Here in Portland, Oregon yesterday police used pepper-spray and physical violence to eject Black Lives Matter protesters from City Hall, and then to remove them from the street outside.
Activists had converged on City Hall to protest a City Council vote on a new, 3-year police contract that had been negotiated between the outgoing mayor, Charlie Hales, and the Portland Police Association. A recent front-page article here at Daily Kos provides some background on why this is an issue for Black Lives Matter and other civil rights groups. Among other things, the published version of the new contract includes provisions that would allow police officers to review body camera footage before they write up incident reports. The concern is that police who wish to construct false narratives will be able to tailor their reports to fit the video evidence.
A city spokesman has said that the current version of the contract does not include these provisions, and that the public will have input into that issue at a later point. Black Lives Matter and associated groups are not satisfied with that claim and have been concerned about the way Mayor Hales has unilaterally negotiated with the police union and pushed for approval of the contract even though he is to be replaced in January by mayor-elect Ted Wheeler and the current contract doesn't expire until the middle of next year.
Portland police don't yet wear body cameras, but are expected to start sometime next year.
A vote on the contract was scheduled for yesterday's public meeting of the City Council, but because public testimony on the contract had been heard at a meeting last month, no public comment on the vote was allowed yesterday. So protesters signed up to speak on other issues, then began criticizing the contract and disrupting the meeting.
Mayor Hales had anticipated this, and he had a backup plan. Half an hour into the public meeting, he adjourned and reconvened the City Council in a private chamber. There the City Council voted to approve the contract, 3 to 1.
The protesters were further provoked by Hales' maneuvering, and began demonstrating more loudly and setting up tents in the hallways. Around noon, officials ordered the evacuation of the building, but the protesters refused to leave, and police were called to force the protesters out.
This precipitated a violent confrontation with police, who began pushing and choking some demonstrators and finally used pepper spray as they forcibly ejected them out the main entrance and locked the doors.
The protesters, angrier than ever, began demonstrating in the middle of 5th Avenue, blocking traffic and the city's light rail trains. In response, riot police converged on the scene and eventually, again using pepper spray, forced the protesters off the street and onto the sidewalk on the side opposite City Hall. There the police arranged themselves in a line to keep the protesters out of the street. As the light rail trains came and went, police allowed passengers to depart but not embark.
Around 5:00 PM, spokesman for Don't Shoot Portland, Greg McKelvey, addressed the crowd through a bullhorn and declared the protest at an end and encouraged the dwindling crowd to disband for the day. He said another demonstration would be held Friday.