This Portland morning is cool and dry. By the end of today, you likely will see Portland on national news.
Now, still calm.
Ten women and a man doing yoga in a square sandwiched by Starbucks and the Pioneer Courthouse. Starbucks is open for takeout. Bottom windows are boarded on the courthouse with minor BLM graffiti on the lower right.
The gatherings will be in other venues and subsequent battles can be anywhere.
A few people already are showing up for the action. They talked next to me. I could not make out if they were ANTIFA, Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, Oath Keepers, something else, or freelance. They had no obvious weapons but the time was only 0730. The big assembly will start closer to noon,
Proud Boys announced their assembly.
ANTIFA announced their own assembly.
Law enforcement announced a massive police and federal officer assembly.
The Law expects so much trouble that bosses are calling in everyone they can get. They refused to give specific numbers. All who can report for duty are called in, they say.
One officer told me the recent Federalizing of more officers has made a glitch for ANTIFA who are used to getting a free pass by local courts. Assault on a Federal officer puts them into the Federal court system, and possibly in prison.
The violence just two nights ago was described as the worst yet in 2020 Portland.
Everyone I hear expects violence today.
I will be there. Not live streaming. This is extremely dangerous. Live-streaming is asking for more trouble after going into troubled waters.
My objective is to listen to people, watch the events, and then read how press describes this. This helps to establish baseline of press perception versus reality.
Standby. I’ll be back.
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