I think that absolutely belongs here. Oh and what an incredible image.
national guard has been called out in portland.
hard to say from twitter and the news exactly what happened. a few converging marches supporting black lives matter and fair elections maybe, a few broken windows on one or two buildings, and then the troops.
my friend in portland works downtown, this isn’t their tweet but it gives the idea
eta: pretty violent stuff against an obviously peaceful part of the crowd who are trying to move away from the police
The word epic gets bandied about, but that is truely epic!
And based on my very limited understanding of Xtian lobbying in Poland (largely driven by USian Xtians), it probably belongs in the photographic history these times.
protect and serve.
any idea if the person is going to try to pursue charges against them?
Don’t know, but I sure hope so.
The PPB and federal troops apparently decided to start lobbing hexachloroethane at protesters in July.
HC is a highly regulated toxin, labeled as a “likely carcinogen” and skin irritant by the Environmental Protection Agency. Eye masks and gloves are recommended for people who handle the chemical. Defense Technologies, an imprint of Pennsylvania-based security equipment manufacturer Safariland, markets the HC canisters as “military-style” smokers, even though the U.S. military actually stopped using HC in grenades in the 1990s due to its extreme toxicity.
Activists are more concerned about the chemicals that leave the canister than those packed inside it. Firing an HC grenade triggers a two-stage reaction in which the chlorine in HC rapidly combines with metallic zinc, resulting in zinc chloride, a toxic metal fume that appears as a greenish-white smoke. “It’s a chemical reaction in a can,” says Simonis. “The zinc chloride is an intentional product of the grenade’s design.” The Material Safety Data Sheet supplied by Safariland, however, doesn’t mention zinc chloride at all.
Gaseous zinc chloride, also known as hexite, is more than an alternative type of tear gas. Because it contains the super-hot gaseous forms of both chloride ions and zinc, a heavy metal, hexite plumes are highly mobile and extremely dangerous to most forms of life. The chloride ions increase the uptake of zinc particles by exposed cells on the skin or mucous membranes. Zinc can accumulate in tissues and organs, then mobilize later and cause a new set of symptoms. The most striking effects of zinc chloride toxicity in the street — vomiting, burning skin, coughing — are only the first onslaught of a chronic, unpredictable respiratory condition that can cause severe liver damage, fatigue, weight loss, and anorexia, in addition to difficulty breathing.
From hexachloroethane’s SDS:
From the ZnCl2 SDS (the gas that people are inhaling):
Every one in a position of authority that approved using this shit should face criminal charges. Not only did they poison people, there will be long lasting effects of runoff into waterways
speaking of portland, there’s apparently a pretty big protest going on right now over the eviction of a black family due to bank shenanigans
basically, the family’s owned the house for over 60 years, but took out a loan to help a family member. the bank transferred the loan, and then quietly foreclosed on them for non-payment.*
the police have tried to evict them and so people, at the request of the family, have set up shop. barricading the street.
portland’s mayor, the same one who headed up the disastrous police response for them this summer is back. telling the cops to do whatever’s necessary to get the activists out.
to me it seems like he’s more worried about the outward appearance of an “autonomous zone” than helping to figure out why the family’s being evicted, and what he can do about it.
(* i’ve visited there and that whole area seems to be gentrification central. lots of swanky businesses in the midst of a red-lined historically black neighborhood. i just can imagine the dollar signs in the bank’s eyes. )
[eta: a non-news link focusing on the family, Red House on Mississippi – Camping Fun Zone ]
More reasons to defund and take away the unnecessary equipment:
I felt like I made progress today. I talked a lifelong Republican into the idea that we do police a disservice by training them to bring a violent response to a violent emergency, when only 1/20th of their calls are for violent emergencies. That we should redistribute the budget for law enforcement into several sub specialties for mental health care and responding to mental crises; traffic enforcement; domestic violence response; animal control; criminal investigation; and finally law enforcement. And maybe we should put bounds on what the last group can do. And demilitarize them.
He agreed.
Then I showed him the Brookings Institute page for “Defund the Police” which is exactly the above. 
it’s looking like the developer ( a sole proprietor ) is willing to sell the house back to the family at cost, and that the family via gofundme has raised enough money to cover that.
there were also groups like the slavic community center (!) willing to fundraise to cover the costs. ( the developer has slavic roots i guess )
now, let’s hope the mayor doesn’t mess this up by sending in the cops to clear out the activists defending the home and the family
[ edit: im sure the family will need a bit more to cover their costs as the police broke things like the sinks and toilets during the eviction ]
Contrast with the response to the Malheur occupation…
All Cats Are Beautiful
