Some Concerns About Some Portland Tactics

The reports about late night street battles in Portland between some demonstrators and local police, and now Federal Protective Services and other federal militarized units, have reminded me of experiences at demonstrations I’ve had over the years.

One that came to mind was being in Quebec City, Quebec in the late summer of 2001 as part of a major global justice action. There was a meeting taking place of government leaders from throughout the Americas to try to create a “Free Trade Area of the Americas.” Following a march of thousands of people, many of us went right up to a line of police and a fence they had constructed to keep us from getting to the building where the government leaders meeting was happening.

While many of us tried to occupy the area right next to that fence and police line, others took direct action, first by pulling down the fence and then, for a very small number of the thousands of us there, throwing concrete blocks pulled up from a plaza area at the police. I remember thinking, damn, if someone got a direct hit, if the shields they were using didn’t stop the concrete blocks, they could be badly hurt or even killed.

That was when the tear gas began to be used in earnest to try to clear all of us away from the big plaza area close to the FTAA meeting building. For the rest of the afternoon, there was a back and forth as we were driven back, but then we would regroup and advance again.

At one point, there were hundreds of people who had nonviolently advanced pretty…