'Tear Gas Ahead'

Does anybody at City Hall care about the Portland ICE protests?

Everyday is Independence Day for the unwanted persons who gather in the neighborhood around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Portland’s South Waterfront.

“I’m going to piss here. If you’re offended, you better leave,” a middle-aged man told me as he walked toward a nook in the side of an apartment building adjacent to ICE.

It was about 2 a.m. on July 5th.

Earlier on the 4th, the protest festivities included the usual chants, “Whose streets!? Our streets!”

And the usual insults. A protester on a bullhorn taunted ICE employees: “Hey, short stack! You couldn’t cut it as a Navy Seal!”

ICE occasionally returns the insults: “Waste of space. … Go home to your mother.”

A protester, scanning the lighted floors of the ICE building, yelled: “I see you, motherfucker! Do you go home and cry?”

It’s a uniquely Portland scene at Southwest Macadam Avenue and Southwest Bancroft Street. Each side is waiting for the other to do something. The protesters include Antifa, anarchists and communists, Trump haters and illegal immigrant sympathizers. They’ve been here 24/7 for roughly a month. They object to the presence of ICE in Portland, a sanctuary city.

There is always somebody out here. Sometimes it’s only a dozen or so. Other times — like the 4th of July — it swelled to more than 80.

“People sleep here at night. There is always a presence. There is leadership, and there is coordination,” one regular told me.

“Last night was a killer,” a middle-aged woman said. She pointed to the sidewalk.

“That’s where I slept.”

Her spot on the sidewalk was next to Gray’s Landing apartments, located diagonally across from ICE. It’s the first affordable housing development in the South Waterfront and is managed by the nonprofit REACH Community Development.

“Breathe easy. Smoking is not allowed in any REACH property,” says the website.

What about tear gas? When protesters outnumber ICE officers and there is criminal activity, tear gas is used to control the crowd and aid in making arrests.

A young man stationed on Moody Avenue held a sign, “Tear Gas Ahead” and warned drivers and pedestrians not to go any farther. The air was starting to clear from an earlier episode, but that could quickly change, he warned.

“Don’t go up there. Go this way,” he told three pedestrians.

A little while later, this was the scene near the affordable apartments, captured by Katie Daviscourt of The Post Millenial:

An hour later, things quieted down. A man ventured out of his apartment to smoke a cigarette and take a walk. What did he think of the situation?

“It stinks … both sides.”

He had his window open and was awakened by the noise of the crowd and smell of the tear gas.

His eyes stung.

“Why isn’t the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) down here?” he demanded.

What he’d like to see happen: “Use flame throwers.”

Posted on first-floor windows of Gray’s Landing on the side facing ICE are signs reading: “Please do not vandalize. We are a nonprofit. We are not associated with The ICE Building. We Believe Everyone Deserves A Place To Call Home.”

Among the daily garbage discarded next to the building: a large empty box of Heavenly Donuts.

Across the street were castoffs that looked like they could have been recycled from Occupy Ice in 2018 — including a couch that sat against the fence of The Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, next door to ICE. There was a table laden with odds and ends, everything from sandwich condiments to a helmet. A boom box offered musical selections running from generic hip-hop to Italian to Native American drum music.

On the fence of The Cottonwood School someone posted a copy of a memo: “The Cottonwood School of Civics and Science strongly condemns the deployment of chemical and projectile munitions in Portland. These chemicals impact the people … .”

After the earlier blow-up, the protesters took a break. They socialized and chatted. They even tried to police themselves. When a guy set off fireworks that shoot into the air and come down twirling, another protester with a bullhorn asked him not to do that.

The guy did it again with another firework.

“I asked you nicely, dipshit! Now the entire block thinks you’re an asshole!” He sent three guys to chase after the fellow with the fireworks.

This stretch of Bancroft Street is only about a half mile long from where it intersects with Macadam Avenue and ICE is. Unless there’s a disturbance, most Portlanders would drive by the nondescript building and not notice it. Next door on Macadam is a Tesla dealership. A flashing blue light from the dealer’s security post is visible from ICE. None of the protesters bother Tesla.

“Their armed guards threatened to put rounds in us,” a protester told me. “ ‘If you try (anything), we will fill you with lead.’ … There are cameras all over the place at Tesla… So no fucking around with the Teslas.”

In addition to ICE, and the Cottonwood School, this stretch of Bancroft includes South Waterfront Heated Storage and at the end, the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant.

It seems they, too, are expected to endure whatever occurs.

A typical Willamette Week headline from the 2018 Occupy ICE protests: “A month into protests over Trump immigration policies, noise is up and business is down” in a story on the Old Spaghetti Factory from seven years ago.

Would Portland’s alternative weekly have been so blithe if the restaurant were the city’s award-winning Kann, where “Haitian cuisine meets Pacific Northwest bounty” at $$$$ prices.

This time around, a month’s worth of daily ICE protests hasn’t generated much news on what’s happening in the South Portland neighborhood.

After midnight, the protesters seemed ready to relax. A guy on his cell phone was talking about his plans for tomorrow —“I think it’s going to be an editing-writing day.”

Cooking odors drifted in the air.

“Any vegans that want a vegan burger?” a man called out.

The protesters enjoy each other’s company, but don’t seem concerned with what the neighbors think. They know some residents resent them, but others support them.

A protester who wanted to be identified as “Fox, she/her” says the point of the protests is to waste munitions.

“We’re going to dig in and make it very expensive for ICE to keep this building open.”

She is moved to know that in her lifetime this is happening everywhere.

“People underestimated how bad it was (with) Biden and Kamala. She was deporting and putting people in cages before Trump was … People underestimate the complicity of the Democratic Party.”

Fox laughs at the suggestion protesters are being paid by George Soros.

“Where is it? Where is it? All of our donations come from community members. Soros probably doesn’t like us, either.”

She didn’t know that Soros’ son recently married a woman who used to work for Hillary Clinton, who regarded her as another daughter.

“Really?” says Fox. “Got to keep it in the family.”

She has a day job involving delivering food to the homeless and a bachelor’s degree in World History. She foresees the states balkanizing.

“Washington down to California wants to separate from Trump. The southern states will group together … .”

Is protesting fun?

“Can I answer honestly? Yes! I was built for this. You get an opportunity to make comrades… everyone is mad at the blues (cops). … I am a communist organizing with a bunch of anarchists. It’s chaos.”

Another young woman had a very different reason for being outside Portland ICE. Her father died when she was 8. He worked for a grower-shipper corporation in Hood River and helped immigrants who worked for the same corporation. He translated for them, helped them improve their living conditions and fill out citizenship papers. This is her way of honoring his memory.

But what would her father think of Antifa, the violent protesters who go from cause to cause — doing anything to disrupt and bring down America. Would he counsel her to find another way to help illegal immigrants?

Even The New York Times on Sunday ran an enterprise piece acknowledging that Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric on Venezuelan gangs in Colorado wasn’t just politics. There was also truth.

It’s unlikely these kinds of conversations happen among the protesters who hang out at Portland ICE.

Shortly after 2 a.m. someone announced, “Got ribs coming off the grill in 10 minutes.”

It almost sounded reminiscent of the 100-plus nights of downtown protests in 2020 when “Riot Ribs” was feeding protesters and bringing in six-figure donations and getting interviews with the local media.

But Portland ICE is a much smaller venue. It’s tucked away in a neighborhood that doesn’t draw much attention.

By 2:30 a.m. a few protesters were sacked out trying to sleep, then drum music came out of the boom box. An older man who looked to be Native American sat on the couch in front of The Cottonwood School and joked, “The natives are restless tonight…there is going to be an uprising.”

He laughed to himself, then walked across the street and told the others gathered next to the apartments, “There is going to be an uprising. … There may be an Indian uprising tonight…”

There have been times when ICE officers have come out at 3 a.m. There is also a shift change, although it varies, and that can lead to interactions.

According to Portland police logs, one of the most frequent calls for service received is “unwanted person,” and the city has a noise ordinance. It’s unlikely any call on an unwanted person or noise in this neighborhood will bring police as long ICE protests are ongoing— and that’s the way City Hall wants it.

The mayor, city council and the Portland Committee on Community-Engaged Policing don’t want the Portland police assisting ICE. How can police answer calls about the presence of unwanted persons and excessive noise related to ICE protests — without appearing to be siding with ICE and thus aiding them?

On Tuesday afternoon, several South Portland residents are expected to bring the issue to the City Council’s Community and Public Safety Committee. They are tired of the constant noise and commotion. Where are the police, they want to know.

Portland is a sanctuary city, but there is no sanctuary for them.