Hall Monitor: Risk Avoidance – Blogtown

Michelle Fawcett in 2019 Doug Brown

Hall Monitor is a regular column on topics related to Portland City Hall and its impact on the community it serves.

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It’s been three years since a Portland police officer shot ammunition into a crowd protesting a right-wing rally and hit Michelle Fawcett, leaving her with scorching third-degree burns to her arm and chest.

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Fawcett, a longtime activist in her mid-50s, has not been to a protest rally since.

“I don’t feel safe,” Fawcett told the Mercury on Thursday. “[The city] took that away from me. That is one of the most difficult things in all of this. “

Fawcett’s sense of loss goes beyond her personal safety. In the three years since her injury, she has seen hundreds of Portlanders being mistreated in the same way by local police and right-wing extremists who continue to use Portland as a battlefield. She has watched this rampant violence effectively eradicate the progressive activism for which Portland has long been known.

“The city has done nothing to make us feel we can safely practice democracy,” said Fawcett.

On Wednesday, Portland City Council voted to pay Fawcett $ 50,000 to settle a lawsuit it filed against the city in 2019 for excessive use of force by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). The pre-vote public testimony focused on how little has changed in the PPB’s response to protests since the 2018 demonstration, which Fawcett has “permanently scarred and emotionally traumatized” according to her lawsuit.

It was a necessary moment for reflection.

On August 4, 2018, members of Patriot Prayer – the right wing group based in Vancouver, Washington – gathered in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, hoisted Confederate flags and waved batons for a “freedom march,” tangential to the founder’s failed run from Patriot Prayer, Joey Gibson, was joined for the US Senate. However, local police paid little attention to the crowd of visiting extremists and instead focused on the large crowd of counter-demonstrators who had rallied to oppose Patriot Prayer, a group with ties to white nationalists.

That was what drew Fawcett to the event: she had learned of the connection between Patriot Prayer and Jeremy Christian – the avowed white racist who killed two men in 2017 after trying to stop him from engaging in hate speech against two women of color to spread the MAX. Christian had taken part in a march organized by Patriot Prayer just a month before the MAX murders.

“When I heard the Patriot Prayer was returning to Portland, I knew I had to be part of the peaceful protest,” Fawcett said in 2019. “I felt it was my duty to stand up against violence, bigotry and hatred that day. “

Videos and photos of the midsummer demonstration show how the police stand up against the group of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators and fire ammunition directly into the crowd without warning or explanation. (Officials later claimed that some protesters in the group allegedly threw stones and bottles at them.)

Fawcett was standing far from the PPB line, speaking to a friend when she was hit by the burning ammunition. Several others were hit by the PPB’s weapons, including journalists and protesters. An officer’s lightning grenade dug into an activist’s bicycle helmet and split open his skull.

After the event, the public expressed concern that PPB officials had acted with unfair forbearance towards patriot prayer rallies compared to the anti-fascist crowd. Their suspicions were confirmed months later when Mercury records revealed that a PPB lieutenant shared information on the whereabouts of the counter-demonstrators with Gibson of Patriot Prayer on the day of the rally. Police also admitted doing nothing after discovering a supply of long guns in a car owned by Patriot Prayer members on a high level of a parking garage near the protest.

Internal research into these perceived allegiances did little to contain public discomfort. It’s been years and PPB’s actions during the protests still seem skewed against left-wing activists.

The last right-wing extremist visit to Portland – a rally organized by members of the Proud Boys on August 22nd – culminated in bloody fistfights and gunfire. Portland police were noticeably absent from many of these violent outbreaks, having previously warned the city that officers would not intervene in clashes. For progressive activists, this felt like PPB was giving conservative extremists a free pass to wreak havoc on activists who spent much of 2020 protesting against the work of PPB.

“It is terrifying when the police coordinate with these regional units to attack the residents of the city,” said Portlander Emory Mort, who spoke about Fawcett’s settlement to the city council ahead of Wednesday’s vote.

While Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as the city’s police commissioner, admitted the police reaction of the 22nd extremists who come to the city. In particular, he lamented the fact that his 2018 proposal to limit the time and place of protests was condemned as unconstitutional (Psst … it was).

“Let me remind you that I was trying to get an ordinance out … and the church didn’t want it,” Wheeler said with a happy laugh. “The community strongly contradicted me.”

It is this kind of shrugging response that gives Fawcett and others who have watched the past few years of police brutality little hope that left-wing protesters will ever feel safe at a demonstration in Portland.

“It feels like nobody’s in charge here,” said Fawcett. “There is zero accountability and zero protection. There are many opportunities for us to explore better avenues for community safety. There is simply no concern or the will to do something. “

On Wednesday, city lawyers told the city council that the decision to reach an agreement with Fawcett was risk averse, as the outcome might not have been in the city’s favor if their case had gone to court. Fawcett thought that was an admission of wrongdoing.

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“At least as close as possible,” she said. “But it is no compensation for being shot at by a being that was supposed to be there to protect the community. It doesn’t feel like we’re on a path to make this any better. “

City guides have spent the past few months working with public relations firms and brand analysts to “save” Portland’s reputation after the pandemic – suggesting past protests against racial justice and the city’s apparent housing crisis are tarnishing Portland’s image to have. However, it ignores how the city tour has weakened Portland’s long reputation as a stronghold for progressive activism in the country in recent years.

Other than meeting Fawcett in court, it seems like a risk the city is willing to take.