February 15, 2021 • 47 mins
In this episode we cover the struggle to save the Red House, and where things in Portland stand today.
Host: Robert Evans
Executive Producer: Sophie Lichterman
Writers: Bea Lake, Donovan Smith, Elaine Kinchen, Garrison Davis, Robert Evans
Narration: Bea Lake, Donovan Smith, Elaine Kinchen, Garrison Davis, Robert Evans
Editor: Chris Szczech
Music: Crooked Ways by Propaganda
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
As the sun began to tuck away for winter, so
did many Portlanders who had spent the summer out protesting.
As the days grew shorter, a shrunken but dedicated group
of activists continued to pound the streets in their call
for justice. The early days of the protests had been
fueled in part by the massive lockdown and the layoffs
that came with it. As the pandemic wore on, economic
(00:29):
collapse contributed to street activism in new ways. Portland has
been in a housing state of emergency since two thousand fifteen,
as it was declared by former Mayor Charlie Hales and
extended by his successors in the City Council again in
two thousand nineteen for two more years. For a long time,
thousands of Portland's had lived one paycheck away from homelessness,
(00:51):
and in thousands more found themselves on the edge of
a cliff. To stave off disaster, a pandemic eviction moratorium
was adopted by local all makers. It included no forgiveness
or grace period from mr rent. This meant that while
you wouldn't get kicked out of your home for missing rent,
all that unpaid rent still stacked up. At the time
(01:11):
of recording, eighty nine thousand households in Oregon are subject
to eviction when the state's moratorium expires, owing more than
three hundred and seventy eight million dollars in collective back rent. Now,
evicting all of those people would cost the state three
billion dollars, eight times more than the total back rent owed.
Near the end of the whole situation wound up coming
(01:33):
to a head in the battle over a single property.
The Red House on North Mississippi Avenue. Coming up next
is a lane Portland has spent the last decade basking
in its image is a liberal playground of bird stickers
and local war foodies. However, this hides the concerted destruction
by developers and city planners of Portland's black community in
(01:53):
the Albina District. During that same time, the area was
redlined for blacks, with local government working in concert real
estate agents and banks to guarantee black people virtually had
no options to live outside the neighborhood. Following the Vanport
floods of nineteen forty eight, local lawmakers and real estate
interests coordinated to ensure that thousands of black individuals and
families suddenly without a home, could look nowhere else but
(02:16):
a small section of inner North and Northeast Portland if
they were to live within city limits. The mostly European
immigrant populated neighborhood flipped almost overnight, with many other residents
quickly fleeing the area to avoid living near black people.
Shortly after the flood, close to seventy percent of the
state's black population lived in the Albina district. Consequently, the
(02:36):
neighborhood has been the nucleus to much of the city's
black community for generations. The Portland Police Bureau conducted years
of targeted harassment aimed at the Albina community. Years of
blite systemic disinvestment and policing have led to a mass
exodus of Blacks from the central Albina core. Many left
to the fringes of the city in search of lower rents.
As North Northeast Portland suddenly became prime real estate, quickly,
(02:57):
the place so many called home was eroding before their eyes.
Here are the snack Mamas on the gentrification of Albina
and some history of North Northeast Portland. Yeah, it's hard
to Portland. It's turned Like I said, it's really hard
to watch the change. Sometimes I get really angry and
it's hard. It's hard to watch this upsetting. But everything
(03:18):
looks all nice and fancy, but nobody knows how it
got that way. Emmanuel Hospital, I mean, fucking break, you
know what I mean. Like, yeah, it's nice to have
a hospital there, it really is. I mean, but you
could have cleared the fucking freeway and stuff. You're right there.
I mean, get Motor Center out of there and put
a hospital right there. Like I don't even remember what
was there before Motor Center was, but I'm sure quarter
(03:42):
they changed. Figure it out, you know what I mean.
But you're tearing families out of homes who lived there.
For I was like my my son's grandmother. She lived
on thirty three and Prescott, right there on the corner.
She's like in her late nineties. It came in pretty
much soil that house from up underneath her, and they're
always the box with all moved into like a hotel
(04:03):
like apartment thing. And died shortly after that. And it's like,
as this upsetting, you want to drive by and see
and I'm like, God, damn, I don't drun my car
to that house, you know, but is upsetting the way
they do things and the way they you know, re
home people in the you know, the wounds run deep.
In the last decade, homeownership for black Portlanders has fallen,
not risen. Perhaps more striking is their representation in the
(04:23):
houseless population. About seven point two percent of Multnomah County's
population is black, but according to their most recent point
in time count, which was released in pre COVID Times,
it showed that black Portlander's accounted for more than sixteen
percent of the houseless in the area. A policy adopted
by the City of Portland, designed to give residents with
historic ties to inner North and Northeast helps illustrate how
(04:47):
deep the need is. The policy gives first DIBs at
select new apartments being developed by the Housing Bureau, assists
existing homeowners in the area with maintenance and foster's homeownership opportunities.
When applicating for the first round of units opened up,
in thousands applied to live in the handful of units.
More complexes have been built since and dozens more served
(05:09):
for the home repair and ownership opportunities. But every time
applications open, the systems are flooded with people just hoping
to make the waitlist. However, for people that qualify, some
feel like the program does not go far enough to
remediate the damage that was done to the community. The
neck mom must continue. Why even that program has problems
since it limits the ownership rights of the family that
(05:30):
it helps to return. Yeah, I entered into this program
for the Bulama County did UM for people who lived
in North Portland and we're kind of pushed out, so
I entered that program. I'm just like, this is fucking
complete bullshit. You're asking people who have been kicked out
of their homes because of you guys have great fucking
credit to get into this program and to um be
(05:53):
able to buy a home on their own ship. But
yet you own the land, they can own the home.
Like fuck, go funk yourself. Yeah that's what it is.
They own the people. Yeah, you can't. You can't do ship.
They own that land. You own the home, mind you
when you they get a piece of that money when
(06:13):
you sell your home because they helped you get into there.
And you know, yeah, so you can't do any work
on the land or or tear the house down and building.
You can't do whatever you want to do. That's their
fucking land, you know, and you're just owning the home
on it. So it's not actually nothing people get back
absolutely and so and so, like you have choices between um,
(06:39):
all these little houses or our little buildings or town
homes or whatever. Like. There was nothing that was over
like three two bedrooms, I think two or three bedrooms
on any of those lists, because I've got a family
of five, you know, I'm just like, fuck, like, none
that should share for me, Like, what's what's the deal?
Can I build on it? No? You can't build anything
else on it? What the fuck? You know? Find out there?
(07:00):
That's their property, just on the building for that point being,
you know. And and um, yeah, I'm just like, but
all these properties are certain properties, you know, because it's
just what they own that you get to live on. Yeah, basically,
And I'm just like, this is fucking bullshit, dude. You know.
I never made it to my second appointment. I was like,
(07:21):
look out of here. Local activist Regina Rage also spoke
on the ongoing gentrification in Portland in specific relation to
a certain red painted house on Mississippi Avenue that was
owned by the same black family for more than fifty years.
That house would become one of the main focal points
in Portland protests. Yeah, Mississippi Street is located in a
(07:46):
neighborhood in Portland that was previously in all black neighborhood
and is at the very moment being gentrified and developed.
And UM, black families are being four out into East
Portland and Southeast Portland because of this gentrification and so
(08:08):
like for me specifically, UM, I like remember the lot
that we're all occupying, and it's been empty my entire life,
and now because of this protest, they want to develop
it into something else. They're gonna donate it and then
they're gonna put higher rises on top of it, condos,
(08:29):
you know. Um, the neighborhood looks vastly different from when
I was growing up. I don't recognize it. Sometimes I'm
driving and I just really don't recognize it. And um,
that's what makes it important to the community is this
is one of the last black families in this neighborhood
(08:52):
and they are doing everything they can to remain this neighborhood.
And previously they were displaced from Vamport as well, another
neighborhood in Portland's that was destroyed. UM, and all of
it is tied to white supremacy. In what we're fighting against,
(09:15):
we crooked. Here's Donovan Smith. The Red House All Mississippi
has belonged to the Kinney family for over sixty five years.
(09:36):
William and Pauline Kenney sold their house to their son,
William Jr. And his wife in their financial Dominoes began
when the owner's son got into a car accident on
a suspended license as of teen in two thousand two.
The driver of the car died, the passenger was injured,
and William the third was ultimately convicted of a felony.
To cover legal fees, the Kinney family took out a
(09:57):
balloon loan against the house the Sun and William X.
Nice was sinced to five years first and juvenile detention
before being transitioned to the state prison at eighteen. Over time,
due to interests and expenses piling up, as well as
inadequate legal representation, the Kinney family home, now one of
the last black owned homes on North Mississippi, ended up
(10:18):
in foreclosure because the foreclosure process started prior to the pandemic.
In September, or judge ruled that the eviction of the
Kenneys could proceed despite the eviction moratorium. That month, the
Montnoma County Sharfs stormed into the Reddit House with rifles
and evicted four members of the family. After the initial eviction,
some Portlanders began gathering around the Red House to support
(10:38):
the Kennies. They decried the forced eviction, especially amist economic
crisis and the pandemic. Some even camped outside the property,
and then on December five, the Portland Police Bureau and
County Sheriff's arrived yet again to clear out residents, campers
and render the home on Mississippi Avenue uninhabited Alsas are
An independent Portland journalists was on the on when the
(11:00):
tide turned against the police eviction team. Red House. Wow,
where to be kids? Um? You know, Red Houses is
like such a wild story in so many ways. Um,
that morning, oh my god, it was like not even
nine thirty in the morning, and I was just like,
(11:23):
holy sh it, Like everyone just went like full Paris
on p PP. It was not even ten o'clock in
the morning. I was like, what am I witnessing right now?
This is wild? But I think that's fucking huge because
you know, for almost two hundred days we've seen people
(11:45):
we've you know, we've seen activists and protesters play nothing
but defense, and even the defense is very like it's
usually very childish and comical, you know, which is what's
so fucking powerful. You know. They throw bouncy balls and
water balloons filled with glitter at the cops, and the
cops's reaction is just like, you know, it's absurd. UM.
(12:11):
So seeing that kind and even even the morning of
Red House, that was still defense, but it was a
different kind of defense. It was hands on, aggressive, don't
funk with us kind of defense. And you know, it's
the first time I've seen anything like that. UM. And
(12:33):
the fact that it was done for that reason, I
think also just goes to show like what the community
is about. UM. Seeing people care that much, it was incredible. Um.
There were people literally fighting the cops, and I think
(12:56):
this is one of the few like literally fighting the
up um to defend a family that was you know,
they were trying to force out of their home. And UM,
I think you know, in general Red House, but like
even like leading up to Red House, there's been UM,
I think there's been a lot more attention and a
(13:19):
lot more care and focus on houselessness activist Regina Rage
also witnessed the December raid. I was there at five.
They called me at four, and I got there right
after in the morning, Yes, in the morning. UM. Initially
(13:40):
it was just me there, UM. And then I think
by the time daylight hit and Coyn was there, there
was maybe like fifty people, all like crunched in like
this one tiny side yard that the only place we
(14:00):
were allowed to be at. And at that point I
noticed that white people were allowed to stand in that
alleyway and I wasn't. Every time I stepped in the alleyway,
they the police charged at me and threatened to arrest me.
And UM, I started yelling about how like they were
(14:27):
blatantly allowing these white people to walk back and forth
in this alleyway, but I wasn't, and other people started yelling,
and then soon we were all just standing in the
street and the police we're rushing us. UM. At one
point they massed us all and UM forced us all
(14:47):
back onto the side yard, and then we rushed again.
A couple of people got arrested, and they at one
point decided to pull back, and the sheriff's let first,
and as they started to lead I started running down
the hill towards the cop cars, and everybody else followed
(15:12):
and it escalated from there. Under a hell of water bottles, rocks, paint, balloons,
and other random projectiles, police retreated from the area. The
cops initially arrived around five am and were completely gone
by ten thirty. In the five hours they were present,
at least seven people were arrested, and the hasty retreat
several police cars were damaged, some by projectiles and one
(15:34):
due to an officer crashing his own cruise there into
another car. Regina describes what happened next. Um, the police
finally left. UM, we're chased off whatever. UM, and we
just took down the fence and started building them immediately. UM. Yeah,
(15:54):
and the police had destroyed all of what we had
built that red house. It was like a weather proof
um living space for those individuals who were staying there,
as well as like an event space. It was like
very very very nice, and UM they destroyed it. And UM,
(16:17):
so we took basically all the broken materials that they
created for us and used those to build barricades. And UM.
When the barricades were up, we UM, we organized watch
and UM began calling for supplies to be brought in.
Like what happened. I do want to add what happened
(16:38):
with that barricade was just like organic and organic response
to being attacked by an enemy who literally does not
give a funk about your life. Like Regina and I
are both single mothers, you know what I'm saying, Like
they're out there gassing single mom at Lista recounts the
mood after the cops were pushed out of the area.
Everyone was just kind of like on edge, like it
(16:59):
was a huge celebration, but everybody was like that they're
coming back and with forced they just got their asses
handed to them. There's absolutely no way they're just gonna
you know, they're just gonna leave. So everyone everyone was
ready and everyone was waiting, and within minutes, you know,
barricades started to go up. Um, but they weren't even then,
(17:20):
Like they weren't just like barricades. Um. Were you at
a pekaz or any of the like the really really
barricaded Knights and you know, those nights were fucking sick.
But a lot of barricades like like they were really
cool and they were they served their purpose. But Red House,
I'm talking like reinforced barricades and blockades like there were
(17:44):
powered tools, there was concrete being laid out, like you know,
anything you could think of. Um, And I think, uh,
you know a lot of that comes from practice and um.
You know, you learn what you do wrong by you know,
testing things out. But I think the biggest change was,
(18:06):
like it was the passionate. Hours after the barricades went up,
narrowly re elected Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler made a series
of tweets decrying the eviction blockade and mischaracterizing the eviction
defense as a so called autonomous zone. He said, quote,
I'm authorizing the Portland Police to use all lawful means
to in the illegal occupation on North Mississippi Avenue and
(18:26):
to hold those violating our community laws accountable. There will
be no autonomous zone in Portland end quote. Nervous anticipation
loomed over everyone the first night inside the barricades. Behind
the multiple layers of reinforced barricades and impromptu call troops,
people anxiously waited to see if the police would show
up that first night, but slowly morning came and the
coast was clear. Over the next few days, the infrastructure
(18:49):
grew barricades grew more sophisticated. The Jankee caltrots made of
screws and garden hoses were replaced with wealthy rebar the
food donation area turned into a whole kitchen, and more
and more tents for put up in the streets around
the Red House. But as time went on and police
didn't show familiar problems of roles regarding people acting as security.
Here's Regina and UM. I think that white people in
(19:12):
this movement often come into it with all white savior
complex and take up a lot of space and actually
alienate the black people that this movement is about. And
that's what happened during the barricade. There were a ton
of white cis gendered people running around UM, behaving crazily,
(19:38):
UM acting like cops. To be honest, Multiple people, some
of them children, were physically assaulted, put in chokehole, shot
at with paintballs, and kicked out of the Red House
eviction defense area for not having permission to use paint
by large men acting as self appointed security team. Problems
with the protest security occurred in Portland before, the most
(19:58):
notable being the truck driver assault, but smaller incidents took
place throughout the summer and fall. Armed men running around
in tactical gear, trying to intimidate people into obedience and
in some cases using physical force has the same fundamental issue.
People critique police for the same problem of armed security
essentially acting as cop is part of what got a
black teenager in Seattle's Capitol Hill occupied protests are child killed.
(20:22):
One phrase spray painting near the Red House was killed
the cop in your head, reflecting the protesters dissatisfaction with
this dynamic. When a group of people are attacking children
over graffiti, that's basically a mini police force. Unaccountable armed
men and tactical gear. Part of police abolition is can
running policing dynamics found throughout your life, even at anti
(20:43):
police protests. The kill the cop in your head graffiti
at Red House was soon buffed and covered over by
a fellow activists within the blockade. For most within the barricades,
there wasn't much conflict to speak of. The time at
the eviction blockade was mostly spent sitting around a campfire
and watching over the forty five intus for incoming police.
The neighbors who lived near the Red House. The biggest
(21:03):
change was a slight inconvenience to parking. Many locals were
very sympathetic to the cause, putting up signs and supported
the Kennys and the Red House, and some even show
support in other ways. People were actually very supportive. UM.
Neighbors were bringing us food and supplies, they were coming
to hang out with us, they were bringing us coffee. UM.
(21:25):
There were very few individuals in the neighborhood who actually
felt threatened by any of us, But unfortunately those are
the people who got to the media first. But I
think that if we UM were able to talk to
everyone who was involved, I think that they would say
that they were proud of what we did. Yeah, like
(21:48):
the ones who the few and far between ones who
were like against it were they were just very loud,
quite privileged people with time on their hands, you know,
which often times, as we know, can have the ear
of the powers that be. Once the barricades went up
in seven lockdown beeped up media both locally and naturally
(22:12):
couldn't resist the Red House story. What had been one
families years long battle in the courts was now suddenly
catching the headlines CNN and TMZ and YEP, even Fox.
A local activist named Koa Crespan, who had been working
with Regina to organize with the Kennies laun should Go
fund me. It set out to raise a quarter million
dollars for the Kennies as a bargaining chip to get
(22:32):
to developer Roman o Zarouga to the table. When national
media began constantly reporting on the house, donation shot up
coming from all corners of the country as sympathetic viewers
and readers and to stop the Kennies from losing their home.
A slight twist came when the Oregon Public Broadcasting Guard
op BE released an article revealing that the Kenney family
in fact had a place to stay after the raid.
(22:54):
In fact, it was another family member who yep on
their own home. The headline family at the center of
the Red House protests old second Portlands home, detailing the
fact that the home had been kept in the family
for generations, disperst similar headlines locally and Nashally. They're trying
to say the Kinney family lied about like not having
(23:15):
anywhere to go, and when I get kicked out, I
have gotten kicked out of places that I've been staying
at and have had nowhere but my grandmother's house to go,
and that's exactly what happened to the Kinney family. The
police removed them from their home at gunpoint, and they
had nowhere else but their grandma's house to go, so
(23:37):
they went to say there, and the media tried to
say that they had a second house. And as if
an entire family with multiple generations all has to live
in the same house, that is some racist ship. Was
super racist to say that a black family has to
(23:59):
all live in the same fucking house. O. P. B
ran an apology articles shortly thereafter, apologizing for their mischaracterization
of the Kinneys plate. Some support had dwindled, but through
it all, support for the Red House grew, and so
did the fundraiser. The go fund me raised well over
the quarter million dollars and needed to secure the house.
(24:20):
The developer was ready to approach the bargaining table with
the assistance of the city, Roman and the Kinneys began
discussions about transferring ownership back into the hands of the family.
This was a mark of celebration for some who had
been occupying the house since September, as conversations with Roman
trucked on the city. After days of threatening police force
against the house, promised the barrel with back off if
(24:41):
barricades came down. The Kinneys obliged, to the dismay of
some activists, many white, who wanted to flex the strength
of the people. But for Regina, she says, the occupation
was never about the walls. There were a lot of
people who we didn't even know, who had never been
to the Red House, who had opinions on what we
should have done and like who we are now, um,
(25:05):
because we didn't keep those barricades up, um, But it
was never about the barricades. It was, it is and
will always be about what is best for the Kidney
family and what they want. And um we did lose
like support slowly and slowly after the barricades um came down,
(25:25):
people stopped coming and UM their individuals living at the
Red House right now who still need support from this
community and are not getting it because the cops aren't
an imminent threat anymore At the moment, it does seem
the eviction blockade was successful in applying enough pressure to
(25:46):
open up options for the Kidneys to keep their home,
holding down a few blocks of a neighborhood, while raising
hundreds of thousands of dollars may not be a perfectly
replicable strategy, but it does show the type of things
that can happen when community comes together to stand up
against a perceived injustice. Here's Coy on the potential impact
of the Red House story in the future. And I
hope it happens all around the country, and I hope
(26:09):
people are inspired by it and that they go speaking
out evictions to do the ship with then to lift
up this work. Um, this isn't like the first ever
time and neighborhood has risen up to defend an eviction.
This would happen even as far back as the thirties.
Communities would come together to fight um the police when
(26:34):
they came to drag people out of their homes. Right,
I think like we've all seen have I don't know,
we've probably all seen that pick of like it's from
like the thirties, like range of reference, where it's like
neighborhood men and they're all white, like on top of
a sheriff stopping them from evicting a widow, you know,
(26:56):
like a handful of people continue to occupy the Red House.
Negotiations have continued since December, but all parties have been
pretty tight looked about the status of the talks up
until now. Red Houses not marked the end of protests
in Portland. More than anything, it's galvanized a large amount
of mutual aid directed around evictions and houselessness. During the
(27:16):
same period, as Red House activists keeping multi week watch
over a houseless encampment at a local park that was
under threat of sweep by the city. As winner is
set in the mayor is support to roll back eviction
protections as well as protections against camp suites. Facing freezing
temperatures and the mounting pandemic, activists have mobilized to get
gear and supplies, as well as helping with defense work
(27:38):
to prevent more evictions and displacement. Activists argue that sweeps
and evictions are unconscionable during a pandemic, and that money
funding the evictions could be used to make sure that
people are housed. Dmitria Hester speaks about the continuing mutual aid. No,
I am surprising because our community know us the need,
(27:59):
they know it's an needs, so they started all this
group so that that we can help the need in
our community. I mean, people are still getting evicted, They're
still not being able to pay their bills. They're still
not getting food from our government. So we have to
depend on each other to give us what we need,
you know, to be successful, to keep going on because
(28:21):
I don't see a future of our government giving us
or doing anything to help us. So we still have
to continue this fight. Plus we're pushing it to the
to the White House. I was there when Um when
Biden one, we marched our march with the Black Panthers
to the White House, saying to for aid, tell the
(28:44):
tell the world who we hate, the Republicans, the Democrats,
the whole damn bunch. Another ongoing movie in that this
game renewed interests in the summer protests, the Patrick kim
And marches that happened twice a week. Leetha Winston has
been marching the streets of Portlands at times alone, the
search for justice for her son Patrick Kimmons. For years,
Leath has pleaded for local officials to reopen his case
(29:06):
satur he was shot and killed by Portland police in lateen.
The calls were met with little action. That was until
the George Floyd uprisings. These protests gave rise to an
immended version of the slogan Black lives Matter, with many
beginning to claim that all black lives matter. While this
phrase was created and part to give more visibility to
black LGBTQ people were experiencing some of the worst harms
(29:30):
in the community, it also grew to buck at the
idea that those worth honoring or remembering need to somehow
be perfect victims, black and unarmed with no criminal background.
When news of Kimmon's case broke, details were scammed. He
got into a confrontation with two men, shooting and wounding
both of them. Police showed up shortly thereafter, and he
(29:51):
was shot and killed. It was later revealed by the
autopsy that of the twelve bullets police fired at twenty
seven year old Kimmen and I entered his body. It
also showed that some of those shots had gone through
his back. After a judge ruled out there was no
wrong doing by the police. The Barrel release footage at
the early morning standoff. Organizer Jedi Levy explains the scene
(30:12):
here basically like there was like a minor like argument
or scuffle or whatever, and Patrick started running and um,
he didn't know that he was running towards the police,
but he was running towards the police and then went
to turn into like in between some cars, and the
cops started shooting him and all the shots went into
(30:35):
his back. So, um, yeah, they shot him in the
back and killed him. And uh, the cops were not charged.
It was basically rule justifiable homicide and um it wasn't though,
because they shot him in his back. So during the trial,
the rookie cop who fired the fatal shots described himself
(30:56):
as doing what he was taught to neutralize the threat.
It was enough to vindicate him in the courts, but
not in eyes Salita. She's been leading regular marches throughout
the city since, sometimes with the crowd, other times just
alone with a megaphone to many for the case to
be reopened. Once the Portland protests began, her fight gained
(31:17):
new light. Organizers like Jedi have helped grow the fleet
of protesters marching alongside kim AND's mother. He talks about
his involvement in the marches here. She did it for
well over a year with virtually no help, um except
for one person named Jay, and he still comes to
this very day like he's the only person that actually
(31:39):
stuck with her throughout this entire time. But Um, so
she's basically just trying to spread awareness and like talk
to Ted Wheeler. It worked. An emotional face to face
between her and the mayor was finally scheduled. Ted Wheeler
was super sad and was like, I can't believe I
haven't done more about this. I'm really really sorry. He's
told her that she's like the wrongest speaker, like one
(32:02):
of the strongest speakers she's he's ever seen, and he
was brought to tears. Snigger was literally crying in the
Mayor's office. Um, so that was great And what she's
trying to what basically, we're just continuing to put the
pressure on, uh, the police officers when we go out
(32:23):
and um, really we just want this the next meeting
to to come up because the next meeting they're gonna
sit down and actually review the tapes together. So um,
that is what's being done right now. Um, and just
keeping our fingers crossed that happened sooner sooner than later. Still,
(32:45):
the case has a mem reopened. Letha continues to march
around the city demanding justice for our son efectually known
as Pat Pat. The marches have continued with increased numbers
through all the fall and into winter. During the autumn,
face with increased attacks from our right extremists who would
attack lead this marches with signs and flags declaring that
they backed the Blue. Organizers and activists began using the
(33:08):
slogan back the Black for their weekly protests that continued
hate and aggression that these peaceful marches have seen reflected
the growing vitriol that was coming from the far right
as we moved into the election, and finally, the January
violence that rocked the nation. In Washington, d C. On
January six, thousands of Trump supporters rushed to Capitol Building
(33:31):
and a last ditch attempt to stop the certification of
the presidential election results. The violent attempt to take over
forced Congress to evacuate, left five dead, including two police officers,
and drew the ties between law enforcement, Republican congress people,
and far right militants to the forefront of national awareness.
In December, a stop to steal rally in Salem, Oregan
(33:53):
had similarly breached the state capital, though the group hadn't
reached the chambers of legislature. CCTV footage later showed that
the breach in Salem began with the Republican legislator opening
the doors to admit the mob. On the sixth January,
a small far right group assembled again and clash with
left wing demonstrators. The group again included both mainstream Republican
(34:16):
politician and extremist figures, including one of the white supremacists
convicted in the nine murder of Ethiopian grad student Mulla
get Us. A raw in Portland compared to the nation's capital,
the Salem rally was limited. No major breaches of the
capital in Salem occurred. By three pm, the crowded dispersed.
(34:37):
Despite the shakeup, Biden assumed office just over a week later.
On his first day in office, Biden signed executive order
halting ICE deportations for a hundred days, as the administration
attempted to overhaul many of Trump's deportation policies. That same day,
protesters in Portland gathered at the local ICE headquarters. They
didn't want to temporate into de deportations. They wanted a
(34:58):
complete disbanding the nine eleven era agency, who split up
scores of families, held small children in cages, and acted
in strong concert with the FBI since its inception. This
night ended with six arrests and without the stating of
tear gas. Days later another it was a different story,
as Feds and Right gear matt protesters with cuffs, force
(35:19):
and classet gas. The headquarters had, however, become a fixture
in the protests, with federal agents regularly deploints c S
gas against him. But situated next to the facility was
a school k through a public charter, Cottonwood School of
Civics and Science School regularly was engulfed in tear gas.
Dr Juni per seminists immediately sprung into action, collecting soil
(35:40):
samples across the school campus and Coldness playground to assess
its impacts. While that research continues, Cottonwood didn't wait for
their answer. They wanted an immediate into the use of
tear gas by federal agents. Now the agency hasn't issued
any formal response, but it's almost certain that activists will
continue atturning to the building and call for an to
ice as weeks roll along with four years of Biden
(36:03):
and Harris at the Helm. Their election was a welcome
reprieve from Trump's heavy handed brand of racist politics, but
not an end to the fight against systems of oppression.
The simultaneous re election of Mayor Ted Wheeler was a
mark of dread for many of who have been on
the ground. He eaked out a win, earning more boats
and on ballot challengers Sarah i anneron but less than
(36:24):
her in total. Writings, many which are presumed to have
went to Don't Shoot Portland founder to Resta Raeford, who
community members launched a writing campaign for after the long
time BLM leader lost her bid for Portland's top seat
in the primaries. The results revealed a divide even in
Portland politics. Despite the split, it also marked the most racially,
gender and sexually diverse council in the city's history. The
(36:47):
new council assumed office to January. Negotiations began between the
city and police union that same month, and this time,
for the first time ever, the public got a glintse
behind the curtain after monster protests that put their barrel
on headlines across the world. All lives were on these
powerful van cards of the profession. In the negotiations, tensions
(37:07):
remained high as union heads railed against new measures of oversight,
discipline and limits on overtime expenditures. While the barrel had
said they want racial and social justice, changes in the
police force. Many of the proposed changes have been met
with critique and resistance. Their current contract with the city
expired June this year. As negotiations continue, it remains to
(37:29):
be seen what changes will come between the Barrel and
the city. The past year has been marked by a
number of police involved violence, despite the growing cause for justice.
In Vancouver, Washington, a bridge away from Portland, two young
black men, Kevin Peterson Jr. And Genoa Davis, have been
killed by officers, with them just a couple of months
of each other. And the college town of Eugene, Oregon,
(37:51):
Chen Shariff was shot after police responded to an alleged
domestic violence report. Shariff did survive meanwhile and miss the backdrop,
but the pandemic the streets of Portlands are seeing thirty
year highs and gun violence economic downturn is leaving the
city on edge. White supremacis of all stripes have been emboldened,
while cries for justice for black lives have reached feverish
(38:14):
new highs. The international cameras are gone now. Protests continue,
but in marketly smaller numbers. That nine minute fuse of
George Floyd's murder had lit a fire under the country.
You know what surface was a renewed urgency to transform
a system that has devalued black lives, not as an
exception but a fundamental tool and tradition of the society.
(38:35):
As the streets have quieted, the urgency for chain still
remains for those that have been a part of these uprisings.
As the resistance begins to take a new face, the
question remains, what's next. I don't think it's going to
I don't think people are just gonna get tired and
go away. This is like people have had enough of
this police brutality and in the racism that you know,
(38:59):
influence just police brutality. I don't see it going away.
I mean I see it ebbing and flowing, like you know,
just it's almost natural for any energy to do that.
So we go, you know, we go up with big
turnouts and go down with low turnouts, or up with
really good morale, and then you know, down in the
dumb later. It's just so I think it's going to
(39:22):
keep following that, some kind of evan flow of change.
But I don't think it's going to go away. I
don't see how would you go away when the police
are continuing to kill unarmed black people. They're continue their
continuing to do it. I think it's really telling that
as far as I know, not one single Portland police
(39:43):
after has been um disciplined for their actions. And they
have done something extremely terrible, things that should be disciplined,
things that go against their training, things that go against
their own policies and procedures, and these things are caught
on video, so there's no excuse at why they have
not been disciplined. People just like become the changes, become
(40:10):
the normative, like the way get pushed out into the
big c of water, BIGFC and and that's what it is,
you know. I think, like I look at Ferguson, uh
so that movement you know, kind of faded away or whatever.
This just happened. I can't yeah, but yeah, and this
(40:34):
Kinst election they just elected one of the activists from
their Congress. So that's like the movement like says what
that's like last change and the people there has well
radicalized to do so it's life. Though the movement that's
tied to the Summer may stayed away. It's like unless
(40:56):
they're going to you know, remove everybody and all of
our ages, all of our renewed perspectives on life, and
you can't really life right at all. I think the
it's interesting, there's like two different The morale of the
city as a whole is very like in Limbo, I
feel like often times, but because it's like ultimately people
(41:21):
who are protesting are ultimately doing it for the right reasons,
and we get like little glimmers of like hope. But
then like just today I learned the three black people
that were killed in the last week throughout the United
States by police unarmed, so and then you hear ship
like that, and then it it just makes you wonder,
like why are we even continuing to do this, Like
(41:43):
why even keep fighting? This just keeps happening. But I
think that, um, right now we live in this I
feel like right now we live in this time of
questions where we have a lot of questions without answers.
But there are years that asked questions and there are
years that answer them. I don't think we're in a
(42:03):
in a year right now where we're gonna get a
lot of answers and that's okay. I feel like we
need to be okay with like sitting in the questions
and going through like the mud and going through the puddle,
so to speak, in order to get to where we
want to go. It's gonna take time because the system
has taken years to UM to build into what it
(42:24):
is right now, and so it's just gonna take time.
So I think the morale of the city limbos because
you have a bunch of you know, the white Neil
liberals who just want to go back to normal. But
normal was killing us, so we're not going to do that.
And then you have our side, which is like we're
feeling we're getting pulled in all kinds of directions, we're
(42:48):
feeling inspiration, and then we're feeling discouragement because we keep
seeing the same ship happened. But ultimately, UM mutual aid
really is the way of the future, and I think
that these mutual aid groups and networks that were forming
right now are really the genesis of what it's going
to look like for humanity to live in a world
(43:10):
without dependence on the state and without needing or feeling
like we the police are going to keep us safe
when they've proven so many times that we don't UM.
So I personally am excited about the future because I'm
witnessing like the yeah, really just the genesis of what
(43:31):
of the world that I would like to live in. UM.
But obviously you know, it's the whole two steps forward,
one step back thing that we that we have to
do with as well. So I'm looking forward to how
things are going. I'm just hoping that more people can
really open their eyes to UM, how they're how being
(43:53):
complicit to the system is literally murdering people they look
like me and Donovan, and that we need to stop it.
There's too many people who are still sleeping. UM. That's
a big reason why I think we were doing that
thing at our CJ was to wake up this side
of this the river like march through the neighborhoods, wake
(44:14):
people up, let them know that we're here, there's a
ton of us, and that they need to be on
our side because ultimately, when when we are free, when
black people are free, everybody is going to be free,
because black liberation is human liberation at the end of
the day. So if we can really focus on uplifting
our most marginalized and most oppressed communities and we're uplifting
(44:36):
everybody at the same time, and the quicker that more
people really understand that and are inspired enough to actually
take action and be a part of the movement. Um
the better. Just um yeah, um, I'm looking forward to
things that personally we get. Uprisings were not Portland's first
(45:08):
by any means. The city earned the name Little Bay
Route after protests against the Portland Republican National Convention in
nineteen eighty nine. But when the world was gripped with
a pandemic that had brought most facets of normal life
to a screeching halt, a spotlight was flung on the
gaps between what America says it is in the realities
its black citizens experienced for decades, And in the midst
(45:31):
of all this, Portland became Little Bay Route again, or,
as President Trump called it, a beehive of terrorists. To
many of those on the ground, the city of Roses
seemed to be seeing what might be the beginnings of
a beautiful new world, straining to be born tragedy, ward
with hope, and through it all blood, sweat and tear gas.
Sometimes messy, but determined group of activists stood toe to
(45:53):
toe against some of the deepest cylinders of oppression in
the country to make sure the normal that we have
all known is replaced. Some lobbied, some voted, some shouted
down the mare. Some started nonprofits, some started wearing block.
No matter what people chose, thousands decided to take action.
New definitive answers emerged out of the protests, but what
(46:16):
did emerge was a reinvigorated sense of urgency for change.
The question we're now all left with is this, Will
we right the historic wrongs of this nation in time
to fix things before the clock runs out? Only time
will tell uh? Where the grand pops who couldn't fathom
(46:37):
the obamacist I don't hate America just to me? And
she keeps the promises looking like the sixties. It's crazy,
a nationwide deja who what my people post to do?
Go to schools named after the clan founder were around town? Is?
I don't see why we frown in? Native American students
forced to learn about when o'para Sarah? How is that fair? Bro?
(46:58):
Some Euros unsung in some monsters get monuments built for them.
But it ain't be all a little bit of monster.
We crook it
As the sun began to tuck away for winter, so
did many Portlanders who had spent the summer out protesting.
As the days grew shorter, a shrunken but dedicated group
of activists continued to pound the streets in their call
for justice. The early days of the protests had been
fueled in part by the massive lockdown and the layoffs
that came with it. As the pandemic wore on, economic
(00:29):
collapse contributed to street activism in new ways. Portland has
been in a housing state of emergency since two thousand fifteen,
as it was declared by former Mayor Charlie Hales and
extended by his successors in the City Council again in
two thousand nineteen for two more years. For a long time,
thousands of Portland's had lived one paycheck away from homelessness,
(00:51):
and in thousands more found themselves on the edge of
a cliff. To stave off disaster, a pandemic eviction moratorium
was adopted by local all makers. It included no forgiveness
or grace period from mr rent. This meant that while
you wouldn't get kicked out of your home for missing rent,
all that unpaid rent still stacked up. At the time
(01:11):
of recording, eighty nine thousand households in Oregon are subject
to eviction when the state's moratorium expires, owing more than
three hundred and seventy eight million dollars in collective back rent. Now,
evicting all of those people would cost the state three
billion dollars, eight times more than the total back rent owed.
Near the end of the whole situation wound up coming
(01:33):
to a head in the battle over a single property.
The Red House on North Mississippi Avenue. Coming up next
is a lane Portland has spent the last decade basking
in its image is a liberal playground of bird stickers
and local war foodies. However, this hides the concerted destruction
by developers and city planners of Portland's black community in
(01:53):
the Albina District. During that same time, the area was
redlined for blacks, with local government working in concert real
estate agents and banks to guarantee black people virtually had
no options to live outside the neighborhood. Following the Vanport
floods of nineteen forty eight, local lawmakers and real estate
interests coordinated to ensure that thousands of black individuals and
families suddenly without a home, could look nowhere else but
(02:16):
a small section of inner North and Northeast Portland if
they were to live within city limits. The mostly European
immigrant populated neighborhood flipped almost overnight, with many other residents
quickly fleeing the area to avoid living near black people.
Shortly after the flood, close to seventy percent of the
state's black population lived in the Albina district. Consequently, the
(02:36):
neighborhood has been the nucleus to much of the city's
black community for generations. The Portland Police Bureau conducted years
of targeted harassment aimed at the Albina community. Years of
blite systemic disinvestment and policing have led to a mass
exodus of Blacks from the central Albina core. Many left
to the fringes of the city in search of lower rents.
As North Northeast Portland suddenly became prime real estate, quickly,
(02:57):
the place so many called home was eroding before their eyes.
Here are the snack Mamas on the gentrification of Albina
and some history of North Northeast Portland. Yeah, it's hard
to Portland. It's turned Like I said, it's really hard
to watch the change. Sometimes I get really angry and
it's hard. It's hard to watch this upsetting. But everything
(03:18):
looks all nice and fancy, but nobody knows how it
got that way. Emmanuel Hospital, I mean, fucking break, you
know what I mean. Like, yeah, it's nice to have
a hospital there, it really is. I mean, but you
could have cleared the fucking freeway and stuff. You're right there.
I mean, get Motor Center out of there and put
a hospital right there. Like I don't even remember what
was there before Motor Center was, but I'm sure quarter
(03:42):
they changed. Figure it out, you know what I mean.
But you're tearing families out of homes who lived there.
For I was like my my son's grandmother. She lived
on thirty three and Prescott, right there on the corner.
She's like in her late nineties. It came in pretty
much soil that house from up underneath her, and they're
always the box with all moved into like a hotel
(04:03):
like apartment thing. And died shortly after that. And it's like,
as this upsetting, you want to drive by and see
and I'm like, God, damn, I don't drun my car
to that house, you know, but is upsetting the way
they do things and the way they you know, re
home people in the you know, the wounds run deep.
In the last decade, homeownership for black Portlanders has fallen,
not risen. Perhaps more striking is their representation in the
(04:23):
houseless population. About seven point two percent of Multnomah County's
population is black, but according to their most recent point
in time count, which was released in pre COVID Times,
it showed that black Portlander's accounted for more than sixteen
percent of the houseless in the area. A policy adopted
by the City of Portland, designed to give residents with
historic ties to inner North and Northeast helps illustrate how
(04:47):
deep the need is. The policy gives first DIBs at
select new apartments being developed by the Housing Bureau, assists
existing homeowners in the area with maintenance and foster's homeownership opportunities.
When applicating for the first round of units opened up,
in thousands applied to live in the handful of units.
More complexes have been built since and dozens more served
(05:09):
for the home repair and ownership opportunities. But every time
applications open, the systems are flooded with people just hoping
to make the waitlist. However, for people that qualify, some
feel like the program does not go far enough to
remediate the damage that was done to the community. The
neck mom must continue. Why even that program has problems
since it limits the ownership rights of the family that
(05:30):
it helps to return. Yeah, I entered into this program
for the Bulama County did UM for people who lived
in North Portland and we're kind of pushed out, so
I entered that program. I'm just like, this is fucking
complete bullshit. You're asking people who have been kicked out
of their homes because of you guys have great fucking
credit to get into this program and to um be
(05:53):
able to buy a home on their own ship. But
yet you own the land, they can own the home.
Like fuck, go funk yourself. Yeah that's what it is.
They own the people. Yeah, you can't. You can't do ship.
They own that land. You own the home, mind you
when you they get a piece of that money when
(06:13):
you sell your home because they helped you get into there.
And you know, yeah, so you can't do any work
on the land or or tear the house down and building.
You can't do whatever you want to do. That's their
fucking land, you know, and you're just owning the home
on it. So it's not actually nothing people get back
absolutely and so and so, like you have choices between um,
(06:39):
all these little houses or our little buildings or town
homes or whatever. Like. There was nothing that was over
like three two bedrooms, I think two or three bedrooms
on any of those lists, because I've got a family
of five, you know, I'm just like, fuck, like, none
that should share for me, Like, what's what's the deal?
Can I build on it? No? You can't build anything
else on it? What the fuck? You know? Find out there?
(07:00):
That's their property, just on the building for that point being,
you know. And and um, yeah, I'm just like, but
all these properties are certain properties, you know, because it's
just what they own that you get to live on. Yeah, basically,
And I'm just like, this is fucking bullshit, dude. You know.
I never made it to my second appointment. I was like,
(07:21):
look out of here. Local activist Regina Rage also spoke
on the ongoing gentrification in Portland in specific relation to
a certain red painted house on Mississippi Avenue that was
owned by the same black family for more than fifty years.
That house would become one of the main focal points
in Portland protests. Yeah, Mississippi Street is located in a
(07:46):
neighborhood in Portland that was previously in all black neighborhood
and is at the very moment being gentrified and developed.
And UM, black families are being four out into East
Portland and Southeast Portland because of this gentrification and so
(08:08):
like for me specifically, UM, I like remember the lot
that we're all occupying, and it's been empty my entire life,
and now because of this protest, they want to develop
it into something else. They're gonna donate it and then
they're gonna put higher rises on top of it, condos,
(08:29):
you know. Um, the neighborhood looks vastly different from when
I was growing up. I don't recognize it. Sometimes I'm
driving and I just really don't recognize it. And um,
that's what makes it important to the community is this
is one of the last black families in this neighborhood
(08:52):
and they are doing everything they can to remain this neighborhood.
And previously they were displaced from Vamport as well, another
neighborhood in Portland's that was destroyed. UM, and all of
it is tied to white supremacy. In what we're fighting against,
(09:15):
we crooked. Here's Donovan Smith. The Red House All Mississippi
has belonged to the Kinney family for over sixty five years.
(09:36):
William and Pauline Kenney sold their house to their son,
William Jr. And his wife in their financial Dominoes began
when the owner's son got into a car accident on
a suspended license as of teen in two thousand two.
The driver of the car died, the passenger was injured,
and William the third was ultimately convicted of a felony.
To cover legal fees, the Kinney family took out a
(09:57):
balloon loan against the house the Sun and William X.
Nice was sinced to five years first and juvenile detention
before being transitioned to the state prison at eighteen. Over time,
due to interests and expenses piling up, as well as
inadequate legal representation, the Kinney family home, now one of
the last black owned homes on North Mississippi, ended up
(10:18):
in foreclosure because the foreclosure process started prior to the pandemic.
In September, or judge ruled that the eviction of the
Kenneys could proceed despite the eviction moratorium. That month, the
Montnoma County Sharfs stormed into the Reddit House with rifles
and evicted four members of the family. After the initial eviction,
some Portlanders began gathering around the Red House to support
(10:38):
the Kennies. They decried the forced eviction, especially amist economic
crisis and the pandemic. Some even camped outside the property,
and then on December five, the Portland Police Bureau and
County Sheriff's arrived yet again to clear out residents, campers
and render the home on Mississippi Avenue uninhabited Alsas are
An independent Portland journalists was on the on when the
(11:00):
tide turned against the police eviction team. Red House. Wow,
where to be kids? Um? You know, Red Houses is
like such a wild story in so many ways. Um,
that morning, oh my god, it was like not even
nine thirty in the morning, and I was just like,
(11:23):
holy sh it, Like everyone just went like full Paris
on p PP. It was not even ten o'clock in
the morning. I was like, what am I witnessing right now?
This is wild? But I think that's fucking huge because
you know, for almost two hundred days we've seen people
(11:45):
we've you know, we've seen activists and protesters play nothing
but defense, and even the defense is very like it's
usually very childish and comical, you know, which is what's
so fucking powerful. You know. They throw bouncy balls and
water balloons filled with glitter at the cops, and the
cops's reaction is just like, you know, it's absurd. UM.
(12:11):
So seeing that kind and even even the morning of
Red House, that was still defense, but it was a
different kind of defense. It was hands on, aggressive, don't
funk with us kind of defense. And you know, it's
the first time I've seen anything like that. UM. And
(12:33):
the fact that it was done for that reason, I
think also just goes to show like what the community
is about. UM. Seeing people care that much, it was incredible. Um.
There were people literally fighting the cops, and I think
(12:56):
this is one of the few like literally fighting the
up um to defend a family that was you know,
they were trying to force out of their home. And UM,
I think you know, in general Red House, but like
even like leading up to Red House, there's been UM,
I think there's been a lot more attention and a
(13:19):
lot more care and focus on houselessness activist Regina Rage
also witnessed the December raid. I was there at five.
They called me at four, and I got there right
after in the morning, Yes, in the morning. UM. Initially
(13:40):
it was just me there, UM. And then I think
by the time daylight hit and Coyn was there, there
was maybe like fifty people, all like crunched in like
this one tiny side yard that the only place we
(14:00):
were allowed to be at. And at that point I
noticed that white people were allowed to stand in that
alleyway and I wasn't. Every time I stepped in the alleyway,
they the police charged at me and threatened to arrest me.
And UM, I started yelling about how like they were
(14:27):
blatantly allowing these white people to walk back and forth
in this alleyway, but I wasn't, and other people started yelling,
and then soon we were all just standing in the
street and the police we're rushing us. UM. At one
point they massed us all and UM forced us all
(14:47):
back onto the side yard, and then we rushed again.
A couple of people got arrested, and they at one
point decided to pull back, and the sheriff's let first,
and as they started to lead I started running down
the hill towards the cop cars, and everybody else followed
(15:12):
and it escalated from there. Under a hell of water bottles, rocks, paint, balloons,
and other random projectiles, police retreated from the area. The
cops initially arrived around five am and were completely gone
by ten thirty. In the five hours they were present,
at least seven people were arrested, and the hasty retreat
several police cars were damaged, some by projectiles and one
(15:34):
due to an officer crashing his own cruise there into
another car. Regina describes what happened next. Um, the police
finally left. UM, we're chased off whatever. UM, and we
just took down the fence and started building them immediately. UM. Yeah,
(15:54):
and the police had destroyed all of what we had
built that red house. It was like a weather proof
um living space for those individuals who were staying there,
as well as like an event space. It was like
very very very nice, and UM they destroyed it. And UM,
(16:17):
so we took basically all the broken materials that they
created for us and used those to build barricades. And UM.
When the barricades were up, we UM, we organized watch
and UM began calling for supplies to be brought in.
Like what happened. I do want to add what happened
(16:38):
with that barricade was just like organic and organic response
to being attacked by an enemy who literally does not
give a funk about your life. Like Regina and I
are both single mothers, you know what I'm saying, Like
they're out there gassing single mom at Lista recounts the
mood after the cops were pushed out of the area.
Everyone was just kind of like on edge, like it
(16:59):
was a huge celebration, but everybody was like that they're
coming back and with forced they just got their asses
handed to them. There's absolutely no way they're just gonna
you know, they're just gonna leave. So everyone everyone was
ready and everyone was waiting, and within minutes, you know,
barricades started to go up. Um, but they weren't even then,
(17:20):
Like they weren't just like barricades. Um. Were you at
a pekaz or any of the like the really really
barricaded Knights and you know, those nights were fucking sick.
But a lot of barricades like like they were really
cool and they were they served their purpose. But Red House,
I'm talking like reinforced barricades and blockades like there were
(17:44):
powered tools, there was concrete being laid out, like you know,
anything you could think of. Um, And I think, uh,
you know a lot of that comes from practice and um.
You know, you learn what you do wrong by you know,
testing things out. But I think the biggest change was,
(18:06):
like it was the passionate. Hours after the barricades went up,
narrowly re elected Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler made a series
of tweets decrying the eviction blockade and mischaracterizing the eviction
defense as a so called autonomous zone. He said, quote,
I'm authorizing the Portland Police to use all lawful means
to in the illegal occupation on North Mississippi Avenue and
(18:26):
to hold those violating our community laws accountable. There will
be no autonomous zone in Portland end quote. Nervous anticipation
loomed over everyone the first night inside the barricades. Behind
the multiple layers of reinforced barricades and impromptu call troops,
people anxiously waited to see if the police would show
up that first night, but slowly morning came and the
coast was clear. Over the next few days, the infrastructure
(18:49):
grew barricades grew more sophisticated. The Jankee caltrots made of
screws and garden hoses were replaced with wealthy rebar the
food donation area turned into a whole kitchen, and more
and more tents for put up in the streets around
the Red House. But as time went on and police
didn't show familiar problems of roles regarding people acting as security.
Here's Regina and UM. I think that white people in
(19:12):
this movement often come into it with all white savior
complex and take up a lot of space and actually
alienate the black people that this movement is about. And
that's what happened during the barricade. There were a ton
of white cis gendered people running around UM, behaving crazily,
(19:38):
UM acting like cops. To be honest, Multiple people, some
of them children, were physically assaulted, put in chokehole, shot
at with paintballs, and kicked out of the Red House
eviction defense area for not having permission to use paint
by large men acting as self appointed security team. Problems
with the protest security occurred in Portland before, the most
(19:58):
notable being the truck driver assault, but smaller incidents took
place throughout the summer and fall. Armed men running around
in tactical gear, trying to intimidate people into obedience and
in some cases using physical force has the same fundamental issue.
People critique police for the same problem of armed security
essentially acting as cop is part of what got a
black teenager in Seattle's Capitol Hill occupied protests are child killed.
(20:22):
One phrase spray painting near the Red House was killed
the cop in your head, reflecting the protesters dissatisfaction with
this dynamic. When a group of people are attacking children
over graffiti, that's basically a mini police force. Unaccountable armed
men and tactical gear. Part of police abolition is can
running policing dynamics found throughout your life, even at anti
(20:43):
police protests. The kill the cop in your head graffiti
at Red House was soon buffed and covered over by
a fellow activists within the blockade. For most within the barricades,
there wasn't much conflict to speak of. The time at
the eviction blockade was mostly spent sitting around a campfire
and watching over the forty five intus for incoming police.
The neighbors who lived near the Red House. The biggest
(21:03):
change was a slight inconvenience to parking. Many locals were
very sympathetic to the cause, putting up signs and supported
the Kennys and the Red House, and some even show
support in other ways. People were actually very supportive. UM.
Neighbors were bringing us food and supplies, they were coming
to hang out with us, they were bringing us coffee. UM.
(21:25):
There were very few individuals in the neighborhood who actually
felt threatened by any of us, But unfortunately those are
the people who got to the media first. But I
think that if we UM were able to talk to
everyone who was involved, I think that they would say
that they were proud of what we did. Yeah, like
(21:48):
the ones who the few and far between ones who
were like against it were they were just very loud,
quite privileged people with time on their hands, you know,
which often times, as we know, can have the ear
of the powers that be. Once the barricades went up
in seven lockdown beeped up media both locally and naturally
(22:12):
couldn't resist the Red House story. What had been one
families years long battle in the courts was now suddenly
catching the headlines CNN and TMZ and YEP, even Fox.
A local activist named Koa Crespan, who had been working
with Regina to organize with the Kennies laun should Go
fund me. It set out to raise a quarter million
dollars for the Kennies as a bargaining chip to get
(22:32):
to developer Roman o Zarouga to the table. When national
media began constantly reporting on the house, donation shot up
coming from all corners of the country as sympathetic viewers
and readers and to stop the Kennies from losing their home.
A slight twist came when the Oregon Public Broadcasting Guard
op BE released an article revealing that the Kenney family
in fact had a place to stay after the raid.
(22:54):
In fact, it was another family member who yep on
their own home. The headline family at the center of
the Red House protests old second Portlands home, detailing the
fact that the home had been kept in the family
for generations, disperst similar headlines locally and Nashally. They're trying
to say the Kinney family lied about like not having
(23:15):
anywhere to go, and when I get kicked out, I
have gotten kicked out of places that I've been staying
at and have had nowhere but my grandmother's house to go,
and that's exactly what happened to the Kinney family. The
police removed them from their home at gunpoint, and they
had nowhere else but their grandma's house to go, so
(23:37):
they went to say there, and the media tried to
say that they had a second house. And as if
an entire family with multiple generations all has to live
in the same house, that is some racist ship. Was
super racist to say that a black family has to
(23:59):
all live in the same fucking house. O. P. B
ran an apology articles shortly thereafter, apologizing for their mischaracterization
of the Kinneys plate. Some support had dwindled, but through
it all, support for the Red House grew, and so
did the fundraiser. The go fund me raised well over
the quarter million dollars and needed to secure the house.
(24:20):
The developer was ready to approach the bargaining table with
the assistance of the city, Roman and the Kinneys began
discussions about transferring ownership back into the hands of the family.
This was a mark of celebration for some who had
been occupying the house since September, as conversations with Roman
trucked on the city. After days of threatening police force
against the house, promised the barrel with back off if
(24:41):
barricades came down. The Kinneys obliged, to the dismay of
some activists, many white, who wanted to flex the strength
of the people. But for Regina, she says, the occupation
was never about the walls. There were a lot of
people who we didn't even know, who had never been
to the Red House, who had opinions on what we
should have done and like who we are now, um,
(25:05):
because we didn't keep those barricades up, um, But it
was never about the barricades. It was, it is and
will always be about what is best for the Kidney
family and what they want. And um we did lose
like support slowly and slowly after the barricades um came down,
(25:25):
people stopped coming and UM their individuals living at the
Red House right now who still need support from this
community and are not getting it because the cops aren't
an imminent threat anymore At the moment, it does seem
the eviction blockade was successful in applying enough pressure to
(25:46):
open up options for the Kidneys to keep their home,
holding down a few blocks of a neighborhood, while raising
hundreds of thousands of dollars may not be a perfectly
replicable strategy, but it does show the type of things
that can happen when community comes together to stand up
against a perceived injustice. Here's Coy on the potential impact
of the Red House story in the future. And I
hope it happens all around the country, and I hope
(26:09):
people are inspired by it and that they go speaking
out evictions to do the ship with then to lift
up this work. Um, this isn't like the first ever
time and neighborhood has risen up to defend an eviction.
This would happen even as far back as the thirties.
Communities would come together to fight um the police when
(26:34):
they came to drag people out of their homes. Right,
I think like we've all seen have I don't know,
we've probably all seen that pick of like it's from
like the thirties, like range of reference, where it's like
neighborhood men and they're all white, like on top of
a sheriff stopping them from evicting a widow, you know,
(26:56):
like a handful of people continue to occupy the Red House.
Negotiations have continued since December, but all parties have been
pretty tight looked about the status of the talks up
until now. Red Houses not marked the end of protests
in Portland. More than anything, it's galvanized a large amount
of mutual aid directed around evictions and houselessness. During the
(27:16):
same period, as Red House activists keeping multi week watch
over a houseless encampment at a local park that was
under threat of sweep by the city. As winner is
set in the mayor is support to roll back eviction
protections as well as protections against camp suites. Facing freezing
temperatures and the mounting pandemic, activists have mobilized to get
gear and supplies, as well as helping with defense work
(27:38):
to prevent more evictions and displacement. Activists argue that sweeps
and evictions are unconscionable during a pandemic, and that money
funding the evictions could be used to make sure that
people are housed. Dmitria Hester speaks about the continuing mutual aid. No,
I am surprising because our community know us the need,
(27:59):
they know it's an needs, so they started all this
group so that that we can help the need in
our community. I mean, people are still getting evicted, They're
still not being able to pay their bills. They're still
not getting food from our government. So we have to
depend on each other to give us what we need,
you know, to be successful, to keep going on because
(28:21):
I don't see a future of our government giving us
or doing anything to help us. So we still have
to continue this fight. Plus we're pushing it to the
to the White House. I was there when Um when
Biden one, we marched our march with the Black Panthers
to the White House, saying to for aid, tell the
(28:44):
tell the world who we hate, the Republicans, the Democrats,
the whole damn bunch. Another ongoing movie in that this
game renewed interests in the summer protests, the Patrick kim
And marches that happened twice a week. Leetha Winston has
been marching the streets of Portlands at times alone, the
search for justice for her son Patrick Kimmons. For years,
Leath has pleaded for local officials to reopen his case
(29:06):
satur he was shot and killed by Portland police in lateen.
The calls were met with little action. That was until
the George Floyd uprisings. These protests gave rise to an
immended version of the slogan Black lives Matter, with many
beginning to claim that all black lives matter. While this
phrase was created and part to give more visibility to
black LGBTQ people were experiencing some of the worst harms
(29:30):
in the community, it also grew to buck at the
idea that those worth honoring or remembering need to somehow
be perfect victims, black and unarmed with no criminal background.
When news of Kimmon's case broke, details were scammed. He
got into a confrontation with two men, shooting and wounding
both of them. Police showed up shortly thereafter, and he
(29:51):
was shot and killed. It was later revealed by the
autopsy that of the twelve bullets police fired at twenty
seven year old Kimmen and I entered his body. It
also showed that some of those shots had gone through
his back. After a judge ruled out there was no
wrong doing by the police. The Barrel release footage at
the early morning standoff. Organizer Jedi Levy explains the scene
(30:12):
here basically like there was like a minor like argument
or scuffle or whatever, and Patrick started running and um,
he didn't know that he was running towards the police,
but he was running towards the police and then went
to turn into like in between some cars, and the
cops started shooting him and all the shots went into
(30:35):
his back. So, um, yeah, they shot him in the
back and killed him. And uh, the cops were not charged.
It was basically rule justifiable homicide and um it wasn't though,
because they shot him in his back. So during the trial,
the rookie cop who fired the fatal shots described himself
(30:56):
as doing what he was taught to neutralize the threat.
It was enough to vindicate him in the courts, but
not in eyes Salita. She's been leading regular marches throughout
the city since, sometimes with the crowd, other times just
alone with a megaphone to many for the case to
be reopened. Once the Portland protests began, her fight gained
(31:17):
new light. Organizers like Jedi have helped grow the fleet
of protesters marching alongside kim AND's mother. He talks about
his involvement in the marches here. She did it for
well over a year with virtually no help, um except
for one person named Jay, and he still comes to
this very day like he's the only person that actually
(31:39):
stuck with her throughout this entire time. But Um, so
she's basically just trying to spread awareness and like talk
to Ted Wheeler. It worked. An emotional face to face
between her and the mayor was finally scheduled. Ted Wheeler
was super sad and was like, I can't believe I
haven't done more about this. I'm really really sorry. He's
told her that she's like the wrongest speaker, like one
(32:02):
of the strongest speakers she's he's ever seen, and he
was brought to tears. Snigger was literally crying in the
Mayor's office. Um, so that was great And what she's
trying to what basically, we're just continuing to put the
pressure on, uh, the police officers when we go out
(32:23):
and um, really we just want this the next meeting
to to come up because the next meeting they're gonna
sit down and actually review the tapes together. So um,
that is what's being done right now. Um, and just
keeping our fingers crossed that happened sooner sooner than later. Still,
(32:45):
the case has a mem reopened. Letha continues to march
around the city demanding justice for our son efectually known
as Pat Pat. The marches have continued with increased numbers
through all the fall and into winter. During the autumn,
face with increased attacks from our right extremists who would
attack lead this marches with signs and flags declaring that
they backed the Blue. Organizers and activists began using the
(33:08):
slogan back the Black for their weekly protests that continued
hate and aggression that these peaceful marches have seen reflected
the growing vitriol that was coming from the far right
as we moved into the election, and finally, the January
violence that rocked the nation. In Washington, d C. On
January six, thousands of Trump supporters rushed to Capitol Building
(33:31):
and a last ditch attempt to stop the certification of
the presidential election results. The violent attempt to take over
forced Congress to evacuate, left five dead, including two police officers,
and drew the ties between law enforcement, Republican congress people,
and far right militants to the forefront of national awareness.
In December, a stop to steal rally in Salem, Oregan
(33:53):
had similarly breached the state capital, though the group hadn't
reached the chambers of legislature. CCTV footage later showed that
the breach in Salem began with the Republican legislator opening
the doors to admit the mob. On the sixth January,
a small far right group assembled again and clash with
left wing demonstrators. The group again included both mainstream Republican
(34:16):
politician and extremist figures, including one of the white supremacists
convicted in the nine murder of Ethiopian grad student Mulla
get Us. A raw in Portland compared to the nation's capital,
the Salem rally was limited. No major breaches of the
capital in Salem occurred. By three pm, the crowded dispersed.
(34:37):
Despite the shakeup, Biden assumed office just over a week later.
On his first day in office, Biden signed executive order
halting ICE deportations for a hundred days, as the administration
attempted to overhaul many of Trump's deportation policies. That same day,
protesters in Portland gathered at the local ICE headquarters. They
didn't want to temporate into de deportations. They wanted a
(34:58):
complete disbanding the nine eleven era agency, who split up
scores of families, held small children in cages, and acted
in strong concert with the FBI since its inception. This
night ended with six arrests and without the stating of
tear gas. Days later another it was a different story,
as Feds and Right gear matt protesters with cuffs, force
(35:19):
and classet gas. The headquarters had, however, become a fixture
in the protests, with federal agents regularly deploints c S
gas against him. But situated next to the facility was
a school k through a public charter, Cottonwood School of
Civics and Science School regularly was engulfed in tear gas.
Dr Juni per seminists immediately sprung into action, collecting soil
(35:40):
samples across the school campus and Coldness playground to assess
its impacts. While that research continues, Cottonwood didn't wait for
their answer. They wanted an immediate into the use of
tear gas by federal agents. Now the agency hasn't issued
any formal response, but it's almost certain that activists will
continue atturning to the building and call for an to
ice as weeks roll along with four years of Biden
(36:03):
and Harris at the Helm. Their election was a welcome
reprieve from Trump's heavy handed brand of racist politics, but
not an end to the fight against systems of oppression.
The simultaneous re election of Mayor Ted Wheeler was a
mark of dread for many of who have been on
the ground. He eaked out a win, earning more boats
and on ballot challengers Sarah i anneron but less than
(36:24):
her in total. Writings, many which are presumed to have
went to Don't Shoot Portland founder to Resta Raeford, who
community members launched a writing campaign for after the long
time BLM leader lost her bid for Portland's top seat
in the primaries. The results revealed a divide even in
Portland politics. Despite the split, it also marked the most racially,
gender and sexually diverse council in the city's history. The
(36:47):
new council assumed office to January. Negotiations began between the
city and police union that same month, and this time,
for the first time ever, the public got a glintse
behind the curtain after monster protests that put their barrel
on headlines across the world. All lives were on these
powerful van cards of the profession. In the negotiations, tensions
(37:07):
remained high as union heads railed against new measures of oversight,
discipline and limits on overtime expenditures. While the barrel had
said they want racial and social justice, changes in the
police force. Many of the proposed changes have been met
with critique and resistance. Their current contract with the city
expired June this year. As negotiations continue, it remains to
(37:29):
be seen what changes will come between the Barrel and
the city. The past year has been marked by a
number of police involved violence, despite the growing cause for justice.
In Vancouver, Washington, a bridge away from Portland, two young
black men, Kevin Peterson Jr. And Genoa Davis, have been
killed by officers, with them just a couple of months
of each other. And the college town of Eugene, Oregon,
(37:51):
Chen Shariff was shot after police responded to an alleged
domestic violence report. Shariff did survive meanwhile and miss the backdrop,
but the pandemic the streets of Portlands are seeing thirty
year highs and gun violence economic downturn is leaving the
city on edge. White supremacis of all stripes have been emboldened,
while cries for justice for black lives have reached feverish
(38:14):
new highs. The international cameras are gone now. Protests continue,
but in marketly smaller numbers. That nine minute fuse of
George Floyd's murder had lit a fire under the country.
You know what surface was a renewed urgency to transform
a system that has devalued black lives, not as an
exception but a fundamental tool and tradition of the society.
(38:35):
As the streets have quieted, the urgency for chain still
remains for those that have been a part of these uprisings.
As the resistance begins to take a new face, the
question remains, what's next. I don't think it's going to
I don't think people are just gonna get tired and
go away. This is like people have had enough of
this police brutality and in the racism that you know,
(38:59):
influence just police brutality. I don't see it going away.
I mean I see it ebbing and flowing, like you know,
just it's almost natural for any energy to do that.
So we go, you know, we go up with big
turnouts and go down with low turnouts, or up with
really good morale, and then you know, down in the
dumb later. It's just so I think it's going to
(39:22):
keep following that, some kind of evan flow of change.
But I don't think it's going to go away. I
don't see how would you go away when the police
are continuing to kill unarmed black people. They're continue their
continuing to do it. I think it's really telling that
as far as I know, not one single Portland police
(39:43):
after has been um disciplined for their actions. And they
have done something extremely terrible, things that should be disciplined,
things that go against their training, things that go against
their own policies and procedures, and these things are caught
on video, so there's no excuse at why they have
not been disciplined. People just like become the changes, become
(40:10):
the normative, like the way get pushed out into the
big c of water, BIGFC and and that's what it is,
you know. I think, like I look at Ferguson, uh
so that movement you know, kind of faded away or whatever.
This just happened. I can't yeah, but yeah, and this
(40:34):
Kinst election they just elected one of the activists from
their Congress. So that's like the movement like says what
that's like last change and the people there has well
radicalized to do so it's life. Though the movement that's
tied to the Summer may stayed away. It's like unless
(40:56):
they're going to you know, remove everybody and all of
our ages, all of our renewed perspectives on life, and
you can't really life right at all. I think the
it's interesting, there's like two different The morale of the
city as a whole is very like in Limbo, I
feel like often times, but because it's like ultimately people
(41:21):
who are protesting are ultimately doing it for the right reasons,
and we get like little glimmers of like hope. But
then like just today I learned the three black people
that were killed in the last week throughout the United
States by police unarmed, so and then you hear ship
like that, and then it it just makes you wonder,
like why are we even continuing to do this, Like
(41:43):
why even keep fighting? This just keeps happening. But I
think that, um, right now we live in this I
feel like right now we live in this time of
questions where we have a lot of questions without answers.
But there are years that asked questions and there are
years that answer them. I don't think we're in a
(42:03):
in a year right now where we're gonna get a
lot of answers and that's okay. I feel like we
need to be okay with like sitting in the questions
and going through like the mud and going through the puddle,
so to speak, in order to get to where we
want to go. It's gonna take time because the system
has taken years to UM to build into what it
(42:24):
is right now, and so it's just gonna take time.
So I think the morale of the city limbos because
you have a bunch of you know, the white Neil
liberals who just want to go back to normal. But
normal was killing us, so we're not going to do that.
And then you have our side, which is like we're
feeling we're getting pulled in all kinds of directions, we're
(42:48):
feeling inspiration, and then we're feeling discouragement because we keep
seeing the same ship happened. But ultimately, UM mutual aid
really is the way of the future, and I think
that these mutual aid groups and networks that were forming
right now are really the genesis of what it's going
to look like for humanity to live in a world
(43:10):
without dependence on the state and without needing or feeling
like we the police are going to keep us safe
when they've proven so many times that we don't UM.
So I personally am excited about the future because I'm
witnessing like the yeah, really just the genesis of what
(43:31):
of the world that I would like to live in. UM.
But obviously you know, it's the whole two steps forward,
one step back thing that we that we have to
do with as well. So I'm looking forward to how
things are going. I'm just hoping that more people can
really open their eyes to UM, how they're how being
(43:53):
complicit to the system is literally murdering people they look
like me and Donovan, and that we need to stop it.
There's too many people who are still sleeping. UM. That's
a big reason why I think we were doing that
thing at our CJ was to wake up this side
of this the river like march through the neighborhoods, wake
(44:14):
people up, let them know that we're here, there's a
ton of us, and that they need to be on
our side because ultimately, when when we are free, when
black people are free, everybody is going to be free,
because black liberation is human liberation at the end of
the day. So if we can really focus on uplifting
our most marginalized and most oppressed communities and we're uplifting
(44:36):
everybody at the same time, and the quicker that more
people really understand that and are inspired enough to actually
take action and be a part of the movement. Um
the better. Just um yeah, um, I'm looking forward to
things that personally we get. Uprisings were not Portland's first
(45:08):
by any means. The city earned the name Little Bay
Route after protests against the Portland Republican National Convention in
nineteen eighty nine. But when the world was gripped with
a pandemic that had brought most facets of normal life
to a screeching halt, a spotlight was flung on the
gaps between what America says it is in the realities
its black citizens experienced for decades, And in the midst
(45:31):
of all this, Portland became Little Bay Route again, or,
as President Trump called it, a beehive of terrorists. To
many of those on the ground, the city of Roses
seemed to be seeing what might be the beginnings of
a beautiful new world, straining to be born tragedy, ward
with hope, and through it all blood, sweat and tear gas.
Sometimes messy, but determined group of activists stood toe to
(45:53):
toe against some of the deepest cylinders of oppression in
the country to make sure the normal that we have
all known is replaced. Some lobbied, some voted, some shouted
down the mare. Some started nonprofits, some started wearing block.
No matter what people chose, thousands decided to take action.
New definitive answers emerged out of the protests, but what
(46:16):
did emerge was a reinvigorated sense of urgency for change.
The question we're now all left with is this, Will
we right the historic wrongs of this nation in time
to fix things before the clock runs out? Only time
will tell uh? Where the grand pops who couldn't fathom
(46:37):
the obamacist I don't hate America just to me? And
she keeps the promises looking like the sixties. It's crazy,
a nationwide deja who what my people post to do?
Go to schools named after the clan founder were around town? Is?
I don't see why we frown in? Native American students
forced to learn about when o'para Sarah? How is that fair? Bro?
(46:58):
Some Euros unsung in some monsters get monuments built for them.
But it ain't be all a little bit of monster.
We crook it
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