Listen to Episode

Read Episode Transcript

Hey, Robert here. It's been like two months since I had LASIK and I'm still seeing 2020. All I had to do was go in for a consultation, then go in for a maybe 10 minute procedure and then my eyes have been great ever since. You know, I healed up wonderfully. It was very simple, couldn't have been a better experience. So if you want to explore LASIK plus I can't recommend it enough. They have over 20 years experience in the industry and they performed more than two million treatments right now if you want to try getting LASIK plus you can get $1000 off of your surgery when you're treated in September, that's $500. Of per eye, just visitmylasikoffer.com to schedule your free consultation. Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried true crime. And if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams. Let's breaker handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Hey there, it's Ebony Monet, your co-host for the San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we're speaking with Doctor Jane Goodall about the fascinating journey that led to her impactful behavioral discoveries on chimpanzees. It wasn't until one of the chimpanzees began to lose his fear of me, but I began to really make discoveries that actually shook the scientific world. Listen to amazing wildlife on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. The NFL is back and the NFL app has you covered, so get ready for football all season long and just tap into the NFL app. NFL maybe just make it happen. Just tap in to watch your local and primetime games all season now through Super Bowl 56. Get up-to-the-minute news videos, highlight stats and more on all your favorite teams and rookies to watch the NFL download to your mobile device today at nfl.com/mobile or in your App Store. Certain restrictions and data rates may apply. You can watch the NFL playoffs like a fan or you can prep like a scout if you listen to the award-winning move The Sticks podcast. The shows hosted by me, Daniel Jeremiah and my partner Bucky Brooks. The two of us are bringing the knowledge from a career as NFL Talent scouts to the podcast world. So fans can watch and understand the nuances of the game like never before, we'll breakdown film from the professional and college game to get you ready for the Super Bowl, the draft, and kickoff next fall. Subscribe now and listen to the move The Sticks podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Executive producer Paris Hilton brings back the hit podcast how men think, and that's good news for anyone that is confused by men, which is basically everyone. It's real talk. Straight from the source, the how Men Think podcast is exactly what we need to figure them out. It's going to be fun and informative and probably a bit scary at times because we're literally going inside the minds of men. Listen to how men think on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Portland Police Bureau. This has been. All persons must immediately leave the area. At around 10:30 PM on May 29th, 2020, a crowd of more than 1000 people gathered in North Portland's Peninsula Park and marched downtown to the Justice Center, headquarters of the Portland Police Bureau. The direct inspirations for the March were the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor. Many in attendance also had a strong desire to express solidarity with protesters in Minneapolis. That's what brought Chris Wise, a volunteer protest medic, out into the streets that first night. Initially, I came out. Because as an African American, you know. It was the that straw that broke the camel's back on just like one death too many we are. Murdered by police and other law enforcement agencies at a rate of three to one when compared to the average white American. And those numbers get a little funky because, you know, obviously more white people die a year than black people in police related shootings, but they're also, you know, six times as many white people. Then black people, Tristan and other black portlander didn't go out that night, but he watched everything that happened on the live streams. Honestly, like my my first. Impression was that it probably wasn't going to be much, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't expect it to blow up the way it did. I kind of felt like. Because I've I've seen it happen in the past where. You know, there will be some kind of like. Something happening like nationwide or another city and Portland will kind of like. You know, show up in solidarity for it and it might become something, but usually it's kind of like a one off. So that's kind of that's expecting. And so I was pretty surprised to see. Like how quickly it grew and then also house like how the police were responding like. And like a very. Tear gas kind of way. Mariah is a photojournalist and a lifestyle photographer. She was out at Peninsula Park for the very start of the March. Was the beginning to, you know, something that not a lot of us knew we were going to get into, you know? But, gosh, I remember being at Peninsula Park and it was really great to see everyone there and, like, it just reminds me of some hate that it's like a routine thing for us because it's, you know, why we're still fighting and why we've been fighting so strong, but, you know, when someone gets killed. As you know, via police brutality, everyone meets up. You know, maybe we protest for a few days and like, you know, quote UN quote, we go back to, like, normal life. But, you know, we already haven't been in normal life since. It's been a pandemic this whole freaking year, but it was really beautiful to see all the people and all the signs and the speeches. The sidewalks bordering Peninsula Park were filled with different slogans and exhortations written in chalk. One of the most striking statements was make the moment count. As it turned out, the city of Portland took that to heart. The crowd at Peninsula Park marched nearly five miles to downtown Portland. There, they merged with a crowd that had gathered around the Justice Centre. The moment both groups met was powerful. You could taste the energy in the air. Portland's 2020 Black Lives Matter protests had actually started several days earlier. Before that mass gathering on the 29th, a handful of activists of color had begun occupying the steps of the Justice Center immediately after George Floyd's murder. One of them was Tracy Molina, an indigenous portlander better known as Cosca. I remember not long after the George Floyd story. Broke. A lot of us wanted to do something here, but I think most of the regular organizers kept saying wait, you know, let's wait, let's wait for this, let's wait for that, and then finally. Danielle James, you. I think she's a pretty prominent black activist in this community and stood up against Patriot prayer and proud boys and other white supremacists for years was kind of the the spark for that, you know, she said like we shouldn't wait in the night, supporter. I said I don't think we should wait either. I think we should do something now. And so we ended up on the 27th at 10:30 all meeting at I. And starting the protest there. And then we moved. Sometime after midnight, we moved over to the Justice Center and slept on the steps there and planned to to occupy it as long as we could. And so we stayed there. And then. There was only maybe like four of us that slept on the steps and then the next day, like at ICE, we had about 30 to 40 people. And then the next day after we stayed on those steps, I would say there was about 40 or 50 people that showed up in the afternoon and they did a direct action or blocked off the streets and in front of the steps of the Justice Center. And I think they did it also. Did it die? And that night there was also impromptu direct action or some people from young women sat on, sat in the doorway of the Justice Center and they brought riot police out for that. And there was, at the time there was only about 20 of us and only like 6 people participating in the SIT in, but they still brought riot police out and they were violently removed. That made the news because one of the women, one of the women that was hit with a baton with two, was actually pregnant, a black woman and. The only way you somebody know that for sure is because after she was in the ambulance she came. I don't know if she went to the hospital, but after she was in the ambulance she returned paperwork from the ambulance. Proving that she was pregnant and was, you know, showing that some of the police officers that were still standing around. But yeah, that's how the first few days went. And then. And then we we all. We're going to have a rally at Peninsula Park and then. I agreed to part of the opening and when I was there, more and more people kept coming and I was surprised that there were so many, I don't know, maybe 1000 people that I know. There was a lot. There was a lot of people there was surprised, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. The now merged crowd, which numbered at least a couple of 1000 people, marched back to the Justice Center. For a few minutes they stood outside chanting George Floyd's name. The police were nowhere to be seen. While most of the crowd stood out in the street, 100 or so people gathered in front of the windows of the Justice Center. They started spray painting slogans on the glass. A few people peed on the doorway, someone lit a small fire out in front. And then quite suddenly. One person broke a window. The first broken window set off a frenzy, and soon people were using their feet, rocks and any tools they could find to shatter every exposed piece of glass on the building. With the window shattered, protesters ran into the Justice Center, ransacking police offices and setting small fires. The Portland police arrived a little bit later and began showering the crowd with tear gas and flash bang grenades. Though no one knew it at the time, events had just been set into motion that would lead to more than 100 consecutive nights of protests and tear gas. The Portland Uprising had begun. We should probably start by talking a bit about the definition of a riot. Legally, anything the cops declare a riot is a riot. May 29th is generally referred to as riot night because after the crowd was dispersed from the Justice Center, hundreds of people ran through the streets of Portland's luxury shopping district, smashing up high end chain stores while the police chased after them. It certainly felt like a riot. But a number of the folks that we interviewed actually disagreed. Alan Kessler, a Portland based lawyer, pushed back on that description. I guess I disagree. That. Even the first night was a real riot. I mean, there were some shops got burgled, there were there were some things stolen. There was a fire in the in the IJ C. I'm not sure that that. I don't. I don't know the intent there, right? Like, look, looking at the fire, looking at the Philly fire as I've seen. I don't know if anybody means to burn the buildings down or to. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It didn't seem like it. It doesn't seem it. If I were going to burn down a building, I would use a hell of a lot more accelerant than it seems like people are using. I don't know. Uh, I was struck by even on even on that night I was struck by. Excuse me? Ohh yeah, yeah yeah. Have to click that user a lot more accelerative context. Yeah, please don't. I would, Kessler says. Yeah. I'm trusting you. All the freedoms in your hands. We're piping this straight to Andy. So I'm now. Even that night I was struck by Commissioner Fritz, who I have absolutely no love for. Who seemed just horrified that that Gucci got robbed? And. And didn't seem able to to put that in any kind of context. And yeah, I don't, I don't, I didn't. I didn't see that as a riot. I didn't think that people. Wanted to just break ****. I think even then it was it was still. Is political. It was, it was a protest and it, you know, I I wouldn't recommend that people break stuff or steal stuff or stuff on fire, but I understood the upset and I, yeah, I I just didn't see it in those terms. It didn't seem like I don't remember that anybody died. I'm sure somebody was hurt, but I don't remember that it was particularly severe that evening. Like, I don't. I don't remember that as a as a violent night. I remember it as a night of property damage. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't making a legal distinction. There was more of a moral argument. Like I think people put a moral import behind riot and it. I don't think it was that. I don't think it was. I don't think it was a breakdown in civilization. I think it was a. Extremely heartfelt frustration with the system that wasn't. Meeting people's needs. Max Smith, a Portland based activist and live streamer, called it a riot light. I called like a riot light that night. I think I was like, that seems like a little kind of a riot light. They broke a couple of windows, you know, they they sacked the Apple Store. Of course, you know, some opera as soon as is going to, you know, take that opportunity. If something is, if things are getting broken, someone going to rob the Apple Store, it's it's it's dumb because you're going to get caught. But go ahead and rub the Apple store. But, you know, that's kind of why I thought of it, like some stuff going to get broken. That's what happened. And I actually thought the police, you know, I thought that and actually thought there was going to be some change, which we saw a couple of things like they started talking about, you know, cancelling the the DVRT and the cops in schools and things like that. And and since then it's it's it's been fairly tame and we haven't seen a whole lot of progress, so. You know. I felt like it worked a little bit. The point Mac made is one that a lot of activists would agree with. Property damage they argue is not nearly in the same moral realm as injuring or killing human beings make himself was not out on the 29th, but he was most directly inspired to start protesting because of something else that happened that day. Hundreds of miles South of Portland in San Jose, CA. There was a guy named Derek Sanderlin in San Jose, and he was a protesting A4. You know, he was protesting against the murder of George Floyd. In in solidarity with Minneapolis and I remember waking up and getting on my phone and kind of just flicking through a things and. Seeing that this man had been shot in the testicles with a rubber bullet. And it like required. Like emergency, Mint Mobile offers premium wireless starting at just 15 bucks a month. And now for the plot twist. Nope, there isn't one. Mint Mobile just has premium wireless from 15 bucks a month. There's no trapping you into a two year contract. You're opening the bill to find all these nuts fees. There's no luring you in with free subscriptions or streaming services that you'll forget to cancel and then be charged full price for. None of that. For anyone who hates their phone Bill, Mint Mobile offers premium wireless for just $15.00 a month, Mint mobile will give you the best rate. Whether you're buying one or for a family, and it meant family start at 2 lines. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, plus high speed data delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone with any mint mobile plan and keep your same phone number along with all your existing contacts. Just switch to Mint mobile and get premium wireless service starting at 15 bucks a month. Get premium wireless service from just $15.00 a month and no one expected plot twists at mintmobile.com/behind. That's mintmobile.com/behind. Seriously, you'll make your wallet very happy at Mint Mobile Cocom slash behind. Now, a word from our sponsor better help. If you're having trouble stuck in your own head, focusing on problems dealing with depression, or just you know can't seem to get yourself out of a rut, you may want to try therapy, and better help makes it very easy to get therapy that works with your lifestyle and your schedule. A therapist can help you become a better problem solver, which can make it easier to accomplish your goals no matter how big or small they happen to be. So if you're thinking of giving therapy a try, better help is a great option. It's convenient, accessible, affordable, and it is entirely online. You can get matched with a therapist after filling out a brief survey, and if the therapist that you get matched with doesn't wind up working out, you can switch therapists at any time. When you want to be a better problem solver, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com behind today to get 10% off your first month. That's better helpp.com. Slash behind betterhelp.com/behind. Hey, it's Rick Schwartz, one of your hosts for San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we sit down with Doctor Jane Goodall to hear her inspiring thoughts on how we can create a better future for humans, animals and the environment. Anything, particularly young children out into nature so that they can experience it and take time off from this virtual world of being always on your cell phones and so on. And get the feel of nature so that you come to be fascinated, then you come to want to understand it, and then you come to love it, and at that point you want to protect it. And then we'll come to the sort of healthy world that I envision as a good future for us. And the rest of life on this planet. Listen to amazing wildlife on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. The surgery. And, like, he's probably never gonna have kids. And I'm looking at this dude and he's like a 27 years old. He's like a black dude. He's got dreads, he wears glasses. He's got a scrappy *** beard like mine, you know? And I'm looking at this guy like, man, that could have been me. And then I keep reading and he was like, he was like a teacher. He taught the police about like. Not targeting people or whatever. Like, you know, deescalation tactics or whatever. And I'm like, you're telling me they shot a dude that that trains them. Like, this has got to be one of the craziest things I've ever heard in my life. And he could have died from this, you know, and that just made me so mad. And I was like, it's even if it wasn't, you know, it wasn't me. It could have been me if I would have been out there. And that's insane. Like, this should not be a thing at all. This shouldn't this just this, this can't be real. Many protesters and some journalists will argue that most of the riots Portland saw this summer were not cases of protesters rioting. We're instead cop riots. After all, if people breaking windows and looting an Apple Store is a riot, then police driving into crowds throwing grenades at random and tear gassing hundreds of innocent motorists probably counts as a riot too, right? Spiro, this has been declared a riot. We crook it. When PT Barnum's Great American Museum burned to the ground in 1865, what rose from its ashes would change the world. Welcome to grim and mild presents an ongoing journey into the strange, the unusual, and the fascinating. For our inaugural season, we'll be giving you a backstage tour of the Always complex and often misunderstood cultural artifact that is the American sideshow. So come along. As we visit the shadowy corners of the stage and learn about the people who are at the center of it all, in a place where spectacle was king, we will soon discover there's always more to the story than meets the eye. So step right up and get in line. Listen to grim and male presents now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more over at grim and mild.com/presents. What's up guys? I'm Rashad Bilal and I am Troy Millings and we are the host of the earn your Leisure podcast where we breakdown business models and examine the latest trends in finance. We hold court and have exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in business, sport and entertainment from DJ Khaled to Mark Cuban, Rick Ross and Shaquille O'Neal. I mean, our alumni list is expansive. Listen in as our guest reveal their business models, hardships and triumphs in their respective fields. The knowledge is in death and the questions are always delivered. From your standpoint, we want to know what you want to know. We talked to the legends of business. What's an entertainment about how they got their start and most importantly how they make their money earning. Alicia is a college business class mixed with pop culture. Want to learn about the real estate game? Unclear is how the stock market works. We got you interested in starting a trucking company or a vending machine business? Not really sure about how taxes or credit work? We got it all covered. The earning Leisure podcast is available now. Listen to earn your leisure on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Roxanne gay, host of the Roxanne gay agenda, the Bad Feminist podcast of Your Dreams. Now, what is the Roxanne gay agenda, you might ask? Well, it's a podcast where I'm going to speak my mind about what's on my mind, and that could be anything. Every week I will be in conversation with an interesting person who has something to say. We're going to talk about feminism, race, writing in books and arts, food, pop culture, and, yes, politics. I started show with a recommendation. Really, I'm just going to share with you a movie or a book or maybe some music or a comedy set. Something that I really want you to be aware of and maybe engage with as well. Listen to the Luminary original podcast, the Roxanne gay agenda, the Bad Feminist podcast of Your Dreams, Every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May 29th was not the first night of Portland's BLM protests, but it was the night that set the tone for the next 100 plus nights. There was tear gas, flashbangs, armored cops fighting demonstrators who were armed with in the beginning, cardboard signs and water bottles. Now we're going to cover a lot of ground in this series, and it's probably best to kick this off by giving everyone an overview of what exactly. Happened in Portland from late May to the end of September because the mainstream media only really showed a portion of this story. Late on the night of the 29th, the people of Portland learned that their mayor, Ted Wheeler, had actually been out of town visiting his mother. His first response to what had happened was a tweet that started with the word enough in all caps and ended with a promise that he was coming back now, now was also in all caps. City Commissioner Joanne Hardesty, who was acting president in the mayor's absence, declared a state of emergency. And enacted a curfew from 8:00 PM until 6:00 AM at this point, Portland was in the same boat as many other American cities, including New York and Los Angeles. In Portland, the curfew was not enough to clamp down on unrest. Quite the opposite, in fact. Local activists like DSA member Olivia Copy Smith were inspired. I just thought that it was. It was not like anything I'd ever seen before. I've never seen that level of. Destruction happened at a protest before it was. Exciting. I was like, we're gonna start. This is huge. This is going to take off all across the country. It's happening in Portland. It's happening in Minneapolis. Like, this is the start of a revolution. You know, and even knowing that that might not be true, that that's the feeling that I had that night, several 1000 people gathered again on the 30th and on the 31st, nearly 10,000 Portlanders marched to the Justice Center. We actually sort of organized the protest behind the scenes. And got like 10,000 people across the bridge, which was awesome. And yeah, it was just it felt like. But the sky was the limit at that point. Like, I can't believe there are 10,000 people showing up every single night like this has never happened before. We have to turn this into something both times. Police eventually dispersed the crowd with indiscriminate tear gas use and liberal clubbing with truncheons. Thousands of protesters were gassed, but so were hundreds of motorists who happened to be out on city streets, and dozens of houseless individuals who were gassed in their tents for no apparent reason. The curfew was rescinded in early June. It clearly hadn't helped. Next, the city began to build what would become a massive fence around the Justice Center. The protest movement started to splinter between a large group of demonstrators who engaged in daily marches that avoided police contact and a smaller group who repeatedly confronted police at the fence. At first, Portland police would gas and grenade any group of people that drew close to the fence, along with any motorists who happened to be driving nearby. Protesters started calling it the sacred fence because law enforcement seemed to value it more than the physical well-being of Portlanders. The first fence war between protesters and police lasted most of June. There were occasional protests at other police buildings, like the PA headquarters of the Portland Police Union and the North Precinct. Smaller groups of activists also engaged in what was briefly a nationwide practice of pulling down statues of famous white supremacists. On June 18th a small number of mostly teenage Portlanders toppled a statue of George Washington. This prompted President Trump to create an executive order to protect statues, monuments and federal property. He sent dozens of federal agents to Portland to enforce this new order. The first time the feds made a large appearance was on July 4th. That night was a turning point for a number of reasons. After weeks of declining numbers, more than 1000 Portlanders showed up outside the Justice Center to shoot commercial grade fireworks at its windows. They fired a few at the adjacent federal courthouse as well. The police lrad, a car mounted loudspeaker, started warning everyone not to shoot the courthouse. So of course, the entire crowd swarmed around the building and continued shooting it with fireworks. Suddenly, wooden hatches opened up on the front of the fortress like building, and the federal agents and side began tossing out tear gas grenades and shooting impact munitions into the crowd. For a few minutes, the scene resembled a cross between an acid trip and a medieval siege, with protesters bombarding the courthouse with fireworks while the feds inside pumped out gas and riot munitions. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Good night, everybody. Eventually the fight spilled out into the street, and for several hours Portland police and Department of Homeland Security agents engaged in a running battle with hundreds of protesters. Fireworks provided the activists with their first weapon that could disrupt a police riot line, while law enforcement responded by escalating physical violence even further. I was walking up from the JC up towards the park blocks, and there was a person who was essentially having an asthma attack and a cloud of tear gas, and they had one buddy. With them. And it was just such an impossible project for that one buddy to sort of haul them out of tear gas while they're having an asthma attack and like a panic attack and really having a rough time. Everything got more serious after the fourth federal agents started responding to protests downtown more often than the Portland Police Bureau. A week later, federal agents almost killed a protester named Donovan Labella by shooting him in the forehead with a less lethal round. Slowly, the mainstream media began to realize that something strange and terrifying. What's happening in Portland? The national interest was finally peaked a few days later when camo clad feds in a rental van started kidnapping people off the streets. In early July, the 4th accepted most nightly protests only numbered a few dozen to 100 or so protesters. But national media and the spectre of federal ****** fans panicked Portland's liberal majority. By mid late July, thousands upon thousands of protesters were showing up in the street every night. The time between July 18th to the 30th, dubbed the Fed War, is the stuff most Americans saw from Portland in the news moms and dads, veterans, doctors, chefs and students gathering in front of the federal courthouse. Painting demands, banging on doors, setting fires, ripping off plywood covering the windows, and repeatedly tearing down that massive fence. Whenever the federal agents came out, a shield wall of protesters would form, deflecting metal tear gas canisters and flash bangs up into the air. People armed with leaf blowers directed gas back at the feds. In response, the feds started using experimental new weapons, including a pesticide sprayer Jerry rigged to spew poison gas, seeing the police attack people, especially the feds. When the feds. Came when they came, started attacking people like, like in the smoke. After I got like a gas mask and started going into the smoke, you know, and seeing what was going on in there. I was pretty, I was pretty disturbed by seeing the way that they were like beating people under the. With the cover of tear gas, that was. That was a surprise for me. I'd heard people saying, like, my *** kicked in there, but I didn't know it was going down like that. As July came and went, so did the visible federal presence downtown. Most of the more liberal types packed it up, calling the protests a success. But while the days of walls of camouflaged feds had temporarily ended despite reports of their withdrawal, federal presence in Portland lingered on for weeks. Dedicated activists were not fooled by the foe withdrawal. They knew the work was far from over. Throughout August, protesters gathered in front of police precincts. City buildings in Portland's ice facility. Sometimes they engaged in property damage, but more often they just stood in the street yelling at the cops until they were inevitably charged by riot lines. It was in August that Portland first saw right wing counter protests, generally framed as back the blue or MAGA gatherings. Sometimes these escalated into St brawls between proud boys and left wing activists. On several occasions, proud boys and other right wing vigilantes threw homemade explosives and shot paintball guns into crowds. Live rounds. Or even firing into the air and into crowds. The escalation continued until a Trump caravan of vehicles waving flags drove through Portland in late August. Several Trump supporters fired paintball guns and Mace into the crowds as they drove by. The whole awful day ended with a member of the right wing St Gang Patriot Prayer being shot and killed by a white BLM activist after charging him with a can of Mace. Throughout all this, Portland's BLM marches occurred every single night, right up until late September, when a series of devastating. Wildfires overwhelmed Oregon and blanketed the city of Portland in a thick haze of poison. The nightly marches were halted, and the various mutual aid organizations that had started up to service the protests turned their efforts to meeting the needs of evacuees. Meanwhile, right wing activists blamed the fires on Antifa and spent several days setting up a legal arm, checkpoints, and threatening people with rifles. When the rains came and the air cleared, the protests started up again. There were no longer nightly affairs, but they've remained regular occurrences ever since. And all of this begs the question. Why Portland? All 50US states hosted Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020. Many cities saw mass demonstrations and while 93% of BLM protests were considered peaceful, numerous cities saw rioting, exchanges of gunfire, and even had buildings burnt down. But no city in the United States had as many continuous nights of protest as Portland. No city saw thousands of its citizens lay a weeks long siege of a federal courthouse. No City experienced 1000 person street fight between right and left wing demonstrators. Perhaps most importantly, no City earned the ire of President Donald Trump in the same way as Portland. It seems bizarre that this all would happen in Portland, a small city of about 653,000 people. How did it grow to become one of the most active front lines in a national battle for Black lives and against white supremacy? It actually makes a lot of sense once you scratch beneath the surface a bit. Here's Tristan again. Oregon was kind of. Found it as like something of like a white utopia, you know, like a place for the. The white man to really like, find his destiny, right? And like, conquer this, you know, this continent. And I think that's just kind of like. It's just like baked into the culture here, where even, like, even like the love of the outdoors isn't like. Isn't like the love of? Like, keep like keeping the environment like healthy and like balance is just like a very like. Commodified. Like, we deserve this, you know? We deserve to live in this beautiful place, and we're the only ones who know how to, like, take care of it. And obviously that's like mellowed out a little bit over the, you know, decades. But I think that's still basically like, what? What like? It's like the undercurrent, you know? That's like behind most of what goes on in Oregon, most of what goes on in Oregon. You can learn a lot of what you need to know about Oregon's history of racism by studying one of the state's founders, Peter Hardeman Burnett. As a young man in Tennessee, he murdered a black person with a booby trap as revenge for petty theft. In 1843, he helped organize the first Great wagon train of white people that headed to the Oregon Territory. He was elected to the Provisional Legislature and served as the territories. Their Supreme Court Justice in 1844, he worked to pass what became known as Burnett's Lash Law. This stated that all black people were required to leave Oregon under penalty of being whipped in public, not less than 20 or more than 39 stripes. This punishment was to be repeated every six months until they moved. The law did include a grace period, three years for black women and two years for black men. Burnett also pushed to ban Chinese immigration into Oregon, while there are no documented instances of the lash laws. Being used, it set a clear tone for the state. Burnett's lash law reflected the values of the first white people who moved to Oregon. They were abolitionists and that they hated slavery, but they only hated slavery because they were revolted by the thought of living near black people. In 1848, the Oregon Territorial government passed a law that banned any quote, ***** or mulatto from living in Oregon. In 1850, the Oregon Donation Land Act gave whites and **** ***** Indians their quote 650 acres of land. From the government. All other people of color were banned from the land grants. Oregon was finally made a state in February 1859, under its Constitution quote, no Free ***** or mulatto not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall ever come, reside, or be within this state, or hold any real estate, or make any contract, or maintain any suit therein. And the Legislative Assembly shall provide by penal laws, for the removal by public officers of all such free ******* and mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the state, and for the punishment of persons, who shall bring them into the. Date or employee or harbor them, they're in. Oregon remains the only state in the Union that ever banned black people from living there. Now, things have gotten better since 1859, but better is a low bar, and Portland remains the whitest metropolitan area in the United States. 77% of the population is white. Less than 6% is black. Today, Portland owns the distinction as one of the most gentrified cities in the United States. Oregon continues to report some of the worst graduation rates for black students in the nation, and the wealth gap between white and Black Oregonians over the last 50 years has widened, not shrunk. I moved to Portland. Like 5 and a half, six years ago, I think. And from where I definitely I did from Northern California, Gotcha Bay Area. And I didn't, really. I didn't have a idea of what the city was, per se. Like I'd never seen an episode of Portlandia, for instance. I just kind of moved up here. Because of the family. And. And yeah, and when I when I kind of first got here, it was like. You know that hang out with a bunch of, like, hippies, a bunch of like people who love trees and to ride bikes and go hiking and it's like, oh, they love the environment and they love. Progressive, you know. Politics and you know. And everything just chill within. Like the longer I stayed here the the the facade started to like fall away. And. And it's, I mean I like I've been here for, you know, almost six years now and I still, I don't quite know. What to make of it still, you know. But like recently. Like with the passage. Of or like with the most recent like election, you know, like so the local measures that passed and went and didn't pass, it's like. Like Oregon loves to have a black friend. That's. What they like. They like to have somebody they can point to and be like, look, I'm not racist, but they don't. They're not interested in actually, like, challenging. The like white supremacists like power structures that actually like benefit them. And. And if you like, if you agitate them on that they just, you know that's that's when like the the. Pacific Northwest like passive aggressiveness. Like kicks in. And they just like kind of like try to ignore you, but secretly they're totally ******* ****** ***. That you dare to, like, insinuate that they're racist. Umm. But yeah, that's like, it's a really complicated thing, and I I still quite haven't figured out like what makes white people take here. But. It's, you know, it's messy. Another activist we interviewed, Courtney, is an indigenous Hawaiian person who moved to Oregon when she was 17. She recalls being stunned by how white her school was. I like ended up going to Oregon City High School which was like insane. I was the only non Hispanic person that was at that school. And nobody talked to me for a really long time, and I just was kind of like it was a culture shock because there were so many white people. That I had never seen this many white people in my entire life because everyone in Hawaii is like mixed races. Majority of them are Asian or Polynesian, so. I definitely was. Nobody really talked to me for a while and I kind of like found my little niche of people to hang out with. But yeah, like just even living in that area. I would get a lot of weird looks and. Yeah, just not the most friendly people to be around. Yeah, that's basically, it's just a culture shock to just see how white organ is. I just, I didn't expect it at all. I didn't. And I was like, I knew that they were going to be like Hispanic people, but I just didn't realize that. I thought maybe I would see more after, like, black people. Yeah. And and especially living in a city, you know, import when you're in from Hawaii and you're like, Portland is just like a major city in the United States and then coming here and not really seeing the mix of cultures was just kind of shocking. Tristan described the racism in Portland as unique in a subtle way. It's just, it's very, it's very covert. Or, you know, tries to be very covert. And it's very like. Like, well, part part of what it is is that for a very long time now, there's barely been any people of color here at all like. You know it's one of the widest states in the country. It's wise Major city in the country. And so like. To a certain extent, people are. They just don't actually know what like. You know, like what like a microaggression is or what that would be. Like? You know, I had the experience. Umm. Like? Just like a year, year and a half ago, maybe. I was out with this group. Umm. These like forest defender type people. And every year they go out and post this big camp out. And you know, like go out to the woods and do like surveys and stuff like that and try to collect data and they can use it to fight temporary companies and ****. And like someone just dropped the N word like. Just five feet from me, just like in casual conversation. And then I had to like. Address the camp like at breakfast and I was like, OK, so. Just just don't don't say that word like there's no. Like he like and like, even if you're just telling a story like, there's no appropriate context for a white person to say that. And. And that's one of the reasons why I don't go to those ******* campouts anymore. But like, it's like that. It's like they just don't. They haven't been around to black people. Or people of color in general and they just don't know what to do. And of course, the racism that pervades Portland is present in the Portland Police Bureau. Despite black people making up again less than 6% of the population, Portland police use force on black people more often than people of any other race. Portland police are 5 to 14 times more likely to shoot impact munitions at and to forcibly restrain black residents. At one point in the late 60s, Black Portlanders accounted for nearly half of PPB's arrests. Portland's Black community has been fighting against this kind of racist. Silenced for decades. Here's Max Smith again. For me, the battle with the police began. You know, in the hip hop field. There was an event here in Portland that happened maybe six or seven years ago that happened at a venue called the Blue Monk. And. It was a pretty big deal and I was there and I had friends who were performing at the show and the police essentially came under the guise of a a capacity of a violation and brought like A7 cars and 20 something officers and shut the whole street of Belmont down and. That and that bar eventually actually ended up closing shortly after that. And it was a huge deal. They made a huge deal about a small thing and it went like into like national news and. Even prior to that, we had been really combating the efforts of the police to kind of shut down or stifle hip hop events in the city. Every time we wanted to have a hip hop event, it became like, you know, like a world of war. The point of the ended up actually being a protest about the hip hop community here and so that was a fight that we had as far as hip hop music and clubs, as far as hip hop events, as far as live music. They really just used the city's resources that the police, the fire marshals and the the O LCC to really like a shed down hip hop and and and really any black lead events. Lawyer Alan Kessler has done a lot of digging into the early history of the Portland police. His research has revealed a century long history of Portland police involvement with hate groups, most particularly the Ku Klux Klan. I think it was last Memorial Day. I spent the whole weekend in The Oregonian archives, basically living through World War Two. It wasn't fun. And. It's outrageous. Like the Klan was on, there was a front page column talked to a Klansman every day for like a week. And Mint Mobile offers premium wireless starting at just 15 bucks a month. And now for the plot twist. Nope, there isn't one. Mint Mobile just has premium wireless from 15 bucks a month. There's no trapping you into a two year contract. You're opening the bill to find all these nuts fees. There's no luring you in with free subscriptions or streaming services that you'll forget to cancel and then be charged full price for none of that. For anyone who hates their phone Bill, Mint Mobile offers premium wireless for just $15.00 a month. Mint Mobile will give you the best rate whether you're buying one or for a family. And it meant family start at 2 lines. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, plus high speed data delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone with any mint mobile plan and keep your same phone number along with all your existing contacts. Just switch to Mint mobile and get premium wireless service starting at 15 bucks a month. Get premium wireless service from just $15.00 a month and no one expected plot twist at mintmobile.com/behind. That's mintmobile.com/behind. Seriously, you'll make your wallet very happy. That mint mobilcom behind now, a word from our sponsor better help. If you're having trouble stuck in your own head, focusing on problems dealing with depression, or just, you know can't seem to get yourself out of a rut, you may want to try therapy. And better help makes it very easy to get therapy that works with your lifestyle and your schedule. A therapist can help you become a better problem solver, which can make it easier to accomplish your goals, no matter how big or small they happen to be. So if you're thinking of giving therapy a try. Better help is a great option. It's convenient, accessible, affordable, and it is entirely online. You can get matched with a therapist after filling out a brief survey. And if the therapist that you get matched with doesn't wind up working out, you can switch therapists at any time when you want to be a better problem solver therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com behind today to get 10% off your first month. That's better helpp.com/behindbetter. Com behind. Hey, it's Rick Schwartz, one of your hosts for San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we sit down with Doctor Jane Goodall to hear her inspiring thoughts on how we can create a better future for humans, animals and the environment. Don't help them find ways of making a living without destroying the environment. We can't save chimps, forests or anything else, and that becomes very clear when you look at poverty around the world. If you're living in poverty, you can't afford to ask as we can. Did this product harm the environment? Was it cruel to animals like, was it factory farmed? Is it cheap because of unfair wages paid to people? And so alleviating poverty is tremendously important. Listen to amazing wildlife on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And every other day they had the clan on the front page anyway. But that, you know, that was like it was yeah, it was incredible. During the war. Basically everybody, every adult white dude had a little star badge. They the police would basically deputize anybody or people just go get badges made so everybody in town had a badge. There were lots of articles in that timeframe about fake police officer pulls over so and so when they sue. In 1923, a Portland Telegram article reported that the Portland Police Bureau was quote full to the brink with Klansmen the Police Bureau actually deputized. 100 clansmen handpicked by the local Grand Dragon and designated them Portland police vigilantes. This was before the PA existed, but the tradition lives on. In 2010, Portland police officer Mark Krueger was suspended for erecting a memorial to five deceased Nazi soldiers on city property. The PA successfully sued for him to be reinstated and given an apology. When he quit in early 2020, he was the highest paid police officer on the force. I asked Mariah. A lifelong Portland resident, what her earliest memory of the police was. Here's what she told me. I would say it was a when I was a child. Honestly, I've had some some family stuff and a family member have to go to way to to prison. So I remember some like vaguely stuff like remember then as far as like police brutality wise. The very first like murder I remember was Kendra James and that would happened like a mile from my house and I want to say I was like 10 at the time. Kendra James was a 21 year old Black mother of two. She was killed under suspicious circumstances during a traffic stop. Her killer, officer Scott McAllister, fired a single shot when James attempted to drive away from the traffic stop after the motion of the vehicle caused him to fall. A number of the statements he made in court were inconsistent with physical evidence required from the shooting and we don't. Really know exactly what happened. Among other things, the police argued in court that Portland police were trained to quote shoot as they fall off. The police is how I grew up. My dad is a huge like Tupac fan. So like, I would grow up on hearing Tupac lyrics all the time. I'll screw the police and everything. So yeah, no screw, yeah. No. That's how I like, grew up. Yeah. As to like not interact with them. Yeah, I've I've grown up. You know how a lot of us, you know, people who are black feel like, you know, we're being followed profiled, all that. I mean, I got profiled today in in a store like it's it's still happens. It's been going on since the kid. I don't know if I don't know when it will stop, but you know. Goes on. Officer McAllister was acquitted in federal court. He got to keep his job, but even if he had been fired for the shooting, the firing might not have stuck. Nationwide, 25% of police officers fired for misconduct are reinstated because of Union mandated appeals. Over the years, this has included an officer who challenged a handcuffed man to a fist fight for his freedom and a cop who sexually assaulted a young woman in his patrol car. In many cities, the number of police reinstated by Union appeals is much higher than 25%. 70% of fired San Antonio officers are reinstated because of Union appeals. The number is 62% for Philly cops and 50% for Minneapolis cops. This is part of why the people of Minneapolis burnt the Third precinct to the ground after George Floyd's murder. They knew from experience that it was extremely likely Derek Chauvin, Floyd's killer would not just avoid prison but would soon be back on the street with a badge. In fact as soon as Derek Chauvin and the other officers responsible for George Floyd's death. Were fired. Police union head Bob Kroll started fighting to have them reinstated. He was concerned that they had been, quote, terminated without due process. Kroll was oddly unconcerned that the same thing was true of Mr Floyd. The fact that police officers are extremely difficult to fire even when they commit murder or rape on the job is a national problem. But it is a national problem that traces back to a single place. Where else? The City of Portland, OR and more specifically. To the Portland Police Association, we crook it. Make sure to check out drink champs, your number one music podcast on the Black Effect podcast network, host NORE&DJEFN sat down with artists and icon yay, which Vulture called one of 2021's most significant interviews. I literally had to go like Thanos, and I don't want to have to be the villain, but when I went and did the donda thing, yay returned, and everybody had to sit back and watch the real leader. Check out drink champ's conversation with yay and many more legendary artists each and every Friday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. From cavalry audio comes the new True crime podcast, The Shadow Girls. Wanted to know what it felt like to kill somebody, and he started laughing. Prosecutors described him as a serial killer servant, picking up his girls, getting him in a position of vulnerability. When he got ahold of their neck. That was it. I'm Carolyn Ossorio, a journalist and lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. I grew up near the banks of the Green River and in the shadow of the killer that bears its name. How many times did you bring the camera to? One time. Fantasizing about having sex with his mother. Then he fantasized about killing her. But this podcast isn't only about tracking down the killer. It's about the victims. We stayed in the woods. He always liked to go into the woods. Kind of strange. You know how he feels about prostitutes. Listen to the shadow girls on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The black effect presents features, honest conversations, and exclusive interviews, a space for artists, everyday people, and listeners to amplify, elevate, and empower black voices with great conversations. Make sure to listen to the black Effect Presents podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Portland Police Association, or PA, is Portland's police union. And in a way, it's the police union because the PA is actually the oldest functioning police union in the United States. Police had attempted to unionize several times before the EPA was established in 1942, but Portland was the first city to get it right. The PPA has served as a model for the rest of the nation's law enforcement ever since. Every other police union in the United States is based off of the Portland Police Association and one of the many trends that PA set was ensuing to reinstate fired officers. This story starts on the night of March 12th, 1981 when two Portland police officers from the North Precinct dumped 4 dead possums in the doorway of the Burger Barn, one of Portland's few black-owned businesses. The use of the word. Possum, as a derogatory term for black Americans, dates back as far as 1830. The owner of the Burger Barn, George Powell, called the Police commissioner to report the incident and claimed that it was only the latest example of police harassment his business had faced and internal investigation was opened and the officers responsible, Ward and Galloway, admitted their guilt immediately. Their identity was initially kept hidden thanks to a clause in the PA contract with the city that protected officers from having their names disclosed during disciplinary. Proceedings. This is another one of the innovations that the Portland Police Association brought to police departments nationwide. By the way, the possum incident happened at an awkward time for the Portland police. Several officers had just been fired and convicted of faking evidence and using illegal drugs on the job. Nearly 100 criminal cases had to be thrown out because of falsified evidence. Public opinion of the Police Bureau was low, and when Portlanders started marching and demonstrating to demand that officers Ward and Galloway be fired at, the police commissioner was only too happy to oblige. Enter Stan Peters, the most powerful union President Portland has ever had. Peters took to every local news show in town. He circulated petitions. He even organized a mass protest March made-up of Portland police officers and their families. He forced the city government into arbitration, which ended with both officers being rehired and given back pay. There's actually a book about the Portland Police Association, pickets, pistols and politics, Alan Kessler informed us of its existence. Here's what it says about the court case that resolved the possum incident. Quote The City of Portland versus Warden Galloway case is still the leading police discipline case in the United States and in labor law circles is the arbitration decision referred to the most often. Its legal nomenclature is simply city of Portland. And so in the end, it really isn't that odd that the city of Portland wound up as Ground Zero for a battle against white supremacy and police brutality. And the battle for Black lives, it's actually been that for a very, very long time. As much as people have just kind of started to contextualize how Antifa has been fighting against these chuds here for years, you know, it actually isn't just the last couple years where it's been in the news. This has been going on for decades in Portland. There's always been a level, especially in Southeast Portland has always been like, even like in the 80s, it's been like, you know, these white Skinhead groups, and the sharps is always kind of been. Like a race war between the white folks in Portland, especially in the southeast, over the course of the summer of 2020, Portland's wounds were exposed to the world. After George Floyd's gruesome murder accelerated. Long brewing unrest across the country and even the globe, the Northwest's liberal bastion was forced to reckon with its own deeply anti black traditions while also becoming an unlikely epicenter in a movement for black lives that had taken the world by storm. Thousands took to the streets in a battle that would be fought against a corrupt police. Course Trump's federal agents, right wing vigilantes, and even, at times, between protesters themselves. Through it all, people banded together to support each other and build the infrastructure that would propel the city to 100 plus days of protests that even the strongest tear gas couldn't end. In the next episode, we will delve into how a disorganized crowd of angry Portlanders turned themselves into a movement that could stand up to the worst violence the Trump administration could throw at it. Oh we're the grand pops. It couldn't fathom the Obama system. I don't hate America just to me. And she keeps her promises 20 teens looking like the 60s. It's crazy a nationwide deja vu what more people posted do go to schools named after the Klan founder were around town is I don't see why we frowning Native American students forced to learn about when opera Sarah. How is that fair, bro? Some heroes unsung and some monsters get monuments built for them but they be all a little bit of. Wants that we crooked man. Your heroes are worthless and man can show fry, but only God gives purpose. You cook it. This is Roxanne gay, the host of the Roxanne gay agenda, the Bad Feminist podcast of Your Dreams. Each week I talked to an interesting person about feminism, race, writing and books, and art, food, pop culture, and yes, politics. We can't escape politics. Listen to the Luminary original podcast, the Roxanne gay agenda. Every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What grows in the forest? Our imagination and our family bonds. The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest near you and discovertheforest.org, brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. Look for your children's eyes and you will discover the true magic of a forest. For you and start exploring at discovertheforest.org, brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the Ad Council. Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried true crime. And if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams. Let's breaker handle the hosting creation, distribution. And monetization of your podcast go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Hey there, it's Ebony Monet, your co-host for the San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we're speaking with Doctor Jane Goodall about the fascinating journey that led to her social discoveries on chimpanzees. So four whole months, the chimps ran away from me. I mean, they take one look at this peculiar white ape and disappear into the vegetation. Bing wildlife on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Bobby Bones from the Bobby cast. We are Nashville's most listened to music podcast in depth interviews with your favorite country artists, plus the biggest songwriters and producers in Nashville, all from the comfort of my own home so it gets a little more laid back. They're sharing stories behind the biggest songs in country music and personal stories that you will not hear anywhere else. So if you love country music, I think you will love this podcast. Listen to the Bobby. Guest on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcast.