The Battle of Portland

Summer nights of tear gas, rage, non-lethal munitions, and America’s new Secret Police

The Battle of Portland has assumed a national importance that is eery, given the size of this city, which resembles a potted plant against more robust cities like LA or Chicago. Yet somehow the stubborn resistance of Black Lives Matter in Portland streets has drawn the ire of Donald John Trump. This week in the Authoritarianism Project I write about the nightly street fight between a diverse but united civilian movement, and the crushing force of federal and local police. I wrote this dispatch for Yahoo News on Thursday, after being badly gassed.

The use of anonymous federal paramilitaries in unmarked vehicles to arrest protestors, and to beat and gas them as a way suppress dissent, is terrifying, and reminiscent of what I have always covered overseas. The “Disappearance” of people into Ford Falcons in Buenos Aires is more sinister than the unmarked police minivans roaming Portland, but let’s not get any closer. Trump has inflamed the very movement he aimed to suppress. Sadly, I now have a local, final chapter for my book on authoritarian leaders around the world.

https://news.yahoo.com/the-battle-of-portland-trumps-escalating-tactics-against-protestors-are-backfiring-in-oregon-200349636.htmlBattle of Portland