The way police are dealing with these protests shows that police are good at exactly one thing, and it isn't de-escalation or protection Let's talk about last night in Portland
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The first time the PPD spoke to the crowd last night, it was to tell us not to climb on the fence. As far as I can tell, they were talking about a person who'd climbed onto something next to the fence and was casually leaning on the fence, looking over. Posing exactly 0 threat
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The police could have looked at this and said to themselves, "hey, the crowd is large and loud but peaceful, nothing's been broken tonight, everything is fine, let's leave it alone. We'll stay back away from the fence, monitor the situation, have a chill one"
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Except they couldn't, because they are the police and their purpose is to enforce obedience. And the best way to do that, they have been taught, is to enforce small rules to keep people in line The entire mood of the event changed the instant they got on the loudspeaker
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From there it was a game of chicken they were never going to win. Tensions rising, provocations increasing, the ugly end we've come to expect It doesn't have to be like this. We need a different kind of community protection. We need to
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