A Gathering Riot
Portland, Oregon
Pioneer Square is a place in downtown Portland. It’s a nice place, a sort of amphitheatre, surrounded by businesses that sit a level above it (Starbucks, and the like). One night (New Year’s Eve, 2000) there was a riot. Not a party, but an honest-to-God, full fledged, throw bottles and break windows while shouting profanities at the police kind of riot. It wasn’t an organized riot, and I’m not even really sure how it came about and I doubt that anyone is. This is my account of that riot.
I was in Portland with my best friend, Jarrodd. I was 19, and he was 21, and we had decided to go traveling for a while, poverty style. We were both living in Anchorage, AK at the time, and it was December, so it seemed like a good time to head south. We decided to make Portland our starting place, after much deliberation, and drawing the name from my hat. All this is to say that we were not locals, and we were just passing through when we ended up in the middle of this riot.
We didn’t really know what to do with our New Year’s evening, because I wasn’t old enough to get into a bar, and since we weren’t from Portland, we didn’t know of any house parties. So, we decided to buy some beer and go downtown, eventually joining a crowd of hundreds and settling into Pioneer Square. We were a little buzzed, and quite excited about spending New Year’s Eve somewhere other than downtown Anchorage, so we didn’t really understand what everyone became so upset about. I don’t think that the people who were upset really understood, either. We waited a while for the countdown to start, and then went and asked a police officer what time it was, and he told us that it was 12:15. We were surprised, and quite put out. 12:15? There hadn’t even been a countdown. Some party.
There was a huge Christmas tree that was still in place, at the edge of the square. It was surrounded by a slat-board type of fence, and there were people all around it. For whatever reason, some of them started to push the fence down. The few police officers who were in the area became agitated by this random destruction of public property, and headed over to end it. As they started to intervene, other people began throwing bottles onto the pavement, and shouting. So, being a good citizen of this planet, I held my bottle up high over my head, and threw it into the trash. After this, they started throwing the bottles toward the police, who by this point had called for backup, and yelling obscenities that were of the “Ice Cube” variety. This, of course, led to more police, which led to more bottles, more shouted curses, and people mooning the police officers. During all of this, the cops formed a riot line, with the mandatory plexi-glass shields and helmets. It was just like t.v.
As things escalated, and people started throwing chairs from the Starbuck’s balcony, I realized that I had to urinate, desperately. But there wasn’t any place to do so. There were no porta-potties set up (not that I would have used one during a riot), no businesses were open in the immediate vicinity, and things were much too exciting for me and Jarrodd to want to leave. So, I cast about desperately, looking for some place to relieve myself. At last, a large group of people tore down I fence that sort of blocked off a little alleyway that was formed by the surrounding businesses. Scurrying between all of them, I headed for a corner. Relief! I was a little embarrassed to be peeing in front of such a large crowd, but these were special circumstances, and my need was great. At least I had my back turned.
After this, the cops became more aggressive. I saw people getting maced, pummeled, and handcuffed. Some people were being handcuffed while on the ground, on top of broken glass, which was everywhere. The police, while in the riot line formation, started advancing on the crowd, shouting “Move! Move!”, which we did, of course. They were very convincing. At some point during all of this, a cop pointed a tube of mace at Jarrodd and me, while pointing out a certain direction for us to go. When we went the way the cop said, another cop pointed a shotgun at us, and told us to go back the way we had come. I tried to explain things, but he just screamed at us and raised the shotgun. So, we went back. Fortunately, the first cop had already moved on, so were safe for the moment.
The shouting, moving riot-line tactic of the Portland police was effective, but it just pushed the riot out of the square, and into the surrounding streets. At this point, people were smashing windows, and there was some looting. At first I thought moving the crowd out of the square was a bad idea, but it served to diffuse the crowd, spreading it around several blocks, and causing it to lose intensity. Jarrodd and I stayed and watched everything for another hour or so, but the riot was dying. It made me think of a thunderstorm, with its sudden fury, and the way it just kind of lost intensity, eventually drizzling out.
I never did understand what made it all happen. I suppose that it was the result of somebody throwing something, or tearing down that fence, but I don’t know why everyone else got involved. I can’t imagine that all those people were angry, at least to begin with, and the police certainly didn’t do anything to start it. In fact, I was pretty impressed with the way they handled the whole thing. They could have been a lot more aggressive than they were. I guess that’s part of why it reminded me of a storm. The people just seemed to get caught up in it, like they weren’t even in control, and there was just this fury and lashing out. But underneath it all, there was a sense of fun, too. Some people were passing around joints, and laughing as they smashed windows and threw chairs. Maybe it was just a big, spontaneous release of built up tension. Maybe it was all for fun, or maybe the riot was the party, and nobody bothered to tell us.
If anyone else was there and would care to explain what happened to the author, please contact him at blueoake at yahoo dot com.
