this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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As a Portlander, we had our fair share of riots... The problem is any lack of a coherent message.
Things would start off fine during the day with a Black Lives Matter protest, but as soon as the sun went down it became taken over by anarchist white kids who just wanted an excuse to break things and steal shit.
Not all protests are the same, and when you have people attacking an Historical Society for no good goddamn reason, that's where you lose support:
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/04/portland-church-park-historical-society-damaged-in-downtown-riot-the-destruction-is-pretty-gnarly.html
Same for blocking streets and freeways. You want to piss off your intended audience? Keep them from going home.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/06/09/portland-protesters-briefly-seize-a-freeway-but-police-refrain-from-using-more-force/
To top things off... the things they were protesting had fuck all to do with Portland. What do you want Portland to do about ANY of this shit?
Cool story bro
Now try being this angry about cops when THEY break things and steal shit and yknow KILL PEOPLE.
That's the thing, if that was happening in PORTLAND, the protests would be 100% justified. It wasn't and isn't.
People in Portland just want to protest, but they don't want to go where it would do any good. They want to "feel like I did something" when at best what they're doing does nothing and at worst is actively harmful.