Well look at you, Portland!

[sageandsea]

San Francisco shut down the financial district this morning, so you know you had to keep up that reputation of being Little Beiruit.

Prostesters are jumping the berms and going into the FREEWAY.

As of this moment, I-84 west is shut down at the Lloyd District, I-405 south is shut down at Everett, I-5 north is closed somewhere, and they're discussing closing I-5 south in Vancouver so that people can't even get into the city without going WAY east.

To their benefit, since I know by tomorrow they'll be getting all kinds of shit, the police are allowing the protesters who are sitting on the Burnside Bridge to stay put, since they are being peaceful and candlelight vigil-y.

edited to addWhen you hear the police (via scanner) discuss the situation as "circling the wagons", you get the idea they're a bit outnumbered.

Comments

[crowyhead.livejournal.com]

Damn, that's pretty sweet. "Circling the wagons" -- I like it. :)

After the flap over the Republican Nat'l Convention a couple years ago (more than 500 people arrested for blocking streets, nearly all of the cases thrown out by judges, and tons of people sueing the city) the Philly chief of police said on the news the other night that as long as people were behaving in a peaceful manner, they had no plans to arrest those who blocked traffic. There were a few arrests today for those who blocked the entrance to the federal building, and the other day some were arrested for trespassing during a sit-in at Sen. Santorum's (sp?) office. But on the whole, the Philly police have been surprisingly cool, especially given how nervous everyone is.

[sage-and-sea.livejournal.com]

I think the Portland police were surprisingly good, given that the protesters weren't peaceful. They allowed one cluster to block 2nd and Burnside until well after midnight - that was the only group doing civil disobedience though. They were sitting, and the police would go to each person and give them the option of dragging or walking. If someone chose to leave that protest before the cops got the them, they just let them go w/o arresting them.

It's the violent ones that upset me so, and upset the city, really. See damnportlanders for more details, it's been nothing but arguments since last night.