Bush Protest turns angry and ugly

[sassa]

Bush protest turns angry and ugly

State of emergency declared as peaceful protest takes a turn for the worse

Police fire pepper spray as hundreds of marchers riot over president’s visit

President’s fund-raiser for Sen. Gordon Smith starts as scheduled

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Police using pepper spray and batons subdued more than 1,500 demonstrators who gathered in downtown Portland Thursday to protest President Bush, who was appearing at a Republican fund-raiser at the Portland Hilton hotel.

The crowd was protesting the war on terrorism, environmental policies and the U.S. role in the Middle East. As drummers beat out a cadence, marchers chanted slogans, including “George Bush, stop the war.” No arrests had been made by 6 p.m. Thursday.

The protest started with a peaceful afternoon rally in the North Park Blocks and march up Southwest Broadway to the hotel, but quickly degenerated into rowdy confrontations with police manning barricades and motorists unlucky enough to find themselves surrounded by demonstrators. Demonstrators blocked cars with bicycles and even stopped TriMet buses and MAX trains at the beginning of the rush hour.

Police seemed unprepared by the size of the crowd, not providing traffic control for motorists whose evening commute suddenly ground to a halt.

The bulk of the crowd moved from barricade to barricade, chanting slogans, beating drums and yelling at police until abruptly pulling back and moving to another barricade.

But the confrontations turned violent at a barricade at the intersection of Southwest Sixth Avenue and Taylor Street when police decided to push the crowd back, first with nightsticks and then with pepper spray.

“The spray was fired because the police had to move back the crowd a half-block, and when they st arted moving the crowd back … the crowd started throwing things at them,” said Portland police spokesman Brian Schmautz.

A protester identifying himself as Oswald Bean said, “They started pushing the line back with their sticks and the large cans of pepper spray. I turned to leave, but they hit me in the back of the head and sprayed me in the face. They weren’t very nice.” Bean was washing pepper spray out of his eyes.

Using bullhorns, police officers told protesters they were declaring “a state of emergency.”

Eight police sharpshooters watched from the roof of a building at Southwest Sixth Avenue and Taylor Street. There were police on foot, on horse, in all-terrain vehicles and in a paddy wagon. Some members of the crowd jumped onto police cars and punched at the windows. A shot was heard but apparently came from a beanbag gun. Another protester displayed a large welt that apparently came from a rubber bullet.

Noise from a drumming band was deafening, and seemed to cause the protesters to become agitated.

“It’s like the police are looking for a fight,” said Lorraine Wayrauch of Beaverton. “They declared a state of emergency, but I don’t know why.” She is affiliated with Jobs with Justice and other groups.

Tracy Francis, 17, came to protest Bush and the war and said he was hit with an officer’s club in the lip and was hit with pepper spray. Along with others, she chanted, “Peaceful protest.”

The confrontation came in Bush’s second visit to Portland this year. He stopped in Medford on Thursday morning to visit the site of a forest fire and to announce new federal forest policies. But he had no public appearances in Portland. The Hilton event was open only to contributors.

Bush’s Portland stop was aimed at raising money for the re-election of Sen. Gordon Smith and the Republican Party in general. His stop came in a three-day West Coast swing to help GOP candidates in Oregon and California.

Bush has taken on an aggressive campaign schedule this year to help the Republicans retake the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow 50-49 majority.

About 600 contributors paid $1,000 for a fund-raising reception. Others paid $5,000 each for a more exclusive meeting and still others paid $25,000 per couple to have their picture taken with Bush. Party officials say the various events could add as much as $1 million to Republican campaign accounts.

But the 2002 election was only part of the political picture. Bush lost Oregon in 2000 by only a few thousand votes and his visit is part of their strategy to return Oregon to the Republican column in 2004.

Thursday’s violent confrontations were in marked contrast to the relatively small, low-key protests that greeted Vice President Dick Cheney when he visited Portland in June and when Bush was here last January.

Several hundred protesters greeted Cheney at the downtown Benson Hotel when he arrived Sunday, June 23, and about 100 demonstrated outside the Hilton the next day when Cheney gave a breakfast speech.

A potentially violent confrontation was derailed during Bush’s January visit, his first to Portland as president, because protesters were mistakenly told that Bush had canceled his visit.

About 500 protesters dispersed shortly before Bush arrived for a photo opportunity at a Northeast Portland job training center. By the time the president arrived only about 30 protesters were left to marshal some dispirited chants.

[bigpoppanils]

the cops must have been trained by the LAPD

[sassa]

the LAPD SUCK. NYPD cops are way nicer and hotter....

but yeah, i kind of wish i was at that protest, maybe i could have gotten some rotten tomatoes and eggs on bush's prada suit.

[dnice35]

serves them well, anyone who opposes the president and the war deserves to get smack in the lip and pepper sprayed in the face!

[sassa]

Originally posted by dnice35

serves them well, anyone who opposes the president and the war deserves to get smack in the lip and pepper sprayed in the face!

then i guess most of the world should be getting this punishment? what the hell are you smoking?

[dnice35]

Well sweety we are not most of the world. We are in America! Why are you all up in Bush's case anyways? The man has done a good job as president. Get off his back!!!

If it were up to me we would have been in Iraq already and its just a matter of time so deal with it.

"sadaam watch out..... "

[kramadas]

Originally posted by dnice35

Well sweety we are not most of the world. We are in America! Why are you all up in Bush's case anyways? The man has done a good job as president. Get off his back!!!

If it were up to me we would have been in Iraq already and its just a matter of time so deal with it.

"sadaam watch out..... "

Here's an excellent article.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/807688.asp

[dnice35]

America also helped Osama , does it justify what he did? I think not. As any nation, political allies often end up enemies further down the road. We have to look out for the welfare of our nation, regardless if we helped those to power in the past. When someone becomes an enemy to our states then they MUST be dealt with accordingly. Sadaam is now a threat to us as well as the Israelie people. How can you justify donating money to the families of those IDIOTS going out and killing not only themselfs, but also innocent Israelie people? and lets not forget this is the same sadaam who 12 years ago invaded Kuwait. That in itself shows what the mans intentions are.

[kramadas]

Originally posted by dnice35

America also helped Osama , does it justify what he did? I think not. As any nation, political allies often end up enemies further down the road. We have to look out for the welfare of our nation, regardless if we helped those to power in the past. When someone becomes an enemy to our states then they MUST be dealt with accordingly. Sadaam is now a threat to us as well as the Israelie people. How can you justify donating money to the families of those IDIOTS going out and killing not only themselfs, but also innocent Israelie people? and lets not forget this is the same sadaam who 12 years ago invaded Kuwait. That in itself shows what the mans intentions are.

The US knew very well what Saddam was when they supported him. THey knew he was using poison gas on the Iranians, in fact, they supplied him with intel. Oh, they also supplied biological agents to him...

Read these articles on BBC about Iraq...(analysis section)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2002/conflict_with_iraq/default.stm

[bigmahs]

Originally posted by raver_mania

The US knew very well what Saddam was when they supported him. THey knew he was using poison gas on the Iranians, in fact, they supplied him with intel. Oh, they also supplied biological agents to him...

Read these articles on BBC about Iraq...(analysis section)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2002/conflict_with_iraq/default.stm

What does that mean so werd supported them in the past now we just let him do what ever we want. DNICE was right we have to deal with the situation at hand STOP HIM NOW THAT'S IT!!! OR WE WILL ALL BE SORRY

I can garuntee that....

[dnice35]

To all those opposing a conflict with Iraq, name one good reason why we should not go into Iraq and tare sadaam a new asshole? we made a mistake during the Gulf War, which was not taking sadaam out of power then, Jr. will correct his fathers mistakes.

[£ddie]

Originally posted by dnice35

To all those opposing a conflict with Iraq, name one good reason why we should not go into Iraq and tare sadaam a new asshole? we made a mistake during the Gulf War, which was not taking sadaam out of power then, Jr. will correct his fathers mistakes.

There was actually no mistake made during the Gulf War by not removing Saddam from power. Removing Saddam from power would have exceeded the scope of mandate behind the security council resolution that culminated with the Gulf War. The scope of mandate was to liberate Kuwait, not remove Saddam from power. If we had gone in to extract Saddam, then we would have been violating international law, the same international law we wanted Saddam to comply with.