0:00

Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio. We

0:10

Get Everything,

0:14

So don't you

0:26

get a rout up to the last Welcome

0:39

to the Worst Year Ever? A

0:42

podcast about you know and

0:44

such. I'm Robert Evans

0:47

and my co hosts are Katie

0:49

Still and Cody Johnston. And

0:52

today we're going to talk about what's

0:54

been happening in the city of Portland for

0:57

the last forty days, because

0:59

the city has been through now more than forty straight

1:01

days of protesting and

1:03

about like half of those days have wound up

1:05

being riots. And in fact, this

1:08

specific episode is coming after a

1:10

five night a series of five nights

1:13

in which three riots were declared.

1:15

Um, so it's been it's been a real one

1:18

in Portland. Wow. You know

1:20

what's interesting? Forty

1:22

days. That is so many days and you do

1:24

not see it getting covered in

1:27

the mainstream media. Um. I know

1:29

it's happening from you. But I've

1:32

said this before, but even people that I know that live in

1:34

Portland aren't aware of the

1:36

extent to what's happening downtown. You

1:38

know, everyone's sheltering in place. Just the media

1:40

coverage of it is abysmal.

1:43

Yeah, it hasn't you know, there's a lot of

1:45

great journalists out there in the streets, but most

1:47

of them aren't working for huge outlets,

1:49

you know. As part of one of the things we're going to discuss

1:52

a little bit later today. The specific

1:54

thing that just happened on the fourth of July that

1:57

I think needs to be covered is it

1:59

was essentially, we

2:03

essentially saw a medieval

2:05

siege in this in the streets

2:07

of an American city, UM waged

2:10

between like federal

2:12

agents firing through murder slits

2:15

and a fortified, uh federal

2:17

courthouse and being shot back

2:19

at by protesters armed with

2:21

hundreds of illegal fireworks. Um.

2:24

It was. It was one of the craziest things I've

2:26

ever seen, Like federal agents dropping tear

2:28

gas out of slits in the walls

2:30

of a courthouse, as like people

2:32

with shields, you know, clustered to stop

2:35

the impact rounds being fired into

2:37

the crowds that folks could shoot fireworks

2:39

back into the courthouse. It was fucking It

2:41

was nuts, like I've

2:43

never I've never seen anything like it. Um.

2:45

I guess I would say the closest thing I've seen

2:48

to what we saw in July four

2:50

was is was actual warfare. Um.

2:53

It was about as close as you can get to

2:55

actual warfare without people shooting

2:58

live rounds at each other. UM.

3:00

And things have escalated in some ways since

3:02

then. And what's what's happening in

3:04

Portland is interesting for a number of reasons,

3:07

UM fundamentally, And this is something that's been brought

3:09

up to me by two of my stringers, you know, who have

3:12

been working with me in the streets of Portland's

3:14

UM. They go under Twitter

3:16

at at forty Absurdest Brigade,

3:19

but UM. One of them, Elaine, pointed out

3:21

to me that like we're essentially

3:23

seeing, um, what

3:25

happens when a huge

3:28

chunk of a city loses its

3:30

fear of its police force. Because that's

3:32

something that that has really been evident. After so

3:34

many nights of getting tear gassed

3:36

and shot at and hit with sticks and arrested,

3:39

the people who continue to show up at these protests

3:42

aren't scared of cops anymore. UM.

3:45

And so the police and law enforcement has

3:48

had to escalate. And what's happened

3:50

in the wake of July four is they've been sending out

3:52

federal agents, UM who

3:54

who are And essentially you're saying, like federal

3:56

agents who are indistinguishable from soldiers,

3:59

UM, not wearing like police riot armor,

4:01

but wearing full combat armor, carrying him

4:04

four rifles, you know, charging

4:06

out to grab and arrest people for stuff

4:08

like knocking on the door of the courthouse.

4:11

Um. Because they don't have any

4:13

rules of engagement. You know, the police

4:16

have limitations on what they can do. The federal

4:18

agents don't. And so as

4:20

the people of Portland have lost their

4:22

fear of the police and the police have become

4:24

less and less able to disperse the crowds

4:27

arrayed against them, um, the Feds

4:29

are coming in more and more to funk

4:31

people up, um, and and doing so using

4:34

tactics that are that are

4:36

straight up military tactics that aren't like

4:38

militarized. You're not talking about

4:40

like a lot of people, you know, You're not just

4:42

saying like, oh, the police have grenade launchers, so they're militarized.

4:45

It's like no, no, no, no no. The federal federal

4:47

troops are essentially using military

4:50

tactics to try to break up these

4:52

gatherings. UM.

4:54

So one of the things that you see with police

4:57

is police are supposed to announce something

4:59

called an unlawful ass simbly or a riot or something.

5:01

They're supposed to make announcements to the

5:03

crowd, giving them a chance to disperse before the

5:05

use of munitions, before they start arresting

5:07

people. This is like there's a rhythm

5:09

to a protest, even a very aggressive

5:11

one, even a riot that is predictable

5:14

because the police have

5:16

have legal strictures on how they're supposed

5:18

to act that that that go in certain ways.

5:20

And this doesn't mean the police don't use success of force, but

5:22

it means there's certain things that they do because

5:24

their police, the federal agents

5:27

have just been sort of charging out

5:29

of the courthouse without warning, grabbing

5:32

people off the street. Um.

5:34

Like the police were doing things like firing

5:37

you know, tear guests and what not to clear out people who

5:39

had been you know, sometimes shooting off

5:41

fireworks and stuff. One of

5:43

the things that caused a federal sally, um

5:46

two nights ago was a guy walked up and he knocked

5:48

on the door of the courthouse and that's all he did,

5:50

and they charged out into the street. They cleared

5:52

people up for blocks away. They

5:55

were tackling people to the ground, um,

5:57

and they like they tackled this guy, grabbed him

5:59

and dragged back into the courthouse and

6:02

my, uh, my employee on

6:04

the ground. A lane who has seen a lot

6:06

of street action over the last couple of weeks

6:08

and has has no fear of tear gas or even

6:10

impact rounds or night sticks from the police,

6:13

UM was terrified because like

6:15

it was this there was no no ability

6:18

to predict what they were going to do, which is kind

6:20

of like when you're when you're prosecuting

6:23

a war. Like one of the things they have to train

6:25

soldiers to do in our military that

6:27

makes them effective in a combat situation

6:30

is the ability to engage in

6:32

and display like relentless

6:34

aggression because the goal is always to

6:37

ensure the enemy never has any chance to

6:39

get on a stable footing. Um. It's

6:41

constant disruption. So the

6:43

unpredictability, the inability for them

6:45

to formulate an effective strategy,

6:48

like that's how you that's how you deal with

6:50

an enemy in a car and and like a

6:52

combat situation, that kind of aggression

6:54

and that sort of that sort of meter of aggression

6:57

um, which is not how police are supposed

6:59

to in gay and and not how police engage

7:01

with the crowd. For all of the critiques of

7:03

the Portland Police Bureau their behavior

7:06

even when it was illegal, uh, and we'll

7:08

talk about that a bit, because they did break the law on a

7:10

number of occasions. It was predictable.

7:13

Um, you could you could start to understand,

7:15

Okay, this is going to happen, the police will react

7:17

in this way or one of these ways. There

7:19

was no kind of predicting, Like the federal troops

7:22

were rushing out of the courthouse to arrest

7:24

and and grab and tackle people

7:27

sometimes when no discernible action had

7:29

been taken by the crowd because there's no

7:31

restrictions on their behavior, um

7:33

and so you you're seeing what

7:36

you're seeing in the streets of Portland is

7:39

it started with militarized police

7:41

meeting a crowd that was willing to willing

7:44

to kind of meet them with insurgent tactics,

7:46

with military tactics and not with um

7:49

the kind of military tactics I think the crowd was

7:52

the police were expecting, but with a lot

7:54

of stuff that looked would have been more at place,

7:56

you know, in a medieval conflict, um

7:59

and or you know, like fa lanxes and stuff

8:01

like that. So even going further back than

8:03

that. But like but like you you saw

8:05

the crowd adopting these sort of organized

8:08

military tactics um in order

8:10

to deal with a police force that

8:12

was utilizing variations of those

8:14

of those same tactics. UM.

8:16

And what you've seen now is federal troops

8:19

who have come in and essentially, you know, use

8:21

the word troops. We're talking about U. S. Marshals, We're talking

8:23

about department with Homeland security officers,

8:26

UM. But we're talking about people who are visually indistinguishable

8:28

from soldiers and carrying the same weaponry

8:31

as soldiers. So they're not packing just the

8:33

non lethals. They're packing them for assault rifles

8:35

and ship Now, UM, you're seeing

8:37

them bring in because you know, police

8:39

tactics are are militarized, but

8:42

in a lot of cases, you know, you're still looking

8:44

at kind of like more ancient military

8:46

tactics because at the end of the day, when you have police

8:48

in a riot line confronting each other, you have two groups

8:51

of people armed with melee weapons

8:54

primarily like like coming

8:56

into conflict with each other, a lot of them carrying

8:58

shields and sticks and stuff. So it has

9:00

it's militarized, but it has more in

9:03

terms of like what you actually see on the ground, it has more in

9:05

common with you know, what people would have experienced

9:07

fighting. You know, a few centuries ago than it

9:10

does with modern military tactics,

9:12

and now that that that has

9:14

gone to the point where the police can't disperse

9:17

these crowds effectively. Um,

9:19

federal agents are using very

9:22

modern military tactics, the kind

9:24

of stuff, like the kind of literal physical

9:26

tactics, um, that you would more

9:28

expect to see in in an active

9:31

war zone than than what police are

9:33

supposed to be doing. Um, it's

9:35

gotten very strange. It sounds

9:37

like an appropriate way to be spending the Fourth of July

9:39

weekend, citizens

9:43

protesting and you know, feeling

9:45

like it was the way people

9:48

fought hundreds of years ago. Um.

9:51

Yeah, the videos that you sent us were

9:54

very intense. Yeah.

9:57

Yeah, we'll play a little clip from that right

9:59

here, when there was this was the moment at which there

10:02

was essentially just a straight up siege

10:04

of this. So, so for an idea of what downtown Portland

10:06

is like, you have the Justice Center, which

10:08

is um, the police headquarters in the jail,

10:10

and it's next to a federal courthouse, and so the

10:13

Justice Center is guarded by normal cops.

10:15

The federal courthouse is guarded by DHS

10:17

agents, Homeland Security and essentially

10:20

military dudes, you know, that's how they

10:22

look at operate UM, and you

10:25

had this crowd of a thousand or so people

10:27

gather around both um

10:30

kind of drunk. A lot of people were kind of drunk. It was the fourth

10:32

and they had a ton of fireworks

10:34

and a ton of really illegal fireworks.

10:36

But it's easy to get them because there's nothing that's illegal

10:38

in Washington. So people just drive up to Washington,

10:40

buy a bunch of illegal fireworks, come down to Portland.

10:43

And this was happening all over. Look, it seems like all

10:45

over the country people have the access

10:47

to illegal fireworks. Another segment.

10:50

So in Portland, they just started

10:52

firing hundreds of illegal

10:54

fireworks directly at the courthouse

10:57

and the Justice Center. UM.

10:59

And it was really it was. There were

11:01

some great moments where like you could see people

11:03

who were in the jail like cheering and

11:05

waving and like sticking their fists in the air because

11:07

they were getting like the fireworks were exploding at their

11:10

windows. UM. So they

11:12

gotta they got a show, and they seemed to be enjoying

11:14

it. But people also, you know, it

11:17

was it was a pretty chill despite

11:20

the reckless use of fire the fireworks,

11:22

it was pretty chill. UM. The crowd

11:24

was, and there wasn't a lot of people pushing towards

11:27

the actual buildings themselves, just kind of shooting

11:29

at their facades. And these are gigantic concrete

11:31

buildings. Um, there was no no real there

11:34

was no danger of the fireworks doing any damage

11:36

to them. Then the police brought out

11:38

their their sound system and started telling

11:40

people not to shoot at the Federal Courthouse, which

11:43

guaranteed that that's all people were going

11:45

to want to do for the rest of the Yeah,

11:47

and the crowd then clustered. They gassed

11:50

everyone once and so the cloud crowd

11:52

began clustering just around the Federal

11:54

Courthouse and firing into

11:56

like the plywood they'd put up over the windows

11:58

and trying to shoot in through them murder slits

12:00

that the the agents had cut so that

12:02

they can shoot out at the crowd. Um.

12:05

And that that, you know, kind of culminated

12:07

in what what Yeah, what looked very

12:10

much like a fucking medieval

12:12

siege, just with fireworks and fucking

12:14

paintball uh, pepper ball

12:17

rounds and rubber bullets and ship It was

12:19

very strange. Um. I want to play you

12:21

a little clip from that. Yeah, you

12:23

can see here one of the murder slates medieval

12:27

time, I think, So that's here they're scooting out from

12:29

the tres. So

12:31

we definitely have like an old fashioned medieval

12:33

seeds to sort of proud

12:35

getting their

12:36

sem. Uh.

12:41

You see a proud getting the shields to the front. You

12:44

see the defenders firing at a murder hole.

12:46

You see fire, you

12:49

know, pilots shot into the thing.

12:52

This is Jesus Christ.

12:55

So yeah, like that's I don't

12:57

even know like what to say about

13:00

it to a certain extent because it's so

13:02

surreal to see this, Like

13:05

I spent you know, we

13:07

after this, the police dispersed the crowd

13:09

from the Justice Center area,

13:11

and the crowd spent hours kind of

13:14

you know, running battle with the cops um,

13:16

and there was a lot of like it

13:19

got pretty intensely violent. Like it was weird

13:21

because this was the best the mood has been

13:24

from the crowd. Like everyone's morale was really

13:26

high because people were I think really excited

13:28

about how well they were doing it staying together

13:30

and reforming and not getting dispersed by the

13:32

police. Um. But the police

13:34

were unbelievably angry and

13:37

we're beating the ship out of people.

13:39

Like when they would get close. They were hitting them with truncheons.

13:41

I watched at one point they grabbed

13:43

a man and dragged him on his back

13:45

across the asphalt into a cloud of tear

13:48

gas to arrest him. They

13:50

fucking stabbed the tires out of a van

13:53

that was handing out snacks, and they didn't

13:55

arrest the driving it. They just

13:57

stabbed as tires like it was wild.

14:00

The issue wasn't with the man, he is

14:02

but a man. It's with the car.

14:05

It's with the van fires, it's

14:08

with the BLM snack van. They

14:10

fucking hated that van. And it was like

14:13

they were doing ship like gassing

14:15

the crowd and then firing rubber bullets

14:17

and foam bullets into the smoke, so like

14:20

they clearly can't see what they're shooting at.

14:22

Their just shooting in to the crowd

14:24

with impact munitions, which you're supposed to be

14:26

very carefully usually supposed to fire these at the ground

14:28

to bounce them up into people. You're not supposed to shoot

14:31

people directly with them. They were just shooting into

14:33

the munitions, being

14:36

an example of like rubber bullets,

14:39

rubber bullets, foam bullets, pepper

14:41

balls. These are all impact munitions. Yeah,

14:43

it does real damage. So it was

14:46

it was it was pretty intense

14:48

to experience. UM, and it

14:50

was just like you know, we've had

14:52

we've had dozens of nights of a

14:54

of a not dissimilar tempo, usually less

14:57

fireworks, some fireworks, but less fireworks.

15:00

But um, this keeps

15:02

happening every single week. You know, the

15:04

first two weeks after George Floyd's murder,

15:06

this happened something like this happened pretty much every

15:08

night, and then since then it's at least been every

15:11

three or four days there's been a night

15:13

like this. Um.

15:15

Sometimes the fewer people, but like that

15:17

intensity, the fact that you still

15:20

are pulling crowds of

15:22

a thousand people is

15:25

wild and incredible, you

15:27

know. Yeah,

15:31

to keep people showing up every night

15:33

or most nights like this. Yeah,

15:35

and there's you know, the nights afterwards it was

15:37

more like a hundred hundred and fifty people that showed

15:40

up. But it's still this like you know, it's keeping this like

15:42

heartbeat alive, I guess, um,

15:45

And I think there's a lot of you know, there's

15:47

a lot there's there's some criticisms folks

15:49

including me, will make about like the decision to continually

15:52

rally at the Justice Center because tactically

15:54

it is a terrible place to get into a fight

15:56

with the police. They can surround you very easily.

16:00

Um, they can tear gas the ship out of you very

16:02

easily. UM. It's not

16:04

Um, it's not a great defensible position.

16:07

And the fact that the Feds are next door

16:09

creates additional issues because now people

16:12

are getting federal charges. The folks who are being arrested

16:14

by the Feds. You know, when the cops arrest

16:16

you, your charges are generally going to go

16:18

up that night. Usually you'll be out the next

16:20

day. Um. A lot of folks just get released

16:23

with a citation. Um. The Feds

16:25

have been keeping people in jail for two three days

16:27

before anyone even finds out their charges. Um.

16:30

And then those charges are again federal charges. So

16:32

people are getting you know, the chances

16:34

are that they will get much more prison higher

16:37

prison sentences when this finally comes

16:39

out. And the Feds are also keeping their ship, keeping their

16:41

phones, keeping their house keys, keeping their wallets

16:43

as evidence. It's kind of a bad

16:45

tactical decision to involve. And you had

16:47

on on July four, you had people with

16:49

bullhorns being like, when we get back

16:52

because the crowd eventually marched back to the Justice

16:54

Center after like three hours of fighting and reforming

16:56

in the streets, made its way back and reoccupied

16:59

the justice which has never happened before. But

17:01

there were people like begging folks in the crowd, don't

17:04

funk with the courthouse again, Like we

17:06

we can't. We we probably shouldn't try

17:08

to start a fight with both the Feds

17:10

and the local police at the same time. Like

17:12

this might not be the best the best Tacticum,

17:16

that seems well reasoned. Yeah,

17:18

so we'll see what happens next. But um,

17:21

it's been fucking surreal and it's Um,

17:24

I don't think we've seen the biggest rallies

17:26

we're going to see in Portland this year. And I don't think

17:28

we've seen the most police

17:31

or law enforcement violence we're going to see this

17:33

year. No, I don't think

17:35

we have either. We're in such a weird

17:39

lull. I don't know. It feels like

17:42

things still feel tents, that

17:44

there's stuff crackling beneath the surface. It

17:47

does not seem like police

17:52

seem um cowed

17:54

by people or by the potential

17:56

of you know that we have as

17:59

a actively too to

18:01

uprise and to protest because

18:04

we're continuing to see police violence everywhere.

18:06

Um. Yeah, so I agree with

18:08

you. I don't. I don't. I think it's the end

18:11

of it. We have to take a quick ad

18:13

break. Oh yeah,

18:16

you know what won't fire impact munitions

18:19

blindly into smoke

18:21

filled crowd? Wow,

18:24

don't say yeah,

18:26

Raytheon? Well no, Raytheon's new knife

18:28

missile cody is the opposite of firing blindly

18:30

into a crowd. It's firing a knife

18:32

missile at exactly the place

18:35

with precisions. Yeah,

18:38

they would have, they would have. They wouldn't

18:40

have missed those murder holes. No, they

18:42

wouldn't have. Together

18:51

everything back

18:55

from the

18:58

ad ad at, Yeah,

19:00

we share. Are get mad? I like

19:02

thought, Katie mad mad.

19:05

I'm just I'm living. Um

19:07

yeah, so I want to. I wanted to play you

19:10

y'all because I like

19:12

how you said you and then corrected yourself

19:14

to y'all. Thank you. It's inclusive.

19:17

Um. So, like

19:19

when these ships started in Portland,

19:21

there was like a lot of local coverage about what

19:24

was happening, and there you know, it was even some Uh,

19:27

there wasn't a huge amount of national coverage just because

19:29

what was going on in Minneapolis was so much crazier.

19:32

UM. But as Portland

19:34

has wound up having like kind of one of

19:36

the longer um running

19:38

protest movements. In the wake of

19:40

all this, like we've gotten, local

19:43

media has had to pull back a bit just because their budgets

19:46

can't cope with it. And you know, they've done a

19:48

varying levels of quality jobs in

19:51

terms of actually handling

19:53

the story. Some of them have sucked, some of them have been

19:55

incredible. UM.

19:57

But uh, we we have gotten.

20:00

When we've got national coverage, it's tended

20:02

to look more like this, And I want to play you. I want

20:04

to actually go through this whole Fox News segment.

20:06

So this is like a yeah,

20:09

Mark, that will help my migraine, Robert.

20:13

Yeah, this is Fox and Friends,

20:15

and it's Fox and Friends interviewing

20:17

uh, the Customs and Border Patrol

20:20

Commissioner Mark Morgan m about

20:22

the fourth of July riot

20:25

in UH in Portland. And I

20:27

find this really UM, I mean

20:29

I find it. I find it infuriating and inaccurate,

20:32

but I also find it interesting. So we're gonna go through

20:34

it and take some time to pause bit by

20:36

bit and talk about what

20:39

what he's saying and what the truth is this

20:41

is a fun news segment. Yeah,

20:43

this will be interesting. Here

20:46

we go violence rocking Portland

20:48

overnight. Police declaring a riot yet

20:50

again, as the city sees is thirty

20:52

eight straight day of unrest. Border

20:55

Patrol now called in to assist here

20:57

with an update. Is acting CBP com

21:00

Sure Mark Morrigan, Good morning, Mr Commissioner.

21:02

The third time this week you've had to declare a

21:05

riot in Portland's what's going

21:07

on there? And one thing I want to correct

21:09

is that he did the CBPP.

21:11

He didn't declare a riot. The police eventually

21:14

did declare a riot. The FEDS,

21:16

which is you know, include CBP and

21:18

and all of these other agencies we've been talking about, started

21:21

dumping munitions before there was any kind

21:23

of declaration of anything because they don't have to

21:25

declare. They can just they can just shoot shipped off.

21:27

Good do you know That's that is

21:30

a point to be made. We'll tell you

21:32

griff. And these are not protesters. These are

21:34

criminals who got the organized

21:36

and planned and actually brought

21:39

weapons. They brought a shield,

21:41

they brought water bottles.

21:43

Rock I can tell you Number one is

21:46

very funny to me, with the number

21:48

of weapons used against the protesters

21:51

that he's so angry. They brought shields, They

21:53

brought water bottles.

21:56

I haven't seen any frozen

21:58

water bottles, and I have seen some have seen

22:00

thousands of water bottles thrown at the cops.

22:02

They all splatter open upon hitting. Because

22:04

they're not a weapon. It's a party.

22:07

It's the fourth of July. People,

22:10

water fights are cultural

22:12

cannon. They brought weapons.

22:15

I love the obviously, I love the shield

22:18

thing, but also like, these aren't protesters.

22:20

These people organized, they

22:23

had a plan. They didn't just march around

22:26

and go back home, not accomplishing

22:28

anything. It's

22:31

it's great lasers weapons

22:33

with the intent to destroy the Federal

22:35

building. Lasers, lasers,

22:41

tons of like like laser pointers.

22:44

Yeah, like laser pointers they shine. Those are

22:46

very threatening. Yeah, and they're

22:48

not the I will tell you there are laser pointers

22:51

that can do that will do permanent eye damage.

22:54

These are not the ones being used. No police

22:56

officers anywhere in the country have suffered any

22:59

eye damages or result of lasers being

23:01

deployed. Um and all of the lasers

23:03

until the police started shooting people, at

23:05

which point folks shine lazers and face masks

23:08

to try to blind the people shooting them

23:10

temporarily. Um, yeah,

23:12

that's I would say. So the lasers were being used

23:14

to blind cameras. Um.

23:17

Yeah, so we're not talking like those

23:19

little laser pointers you buy for your cat. No,

23:22

no, no, they're heavier duty than that. But they're not

23:24

the ones that are like, you know, you get the heavy, the really

23:26

big ones that you can like you can light cigarettes

23:28

with and if you shine them in someone's eyes, it will suck

23:30

them up forever. Um, these are not those.

23:32

People are not shooting those into faces.

23:35

No police officers have been had

23:37

their vision damaged, um

23:39

by the fucking lasers, which I would compare

23:41

to maybe the flashbanks that

23:43

they throw at people, even though they're not supposed

23:45

to throw them at people and shoot directly at people's

23:48

bodies, which have exploded

23:50

within inches of my body and a number of occasions

23:52

and definitely have have had an impact

23:54

on my vision and hearing. Um

23:56

whatever, it's fine, it's fine. I'm so

23:59

sorry they brought yields. Yeah,

24:01

my fucking heads pounding. Um. So

24:04

that's all very funny. It's very funny

24:07

that he says that they had the attempt

24:09

to destroy the federal building, the federal

24:12

courthouse and downtown Portland is again, it is

24:14

a fortress. It is a massive concrete

24:16

structure. None of these none

24:18

of the fireworks did any kind of damage.

24:21

None of them could have done any kind of damage.

24:23

You would have had to bring military grade weaponry

24:26

to do any meaningful damage to

24:28

anything but the plywood. And I don't think

24:30

they even damaged the plywood. Seriously,

24:32

one person broke a window. The

24:35

idea that it would have been possible for this crowd

24:37

to destroy that courthouse, um,

24:39

is absurd because it's basically a castle.

24:41

Well, it's either a lie or stupid.

24:44

They knocked aggressively. I thought you were talking

24:46

about that was the next night. That was

24:49

the next night. Uh, someone just

24:51

knocked on the door and got arrested. Yeah,

24:54

you could tell they meant business with that knock.

24:57

Yeah, yeah, it was an assault knock. Um,

25:00

all right, let's listen to our friends continue.

25:03

And I've said it before, I don't care what your

25:05

ideological police are. Your political is

25:10

wrong. And I can tell you for one, I'm

25:13

glad that this president United States understands

25:15

importance of law order. And then it's

25:17

a cornerstone of American society.

25:19

What we saw in Portland last night was

25:22

criminal. And it's funny

25:24

that he says violence is wrong because again the

25:26

police were repeatedly pumping impact munitions

25:29

blindly into a crowd and dragging people

25:31

across the ground and beating them with sticks. So

25:34

I'm interested for this, for

25:36

for Mark Morgan's condemnation of the Portland

25:39

police for that, but I didn't hear it. Yeah,

25:41

he says he doesn't care about our what do you say,

25:44

ideological? Ideological? Yeah,

25:49

he does. He cares, he cares

25:51

what your well. I

25:53

mean, he immediately invoked the president.

25:56

So I think you have a little bit

25:58

to do with some sort of ideology.

26:00

Yeah, I think he might have an ideology. It's

26:02

possible, Mr Krisher. The

26:04

presidents have warned that this element,

26:07

there are parts of these groups

26:10

that are terrorists, perhaps

26:12

that they're literally trying to do pure

26:14

HARMONSI isn't about making a statement. You

26:17

have some news you can share with us now

26:19

about the arrest on Friday

26:21

and the attack on the Hatfield Thrial courthouse.

26:23

What is that absolutely group? Earliest

26:26

morning? In fact, I just got this situation report

26:28

a few minutes ago. Is that one of the criminals

26:30

that were actually trying to assault one

26:33

of the CDP employees while

26:35

he was being arrested. The report right now

26:38

is is telling us that a pipe

26:41

bomb, a fused and sinary device,

26:43

and a machete was actually discovered

26:46

during that search. Now, this is

26:48

really interesting. It

26:51

wasn't but if there was a if there was

26:53

a machete in the possession of someone there,

26:55

they were violating no law because it is the

26:57

possession of unconcealed machete

27:00

is completely unregulated in the

27:02

state of Oregon and completely legal.

27:04

The pipe bomb thing is real funny because I

27:06

found the picture that they posted to this and

27:09

number one. For whatever reason, they

27:11

posted the picture of the pipe bomb with

27:14

a bunch of tissue paper and zip ties,

27:18

which was a weird call. And also, it's

27:21

not a pipe bomb. It's very it's

27:23

very clear. It is a pipe with uh

27:25

two bits of like metal um

27:28

uh plugs like screwed into either

27:30

end. I can see how someone might initially

27:33

think, oh, that might be a pipe bomb, but

27:35

there's no whole drilled in it, there's

27:37

no fuse, there's no evidence

27:40

of any explosives at all. And what it

27:42

actually is and what it appears

27:44

to be, I should say, um, based on

27:46

my experience going to a whole lot of protests

27:48

and riots. Is people

27:51

make ship like this all the times to break windows.

27:53

It's a window breaking thing. It is a thing

27:55

somebody mads that they can fucking crack a window

27:58

very easily. And there's no evidence that

28:00

it's a pipe bomb. That's surprising

28:02

to me that they would report that it's

28:04

a pipe bomb, though, because Fox

28:06

News is pretty diligent about checking

28:09

these things. And you'll

28:11

notice you'll notice the language that the CBP

28:13

commissioner uses because he says

28:15

he after saying it's a pipe bomb, he says,

28:18

okay, but he goes back and says,

28:20

based on the report that we're reading right now,

28:23

um, because at some point they're going to walk

28:25

this back, because there will. My suspicion

28:27

is that they will have no evidence of any actual

28:30

explosives and thus that this was not a pipe

28:32

bomb. Um. So you know,

28:34

you've got to make sure that everyone knows, oh what I you

28:36

know, based on the report I've read, they

28:38

had a pipe bomb, and then you never have to

28:40

correct it. They're not going to have him back on Fox News to

28:42

be like, ah, you know what, it was just a guy who was ready to fucking

28:45

break some windows because he wanted to

28:47

loot some Louis Vuitton or whatever. UM.

28:50

Very frustrating, but I'm interested in

28:52

their fucking analysis of that pipe bomb

28:54

with no fuse in it at all. Uh,

28:57

that'll be fun anyway.

28:59

Let's contin in. You think about that, Griff,

29:01

think about the deadly consequences from

29:03

these criminal actions, no one, Let's

29:06

just get out there and see some video. There's a video

29:08

where a woman is overheard confronting

29:10

one of the agents there and she refers

29:13

to it as Hey, I know this game.

29:15

I'm on a city sidewalk. There's nothing that

29:17

you can do. And she goes further and says, why

29:19

don't you go back where you came from? White boy?

29:21

That's what this is, Griff, It's a game

29:23

to see. I love this. I love this because

29:26

he immediately says, you know, we need to

29:28

talk about the deadly consequences of this. And

29:30

then those consequences are somebody called

29:32

a Copple white boy, while standing

29:34

on a sidewalk and asserting her

29:36

right to be on the sidewalk of a city

29:38

that she lives in. That's the deadly

29:41

consequences here. Very

29:43

fun. Love love this guy.

29:45

It's a deadly game. But series this is

29:47

about law and order. We must be united.

29:50

Where are the local political leaders griff

29:52

standing up saying this is uncomfortable,

29:54

this is wrong and these individuals should

29:56

see some desists and be arrested. Where

29:58

that? Where are they? Now?

30:02

That's that's funny because in the City

30:04

of Portland, our mayor has

30:06

stood by the police pretty pretty

30:08

significantly um and has

30:10

made only the most milk toast kind of

30:13

complaints. And so did our our city Commissioner,

30:15

Joanne Hardesty. She wrote a real mean letter to the

30:17

police after they beat the piss out of a bunch

30:19

of people last Tuesday. UM.

30:22

But that letter she wrote

30:24

the day after she was like one of

30:26

the deciding votes to approve the new police

30:28

budget for the next several months,

30:30

so uh gave up any

30:32

sort of leverage that she had to the police

30:34

and then said that they were mean. Um.

30:37

Because again, local political leaders in

30:39

Portland are terrified of the police union UM

30:41

and usually terrified to take any action

30:43

against it. Now, what I will say, if you're trying to look

30:45

at how popular these protests are, I don't have perfect

30:48

data for you, but there's a current

30:50

runoff election for the Mayor of Portland between

30:53

the current Mayor Ted Wheeler uh and Sarah

30:55

yann Rone who is his his like did

30:58

well enough in the election that there's a run off

31:00

in November. She was something like twenty points

31:02

behind before all this started, and now they

31:04

are neck and neck. Um,

31:06

So that might suggest that there's

31:08

actually quite a bit of sympathy in the city of

31:10

Portland's for the people out protesting

31:13

the police every night. Um, we'll

31:15

see it in November, I suppose troubling

31:18

that a pipe bomb allegedly

31:20

was found along with thee

31:24

So what will happen now with

31:27

that individuals and those that you're arresting

31:29

there? That individuals, absolutely,

31:32

Griffin, that's where you said, this really is a whole

31:34

of government approach. So we had United

31:36

States Marshal's Federal Protective

31:38

Service there ice HS I said,

31:40

agents there, and the FBI has committed

31:43

a lot of resources to making sure that these individuals

31:45

are arrested, arrested and prosecuted

31:48

to the full extendaal law for the criminals

31:50

that they are. We are doing disservice

31:53

to peaceful, lawful protesters when we

31:55

call these individual protesters, they're

31:57

not they're criminal thugs with an agenda.

32:01

In the last second, Mr Commissioner,

32:04

do you see this being now

32:07

you'll have to escalate the force that you're already

32:09

deploying. Look,

32:12

we're we're going to escalate to the use

32:14

of force that's needed to repel these criminals

32:17

and apprehend them and prosecute them. But

32:19

I can tell you I've been doing this for twenty

32:21

five years and this president is behind

32:24

us, and I'm glad that we have an administration

32:27

that understands the importance of law and order.

32:29

We're not walking away from our federal facilities

32:31

like police departments, having some communities, We're

32:33

staying. Mr. Commissurance,

32:36

Thanks for being Yeah, so that's

32:38

fun going on there. Yeah, that's going

32:41

on there. That guy really had a line to push

32:43

about how much he likes the president. I'm

32:45

guessing because yeah, yeah,

32:48

I mean the coded language also,

32:50

like we finally have a president

32:52

that backs us up here. You know, we

32:54

know what they're backing up also, criminals.

32:57

Just the words that they used to describe protesters.

32:59

What are they doing? Okay,

33:01

I guess you shouldn't technically be firing

33:03

fireworks out of federal building. I

33:06

think it is against the law. I do. I do suspect

33:08

it's against the law to shoot a legal fireworks

33:10

at a federal courthouse. I'll

33:14

get that's

33:16

not everybody that's you know. And

33:20

also they've been using the same language for

33:23

all of this. It's not just that you know, um,

33:28

but overall very impressed with their coverage.

33:32

Yeah, I couldn't say that with a straight face.

33:35

It's very funny, um. I

33:38

it's funny, like the focus on the violence

33:40

of the protesters when the actual

33:42

injuries um have

33:45

been pretty one sided. Uh

33:47

and and and largely dealt out by the

33:49

police. The police like every every time they

33:51

can will post a video of like they posted one after the July

33:53

four that showed um burns

33:56

on a guy's on officers pants

33:58

um from a firework and another

34:00

officer who was doused in paint UM

34:03

and they're like, these are just two examples of the

34:05

kind of violence done to our officers, and it's

34:08

showing them. The journalists who lost

34:10

her eye, Yeah, I mean that was another

34:12

city, but they did mace one of our journalists

34:15

and shove him to the ground, and another journalist who

34:17

was filming and arrest got knocked down and beaten

34:19

on the legs with with trunchean's

34:22

um. Several of us have been shot with impact

34:24

munitions. Um,

34:26

I've had my pants burned by a flash bang.

34:29

Uh, which you know is I

34:31

would say at least comparable to what happened

34:34

to that other officers pants. No one is poured.

34:36

I will say this, I did not get covered

34:38

in paint. Um. That is that

34:40

is a type of tremendous violence. That is

34:42

a unique experience of of

34:44

of Portland police officers. So yeah,

34:48

Andy does well. Yeah, he wouldn't

34:50

know it was something else white and creamy. Um.

34:53

Yeah, we have to take another at break.

34:55

I'm speaking of white and creamy. Yeah,

34:59

I get to you. Did you

35:01

say speaking of something white and creamy? I

35:03

sure did, Katie one pump, one cream

35:06

pad, break

35:10

together everything

35:17

we're back. Oh my god, I

35:20

love cream. Um.

35:23

No I don't. You don't, No,

35:26

not really. Um,

35:28

I mean yeah, it's a I have. I have

35:30

complicated emotional feelings on the nature

35:33

of cream. Um.

35:35

We'll get dig into that in another day.

35:37

Yeah. So I'm

35:40

left like we're

35:42

in a We're in this very strange place in Portland

35:45

where things seem to have escalated

35:47

to the high I can't imagine

35:50

things escalating further. Then

35:52

they went on the fourth without gunfire.

35:55

Um, most likely gunfire

35:58

from federal or even

36:00

you know, local police, because I think a lot of them are

36:02

itching to be able to do that. UM.

36:04

I have trouble imagining things escalating further.

36:06

So in terms of how the movement continues

36:09

here, I can only see it moving laterally, right.

36:11

You know, we had you know, people going after

36:13

different targets, not confronted, you know, going

36:15

after the Portland Police Association headquarters

36:18

again. UM. I could also

36:20

see other tactics being adopted, but in

36:22

terms of physical confrontation of the

36:24

police, it doesn't get much more

36:26

intense than having a fireworks fight

36:28

with them, Like yeah, uh

36:32

yeah, I don't know,

36:35

is there Um.

36:38

I know that we've we've mentioned this before and

36:41

and goals kind of evolve

36:43

and change, But what

36:46

is it that people specifically

36:48

want from Portland's Is

36:50

this the dissolution of the

36:52

police department? Is it acknowledgement

36:55

of um certain officers there.

36:58

I'm just curious. Yeah, as

37:01

you know, morphs and changes too. But I

37:04

think of the folks I've talked to, most of them,

37:06

the minimum they wanted was like fifty million

37:08

taken out of the budget, and they got about half

37:10

that. UM. More common people want

37:12

the Portland Police Association dissolved.

37:14

They don't want you know, they do not want the police

37:17

in Portland to have a union. They want officers

37:19

who have been involved in questionable shootings

37:21

to be prosecuted. UM.

37:24

Pretty reasonable. Yeah. They

37:26

want an end too, and they've won actually an

37:28

into a number of the of the most

37:30

problematic units in the Portland Police

37:33

bureau. So like the Gang Task Force, which

37:35

is responsible for a lot of shootings has been dissolved.

37:38

Um. And the Transit Police

37:40

they're not getting funding, although the funding has

37:43

just been shifted to the Sheriff's Department for the Transit

37:45

police, who are responsible for a lot of fucking with the houseless

37:47

people. Uh. They are removing officers

37:49

from Portland's schools, which is a big win. UM.

37:53

So I think people want to see

37:55

more of that. There's more units they'd like to see dissolved.

37:57

They'd like to see stuff like, you know, don't just shift

38:00

the funding over to the Sheriff's Department for transit

38:02

police, cut it entirely. Um.

38:04

I think most people who are out every

38:06

night at the Justice Center want the Portland Police

38:08

completely dissolved and replaced with something new.

38:11

UM. That is probably the single most common view,

38:13

but at the very minimum, people want to see

38:16

the police much more defunded um,

38:18

and want to see them no longer sort of immune

38:20

to the consequences of their violence. Um.

38:24

Yeah. And there's also a general I think desire

38:26

for charges to be dropped, um,

38:28

and not just charges against protesters, but journalists

38:31

are getting charged. I was just chatting with core Elia

38:33

who um was assaulted by the Portland

38:35

Police early on in all this was like thrown

38:38

to the ground and maced in the face for filming

38:40

them um, and sued them as

38:42

a result, is brought them a civil suit and

38:44

a couple of weeks later, Uh,

38:46

he was at a protest outside of the one by

38:49

the Portland Police Association and he recognized

38:52

the officer who I believe the one who maced him,

38:54

and he stated the officer's name on

38:56

a live stream and he was arrested

38:59

very aggressively and is being charged

39:01

with two felony counts of assaulting a police

39:03

officer, which I can say conclusively

39:05

is a lie by the Portland Police. Bear. I'll testify

39:07

in court to that I watched his arrest, I filmed

39:09

it. Um. There was no evidence

39:11

of any kind of aggression from Corey. Now

39:14

police often have you know, like in d

39:16

C. If you struggle while handcuffed, you're

39:18

assaulting a police officer. So, um,

39:22

we'll see what actually is able to hold up

39:24

in court. Um. But the yield

39:27

they struggled, they struggled while

39:29

handcuffed violence. Um.

39:32

They clearly are are throwing these charges at

39:34

Corey both because you know he piste

39:36

off a specific officer, um, but

39:38

also because they want to chill the

39:41

free press in Portland. And if you

39:43

get even if their bogus charges,

39:45

getting felony charges against you completely

39:47

changes your life. While you are under them.

39:50

You are not innocent until proven guilty. You

39:52

suffer immediate consequences as a result

39:54

of having felony charges against you. UM.

39:58

So yeah, I mean

40:00

it had a chilling effect on me because I see,

40:02

I would see getting felony charges against

40:05

me is not all that far from a death

40:07

sentence because one of the things that will happen. I

40:09

have a number of death threats against me. I get them pretty

40:11

regularly. Um. I

40:13

carry a firearm and rely on a firearm

40:15

for self defense. If I were to be charged

40:18

with a felony Um, they would come and

40:20

take all of my firearms. And not only

40:22

that, but my name would become you know, they would

40:24

it would be a very public case. Um. The

40:27

Portland Police know where I live, and there are

40:29

cases of We just had an officer retire

40:31

with full pension who had been caught

40:33

in photographs with a shrine to Adolf Hitler.

40:36

Um. There's a long documented history of the Portland

40:38

Police collaborating with groups like the Proud

40:41

Boys and Patriot Prayer in this city. Like emails

40:43

between them, you can read all this. UM,

40:45

I have no I have no doubt that

40:47

my address would get out. UM.

40:50

So like that that has altered my coverage

40:52

and where I have gone and physically put

40:54

myself while trying to cover these protests.

40:57

And that was the goal. You know, their goal was to scare

40:59

Journey listened to not and they have had now a federal

41:01

injunction put against them that says they can't

41:04

arrest journalists or demand that we disperse.

41:06

So that's good. I'm less worried now as a result

41:08

of that. UM. And on the fourth I

41:10

felt generally pretty safe, but they did target a couple

41:13

of colleagues of mine and another journalist

41:15

live streamer got arrested. Because there's now this debate

41:17

between like what is a journalist? You

41:19

know, how many of these, like citizen

41:21

reporters UM really count

41:24

as journalist And obviously the police want to narrow

41:26

a definition of journalists as possible UM.

41:28

But mainstream like the big local

41:31

outlets and stuff, can't afford to have reporters

41:33

out in the street every nights. We're at forty nights now.

41:35

You know, even the local the local press

41:38

that's done the best job of covering this, like the oregon

41:40

Ian UM and will Emitt weekly or

41:42

is our Oregonian and the Mercury, which have both done

41:44

I think pretty good jobs, particularly

41:46

the Mercury, of covering this UM

41:48

in the streets like they're not they're not able to

41:51

send people out every night, and neither is like local

41:53

news TV stations because it's just too

41:56

there's too much. So if you're

41:58

a person who lives here and wants to

42:00

know what your police are doing, lets you know what's happening in the streets

42:02

of your city. You're very reliant on

42:04

these the citizen journalists UM,

42:07

some of whom have professional credential

42:10

like a professional history, and some of whom are

42:12

very new to this. You're very reliant on all of these people

42:14

to actually know what's happening. Um.

42:16

And I think there's a reason we don't

42:18

have a strict legal definition of what makes

42:20

a journalist as long as these people aren't participating

42:23

in the protests, um, which I

42:25

haven't seen any of them, do you. I I haven't seen them carrying a sign

42:27

or lighting things on fire. They're just filming.

42:29

And as long as they're doing that, I don't see any

42:31

reason not to consider them a journalist legally.

42:34

You know. Well, yeah, because journalism is

42:36

different now than it's ever been. Yeah, this

42:38

is how people get news and spread news.

42:41

Um. And that's just the reality

42:43

of it. Yeah, you are,

42:45

if you are going to show up at a protest as a journalist,

42:47

there are some behavioral things that I think are incumbent

42:50

upon you. Um, in order to to

42:52

be a professional at this sort of an

42:54

event. Um, You're you are not supposed

42:57

to be. You know. The only the only actions

42:59

I will tell outside of reporting at these events

43:01

is to render medical aid, which I think is a general

43:03

responsibility everybody has if they're able to.

43:06

Um. But you don't, you don't

43:08

take part in you know, you know,

43:11

none of the people shooting fireworks offward journalists.

43:13

People were just filming. Um. And

43:15

I think as long as people make

43:18

that, as long as the people out there

43:20

filming, these citizen journalists are

43:22

are being journalists, um,

43:25

they should be treated as such under the law.

43:28

Um. And it's it's very I think it's it's

43:30

something everyone needs to be concerned about

43:32

that we have both state and federal

43:35

law enforcement kind of peeking

43:37

and pushing it around the edges of the

43:39

legal protections journalists and joy to

43:42

try to scare them as much

43:44

as possible. That should really concern

43:46

everybody. Oh, it sounds really scary

43:49

to be there in the midst of all this. Yeah,

43:52

it's interesting. It's really interesting.

43:54

You know. It's it's a lot of PTSD

43:57

in the streets of Portland because all of the protesters

43:59

who have been out regularly have have accrued

44:02

a decent amount of trauma because it is traumatic

44:04

being subject to that kind of the

44:06

kind of fighting that's been happening in the streets.

44:08

It's it's traumatic to be subject

44:11

to that kind of police violence, to watch them throwing

44:13

people to the ground and beating them with sticks. To have

44:15

so many fucking flash

44:17

bangs explode next to your face, um,

44:20

to have all that tear gas and

44:22

abandoned a sustained way like this. Yeah,

44:25

it sucks you up and we're all like all the journalists

44:28

definitely, especially the ones who have been out the

44:30

most, are like dealing with um,

44:32

pretty significant trauma. A

44:35

lot of therapists are going to make a good living

44:37

off the Portland Press Corps after this. UM.

44:41

But I am you know, I'm really uh, I'm

44:44

really proud of the journalists in Portland

44:46

because a lot of people who I don't think ever had any

44:48

sort of ambition or plan to cover conflict

44:51

UM have really risen to the occasion in

44:53

a very difficult situation. UM.

44:55

You know, Corey Ellie as primary beat was like he

44:58

covered homelessness on like the streets

45:00

of Portland's UM. He's been, you know,

45:02

doing a lot of frontline work and and is

45:04

you know, currently taking a break because of the felony

45:07

charges against him and because the police stole all

45:09

of his equipment and aren't giving it back. But

45:11

he's done incredible work. You can find

45:13

him on Twitter at the real Corey Eliot.

45:16

Tuck Woodstock at t U c K. Woodstock

45:19

has also done you know, they've done some really incredible

45:22

reporting on the ground. They're there most

45:24

nights. Alex Olinsky

45:26

UM has done really great work for

45:29

the Mercury Garrison. This

45:32

we were one of you know, the on the one of the first

45:34

couple of nights, I was out there UM my colleague

45:36

and I meet this like this young man

45:39

UM who it was very clearly

45:41

very very new to UH

45:43

journalism period Um and you know, part

45:46

like it had been doing some UH

45:49

data journalism, but I think it was new to like

45:51

street work, and you know, it was just kind of out

45:53

because the protests and riots were starting in Portland,

45:55

and he kind of shadowed my partner

45:58

and I for a couple of nights, and

46:00

he's been out in the street

46:02

almost every night that this has been happening since he's

46:04

sucked down on an incredible amount

46:06

of tear gas and it's just like I've the more

46:08

I've learned about him, the more I impressed I am, because

46:11

he's he's like seventeen years old

46:13

and a parkour instructor and just

46:15

the most the the

46:18

squirreliest like it like wiliest

46:23

report, like street reporter I think I've ever witnessed

46:25

with my own eyes, just incredible at getting

46:27

in getting amazing shots and then running

46:30

like funk from the cops. When it becomes clear

46:32

that it's time to run like from the cops, park

46:34

skills to get away. He absolutely

46:36

does. You should see it. He's

46:39

awesome. He's so good flips

46:42

over their heads yes, yeah, I mean not

46:44

quite that, but like over fences

46:46

and ship. Yeah. You can find him at at Hungry

46:49

bow Tie on Twitter. Um,

46:51

and he does. He puts out some amazing videos.

46:53

Like again, the first couple of nights he was

46:55

kind of like hanging around us and he's

46:57

just been like clearly doesn't

47:00

have anything left to learn from

47:02

the likes of me. Um. I've wound up following

47:04

him a few times lately just because he's

47:06

he's gotten so good at this sort of ship. Um.

47:10

So yeah, Garrison's a great

47:12

follow Um. Yeah.

47:14

Sergio Almost, who has been assaulted

47:16

by the police and a couple of occasions, is

47:19

a great local reporter, one

47:21

of those like whenever folks are

47:23

out for the first time and asking

47:26

like where they should be at the proach,

47:28

go find Sergio. Um, you can find him

47:30

at Mr Almost. He's

47:33

yeah, just a just a wonderful

47:35

journalist. Yeah. So I mean, I'm

47:37

i'm, I'm, I'm leaving out some folks that I'm

47:39

going to be Oh yeah, and you can find my

47:42

own stringers, like the folks that I've

47:44

been working with and who have been doing some independent

47:46

reporting themselves at atty absurdist

47:49

on Twitter. Um. They put out

47:51

great videos, UM, and put out a really

47:53

interesting article that I want to talk about right now

47:56

about the President's recent

47:58

declaration about statues and ship

48:00

protecting American Monuments Executive Order

48:03

thirty three Protecting American

48:05

Monuments, Memorial Statues, and Combating Recent criminal

48:07

Violence. We'll have a link to the article

48:10

they wrote. UM. It's a medium

48:12

post, but they put together it's a very good breakdown

48:14

of what this executive order does.

48:17

But this is essentially Trump's

48:20

So clearly, this situation

48:22

on the streets nationwide has kind of gotten

48:24

away from the President, and this is his this

48:27

is his attempt to do something about it. UM.

48:29

And the gist of it is that he's

48:32

declaring all statues and

48:34

monuments in the country to basically be

48:36

federal property. UM.

48:39

Like regardless even if it's not a federal

48:43

no, even if it's not UM,

48:45

and it's a very illegal order. UM.

48:48

The statues don't even have to be government property.

48:50

UM. They're just statues any person

48:53

that counterpoint

48:55

law and order. Yeah,

48:59

yeah, that's really his argument. And like

49:01

it's it's it's interesting. There's a lot

49:03

that's fascinating because, like in the justification

49:06

for why this crackdown is necessary, he notes,

49:08

anarchists and left wing extremists have sought to advance

49:10

a fringe ideology that paints the United States of

49:12

America is fundamentally unjustined have sought to impose

49:14

that ideology and Americans through violence and mob

49:17

intimidations. Uh. And then he goes

49:19

on to list things that these anarchists

49:21

and left wing extremists have done as including

49:23

killed an assaulted government officers as well

49:25

as business owners defending their property. That

49:28

does not happened. Not a single, not

49:30

a single case of this has happened.

49:33

Uh. Now, some right wing extremists have absolutely

49:35

murdered some cops uh. And some right

49:38

wing extremists have driven into crowds, recently

49:40

killing a person in Seattle, UM.

49:42

But no left wing anarchists have murdered cops

49:45

or business owners during this UM.

49:48

But that's one of the justifications for like

49:50

why federal agencies

49:52

not. So it's not only that like federal

49:54

law enforcement and is going to like

49:57

go after anyone who sucks up any kind of

49:59

monument it um. But Trump

50:02

announces in this that if city

50:05

and state governments don't

50:08

protect public monuments, memorials, and

50:10

statues from destruction in vandalism,

50:13

um, the federal government

50:15

will withhold federal support

50:17

from state and local law enforcement agencies.

50:19

Um. So they're threatening state

50:21

and local governments with pulling

50:23

federal dollars away from law enforcement if

50:26

those governments don't protect not just

50:28

actual like monuments that are government

50:31

property of some sort, but just statues

50:33

in general. Yeah, so that's

50:35

some problem. I would say, I'm

50:38

not I'm not in love with this, But it's

50:40

also like I think the president kind of knows any

50:43

At this point, the court battle

50:46

over whether or not this is even legal um

50:49

won't be settled before the election,

50:51

and it might know and it doesn't matter. He

50:53

can just say something. He will just say it,

50:55

and it doesn't matter if there's truth to it or

50:58

if anything he's or if said

51:00

he says has merits. It's just something he

51:02

gets to say and people.

51:05

Yeah, maybe presidents shouldn't

51:07

be able to do executive orders.

51:10

Maybe maybe not. I believe

51:12

he railed against executive orders

51:14

when the president was Obama. I believe, I

51:17

believe. I know that for a fact. So

51:20

like when there's like a president, you

51:22

like what they do with their

51:25

powers good. When there's a president you don't like, it's

51:27

bad. Um, but presidents

51:29

are still good. Like that we have them. Is

51:32

that we're landing on, Like

51:34

maybe like maybe we should just not get rid of

51:36

like not have presidents. It seems

51:38

maybe, yeah, that I would be okay with that. Or

51:41

statues also, let's get rid of them too, yeah,

51:45

statues of anything. Ever, So

51:50

I don't know either. This

51:52

is this is where we are, This

51:54

is where I am, um, I and like there's

51:57

so much I want to say, and part of why

51:59

it's kind of hard for me to put this together. I'm trying

52:01

to put together an article on it and writing

52:04

is really I find that after one of

52:06

these nights when it's like a serious, when it's a when

52:08

it it goes out like this, because it will usually be

52:11

sometimes six seven straight hours of

52:13

violence, Um, it's

52:15

like a good forty eight to seventy two hours before

52:17

it's like actually I can actually write again.

52:21

I can put that too, um

52:23

and not just right about um,

52:26

not just right about police violence,

52:28

but like write about anything like it's

52:30

like it's it's it's physically

52:32

difficult to like focus my brain, which is part

52:34

of why I'm not out as often as because I have jobs

52:37

to do and they require me being able to write.

52:40

Um. Yeah,

52:43

yeah, I mean, yeah,

52:45

You've mentioned this a couple of times, but uh,

52:47

yeah, the toll on mental

52:49

health and physical well

52:51

being with this kind

52:54

of extended yeah, trauma,

52:56

Uh, it is very real. Uh.

52:59

And it makes sense that you have a hard time

53:01

sitting down to write and we're going anything. I mean, I think people

53:03

are experiencing that anyway right now. Uh.

53:06

And this is is amplifies

53:08

that. Yeah, and it's I

53:11

it's not normally it's

53:14

not normally a problem from

53:16

me. I've i've like

53:19

so for an idea of just like the severity

53:22

of this again, I've I've covered real fucking

53:24

worse and and this, um,

53:27

this is this is fucking me up. Um

53:30

And it's not as bad. Obviously no one has

53:32

died, so clearly it is not as bad.

53:35

But in terms of the actual the

53:37

physical shock to the system.

53:39

Um, you know, I'm interested in what's actually

53:42

happening to our brains from the sheer repeated

53:44

exposure to things like flash bangs at

53:46

very that are not meant to be fired into groups of

53:48

people at you know, at close

53:51

range. Because one thing they found from

53:53

my soldiers in Iraq and stuff just from like shooting

53:56

the heavier weaponry rockets and stuff. Um,

53:58

if you do that enough, it does have it.

54:00

It It causes some like

54:02

CTE like symptoms um

54:05

And obviously again nothing that we're being exposed

54:07

to is quite that powerful,

54:09

but there's also so much of it. I

54:12

wouldn't be surprised if there is. I

54:14

don't know what's happening to us basically, and like

54:16

that with all of these munitions. Even the smoke

54:18

that they like, the non tear gas smoke

54:20

is carcinogenic and you're breathing

54:22

clouds of it. Like there's so much ship that is

54:24

being pumped into crowds that we don't

54:27

have any data on the long term effects

54:29

of. I mean also the tear gas.

54:31

I don't know what

54:33

the studies are into it, but it's looking like

54:37

it's not great. You well, but tear gas

54:39

specifically on women and menstruation um

54:42

and and what it does to your

54:44

body uh and affects your menstruation

54:47

or if somebody happens to be with

54:49

child and all of that. Yeah.

54:53

Yeah, Um,

54:56

there's a I yeah, there's

54:58

a lot of research that still

55:00

needs to be done on how this ship is

55:03

affecting people. Um,

55:05

before you shoot it on people. Yeah, maybe

55:07

before you shoot it on people. I don't know. I'm a little

55:10

bit of a not firing

55:12

things into crowds of people that we don't

55:14

know how will affect those crowds of people.

55:16

Also, especially if like crowds

55:19

at their homes basically like this is their

55:21

neighborhood. Yeah. Just

55:23

you like you're talking about like you've been you've been war

55:25

zones and stuff like that. Um, that

55:27

was there's something to be said

55:29

about like the effect the psychological effects

55:32

something like that has on I'm going here

55:34

to cover this versus I'm going down

55:36

the street from my home to cover

55:38

this. Yeah.

55:41

Yeah. And it's like I'm

55:43

almost at a loss just because like it's

55:45

it's it's got you know. One of the things that's sucked

55:47

it up is that it's hard to talk about anything else.

55:50

It's hard to like maintain my relationships.

55:53

Um, it's hard to like be

55:55

a person. Um. And like

55:57

everyone I know who's covering this is kind of

55:59

deal with that same problem. And

56:01

like, I also feel kind of bad about focusing on

56:03

the journalist because this is obviously I have great

56:05

sympathy for the protesters, and they're all dealing

56:08

with in some ways an even worse version of this

56:10

because they don't have even the minimal protections the press

56:12

enjoy. UM. But it's just that's

56:14

the crew I know the best, right like part of you

56:16

know, partly for their own protection. I don't spend a

56:18

huge amount of time talking to individual

56:20

protesters at these events because I don't

56:22

know who the fox monitoring my ship and I don't want to

56:24

like expose people to stuff. But I

56:27

I talked to all the journalists a lot, so

56:29

you know, they're the ones that I have the most detailed conversations

56:32

about mental health with um,

56:34

and like we're all funked up at the moment

56:37

um. It's not great. Well,

56:40

we appreciate you and the work you're doing

56:43

and are concerned for you, but

56:46

no, you are doing

56:48

important stuff. But yeah, it's it's complicated.

56:52

Yeah m hm, well

56:56

um, yeah, is

56:58

that it for us today? I think that's

57:00

it for us today.

57:04

Thank you again, Robert for doing all of this.

57:06

Yeah, we're we're going to have

57:08

in the in the notes for this episode

57:11

will have links to all of the other Portland

57:13

journalists that I recommend following if you want to keep

57:15

up on this. And they also all have donation

57:17

cash apps and whatnot. You know, most

57:20

of them are working independently, uh and

57:22

and could use your money. Um

57:24

if you have extra two spare not

57:26

made but them will include all of their links.

57:29

Um. And also we will include a link

57:31

to that article that um my my stringers

57:33

wrote about Trump's executive order.

57:37

So yeah, okay, check

57:39

out all of those things you just mentioned. Also,

57:41

you can find us online at worst

57:44

your pod, on Instagram and Twitter and

57:47

you'll see us there to our

57:49

handles. We don't need to push that, but

57:53

you know, be cool,

57:55

guys, be cool.

57:58

If if you need to chill out and

58:00

relax a little bit, maybe google

58:02

a picture of Jay R. Bolsaaro clearly

58:05

dying. Um, it's

58:07

so good. He's just he is. You might need to put some

58:09

dates in there too, because

58:12

every man in the world, it's

58:14

unbelievable. He already

58:16

had coronavirus. Oh,

58:18

he's on his like third or fourth case of

58:20

the rhona so far, just like completely

58:23

depleted like it looks it looked like a

58:25

balloon that has been let out like it's

58:27

it's so unbelievable. Oh

58:30

man, Yeah, and enjoy

58:32

that. We'll

58:35

see you next weeks.

58:40

Everything Still

58:48

Worst Year Ever is a production of I heart Radio.

58:50

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