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10/13/11 6 AM Main St. Arrests
Around 6am on Thursday, October 13th, 2011, eight protesters holding signs behind the road block located at Main street and SW 3rd were arrested. Police officers on bicycles rode into Main St. through the line opened for bicyclists and surrounded the protesters on Main Street. Simultaneously, motorcycle police rode west on Main street from SW 4th Avenue. Shortly after, police on foot arrived and lined both sides of Main street. After the occupiers were surrounded, they were arrested in an act of civil disobedience.
Those arrested were: Brandon Lee, Brad Whisler, John Saunders, Ashley Jackson, Jacquellyn Miller, Joshua Macnayr, Andrew Barnick, and Keller Henry. They were transported to east precinct to be processed as quickly as possible. They will return downtown and should be released by 3pm today. Arrestees were taken peacefully. Additional updates on these arrests will be posted upon confirmation from Occupy Portland sources.
Main Street is now open to regular traffic. Chapman Park and Lownsdale Square remain occupied indefinitely.
Mayor Adams on Main St. Opening
—–UPDATE 3:21PM—–
6 of the 8 arrested have been released as of 3:21 PM. Some but not all of the charges have been dropped.
Video: Release of 6 of the 8 arrested this morning
—–UPDATE 6:56PM—–
All 8 of the original arrestees have been freed. Details of charges upheld or charges dropped are not available at this time.
***This is an update shared by the information committee***
Thanks be to the 8 of you who stood up for the consensus of the GA. Too bad no one else who was there did.
Yeah, it was definitely a winning idea.
I’ve been watching OccupyPortland with interest. I’m confused about a couple of things:
1. It appeared that all day yesterday, most the tweets were acting as though only a small minority wanted to keep Main Street closed, yet last night’s General Assembly consensus was to keep it closed.
2. This morning, only a small minority supported the General Assembly’s consensus with any meaningful action.
What happened? Is the General Assembly’s process broken so a small minority is able to get a consensus? Or is the group not able to follow through on a consensus?
I’m not trying to provoke, just understand.
Greetings from the livestream community.
We as a community are disturbed by the actions of a small minority of the occupiers that have hijacked the true democratic process that is the GA.
We have watched as facilitators, who are supposed to remain neutral when facilitating, have used their position to control the discussions to further their own personal agendas.
We are outraged at the blatant disregard of the online community. It is the online community that watches over you to be sure you are safe. It is the online community that donates money that most of us cannot afford, sends or brings food, clothing and other necessities for the occupation. We spread the word to others in our sphere of influence both online and out in the world, educating them as to what these occupations are about. We work hard to gather support for YOU. We ARE part of the 99%, and our voices deserve to be heard.
We sat there in outrage as a facilitator said “they’re not here, so their opinions don’t count. Many of us have jobs, take care of family members or are disabled, so are unable to attend. What right does ANYONE have to discount the voices of those that support you so avidly?
When mysticw0lf came to the GA last night, and was brave enough to relay my words on behalf of the online community, a facilitator essentially nudged her off the stage, refusing to allow her to finish relaying OUR statement to all of you. That was flat out wrong, and should not have been allowed to happen.
We are concerned that the facilitators are not using the GA process correctly. I have been involved online since September 17th, helping moderate the Global Revolution feed. I have watched countless GA’s there. I can tell you right now, that the block process is not being used in Portland. If someone wishes to block a proposal, they should be willing to leave the protest if their principles are compromised. This stops unwarranted blocks as only those that are willing to walk out will block. THAT is how the 90% model is supposed to work.
It is imperative that you both remove the facilitators that are using their positions as a way to LEAD, as well as to vastly increase the pool of facilitators to that no 1 or 2 facilitators can push their agenda. There are NO leaders in this movement for good reason.
We, the online community stand in solidarity with the occupy movement, so please do not discount these words. Our voices count!
Except that the consensus was made with a broken model. The decision was made by a minority. A majority of a minority? This is not the spirit of consensus. We all did not agree and all did not have our concerns met. In fact, what was the tactical reasoning for holding the street? It’s still not clear.
This model works, but the people of “occupy portland” don’t want to work together to make it work.
Thanks be to Sam Adams and the Portland Police for implementing the consensus of the general public and 88% of Occupy Portland. Too bad a fringe group can hold the entire movement hostage to their egos.
I get that and I agree, but I think we need to agree that in the future if 8 of our people are under attack by the cops, we need to stand up for them. It’s a lot easier for them to arrest 8 people than 100 or 200.
yes!!!
I disagree with your statement: If I disagree wholeheartedly in “holding the street” and most of my brothers and sisters around me disagree with it as well. Why, if a few others – and I mean a FEW – can use the “process” to keep the Movement involved in an action that does not keep with its goals. WHY should I then be expected to “stand up for them”? Seems to be an almost childish idea that I should ALWAYS backup my “friends”….hmmm how young are we?
They weren’t “under attack”. They were peacefully arrested in all but one case.
This was completely foreseeable and has compounded yesterday’s negative media coverage of the street blockade. This should be a lesson. Smart movements learn from their mistakes and do not make them again. If we are going to get arrested, it better generate positive coverage and more public support, not negative coverage and public scorn.
I agree.
It was disappointing to see OP get beat down in mass media for 72 plus hours over the Main Street issue.
Juxtapose OP’s media meme which has become all Main Street against the media from OSeattle where they are picking up strong labor support and are defining themselves in the media by protesting Mitt Romney. The difference is worrying. I hope OP can turn it around.
@koolcrud:
You’re right, they weren’t “under attack” let’s be more clear with our words …
They were “peacefully” arrested by a large group of PEOPLE WITH GUNS! And these people with guns have a track record of KILLING PEOPLE.
Sorry, but if a gang of people with guns kidnaps me I’m not sure how peaceful that is. Just because nobody got hurt doesn’t make it peaceful. The whole deal sounds incredibly violent to me, because there is the implied threat of force: “do what we say OR ELSE!”
> If we are going to get arrested, it better generate
> positive coverage and more public support, not negative
> coverage and public scorn.
Also, please stop blaming the victims! Hold the police accountable for their threatening behavior and support those who were arrested. We can’t control how the media spins things, try as we might. Get over it!
“Simultaneously, about a half dozen motorcycle police rode west on Main street from SW 4th Avenue.”
Is this from an alternative universe where East is West and West is East?
4th ave is to the West of the Elk, therefore the police had to be headed East.
An obsession with process is going to doom this movement, if it hasn’t already.
Getting everyone to agree on everything is more than naive, it verges on black satire on left-leaning / other activist movements.
It’s ridiculous that there is even controversy about the arrests and re-opening of Main Street. A small group of counter-productive assholes who appear obsessed with pointless gestures and childish ‘fuck authority’ attitudes needlessly were arrested.
They’ll have criminal records into the foreseeable future, which further precludes opportunities for gaining decent employment.
Finally, it makes the very tools of the system that is allegedly the target of this movement out to be the reasonable ones – the police, that is. The PPB was extremely patient in contrast to the activities of the police departments of other cities with Occupy movements.
The PPB basically did what everyone but a tiny minority of egotistical assholes wanted – they reopened a PUBLIC thoroughfare so that the 99% (which includes people who have jobs, families, and responsibilities that don’t allow them to join the full-time occupation much as many want to) could use the road again.
This was both a public relations and “process” disaster. Structural changes to decision making are needed. Consensus is nice if it keeps these kinds of assholes’ opinions in the minority, where they stand in reality. Unfortunately, it totally failed to do so in this circumstance.