Portland, Oregon. – There is a rhetorical battle, raging in this democratic city, known for its delightful coffee, many bizarre restaurants, donuts to order, as well as with its small fraction of activists with black ones.
This began on Saturday, when President Trump suddenly announced that he was sending the National Guard to the “destroyed” Portland-where a small group of demonstrators took place in a monthly protest in the building of immigration and customs activities south of the city center.
Oregon officials forcibly pushed away, flooding their own social networks with images of colorful tables of cafes, flooded with suns by farm markets, pink gardens in full color and parks torn with children, families and dogs. Officials would have preferred that the city be known for its atmosphere in Portland, and beg the residents to remain peaceful and not to give the Trump administration a spectacle of protest.
The protester worries employees of the Ministry of Internal Security, when they go to the gates of the US immigration and customs environment after checking the area outside Portland, Oregon.
(Jenny Kane / Associated Press)
“There is no need or legal excuse for the military troops,” said Governor Oregon Tina Kotek, again and again in her Instagram and in the texts to President Trump, which were publicly released. Officials went to court in search of a decision on the termination of deployment, with a hearing on Friday.
But the president seems decisive. In a speech on Tuesday, before the collection of generals and admirals, he sketched a contradictory vision of sending troops to democratic cities “as training for our military” in order to fight the “invasion from the inside”. He called Portland a “nightmare”, which “looks like a war zone … like the Second World War.”
“The kingdom of terror in the radical left in Portland ends,” the press release of the White House says: “With President Donald J. Trump mobilization Federal resources to stop Antifa Hell fire in his traces. “
Trump's goal at Portland came after he deployed troops to Washington, the District of Colombia and Los -Angeles, and threatened to do this in another place. The President says that he is in a campaign of promises to restore social security, but the bullyers say that he is trying to intimidate and provoke democratic strongholds, distracting the nation from his various contradictions.
While they are waiting for to see if the National Guard arrives in the city residents of the city this week to respond with a mixture of rage, shortcomings and sadness.
A person lies under a public sculpture of art in the center of Portland, Oregon.
(Richard Darbonn / during the time)
Many admitted that Portland has problems: Homelessness and open abuse of drugs are endemicAnd the camps crowded several sidewalks. The city center never recovered from the closure of the pandemic and unrest that occurred during George Floyd's protests in 2020.
More recently, Intel – one of the largest private employers of Oregon – announced This was dismissed by 2400 employees In the county west of Portland. Like Los -Angeles and many other cities, Portland I saw a big drop in tourism This year, the trends, which, as the leaders of the city say, does not help Trump's military interventions.
“We need federal assistance to update our infrastructure and build affordable housing to help clean our rivers and plants of plants,” said Portland Mayor Kit Wilson on his social networks. “Instead of help, they send armored vehicles and men in a mask.”
Throughout the city this week, residents repeated such topics.
“Nothing happens here. This is a magnificent, peaceful city, ”said Hannah O'Melly, who had a snack of Free potatoes at the table overlooking the Willamet River near the sports bar and Grill Portland.
Visitors are reflected in the window at Honey Pearl Cafe PDX in the center of Portland.
(Richard Darbonn / during the time)
The restaurant was only a few quarters from the building of immigration and customs support, where the continuing demonstration was the last goal of the president against the city.
A small group of people-many of them at the age of 60 and the 70s with gray pigtails and the best rain jackets were collected here for several months to protest against federal immigration suppression.
In June, the site had several clashes with law enforcement agencies. The police announced a rebellion one night, and on the other night issued several arrests outside the facility, including one person Accused of suffering from a policemanA field on Tuesday, the Ministry of Internal Security announced that they had arrested “four criminal illegal foreigners”, who allegedly conducted laser blows on the helicopter of the border patrol “in an attempt to temporarily blind a pilot”.
But on the day, the protests were largely peaceful and quite small, and nothing can cope with the city police, according to city officials and the protesters themselves.
On Monday afternoon, a group of about 40 people, including grandmothers, parents and their children, and a man in a chicken suit, kept flowers and signs. The abuses of the ice gates at the ice officers standing on the driveway shouted somewhat.
People protest outside the US immigration and customs institution on September 28 in Portland, Oregon.
(Jenny Kane / Associated Press)
“We are so terrible,” joined the 67 -year -old Kat Barnard, a retired accountant for non -profit organizations, who said that she began to protest a few months ago, setting him between the care of the grandson. She added that she found a sense of community, standing against the immigration repression of the Trump administration. “I met so many people,” she said. “It's just beautiful. It makes me happy. “
A few miles from here in a cafe in the famous bookstore of the city of Powell’s Books, a retired trio, the negative image of its beloved city mourned.
“This is the most peaceful, kind community in which I lived when I lived,” said 74 -year -old Lynn Avril, who moved to Portland from Phoenix several years ago. Avril, a pensioner illustrator who wrote a work of art for Young Amelia poor bookShe said that she regularly walks home alone late in the dark streets of the city, and feels completely safe, doing it.
The president “wants another sight”, added a friend Avrila, Sinda Shuster, 73 years old, a retired real estate manager.
“This is what we are afraid,” Avril answered.
“There are no problems here,” added 72 -year -old Annie Olsen, a retired federal worker. “This is all performing and stupid.”
Nevertheless, according to women, they are well aware that their beloved city has a negative reputation at the national level. Avril said that when she told her friends in Phoenix that she decided to move to Portland: “People said:“ Why do you need to move here [with] All violence? “
Olsen sighed and nodded. “There is so much misinformation,” she said.
In the front lobby of the famous bookstore, the local lists of bestseller provided a window in many inhabitants. Two books about authoritarianism and censorship – “1984” by George Orwell and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury – were on the shelves. In the scientific literature, this was the same story, with “how fascism works” and “on tyranny”, both appeared.
The Willamet River passes through the city center Portland, OR.
(Richard Darbonn / during the time)
But outside, the sky was blue and bright, despite the rain in the forecast, and many residents did what the Portlanders did with an unexpected gift from the weather gods: they ran and rode a bicycle along the Willamet River and sat in the open air, stretching the famous coffee of their city on their mouths.
“Trump is upset,” said 577, “Shannon O'Connor. She said that Portland probably had a problem – “homelessness, fentanin, a huge problem with drugs”, but they have no riots.
Stretching on the sidewalk near the RAMP motorway, a man calling himself a “rabbit”, played money, accompanied by his two bull mixes Beagle-Pit, Pooh Bear and Piglet.
The 48 -year -old rabbit said that he had not heard about the President’s plan to send him to the National Guard, but did not think that it was necessary. He came to Portland two years ago “to get away from all madness,” he said, and found that it was safe. “I have not been threatened yet,” he said, then knocked on a tree.
Many residents said that, in their opinion, the president can confuse what is happening in Portland now with the period in 2020, when the city was briefly erected by Black Live Matter protests.
“Then we had a lot of problems,” said the woman who asked us to be called only “Sue” out of fear of being doxal. “Now nothing like that.” The resulting Portland, she is in retirement and among those who demonstrate at the ice factory south of the city center.
She and other residents said that they noticed that the clips of unrest and other violence since 2020 were recently recirculated on social networks and even some cable news.
“Either he is mistaken, or it is part of his propaganda,” she said about the image of President Portland, adding that it makes her “very sad. I have never protested before this care. But we must do something. ”
When in the afternoon turned into an evening on Tuesday, the blue sky over the city gave way to clouds and drizzling. Parks and open cafes are lowered.
When the night came, retired women and children who protested over the ice institution went home, and more and more young people began to take their places.
By 22:00, law enforcement agencies were massaged on the roof of the building of the ice building in tactical equipment. Protesting blacks who watched local television reporters and some independent media played a cat and a mouse with officers, going to the building only in order to be repulsed by pepper rounds.
The 39-year-old man who asked him to call his “Musha” and whose eyes were visible among his black clothes, stood on the corner through the street, pointing to independent media, conducting protests. “They show that hell is Portland,” he said, his voice dripped from irony.
Around the same time, Katie DaviskurtA reporter with Post Millennial, published on X that it was “attacked by the antifier -agitator.” She also wrote on Twitter that “the suspect escaped to Antifa -a warranty house.”
A few minutes later, a group of officers escaped from the van and seemed to detain one of the protesters. Then the officers scattered, and the confrontation resumed.
Outside the corner of a couple with gray hair, sports smooth rain jackets walked along their little dog along the street. If they were concerned about the drama made for the video, which was played out in a few yards, they did not show her. They just continued to walk around their dog.
On Wednesday morning, president Weighed againwrite on The truth is social“Conditions continue to deteriorate in lawless chaos.”
