Around 6:30 p.m. a group of pro-Palestinian protesters — plus some that were dressed in all black — left the South Park blocks and started marching through Downtown Portland.
“They knocked me and my boyfriend to the ground and started kicking us and hitting us and we were kind of getting back up and some people came and repelled them, and they attacked those people. Everybody kind of scuffled for a while, and we were standing back up and walking out of it and they attacked us again and took my bag.”
It’s fucking May Day. These reporters are either morons or intentionally blurring the lines between regular May Day vandalism by anarchists and the pro-Palestine movement. I’m sure there’s plenty of overlap, but seeing broken corporate windows and anarchy signs on May Day should make it obvious the core motivation. I have a hard time believing neither the cops nor the media in Portland are familiar with anarchism or May Day.
it’s an intentional conflation. most of the anti-genocide protestors are peaceful, making it extremely hard to paint the narrative they’re not.