Posted on 12/02/2016 12:03:31 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Two weeks in and it’s already ancient news that 120 people, including several Portland State students, were arrested during a demonstration in downtown Portland on Nov. 12.
The myriad of ongoing demonstrations have included blocked freeways, a shooting on the Morrison Bridge, disruption caused by violent factions—and subsequent fundraising efforts to repair property damage—and the ongoing drama of post-election rumors of fraud and recount petitions. It is easy to lose sight of those individually affected by current events.
Daniel Vega, a senior at PSU studying music composition and completing his Bachelor of Music degree, was among those arrested on Nov. 12. Vega agreed to sit down with the Vanguard and talk about his experience.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Vega has lived in Portland for four years and said he had never seen anything like what has been happening here since Donald Trump’s election on Nov. 8. He described the police as “a paramilitary in America” being “militarized against peaceful protestors” using flash bangs, pepper spray and line formations to blockade and arrest demonstrators who refused to heed the police’s warnings to disperse.
Vega recalled that the police chased the crowd and used loudspeakers to direct the dispersing protesters down Southwest Broadway towards the Benson Hotel, where another line of police blocked their route.
Vega alleges that everyone in the immediate vicinity was arrested indiscriminately, including some who were simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Vega expressed optimism about the protests and even his own arrest. He spoke at length about the history of violent and nonviolent strategies for social changes and cited Erica Chenowith’s study on the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance—a study frequently discussed by veteran civil rights activist and PSU Conflict Resolution professor Tom Hastings, who helped code the study’s research data.
The study found that resistance campaigns which eschew violence are historically twice as successful as those which embrace it. Vega contrasted the bloody and ultimately compromised French Revolution with the nonviolent 2000 Serbian uprising against Milošević; in Serbia, police refused orders to fire upon peaceful demonstrators, knowing their own wives and children were among them.
Vega, connecting the demonstrations in Portland with those in Serbia, asked, “Who in their right mind would want to shoot somebody else’s wife, or somebody else’s kid?” He reports having seen officers weeping at the protests, which he took as a sign that a “safety in numbers” tipping point is nearing, when the social connections between protesters and police will become too intimate to ignore.
“...seen officers weeping at the protests”. I’m guessing this guy is lying. That, or some cops need to get fit-tested for their tear gas masks.
Does Portland allow facial hair in their department?
Seems this guy doesn’t understand that blocking streets is unlawful. And that an unlawful assembly constitute a riot.
Or maybe he does know and is just playing dumb.
Can’t believe I actually watched that.
The music was really loud and annoying.
Riiiight. And maybe he's really straight, and just acts all faggy-fay to impress his friends and neighbors...
...LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does this young man realize that he is in college to pursue a BM? (Bachelor of Music)? Self-awareness has to start slowly and small. Then it can address bigger issues of behavior.
Just the picture of the guy...
You and me both!
Whoa! The homeliness is strong in this one.
Maybe, but it didn't even come close to the even more annoying voice of the "student".
"I didn't feel liking going to school that day" so she goes and blocks streets in San Fransisco to protest against Trump
I WENT TO A TRUMP PROTEST//STORYTIME (with footage)
If you find the sound of paper bags or cardboard drifting across a concrete street offensive, to the point is hurts your teeth, makes you hunch up your shoulders, grit your teeth and makes you want to knock the person who let it happen, then the sound of that moron is nearly, exactly, the same...
Ugh...
For the record, I don’t want to hit him or anyone else, for that matter...
Yes they do. Which I don't understand if your going to be wearing a gas mask.
Also nothing good happens on Burnside at night and the Officers that work it don't put up with crap from whining bitches.
Ed
I had a BM earlier this morning. And I bet mine was lot less expensive than his (assuming he ever achieves it).
His voice is as pleasant as the sound of pieces of styrofoam rubbing against each other.
THAT’S a snowflake.
I was so memorized by her “likes” and “OMGs” that I kept watching. If you watch, you will see her knees because as she said, “I sit like this” and see her self descriptive stick legs. “OMG. like we...walked like....”
Oh, and if you are a Trump supporter, do not post that she should be in school.
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