[pjw] VICTORY: Protest ordinance fails on 2-3 Council vote

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hey PJW and PCW supporters

This is an off-the-cuff report back and not for wide circulation.

That said-- we won!!!! Commissioner Nick Fish joined Chloe Eudaly and
Amanda Fritz in voting "no" on the Mayor's protest ordinance leading to
a 2-3 defeat. The Mayor (and Dan Saltzman, whose tenure at Council ends
on December 31) voted in favor. The Mayor's speech at the end was long
rambling rebuke of those who called his ordinance unconstitutional,
blaming the failure on the early media stories using that term and
saying those who repeat the claim did not read the proposed law. It was
almost Trumpian in its defiance. He also challenged those who opposed
the law to support hiring more police; the one saving grace is that he
said the Chief "chose to" take officers off patrol in North and East
Portland to suppress the last alt-right/Antifa protest rather than the
usual "had to." (This was a point we made in our follow up comments.)

Commissioner Fish said that he felt the law would tie up city resources
unnecessarily in a court challenge, which had been said would inevitably
come. (This was another point we made.)

Commissioner Fritz said she agrees we need to do something but should
have started with a community dialogue instead of pushing this draft law
with no community input. Thinking more about this, I would add something
we've told Council many times: In light of the fact that Chief Outlaw
asked for this ordinance, think about what a government is called when
the police make the laws. (That's right, a police state.)

Commissioner Eudaly stated that she received answers to most of her
questions from last week and will be posting them on line soon.
Reiterating her strong opposition to the law, she talked about pushing
back on the radical right. But she also clearly stated-- and this made
me about as pleased as hearing Fish's "no" vote-- that anarchism is
fundamentally about freedom and mutual aid, and is really based in
pacifism and non-hierarchical structures. That the image of
"bomb-throwing anarchists" should not be part of the public discussion.
Well said. I am hoping she posts her whole speech on line along with the
Q&A, it was tremendous.

This was a very short-term organizing effort-- it's been two weeks since
the Mayor's first full draft was posted-- but a successful one. Thanks
to the ACLU, NLG and OJRC, and to the many of you who wrote in to
Council and to us defending the right to freedoms of speech and
assembly. Now let's keep making the world safe for peace and justice.

--dan handelman
peace and justice works/portland copwatch

(sorry again for any duplication with  the Copwatch list; now that the 
vote has been taken this should be the last one for a while.)