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[McKim]

28. Getting Clear on What is Happening at the Nightly Confrontations

As a third generation Portlander who loves her city and who supports BLM and the reconstruction of our police force, I have to ask what we should call these nightly confrontations. Are they anti Trump Administration Fascism or pro BLM or both? Many respected long time Black leaders And clergy have called for an end to violence, saying it is not helping their cause. Our notorious police force needs to be completely reconstructed. What it looks like to me is that now that the Trump Guardia Civil are here, the confrontations are about that: Portland vs. the unlawful use of Border Patrol on the streets of our city. I support this! The nation is watching to see if we will tolerate this fascist more by Trump. We must hold the line for the whole country’s sake.I am proud of the Moms! We should keep up the creative non violence which shows these thugs for who they are and who they represent unlawfully.

Also I worry about the long term economic consequences of this street fighting on our city center.
We have worked long and hard to make it a great and interesting city by good planning, event planning, activity planning and its a great downtown. But it is a downtown that has struggled and is struggling even more with the lack of tourism and a bad rap about our large homeless population. We finally passed a huge levy to help the homeless and things are going to get better, but now COVID and the 52 days of rage are hurting our city. I do not mean that BLM is trivial or to be shunted aside. Indeed we as a city and a state are making rapid progress on ensuring that Black Lives Do Matter! Every time I go downtown to see what is happening I shop or buy a take out dinner to support downtown. The boarded up windows make me sad. I photograph the wonderful murals that are there and I see the empty buildings. I can’t go to demonstrations for health reasons but I donate to BLM causes and the ACLU to bring unlawful actors to heel. I just wanted to share my anguish about the city I love.