| We’re now over two months into the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement globally. By and large the media has stopped reporting on the marches and protests across North America with the same frequency and urgency as they were two months ago, but they’re still happening and they still matter. And while the spotlight on the demonstrations may have dimmed as of late, one city *does* keep popping up in the news: Portland. The city in Oregon has been making headlines over the past two months for ongoing protests against police brutality; some of the details of which are pretty scary. Over the past few weeks, reports of and videos taken from the frontlines of demonstrations have shown activists in violent clashes with federal officers (over 100 of whom were deployed by the Trump administration to respond to these uprisings), leading to war veterans being pepper sprayed by law enforcement, journalists maced and shot at with rubber bullets, and several reports that unmarked police officers are “kidnapping” protesters off the streets. (The latter seems to be supported by video evidence). And, frankly, it’s pretty scary to see. But beyond the questions of how the government and police are even able to get away with this, there’s some general confusion about what exactly is actually going on. Here, we have all your answers about the ongoing situation in Portland. |
