'Occupy Portland' protesters back on the street to mark anniversary
PORTLAND, Ore. – Hoping to recapture the energy of the original Occupy Wall Street protests, marchers in Portland and around the country took to the streets on Monday to mark the one year anniversary of the movement.
About 100 Occupy Portland demonstrators marched on the sidewalk through Southeast Portland on Monday afternoon. They are both celebrating the anniversary of the original Occupy protests in New York and also trying to draw attention to the plight of General Motors workers in Columbia.
"This isn't intended to disrupt," said demonstrator Greg Margolis. "In fact, Occupy isn't intended to disrupt. It's intended to make changes and sometimes when we look historically disruption is necessary to make changes."
During Monday's march, protesters stayed on the sidewalks and police did not interfere.
Demonstrators we spoke with at the Portland march concede that their movement has fizzled out a bit since last year when they took over parks around the country, but they insist that their message is still strong.
While Occupy Wall Street started in September 2011, the first large-scale Occupy demonstration didn’t start in Portland until October. That’s when thousands of people marched downtown and eventually set up camp for six weeks in two city parks.
“It’s not as visible as it once was,” said Keri Koch with Occupy Portland. “Over the last nine months we haven’t been at camp, people have been in their communities organizing, which I think is more powerful.
For example, Koch says they’re most proud of their work in North and Northeast Portland reclaiming foreclosed homes.
One of those foreclosed homes was “liberated” in May when demonstrators smashed a lock and put a woman back in her house before the bank foreclosed on her.
The various protests also did not come cheap to the city. Portland police says they spent about $2 million policing the protests and the parks bureau spent around $78,000 to clean up parks.
If you think Occupy Portland is dead, just check out its calendar. Make sure you click the "ALL" button at the top unless you just want to see events, or only want to see workshops.... I think I counted 6 items on the calendar today, one or two of which I plan to attend. You can jump ahead to Oct 6 to see what's already listed there. Or hit the "Home" button to go to our front page and see articles and links, see photos and visit video archives. Don't believe our openly dishonest mainstream media! See for yourself.Please note that not all Occupy events and actions receive GA approval (sometimes due to time constraints) and only General Assembly approved events go on calendar. Many are run simply as FB event pages, never submitted for GA approval, and are not on this calendar; but it's a start.Please feel free to visit our office at Saint Francis, SE 12th / Oak across the street from the Red & Black anytime!Also, almost all events are free and open to the public so please join us or just come observe. You are welcome.http://www.occupyportlandcalendar.org/#
For starters, Occupy has exposed the 1%ers attack on the wealth of our nation once shared by all; put the pressure on Wall Street and exposed the subversion of democracy by super pacs, lobbyists, cross-hiring between Big Pharma-Monsanto-Boeing types and the FDA-Judges-Military types; popularized filming and photographing the police and outed their "I'll do anything I want to" approach to the law as well as challenging their militarization through federal surplus weaponry programs; challenged the NDAA (with 8 court wins thus far and counting), been named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine, had one of our lead writers nominated for a Nobel, challenged the detention and torture of whistleblowers who expose corruption (Free Bradley Manning!), and networked FB pages with hundreds of thousands of members.Locally, we keep the heat on by attending City Council meetings, open hearings and court hearings. We serve free meals several nights per week at several locations. We support one another individually with random acts of kindness, we educate one another on our FB pages (populated with hundreds of thousands of Occupiers).We stayed alive while you laughed at us, then fought us. We will stay alive until we win.
This is a GLOBAL movement. 100 people in Portland, thousands in NYC, 20 in Santa Fe, how many in Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Oakland, around the world? Go on FB and type in Occupy and the name of your hometown, the name of the city where you attended college, the city where you vacationed, the city you think is important... Did you not find an Occupy Group? How many likes & how many people talking about it that page? I checked one of the Occupy Wall Street pages. It had almost 212,000 likes and over 448,000 people talking about it. Another had over 401,000 likes, another over 170,000 likes....Is it adding up for you yet?Â
@Teresa Great, I'll be sure to note that the homeless guy and his cat contribute two likes. Considering it's a "global" movement, shouldn't there be millions and millions? I suppose the rest of the world doesn't much care for your "movement" - whatever that may be.
OK so does anybody anywhere know of anything at all these people have accomplished? Other than tearing up the parks, and making a general nuisance of themselves to those of the population who still do have jobs, that is.
 @PDX Dave Sure! I'll happily tally this up:  Cost to the city: * Park damages (which have been refuted by city workers) +$86,000
 * I'll even throw in the police overtime number (which was a poor command decision) +$2,000,000  * Social services rendered by volunteers including housing, clothing, food, and medical attention -$28,000,000  Total cost to the city: -$25.9M  Uh...oops. Due to all the free services, the city actually saved money. But I don't think they wanted you to know that. How did I calculate this? I used what it cost the city to use those services and multiplied it by the number of people who used them in the encampment.
@Remi Medic You mean the people that voluntarily stayed at the park instead of a home? Or were you meaning the travelling moochers that found a city that will tolerate putting up with their begging? Medical attention? Yeah, I guess diagnosing overdoses does cost money. Park damages refuted by city workers? Just cite your sources and we'll have somebody check on that. I've met people that marched just to cause trouble. Calculating those numbers, I'd say the percentage of trouble-makers and deadbeats in "Occupy" is far higher than the percentage of the working class that took part. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
 @JGalt PS - Did you look at what they were adding into the "costs"? They added things like raking leaves and reseeding the ground...which they do annually anyway. Unless you're going to tell me that Occupy causes the leaves to fall.  We also sent 50 volunteers to aid in cleaning the park. But that didn't make the cut either, I guess.
 @JGalt  @Remi Sure: http://occupyportland.org/2011/12/23/press-release-retired-parks-employee-defends-occupiers-citys-claims-damage-chapmanloundsdale-issue-deferred-maintenance/Â
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See statements by Dan Former and Richard Beetle. I know you'll write it off, but you asked.  As for the rest of it. I'm neither interested in your games or the city's. Services were rendered, period. If you're going to cite Occupy for the costs you also have to recognize everything else that came with it. With that said, it's obvious you weren't down there, especially in the medical tent. (I was)
Just stay in Portland with the rest of the riff raff!
To the occupy protesters that participated in the march today, I say thank you. While I may personally have no interest in your select causes, it demonstrates a maturity of your movement that todays march was peaceful and did not (overtly) interfere with the activities of citizens who happened upon it.Â
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Nicely done.Â
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Insofar as 'reoccupying' foreclosed homes.... well.... you're squatting. When the police or media show up to piddle on your barbeque, don't act so indignant. You're there illegally, and your demonstrated patterns of behavior do nothing to help your cause. Some people next door and down the block paid for their homes, are raising a family, and would like to live in a non-indigent neighborhood.Â
@MarkKpic first, she DID pay for her home and it was ILLEGALLY foreclosed; second, she's a litle ol' church-going, honored citizen of our community. third, maybe those people next door & down the block shouldn't have subverted a neighborhood by gentrifying it. Don't move into a neighborhood and then complain about it. Stop buying foreclosed homes! You are culpable in the greatest land grab since the Depression. Shame.
@Teresa I love this use of "gentrification" by dreadlocked white hipsters. Maybe if the police were left out of those communities and no funds were used for improvement, that would fit your desires to keep the area "ethnic"? All you're doing is applying reverse racism and it's simply stupid at best.
 @Teresa  @MarkKpic Ugg.... More propoganda and PR wordsmithing. C'mon, teresa, try engaging in actual substanitive conversations about issues rather than the trite default responses. Perhaps the occupy movement could actually regain some of the public support it once enjoyed.
 @Teresa  @MarkKpicÂ
You don't "illegally foreclose" you steal. But was this a theft or the way it was supposed to happen?
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I have never heard of an "illegal foreclosure" I have heard of improper foreclosures where the bank mistakenly forecloses. Just like all things, banks are "people" too and can make mistakes.
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What is the error for convinced the bank they had the right to take her home? That is the more pressing question. Where there is smoke and such. It would be bad for everyone if the bank had a number of these errors.
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Two homes near my home were abandoned. The banks (hopefully to clean them up) will foreclose on them. Should there be no buyers for these homes? As it is, these folks abandoning their homes will mean lower property values in my already depressed part of the city.
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Not all foreclosures are bad. People need to pay their bills. They need to pay the bank when they have made a deal. Just like not all sales are good. Some folks to avoid foreclosure short-sell. IS that any better than abandoning? You are still out the home, and still didn't make any equity.
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On gentrification. There is nothing wrong with it. Without it Harlem would still be a junk heap. Been to south LA recently? I went through there mistakenly, didn't even KNOW I was in a bad area. Gentrification is a movement to improve an area. First by making it look nice and updating it's appearance, then by making unwanted elements, usually drug dealers and prostitution, unwelcome. Are those the elements you are supporting?
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Finally we are all culpable. I bet even you. We vote for officials who support agendas of people who pay them campaign funds. They then spend our money on things we didn't intend for them to, and yet we STILL re-elect them. They violate the laws, they violate our trust, and yet because we cannot support "the other side" we keep voting for them. The evil I know and all that.
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Banks didn't make this mess. WE did. Banks are not evil, only real people are evil. And getting kicked out of your home for non-payment is not crime it's how the system works.
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so the occutard movement (social event at least in PDX) is losing its luster. I guess it was just a little warm to have to come out from mom and dad's cool basement.
@kramr Now we know where you live. Nice projection there.
100 protestors...OOOOOOO. THAT'S NEWS....NOT! Get a job hippies! Maybe they all did get jobs...hmmm
@1911R1  You HIRING? We got APPLICANTS!
 @Teresa Most places won't hire anyone without a work history.
@Teresa Too bad you don't have qualifications!
Solidarity is definitely not a crime. It should be treated like a fragile plant to nurtured and tended carefully, and allowed to flourish in a healthy environment. Unfortunately, it is all too often allowed to grow into a large, ungainly weed that ends up choking the life out of the entire garden.
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Solidarity is the only way the individual has to stand up against the behemoth of big business and the spectre of unfair treatment in exchange for bigger profits which benefit a very few. Or to stand against the greed of banks or other corporations who seem to believe they can do no wrong in the pursuit of their god, the Almighty Dollar.
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No, there is nothing wrong with solidarity so long as greed for money or power or both is not allowed to take root within its ranks.
 @Mikey "Solidarity is definitely not a crime."  It depends on who you stand in solidarity with and whether or not the police or the state agree with you. When they don't, believe me, they are very eager to end that solidarity quickly.
If I was losing 49 cents on every thing I sold, I'd stop selling. If I was losing $49,000.00 on every car I built-fill in the blank
Accomplished nothing! Period! Just go away and take yourselves out of the gene pool!
@jpk Clearly you weren't watching. And what did YOU accomplish? Since Occupy PDX won't be a year old till Oct 6th, let's focus on the nat'l movement (or would you prefer we attempt to list the global victories) excerpt of article: "Earlier this month, Occupy Wall Street helped Manhattan restaurant workers defeat a lousy boss and a worker lock-out to unionize a restaurant in the Hot and Crusty chain. (While shut out, the employees occupied the sidewalk and ran the Worker Justice Café there.) In Providence, Rhode Island, the Occupy encampment broke up late last January, but only on the condition that the city open a daytime shelter for homeless people. At Princeton University, big banks are no longer invited to recruit on campus, most likely thanks to Occupy Princeton.
There have been thousands of little victories like these and some big ones as well: the impact of the Move Your Money initiative, the growing revolt against student-loan-debt peonage, and more indirectly the passing of a California law protecting homeowners from the abuse of the foreclosure process (undoubtedly due in part to Occupy's highlighting of the brutality and corruption of that process)."http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11584-occupy-your-victories-occupy-wall-streets-first-anniversary
Big deal! But thanks for all the liberal rhetoric!
An empty can rattles the most; nothing here but a bunch of noise.
I like that comment Rey Arteb!!
A rattling can...great!
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@Rey Arteb comments on himself. LOL
So....what exactly does Occupy Portland want??? What is it that they are saying? What's their stance? I'm asked in a poll if I think their message resonates with the people? What IS THEIR message???
@Bewitchin1 Our message is that we the citizens have been sold out to the banksters and bad things have been going on while we weren't monitoring what our government was up to. Our representatives no longer represent us (but have voted themselves full salaries for life and better insurance and vacations than any of us can get), CEO's make 100x more than their employees but pay zero taxes so we support them twice, our media no longer seeks truth but propagandizes (no whistle blower status is available to their employees because they break no law by lying to you, per judge in Fox News litigation), the LIBOR rates are rigged, the stock market is rigged, the elections are rigged, and the police do whatever they want to, and the whole world is watching us betray our constitution. We either protest or we look like complacent Germans in the Nazi regime. And the whole world is not only watching, the whole world is protesting.If you want to know what journalists really think abou the state of the nation, here's what they say when their bosses can't control them. I dialed in Oregon but check out your home state and some others as well. Note the F in "public access to information"? that's where journalist state how little we citizens get to know about the backroom dealings of our city councils and our state legislatures.http://www.stateintegrity.org/oregon
@Bewitchin1 I believe these Liberal Pukes have this drivel listed as their mission statement:
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.
We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of oneâs skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workersâ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save peopleâs lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
 @Morgan/Wilson2012  @Bewitchin1 Don't these peons know they are to bow down to their corporate masters and grovel before them? I mean, corporations are people too!
 @last boyscout  @randomdude  @Bewitchin1 Pffft. There's no reason for unions to exist. If people can't just accept the fact that those at the top are simply better than them then I don't know where our country's headed. In order for us to get ahead, we need to throw out any workplace safety regulations as well as our Child Labor Laws. It's not too late to turn back the clock....all the way to the year 1900! Who says chamber pots and monopolies are outdated!?
 @randomdude  @Bewitchin1 Don't give me any of your "the economy is rigged against us" crap. If you'd had the good sense to be born into billions you wouldn't be complaining. I don't see why people can't just cheat their way to the top; it worked for me!
 @randomdude  @Morgan/Wilson2012  @Bewitchin1 Unions are people too.
@Bewitchin1 It changes from day to day, especially during their general assemblies. He/she who has the biggest mouth wins!
"One of those foreclosed homes was âliberatedâ in May when demonstrators smashed a lock and put a woman back in her house before the bank foreclosed on her.The various protests also did not come cheap to the city. Portland police says they spent about $2 million policing the protests and the parks bureau spent around $78,000 to clean up parks. "
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So ...they break into houses, tresspass, destroy public property which cost he local taxpayer or people who have jobs and pay their taxes.
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That is a heck of a lot of money out of the pockets of the hard working people, who are trying to make a living.
These "occupy protestors" need to perhaps start earning some real money, to pay back those who they stole from.
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 @Just Lookin You forgot to list the (roughly) $28M worth of services volunteered at the encampment that the city didn't have to pay for. That included housing, clothing, food, and medical aid.  Just saying, if we're going to tally costs...you have to take into account all sides.  But if you really want your $2.31, I'm sure one of us could put that together for you if you're that desperately in need of it. Personally, I'd ask the city why their workers claimed that bulk of the damages to those parks preceded Occupy and why they listed them. I'd also ask why they made the command decision to request mutual aid which cost over $1M...which was paid to Gresham, Beaverton, and other surrounding areas.
Sport..."Remi edic"
I really doubt there were $28M worth of volunteer services. Free drugs? Free spit and urine?What should have really happened after the "protestors" decided to take up residence in the park, was to usher them out quickly and quietly as possible, as they were a health hazard.
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 @I812    I published those numbers back in December and sat before the City Council where I testified about the amount of services. They were unable to deny that the number was accurate. If you want to hunt down that information, it's somewhere in the bowels of city hall. Be my guest.  The cost of 24/7 on-site medical care alone is millions.Â
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By all means, don't let facts get in the way of your politics.
@Remi Medic @Just Lookin $28 Million???? That is over $1400 per day per person who significantly damaged a beautiful Portland park. Come on ... your histrionics are further eroding any creidbility you thought you had.
My apologies for the formatting wonkiness. I'm trying to figure out line breaks for this page. LoL
 @Just Lookin (couldn't find the 'M' key?)  39 Days of giving shelter to 500+ peopleÂ
39 Days of feeding 500+ people 3x a day  Â
39 Days of volunteered medical services from physicians, nurses, and EMSÂ Â
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39 Days of swapping out people's dirty clothing to do laundry  Â
 Still think $28M is too high a number?  You're right, maybe the city should have ushered Occupy out, but they didn't. That was their decision.
In the picture it shows the Occupy Portland demonstrators carrying a banner that says 'Solidarity is not a crime'. They are right solidarity is not a crime, however trespassing, breaking and entering, vandalism, among other things, are a crime. The mayor should have put an end to this last year when it first got started, be he wanted to go to Asia instead.
Sounds like they've given up for the most part. Only 100? And what did they accomplish? Not a damn thing other than costing the city thousands of dollars to repair the damage, for police overtime, etc.Â
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Go away losers. Jerry's dead. Get a job!!
"Occupy isn't intended to disrupt. It's intended to make changes and sometimes when we look historically disruption is necessary to make changes."
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SO WTF are you saying, Greg? "We're not here to break eggs, we're here to make omelets?" Peh! If you're going to cause a scene and protest, at least own the scene. Loser.
That stupid V for Vendetta mask drives me up the wall. If you are so proud of your cause then why hide your face? I suppose so that the cops and government do not catalog these people? Shady.
 @MagicMoose  That was Dan Sandini, aka Daylight Disinfectant. He covered his face because he didn't want us to know who he is, unfortunately, he forgot to change his watch and the type of camera he owns so we ended up figuring it out pretty quickly.