How the May Day March Turned to a Riot in Portland

Coming from Central and rural Florida, May Day was something that I had not been exposed to in the past. My fiance came home and told me on his drive through the city of Portland, he caught a glimpse of a sign that said, "May Day is May 1, No Work or School". I did a little bit of my own research on May Day so I knew the purpose, and that it was not just comparable to what a senior skip day would be, and saw that the point to May Day was march for workers rights. So big corporations could see what a day would be like without their workers. With all the talk of building a wall on the border and keeping out immigrants who serve so much of our employment, especially in Florida, I could openly see a great reason for this march. People go to work day in and day out without any complaints, because it is what we are forced to do to make ends meet on an everyday basis. I have worked for the government for almost 9 years, and know what it feels like to put in 60 hours a week for your local community, with very little appreciation to back it up. I could definitely get behind this march and the reasons for which it stands.

As I was doing my research on May Day I also came across several writings in regards to how the Portland Police Bureau was in preparation for May Day. I had read different news sources that reported the Portland Police Bureau was undergoing training to know how to deal with protest crowds. They were also training in an event that a riot should occur, how to handle the chaos while being surrounded by innocent people caught in the crossfire. They were to escort the people of Portland during the march, and have SWAT on standby just in case something got out of control.

I have an amazing apartment on the 12th floor of a high-rise in Downtown Portland. I looked up the events of May Day and saw that the march would be going right past my home on the corner of Jefferson and Park. Around 1:30 p.m. the festivities started. I was sitting on my couch and I could hear people on huge bull horns outside. I open the door and went out onto my patio and look down near the park. People were marching and they were saying over the intercom, "A threat to one person is a threat to all". It was a peaceful march, and it was being escorted by the Portland Police Bureau. They were stopping traffic on the busy roads and intersections in order to allow for the people to march.

Now I must admit that my feelings toward these marches are starting to become muddled with what we are seeing on the news. These marches turning into riots and getting out of control. It’s not sending the right message of having a peaceful protest to make a change in our community. Although I can’t really offer any other way to get the message across that something has to change, this way is definitely becoming more and more ineffective.

Around 4:30 p.m. I heard the bullhorn going again. I went back out on my porch and saw people from the protest not walking in a line anymore, but scattering all throughout the park. They were not running around in chaos at all, but they definitely were not staying together as an organized group anymore. They are just marching around in circles pretty much caring their signs and chanting their mantra. At 4:45 p.m. I heard an even louder PA system but could not make out what the words were. I went back and onto my balcony and I could hear loud and clear the Portland Police Bureau making an announcement to everyone that was participating in the march, "This is no longer a march, and is considered a riot. Everyone needs to leave the premises." It repeated this two more times, and then a large boom was heard, possibly being some sort of smoke bomb or stink bomb.

From my perch I can see the corner of 5th and Madison. I turned on my video camera in order to catch everything that was going on. People dressed in all black started running towards the Federal Courthouse. They were carrying weapons and were throwing large ball shaped items. From where I was on my balcony I could not see exactly what it was that they were throwing. SWAT then engaged down the roads and were piled onto the back of a pickup truck. They moved from the park down to 5th Avenue in and attempt to corral the people that were dressed in black. The people dressed in black continued to pick up garbage cans and the lids, throwing them at groups of people just walking on the road, which may have been the protesters in the May Day. A worker for the Portland Police Bureau, a brave female, followed closely behind with a fire extinguisher, making sure to extinguish everything that was in disarray on the street to make sure that it was not on fire. I later learned that those dressed in black were called anarchists, and went to the parade to hijack it and start the riot.

The anarchists then ran down to Madison and 6th Avenue, with the Portland Police Bureau in tow. It appeared that they were keeping it contained with very minimal damage to what was going on. After they made it to 6th Ave, the anarchists started to run back up Jefferson Street towards the park in a last-ditch effort to get away and continue to trash things. I then witnessed police officers on motorcycles running the motorcycles into the anarchists in an attempt to confine and stop them. I could see what they were trying to do, but definitely did not have enough training and practice in this, and ended up just running them over.

I finally witnessed the police getting one of the men clad in black, getting him down to the ground and taking away his weapons. He appeared to have a large piece of wood in his hand, possibly a stick or bar of some sort.

I feel bad that this peaceful protest could be misconstrued in believing that the protesters were the ones that started this big mess, when I in fact saw it was someone else who came with a goal and an opportunity to take advantage to get their word and point across. I also feel bad for the protesters that did not know that the anarchists showed up. It seems that since I had my bird eye view, I could see a lot more what was going on than if I would have been down in the trenches with them. Many of the protesters did not know that the anarchist showed up to take over there march. They simply thought that the Portland Police Bureau was just using any excuse to be able to use excessive force. While at times I witnessed that the Portland Police Bureau did use excessive force, it started out with good intentions for sure.

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