Photogs and Brief Report of Portland M19 Peace March

My count, done by counting ranks & estimating file & then multiplying, did not come up with 1000, BUT ..... , get ready, people. The "official" police "count" was 230 (!), according to AP, & that is what AP policy dictates be used in stories, the "official" police count. It's unfair, & it's infuriating, because PPB is underestimating intentionally, as a dis to the Movement. AP's story, & thus PPB's lie, will now travel the world. If PPB claims that somebody actually counted, either that somebody is an idiot, or they are liars. Or maybe they don't use base 10!

cause I was there and there was far more...by a magnitude of 10+...than the PPB says!
Besides...let's get real here...who of us believe 'em anyway for most things they do?
Let's remember they have a terrible reputation of blue-coverups, lies, & thuggery...so!

The march was an upper! The rain stopped, and all the beautiful peace people came out! I say there were up to 1 thousand of us. Remember the largest anti war march when we filled up the entire Waterfront Park, and people were leaning out over the bridges? We still tell the world, NO to war.

The event started at a teach-in at PSU. When I arrived, they were in the topic of how the youth can affect the world. I commented on how most of the people know are afraid to go to the streets. That it is not only apathy but fear. I then said that I told the people I know that protests work and that there and that there is nothing more valuable then freedom. I also told them how people of my age are being picked up and not cited from the police and that a lot of them are afraid they will be arrested. I told them that police don't care and will try to set an example by recklessly arresting the youth. I told them that they should question the police whenever someone my age is arrested and try to get their information.

When the teach-in ended the march started. I was alarmed to step outside and see more than 25 cops on bikes and motorcycles. The loud drums were booming as everyone had anticipation for the protest. I started filming on my camera when the march started. The protest went pretty well until I saw katu trying to interview someone on the street. I yelled at katu, STOP LYING and interrupted their filming. I'm tired of the public looking at katu and seeing us as bad people. We are the freedom fighters, why would they do this to us. They don't cover the complete story and will lie most of the time. Both the walking hairdo and the cameraman started yelling at me for interrupting their filming. They asked me to keep marching, I then replied stop lying then. The protest felt medium sized a lot larger than 200 people. A man was talking with the police when I saw a policeman give him the "as soon as people turn away, I'm going to kick your ass" look. I recorded the man talking to the police so that nothing would happen. Cops are afraid of cameras. All of a sudden, he gets tugged out onto the sidewalk. I asked the officer, "Why is he being arrested?" the officer said "for polluting." I wasn't surprised. Cops nab anyone for anything. I kept marching after telling the policemen to let him go. We stopped at the Oregonian and shouted "TELL THE TRUTH." I think they definitely got the message. The protest was very peaceful and it felt like it was affecting the world for the better. I have footage that I will be editing and posting pretty soon. Anyone know of anymore arrests?


Peace

Upon reflection, there was a bicycle cop staring at me after the march. I was just listening to the solidarity labor singers. This cop has such a scowl expression full of disdain. So I stared back at him, and then he turned his face away.
I did not see any arrest.

To "I don't": uhhh, i think my message above SAYS that the cops lied. My point in posting was to lay it out, & to lay out how lazy the media are. And yes, i already KNEW the media are lazy. My point here was to lay it all out once again. When i discuss this issue with various media people, i ask them why they can't just NOT give a count, or if they HAVE to give a count, give two: the count of police, which is always too low, & the count of organizers, which, sorry, is often too high. When i ask media people this simple question, they NEVER are able to answer, because there IS no answer, other than what my question implies. I've also asked them if they'd like me to teach them a simple method of achieving their own count, but of course they're not interested in that. They're too damn lazy. If corporate commercial media worked a tenth as hard as Indymedia staff do, maybe the public would have a slight clue about the difference between true & false. So tomorrow, most people will believe that 230 people protested today. That makes me angry. Liars, whether cops or reporters, disgust me.

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... with cameras.

Next time -- what if we get some good photos of the *whole* crowd from which a solid estimate can be made. Find some vantage point way up high, go click with a good camera and have proof to show the world. Then it just would not be our estimate vs. corporate media.

Numbers is where peace parades can make a difference. When the 6 o'clock news says a couple hundred everyone yawns. With a few thousand, the action gets a little credibility. If they were to ever report 10,000 or so, wouldn't that wake a few people up?

Thanks Den Mark. I think the real point is the dis, the disinformation, the disrespect, that is propagated with the lie.

Lie: Misinformation made with INTENT to deceive. 100s is an impressive number regardless of intent to deceive, and those numbers are growing. NY, world wide, it's in the news if y'all care to look.

Let's move beyond that point and not get lost in tangents of whose interpretation is THE correct interpretation; getting lost or flooded so and they win; confusion, disengagement, disenfranchisement and control is their game.

The turnout is impressive. My question to y'all is this - How are you working together, locally and globally, to continue the opposition to war?

Impressive as it is, a one day mass action is not enough; as detailed as it is and as mundane as it may seem the 365 days a year efforts are what may turn this insanity around.

- Zippo in NY, who stopped in to check up on the logging resistance,

Peace

but it sounds "once full of piss and vinegar is now full of shit and dope" the marches are getting smaller every year... though i admit i wasnt there do due complicated legal situations i wish i was... people need to hit the streets again... its sad watching our numbers get smaller.

Judy and I went on a peace march yesterday. I've been marching since 1959 and it's the ongoing background music for our relationship. There were maybe a thousand, more old than young people, on the march. Portland produced 15,000 just before the war started. Fortunately the rains stopped.

The marchers were the inner core's, inner core. For them demonstrating is a routine matter and so they put no creative energy into their effort. I heard no new slogans chanted, saw no interesting costumes and the only good saying on a sign was "stamp out mad cowboy disease." The route took us through the most deserted section of downtown Portland. The most memorable part of the march (Judy spotted it) was the police and their new style. Since mellow former police chief Tom Potter has replaced Vera Katz as Mayor, the black uniform menacing storm troopers disappeared from view (I'm sure they were lurking somewhere) and we were policed by lots of slender cops on bikes wearing yellow vests. True, there were a few fat cops on motorcycles but they stayed in the background. The new kinder gentler order hit a crescendo when the march concluded. As we were heading home a smiling cop said, "Good-bye and have a nice day." 46 years of demonstrating and its come to this -- leaving a demo is now like getting off an airplane -- bye-bye.
--
Judy thinks this account is too negative -- "say something positive about the march." OK. The fact that the march happened and that a bunch of us wern't willing to be "good Germans" is a good thing. The fact that similiar marches happened throught the US and all over Europe is a great thing. It's splendid that however reduced, the spirit of resistance still lives. Finally, we are both over 60 and the fact that we could complete the march is a good thing.

---

I'm not convinced that ppb has a "new style". Yesterday's march, after all, was a PPRC-planned march, & they have a "cooperative relationship" with ppb. I'll withhold judgment about the new style till i see how the May Day march goes. I have too many memories of going to your fair city & being attacked by people in various uniforms, which hasn't stopped me from going to your fair city, which, as a former Portlander, i like A LOT, despite katz & kroeker & kruger & goldschmidt & the pba & other retrogrades thru the years.

(Once again, there were NOT 1000 in the march. Sorry.)

Here's a picture I took on top of a city owned garbage can before being removed by the Portland Police. There were many people who had already passed by the camera at this point and *hundreds* more wading their way up SW Broadway...

I thought there to be 1000 people,no more.

The numbers should have been far greater considering 100,000
iraqi's and 1500+ soldiers have been killed, and that there where 20,000+
at the first protest of the war.

The police did have such a military disposition to them, backed up by a look of distain for our
patriotic call for peace and accountability.

I do not protest often, I understand the effects, of Shrub and his band of losers that have gotten promoted to a new level of a one party system, without national or worldly checks and balances.

Damn the bush voters, Not in my name! Gone is the respect for america, being pro-life means being anti-war.

They sure secured the oil feilds and pipe lines, but what about securing the dignity and culture of iraq, not to mention the untold unscom documented sites containing weapons that are now being used on our troops.

Seeing the headlines of "The NEW IRAQ", makes me sick, because the death we created is not slowing at all, despite the elections.

The news reports NOTHING REAL, in this day and age of the internet; seek truth, a simple google tells all, there is no excuse anymore, those who choose to be uninformed are the same as the complacent who turned a blind eye to Hitler.

One of the few indipendent journalists in iraq : adharjamailiraq.com_

OOPS- that site is dahrjamailiaraq.com, sorry no direct link.

The getting off the plane line was so fitting. I actually did not go. I cooked for the homeless like a nice activist and i'm glad I did it would have hurt if I was there, as it's been hurting for a couple of years now, more than it has been hurting since my birth.
We all know what the next step is but we are afraid to take it. They are not playing around and we are the vanuard also known as the front lines. our choice is clear but why do we hesitate, some of our enemies and chief destroyers of the earth are defenseless machines but we do not destroy them. If I cannot smash my own t.v. how can I........................................
Even when we had the distuped NUMBERS it was ikky, marching with folks with peace symbols for hats as they try to get me to sing an over played song from 40 years ago "stop children whats that sound" or give peace a chance. There is no way to peace, peace is the way. Peace is your distraction, your comfort and security, you use it like they use god, money, racism, heroin and so-on. You are just as pluged in yet turned OFF as those ya claim to want to stop. Just as afraid, our hesitation is our war crime.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I just got a cool idea to save the world, but indymedia is not the place for suck things unless you want to LOSE.