Portland police told to have riot gear ready

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore.

Portland officials have issued a warning to the protesters of Occupy Portland after a police officer was shoved against a bus during an unruly march this week, and the police chief ordered his department to have riot gear at the ready.

Chief Mike Reese’s orders came after protesters marched Wednesday in a demonstration that revealed a rift between radicals seeking confrontation with authorities and others in the movement who want a more peaceful approach. One person was arrested, accused of shoving an officer against a moving bus. The officer wasn’t seriously injured.

Reese’s order went out Thursday, and the text was made public Friday. The order said that starting Friday, all police officers are required to have gas masks, batons and helmets “immediately available” and be “prepared to deploy” with the equipment “in a timely manner.”

Mayor Sam Adams said: “Violence like this will not be tolerated.”

Protesters have been camped out in tents and under tarps in adjacent downtown parks since Oct. 6, and tensions surrounding the camp have risen in the past week.

Last Sunday, a large group of protesters marched from the camp to another public park in Portland’s affluent Pearl District, despite city officials’ warning they would not be allowed to occupy it. Twenty-seven of the protesters were arrested after they refused to obey a midnight curfew.

On Tuesday, police removed several tents that had been set up on yet another park — this one on federal land — and detained nine people. Tensions came to a head Wednesday, when a sizeable contingent of protesters staged an unpermitted march through the city, the same day as a high-profile demonstration in Oakland, Calif. A splinter group of about 100 then marched across one of the bridges crossing the Willamette River, spilling onto the road as police tried to keep traffic flowing. That’s when a police officer was shoved against a moving bus.

The patience of city officials is growing thin. In Reese’s email to his officers, he said the tone of the Wednesday march “seemed to change from previous events, and many in the crowd seemed confrontational — provoking motorists and police.”