LI-ghtcycle
10 MW
Heya all, I just took a little detour to check out the "Occupy Portland" protest today, on my way to REI and managed to snap a few pics and wow all I can say it was PACKED I had to wait at least 15 minutes in line to check-out .... oh wait that was at REI! :lol: (REI was swamped, far more people packed in the store than I saw at the protest)
Earlier on, while crossing the bridge to the west side of the river as I headed to REI, I saw 5 - 10 people walking the other way with posters and someone with a giant craft built jelly fish with something about the 99% on a sign walking the other way quietly.
In route to REI, a passing motorist (obviously from out of town, possibly OSU asked me where to find the protest and if it was still going) kinda weird, a protester not able to find the protest.
I picked up a few things at REI, and then headed out to the ghost town that is "Occupy Portland" at 4th & Madison down-town Portland at around 6PM.
It was kind of interesting since they came and "occupied" the same area that today had long before been planned for the Portland Marathon, but since they refused to get a permit from the beginning, these kinds of schedule conflicts are expected. (or by design to get attention :wink: )
Told to leave at 9AM as requested by the police, they instead worked out a deal with the Portland Marathon and shared the space.
The first impression I had when coming to the area, was how extremely quiet it was. More signs than people, most of them laying next to the monument at Chapman Square, where a friendly and maybe a little too interested (desperate) young woman encouraged me to stay and listen as someone was going to speak soon.
It was more of a "closing time" atmosphere at a carnival, with people milling around mostly aimlessly and occasionally a call of "Mic Check" meaning they wanted what ever followed to be repeated by all who heard the message to get it across to someone else in the "crowd".
As I got closer to the tents, there were more people, possibly 100 - 150 (maybe if you count some people inside their tents there could be more, I estimate 50 tents) there was sort of a "Big Top" like tent and a small crowd gathered around, certainly nothing like the original kick-off of thousands that filled the streets and briefly blocked traffic days before.
I never saw anything really mean or hateful in the signs, just outrage expressed in words, nice polite but forceful words, and various people eating food, chatting, and the smell of beer was pervasive.
Here are the pics I took:
These two pictures really captured the tone of the protest.
There was a guy walking around with his Guy Fawks (V for Vendetta) mask:
(not my picture, one taken at the protest days earlier, just an example of the mask)
Trying to be spooky and mysterious I guess, couldn't get a pic of him he was moving around too much.
The ISO (International Socialist Organization) had posters and banners all around the tents, and booths around the square. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Socialist_Organization
Now THIS is the best poster I saw! And I am a proud member of a credit union and have been long before all this.
Not sure what this one is about ... is anyone forced to take a student loan?
The average age of people there were in their 20's, and it could have been a concert for an old punk rock group from the 80's with the people wearing surplus army fatigues and combat boots with anti-corporate slogans/workers unite type messages, but the majority would have been right at home at a Bob Marley concert or just about any college campus, with a bit more street than college feel.
The only people I saw in over the age of about 30 were other people taking pictures, local homeless or typical people you see most days hanging around in downtown Portland.
This poor speaker at the monument was nearly constantly interrupted by a homeless man who was in agreement with him but just couldn't contain himself and not comment on the subject, several people around were gently encouraging him to let the man speak to little success.
(Pretty hard to pic him out, this is the only picture I got other than the short video I'm not sure how to host, will probably put it up on youtube or something when I'm awake tomorrow :wink: )
The speaker followed a typical anti-capitalist speech with a good deal of things I agreed with about banks & businesses getting bail-outs when they shouldn't have mixed in with some pretty radical socialist re-distribution of wealth that I didn't, I tried to capture what little video my cheap digi camera will hold, but not sure how to post it yet. It's only like 10 seconds long anyway.
Again, I agree with a lot of the sentiment, but this was definitely not a wide swath of people I saw, to be fair, part of the agreement between the Marathon workers and the protesters was to keep things separate, and anyone who left the tents couldn't return until after the Marathon events ended, so some probably went home.
Only the die-hards were left behind, looks to be mostly students and normal populations of people who hang out in downtown, not people who have something to do on Monday.
Earlier on, while crossing the bridge to the west side of the river as I headed to REI, I saw 5 - 10 people walking the other way with posters and someone with a giant craft built jelly fish with something about the 99% on a sign walking the other way quietly.
In route to REI, a passing motorist (obviously from out of town, possibly OSU asked me where to find the protest and if it was still going) kinda weird, a protester not able to find the protest.
I picked up a few things at REI, and then headed out to the ghost town that is "Occupy Portland" at 4th & Madison down-town Portland at around 6PM.
It was kind of interesting since they came and "occupied" the same area that today had long before been planned for the Portland Marathon, but since they refused to get a permit from the beginning, these kinds of schedule conflicts are expected. (or by design to get attention :wink: )
Told to leave at 9AM as requested by the police, they instead worked out a deal with the Portland Marathon and shared the space.
The first impression I had when coming to the area, was how extremely quiet it was. More signs than people, most of them laying next to the monument at Chapman Square, where a friendly and maybe a little too interested (desperate) young woman encouraged me to stay and listen as someone was going to speak soon.
It was more of a "closing time" atmosphere at a carnival, with people milling around mostly aimlessly and occasionally a call of "Mic Check" meaning they wanted what ever followed to be repeated by all who heard the message to get it across to someone else in the "crowd".
As I got closer to the tents, there were more people, possibly 100 - 150 (maybe if you count some people inside their tents there could be more, I estimate 50 tents) there was sort of a "Big Top" like tent and a small crowd gathered around, certainly nothing like the original kick-off of thousands that filled the streets and briefly blocked traffic days before.
I never saw anything really mean or hateful in the signs, just outrage expressed in words, nice polite but forceful words, and various people eating food, chatting, and the smell of beer was pervasive.
Here are the pics I took:
These two pictures really captured the tone of the protest.
There was a guy walking around with his Guy Fawks (V for Vendetta) mask:
(not my picture, one taken at the protest days earlier, just an example of the mask)
Trying to be spooky and mysterious I guess, couldn't get a pic of him he was moving around too much.
The ISO (International Socialist Organization) had posters and banners all around the tents, and booths around the square. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Socialist_Organization
Now THIS is the best poster I saw! And I am a proud member of a credit union and have been long before all this.
Not sure what this one is about ... is anyone forced to take a student loan?
The average age of people there were in their 20's, and it could have been a concert for an old punk rock group from the 80's with the people wearing surplus army fatigues and combat boots with anti-corporate slogans/workers unite type messages, but the majority would have been right at home at a Bob Marley concert or just about any college campus, with a bit more street than college feel.
The only people I saw in over the age of about 30 were other people taking pictures, local homeless or typical people you see most days hanging around in downtown Portland.
This poor speaker at the monument was nearly constantly interrupted by a homeless man who was in agreement with him but just couldn't contain himself and not comment on the subject, several people around were gently encouraging him to let the man speak to little success.
(Pretty hard to pic him out, this is the only picture I got other than the short video I'm not sure how to host, will probably put it up on youtube or something when I'm awake tomorrow :wink: )
The speaker followed a typical anti-capitalist speech with a good deal of things I agreed with about banks & businesses getting bail-outs when they shouldn't have mixed in with some pretty radical socialist re-distribution of wealth that I didn't, I tried to capture what little video my cheap digi camera will hold, but not sure how to post it yet. It's only like 10 seconds long anyway.
Again, I agree with a lot of the sentiment, but this was definitely not a wide swath of people I saw, to be fair, part of the agreement between the Marathon workers and the protesters was to keep things separate, and anyone who left the tents couldn't return until after the Marathon events ended, so some probably went home.
Only the die-hards were left behind, looks to be mostly students and normal populations of people who hang out in downtown, not people who have something to do on Monday.