Well, I went to the Anti-war demonstration (or if you prefer Peace Protest) last night after work. I thought I would right down my experience for posterity's sake and for those of you interested in Blogger land.
I left work about 5 p.m. and caught a bus to downtown. I met my girlfriend Megan at the corner of Morrison and 6th. As I arrived I looked down Morrison and saw a large group of protestors walking along 3rd Ave. Megan and I decided to go down and see what was going on and see if we wanted to join up. The group was very positive and peaceful so we decided to walk with them south on 3rd. We walked down 3rd until we got to the Federal Justice Center on Main. We turned East on Main and went down to 2nd and turned North on 2nd by the World Trade Center.
There were a group of riot cops in front of the Starbucks in the WTC and across the street in front of Boogie Woogies. As we walked by these cops there were many mentions about how we all appreciated the Cops protecting such important cultural institutions. We continued down 2nd and passed the Morrison Bridge on-ramp and off-ramp which were both blocked by riot and motorcycle police. Apparently earlier a number of protestors had tried to occupy the bridge, but now the cops were doing it for us.
The march continued down 2nd all the way to 2nd and Ash were it split into two groups. A smaller group went down Ash to the Waterfront and the main force of the march went to 2nd and Burnside and blocked traffic there.
At this point Megan and I had felt pretty good about marching and saying our peace and we weren't really sure if we wanted to get involved in the civil disobedience that was occurring at 2nd and Burnside. So we continued down NW 2nd towards the Chinease Gardens. At about 2nd and Davis a series of 4 police cruisers zoomed by loaded with riot cops. They went around the block and joined up with a SWAT vehicle with about 6-8 more riot cops hanging on to the side. This looked pretty serious. Megan and I then saw a group of protestors walking down Natio Parkway towards the Steel Bridge. We figured that this is where the smaller splinter group of protestors had headed.
We walked down Everett to the waterfront and saw a large group of protestors on the Ramp from Natio on to the Steel Bridge. They were completely blocking the the bridge, including the MAX tracks. We walked up the ramp a ways to within 100 feet of the back of the crowd and just watched. Soon about 10 police on horseback came charging up the MAX Ramp from 1st Ave. That was pretty intimidating. Then a minute or so later about 10 bike cops charged up the Max ramp as well. Then a few minutes later no less than 30 riot cops came up the ramp. From the other side of the Steel Bridge a police PA van drove up accompanied by an SUV with RIOT cops hanging on the side. I guess the police decided that they didn't want the protestors on the bridge. After a tense standoff and bit of pepper spraying and pushing and shoving a group of the protestors started moving down the ramp towards us. Megan and I decided that we had seen enough and headed down to the lower level pedestrian walkway of the Steel Bridge so we could cross over to the Rose Quarter Transit Center and catch a bus home.
All in all it was a pretty interesting night. By the time we got home it was 7pm. I think that by and large the protestors were very well behaved and practiced peaceful civil disobedience. The cops seemed very well in charge, but were very intimidating. If you want to know more about what happened last night after we left you might want to read the account at Portland IndyMedia or you could see what the corporate media has to say (KATU, KOIN, KGW, or KPTV)
Posted by Noah Brimhall at March 21, 2003 09:36 AM