After the next wave of clashes with Federal agents, activists said the danger that their basic idea can be forgotten.
Lindset Teal (Teal Lindseth) looked at a large group of mothers she was preparing to lead the line of fire.
“I look at this crowd and see there are very few blacks — complained that 21-year-old black activist. — Oregon is pretty damn white. Bleached”.
Mindset is a strong supporter of the protests of the movement Black Lives Matter, continued without interruption for almost 60 days in the city, which is jokingly nicknamed “Little Beirut” because of the mass demonstrations against the visit of George Bush 40 years ago.
In the era of trump Portland finally cemented this reputation: the protests grew into night clashes with members of the Federal coercive agencies, which the President sent to this city to put an end to what he called “anarchy.”
However, in addition to the image of the radical of the city of Portland was fixed another way. This is the image of the most white city in America, located in the state, where in the past blacks were forbidden to live by law. A law passed in 1850-ies, prescribes once a year “smack” of blacks that they left from Oregon, and in the period between the two world wars, the city Council of Portland was in the hands of members of the Ku Klux Klan. White and blacks lived in different areas of the city.
Many of those who are involved in the protests, say they support the idea of racial justice in a city where the police have traditionally killed more African Americans than whites, is at least partly an attempt to atone for a racist past Oregon.
But now, when the collision in Portland actually takes place at the national arena, and Donald trump stirs unrest to achieve their political goals, some black leaders are asking the question: whose interests really serve these daily reports about collisions, and whether they are a continuation of white domination to the detriment of blacks?
The President of the Portland branch of the National Association for the advancement of colored people (the Association for the Advancement of Colored People) E. D. Mongan (E. D. Mondainé) warned that “privileged white”, pursuing their own objectives, trying to absorb the movement Black Lives Matter in this city. According to him, clashes with officers Federal law enforcement agencies, which the President sent to Portland, it’s just “the spectacle and the attempt to divert attention, which has nothing to do with the idea of black equality”.
Mandan accused a group of white young people were at the centre of clashes with officers of the Federal service, that they fell for trump and that they use the campaign against racial injustice, to provoke a fight in some other purposes, such as, for example, the struggle against capitalism.
“Privileged white kids dancing on the stage instead of those who gave their lives for this movement,” he said in an interview with the Guardian.
A decision by trump to send to Portland task force of the Ministry of internal security have fuelled the protests in the city, when agents of the law enforcement bodies in camouflage uniforms began to severely beat him and take away the protesters from the streets in vans.
The indignation of the people of this city and the whole country about the tactics of the authorities, which is more like the tactics of a police state, have only fueled the protest activity, and Trump, apparently, is at hand. Trump showed pictures of protesters in helmets and gas masks advancing on agents of Federal agencies, calling it proof that Portland captured by the anarchists and anti-fascists and the Democrats are either unable to change anything, or generally are complicit in this chaos.
Trump upped the ante, vowing to send a “wave” of Federal law enforcement power to other Democrats controlled cities such as Chicago, ostensibly to stop the killing. He said that in the framework of “Operation Legend,” which received its name in honor of the four year old boy who was shot in Kansas city, thousands of FBI agents, the U.S. marshals and other agencies will be deployed to these cities to put an end to the “violence”.
Tuesday, July 21, the mayors of Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and 11 other cities wrote a letter to the administration in which they accused the President of abuse of power and noted that “Federal law enforcement agencies used for political purposes.” Now increasingly there are suspicions that the eve of the presidential election trump much more interested in conflict than in its resolution.
“The deployment of these paramilitary compounds in our cities is completely contrary to our system of democracy and our fundamental values,” they wrote.
The mayors also noted that they strongly disturb the actions of Federal agents in Portland, adding that the lack of distinctive signs in the form of agents and cars, as well as the “theft” of the protesters straight from the streets “inspire terror”.
“Such tactics can be expected from an authoritarian regime, but not from our democracy,” stressed the letter.
African Americans make up only 6% of the Portland population, which numbered 650 thousand people. Meanwhile, over the past three years in 30% of cases of killings committed by police officers in the performance of official duties, the victims were black that is. Moreover, blacks more often stopped on the streets for inspection and arrest. The police Department of Portland has been so aggressive against blacks that the Obama administration had to put him under the control of the Federal judiciary.
The last few days the mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler (Ted Wheeler) arranges a show on national TV, sharply condemning trump’s decision to send Federal forces and accusing the President of conducting a “war in urban conditions” in Portland. But when, on Wednesday, July 22, Wheeler decided to appeal directly to the protesters, he faced the hostility of the demonstrators, who accused him of hypocrisy.
The political leadership of Portland never wanted to fundamentally change the policy of enforcement. Most residents like the system, which, as noted in the report, the justice Department defended white and monitor black.
The inability of many American cities, controlled by Democrats, to solve the problem of police racism hangs a dark shadow over democratic leaders who claim that they support the campaign Black Lives Matters.
(The material is abridged)
