ammunition from the firearm, clip or magazine. Shall we trust that police checked all those guns before the parade began?)
Hardesty’s also right to call for clear, unambiguous leadership to achieve justice. Portland Police Bureau has routinely escalated protests. Then, Wheeler and Police Chief Charles Lovell say that policing those nightly protests is the reason for placid responses to Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer members who come to confront Black Lives Matter protesters.
But it will take more than shuffling the bureau to another commissioner to fix these deep-rooted issues. The problem is bigger than one person’s leadership, or one person’s vision — and it’s become clear Wheeler is not up to the task on his own.
Nearly 100 days of protests are tackling years of a racist police system rooted in slave patrols. More than a problematic bureau, this is an urgent, citywide matter spanning generations, cultures and lives.
Multiple channels have to be opened, unencumbered by politics, resentment or the resignation of expected inaction. That includes a channel for police officers — some of whom support reform — to have a voice outside of the defensive union rhetoric as a community comes together to reimagine law enforcement in city where Black lives really do matter.
We’re calling on Wheeler to face the grief and strife at his feet instead of posturing for a national audience. We all have to believe in something bigger than hate, and a willingness to create a path forward that is wide enough for all of us to share.
This is about dismantling an oppressive system and rethinking how we use tax dollars to improve our community, rather than criminalizing it into submission.
Portlanders are in the streets now because not enough was done before. They will stay there until something is.