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2002 Anti War Protest Portland
2017: Can you believe it's been 15 years? It's been a great experience to have these as part of my art. I am much more a nature person in my heart, but I feel it's important to get involved, express yourself, critically think, not take any crap, and challenge those in power to do the right thing. Please call and write your leaders.
I am generally not a protest photographer, but I will if my passion or the opportunity arises. I like using these images to represent any protest, from any time, from anywhere. They sure can be and people think they are, so they are. They could be any protest for any cause. These images make people think of issues important to them.
Remember Bush invaded Iraq against world protest. Then our economy boomed and crashed. Then Obama bailed out the banks. $700 billion to the bankers. Then Obama wins Nobel peace prize. Then Occupy. Then my town's ulitiliy bills went up drastically. Then Trump became president, when Bernie Sanders was most likely the popular vote winner.
The big protest. Protesting our coming Iraq invasion. The majority didn't want to invade Iraq. The majority didn't vote for Bush / Cheney. The whole world was protesting at this time, seen across the fronts of many newspapers. This was a huge, energized, vibrant protest with the biggest police presence I've ever seen. I had to photograph it. I've seen many protests go by in Portland, but this one topped them all.
It was a republican fundraiser for Senator Gordon Smith at the downtown Hilton, with George W. Bush in attendance. According to tv news, it was $20,000 for a photo with Bush. A waitress inside told me fundraisers watched the protest on monitors, and a lady she waited on, said " I wish they'd just gas those people, " while she ate. Hundreds of police surrounded the hotel in a several block perimeter. Helicopters overhead and many snipers on roofs. The police were an army. Rows and rows of them heavily armored behind fences. The most police I've ever seen. Incredible display of power. More rows of police were behind the front line. They would rotate out every so often. Many police were from surrounding areas of Portland: Newberg, Tigard, etc.
The anti war march was loud, powerful, and energized. Marching the streets with signs, slogans, chants, and music. People were fired up. Marching bands and drums loudly played, blasting the hotel with bass as fundraisers looked down from balconies. It was a warm August day and night. The protest was somewhat a festival street party with body painting, hoola hooping, and topless women. People having a good time expressing themselves. Art Media had free art boards and markers so you could make a sign. There were tons of signs and excellent chalk expressions on buildings ( easy to clean ). I remember walking home late at night, with no one around, seeing a large cardboard sign stuck at the top of a traffic signal saying " Bush Knew ". ( 911 ). Estimates put the crowd at 20,000. One year after September 11, and three years after WTO. It's hard to believe its been so long and we've been in the middle east ever since. It was the last great round of protests, the tail end of the progressive 90's, before we hit modern times of boom, bust and digital technologies. Portland was definitely more underground, and had more protests, than compared to today. And as said to me fall 2011 " How come no one's protesting Obama. "
The protest did get violent. A few times the police would clear a block of protesters, using batons, gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets / bean bags / pepper balls. It seemed unnecessary where I was, the large crowd was very peaceful. Police would declare " state of emergency " and give us a five minute warning. Nobody moved as we weren't doing anything, there was no emergency. Tactics where to gas first, then charge in. Smoke screening media, dispersing crowds. I was heavily teargassed, it blew up right on me. I couldn't see even a few feet. I burned and coughed for ten minutes. Key was holding my breath and running away quick. I'm sure I was targeted, they'd been giving me the evil eye for a while. The guy next to me was shot with rubber bullets or pepper balls at point blank range, he showed me his huge welts. I was told police are trained to aim low, no face shots, hitting his lower torso and legs. I never got any action photos as I was smoke screened, and had to run. Other photographers had gas masks and ran in, but I don't know if they got anything.
A woman and her infant, doing nothing, were pepper sprayed in the face, but videoed. It ran on tv and their lawsuit was won. Other protesters won some big lawsuits. I sold photos to lawyers who worked on cases, and one told me money won was used for a center of constitutional rights. I always remember this frail, elderly man on his motorized scooter with progressive bumper stickers, driving through the crowd at top speed, airing a big curb without hesitation, and sticking the landing while catching sparks. Right on! A great leader of the protest was an athletic 45 year old man running the streets, loudly blowing his giant conch shell from high perches. He talked of psychics he knew that tried warning our government of the coming 911 attacks, but they didn't listen. Kboo radio said the best thing you can bring is a camera, turn the big brother element against them. Every third protester had a camera, and I remember seeing a crowd of thousands holding cameras in the air.
The protest was happening many places at once. Many dramatic moments I only heard about. I was told bicycle police followed a protester "black block", threw their mountain bikes into the protesters, then attacked them with clubs and hosed them down on the pavement with giant ( keg sized ) cans of mace. A large protest group was surrounded and confronted by police at the Hawthorne Bridge. A large, violent confrontation of police and protesters took place at the west end of the Burnside Bridge. Anarchy blocks were rowdy. Protesters ran onto freeways to block Bush's motorcade, locking arms, sitting on I-5.
However, the protest was mostly peaceful, and respectful. Most protesters were thoughtful, kind, and smart. Most police were quiet and still. Late at night I wandered home, the city was littered with signs and chalk vandalism, but not too trashed, and everybody was gone. It was eeriely quiet and desserted. Surprising. I didn't even see any cops. ( They must have been centered around Bush's hotel ). It was like everyone had enough, and went home.
I scanned the mainstream media the next day. Surprisingly little was shown: Generic, aireil crowd shots, a few hippie kids jumping on a cop car, and Bush and fundraisers photo-opting. Which is crazy considering there were cameras and photographers everywhere. There is so much that could've been done with it, filling our news with thoughtful content versus the standard commercial news system we get everyday. This turned me off, and I've generally had poor experiences submitting my work, so I decided to keep my images and do my own artistic thing with them. A book and more could still come out. I like to use the images to not only show this protest, but to reflect modern times and alternative media. People come in all the time thinking its the 1960's, Oakland, Occupy, WTO, a foreign country, or whatever. It's all the same in many ways. The prints are art to reflect modern times as much as the single protest itself.
Displaying these prints over the years, I've met many police and Iraq veterans. They like the images. Police tell me its scary being up there, they don't know what the crowd is going to do, and they're very outnumbered. Imagine yourself standing there, on the line, looking out of your helmet at that giant crowd. " It's like the wave in a stadium " one told me. Many police looked uncomfortable, unhappy with their duty, and some were intensly focused. Iraq veterans tell me their first hand accounts of being in combat, roadside bombs, house raids, and personal feelings about the war and military. Many locals say " I remember that protest ".
Protesters sued the city. The city asked the Bush / Smith fundraising crowd for money. The Bush / Smith fundraisers used our city services, for a private function. They weren't doing work we elected them for. The city and fundraisers negotiated. I hope the fundraisers kicked down, they can afford it. I don't know how it all worked out, but some protesters won big money.
" The Battle in Seattle " movie was well done and worth seeing. I regret I was not there. I remember hearing about it live on the radio in Portland. In wasn't until I attended this protest that I realized the power and magnitude of such events. When I started displaying the images, the great response made me wish I photographed Seattle. The movie was much like this protest, very similar in many ways. But Seattle definitely had more violence and property damage. I sold an earthy art piece to a Seattle police officer, dressed in tie dye hippie attire, at Bumbershoot one year. He said " I'm the most peace loving liberal cop you've ever met, but I was on duty at WTO, and if these people don't clear this intersection, I'm going to kick some ass ! " The end of the movie it shows how the largest protest in history was the worldwide protest against the invasion of Iraq.
2011: The Occupy Movement. A giant, energized, highly spirited march of thousands through dowtown Portland took place October 6. I was told it was the largest occupy march in the world. It was impressive. Weeks later a large rally in Pioneer Square with local band Pink Martini was held. A variety of small rallies took place that fall. I saw a scary looking one at night surrounded by police, I just watched from blocks away. I did make an effort to photograph the October 6 march, but for a variety of reasons I missed the event. I went to Occupy a few times, but never got good photo opportunities. I have a shot on "Black and White City" to commerate occupy. Occupiers camped in Lownsdale and Chapman Squares of downtown Portland for 38 days. Evicted November 13. The city was tolerant, but eventually the occupiers were forced to go. The park was fenced off and riot police arrived. Thousands gathered that night. Bicyclists circled the park in a moving "bicycle barrier" in support. It went into the early morning, and was generally peaceful, but police dragged some people away. The camp did turn somewhat into homeless camp, with free food and some drugs, which turned people off.
The Occupy has a great message calling attention to our far too wide disparity of wealth and power, and unpopular political decisions. We'll see where it leads.
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