Report Back on the March 15th demonstration in Oakland
Let us begin by expressing our solidarity to the 250+ who were arrested in Montréal during the 15 Mars Manifestation Contre la Brutalité Policiére.
At 9:00 PM, a small group of anarchists that numbered around two or three dozen took the streets, with black flags and banners that read “FIGHT B(A)CK” and “Anti-Capitalist Anti-Police.” We marched south on Broadway, chanting “Anticapitalista,” “No Justice No Peace Fuck the Police,” and “All Cops Are Bastards ACAB.” We made our way down to the OPD station at 7th & Broadway, where we confronted maybe ten riot police. The cops appeared to be on the defensive, so after a few minutes we made our way north on Franklin. “FTP” was written with impressively large font across a Chase bank, and some of it’s windows were broken. Multiple ATMs along Franklin were vandalized, Oakland Tribune had some of it’s windows shattered. Union Bank had it’s front door smashed, Some windows on the Bank of California were broken. But this is an incomplete list of actions we’re sure. As we passed the park at 19th & Telegraph, we decided it was a good time to disperse as many police cars were speeding around the area. There were no arrests as far as we know.
We would like to thank the comrades who showed up, the NLG for lending us a legal observer. Much love and solidarity to everyone who demonstrates against the system, today or any day.
Reportback from Portland March 15th Day of action against Police
Last night a group of about 75 people assembled and left Holladay park. Oddly we left a good 15 minutes before the march was supposed to start, making us wonder who might have showed after we left. Many of us wanted to take the street but were dogged in by the absurd amounts of police on bikes following us on the other side of the street, and the horse/riot cops just out sight. Marching downtown chanting: “Police are the army of rich”, “Portland, Cairo, Greece, Fuck the Police”, “Fuck These Cops we don’t need them, what we want is total freedom”. People from the bars and cars cheered in support, yelling “Fuck the Police” back at us. It was refreshing to see many faces I’ve never seen, and surprisingly many who I thought would be there, weren’t, but hell new is good. Many of the younger folks were thrilled and had never been to such an anti-capitalist/anti-police demo, saying how exciting it was. All and all it wasn’t as raucous as some would like, no attacks and little amount of street taking. But before trollers call us posers, we had incredible amount of support from people on the periphery, even inspiring younger people in our own ranks I hope will build on this momentum. Also there were an army of police. Hope to see more people and less police next time. Thank you Oakland for keeping it fierce, and thanks to the comrades arrested in mass in Montreal. Fuck the police. Fuck the Capitalist order they enforce.
(A)