Alissa AzarCity and State officials have announced an influx of federal agents deployed to Portland. This is a summary and rant of the press conference they held about it this evening.
Portland and Oregon leaders held an emergency press conference tonight after an influx of federal agents and armored vehicles on city streets. According to Mayor Keith Wilson, “we now have a sudden influx of federal agents in our city. We did not ask them to come. They are here without a clear precedent or purpose. We have seen that their presence harms commerce, prosperity, and opportunity in places like Washington D.C.”
The bar was already pretty low, but that framing stung. In the face of federal kidnappings and assaults on our neighbors, the mayor’s first concern seemed to be the economy, not the safety of Portlanders. Did he even condemn the abduction of two community members last week? Instead, Wilson pivoted to pre-emptively condemning protests that haven’t even happened yet.
He told the press that the deployment of federal agents is “just a big show, and after a big show, we know what happens... everyone goes home.” But that’s not the reality. Not everyone gets to go home after these so-called “shows.” Some of our neighbors end up kidnapped and ripped away from their families forever. Some end the night in the hospital after being beaten with batons or shot with munitions. Some are dragged into unmarked vans and booked on trumped-up charges, spending nights, weeks, and years in jail. Others carry home trauma, broken bones, or chemical burns that don’t fade when the tear gas does. Families don’t get their loved ones back right away, and some never do. Calling this violence a “show” erases the people who are disappeared, brutalized, and terrorized, and it downplays the fact that federal repression leaves lasting scars long after the cameras shut off.
Senator Jeff Merkley echoed Wilson’s call for restraint, calling the event “the ‘don’t take the bait’ press conference." A phrase repeated by multiple officials tonight. Merkley admitted he doesn’t know how many agents are coming or what agency they represent. “Are they Federal Protective Service? Has [Trump] organized National Guard to come from other states? Is it FBI, ICE, Homeland Security? And what is their plan? Where is their coordination with the city of Portland?”
Merkley continued: “Here’s what I do know. The president has sent agents here to create chaos and riots in Portland. To induce a reaction, to induce protests, to induce conflict. His goal is to make Portland look like what he’s been describing it as.”
The thing is, some of that same rhetoric we heard repeatedly tonight might very well be true. Trump probably does want a response and more propaganda to feed his loyalists. Manufactured crisis is his playbook. People resist fascism, he points to that resistance as proof of "lawlessness" to manufacture consent... etc. But even if that’s the case, our leaders are missing the bigger point: escalation by the feds was and is inevitable. They don’t actually need protests to justify their repression; they invent pretexts out of thin air. They always find a way to rationalize authoritarianism. Merkley himself admitted he recently drove past the ICE facility and saw three women peacefully protesting, and that the Trump administration’s portrayal of Portland is fabricated. Yet the dominant message from the podium was still a pre-condemnation of protesters, as if tip-toeing could prevent an escalation that’s already underway.
Merkley also called physical violence against peaceful protesters a “red line” and said he was shocked by an Oregonian article documenting agents roughing up peaceful demonstrators at ICE. But acknowledging the violence 100 days late is not the same as doing something about it.
Congresswoman Maxine Dexter declared that Portland is “unwavering in our commitment to protect our neighbors.” But how? What steps are being taken to keep people safe? She warned against letting Trump divide us, yet condemning protests in response to federal deployments does exactly that- painting activists as the villains.
As officials spoke, community members interrupted to remind them of reality: “They’re gonna escalate anyway. The protests have been peaceful. They tackled a pregnant woman and caused a miscarriage. They’ve caused three miscarriages in the apartment building next door to the ICE facility from their poisonous gases, and the city stands by and does nothing. A $1,000/month fine to a kidnapping organization more funded than the Marines? That’s not even peanuts. You pat yourself on the back and feel like you’re being so big and strong by standing by and doing nothing. Instead of helping you just watch them take our neighbors.”
Officials repeatedly emphasized that Portland is under “new leadership” since the last federal crackdown... a new mayor, a new police chief. The implication: local law enforcement is now charging crimes at protests, so the feds shouldn’t come. But this script feels eerily familiar to 2020, when protesters also faced off with federal agents downtown. The narrative they’re pushing is “local law enforcement = good, feds = bad,” and it's a narrative they have been working on painting for a few months now by attempting to publicly distance themselves from federal officers. The entire thing is so transparent. Suddenly we have local police officials and politicians making statements about how federal officers have been instigating some of these clashes. Where were these statements when PPB was the one instigating violence? And again, why are you preemptively condemning protests that have yet to happen more than you are condemning fascism and violence that is *already* happening every single day?
In addition to Mayor Wilson’s comments about economic harm, the chair of the Portland Metro Chamber said, “Basically, this is bad for business,” urging residents fight back by spending more at small businesses. While our community faces kidnappings, gassing, beatings, and arrests, the official line seems to be: just shop more diva.
During the Q&A, reporters asked how officials even knew about the deployment given the federal government’s silence. Mayor Wilson approached the podium to answer, saying that over this past week, the rhetoric from the White House has been clear as they single out Portland more and more. He said, "we have been hearing rumors about a deployment, and today those rumors became a reality... we have armored vehicles on the streets in Portland and reported agents throughout our community.
As he stepped away from the podium, a community member confronted the officials: “I was a nonviolent peaceful protester standing across the street from the ICE facility and got my head bashed in by feds. What are you gonna do about it? All of you showed up here as a show of force but what are you gonna do? When are you gonna step up?” Another voice added, “I’ve been emailing you for months!”
As the crowd grew louder, officials abruptly ended the Q&A. Reporters turned their cameras to the people speaking out. One person shouted:
“I’m sick and tired of watching the people in my community get brutalized because they’re immigrants or because they dared to speak up. I’m tired of your lip service. Show up and do something.”
When a reporter asked how they felt about the city council’s call for peaceful protest, they responded:
“We have been peaceful! We have always been peaceful. The only times things escalate is after we’ve been tear-gassed, after we’ve been pepper-balled, after we’ve been repeatedly hit with munitions against their own codes. We have remained peaceful the entire time. The feds are the goons. They’re the ones attacking people in the streets — indiscriminately attacking people just on their way home.”
Tonight’s press conference, billed as a show of unity, ended up revealing the gap between Portland officials’ rhetoric and residents’ lived reality. While leaders warned people not to “take the bait,” community members demanded action, not empty words. The feds are already here. People are already being harmed.
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