Officer's short account of clearing slimeballs, er protester out of the parks.

[retdetsgt]

This is a short account written by an officer from a neighboring department that mine called in to help clear out Occupiers.

Portland Police called for assistance and Beaverton's Mobile Response Team answered. Here some of us are relieving PPB just after they cleared the parks at 3rd/Main and were setting up fencing to keep the bums out. We took taunts, verbals jabs, cameras in our faces, insults, lewd comments, disparaging remarks were made about various members of our team regarding gender, height, age, etc while we stood silently and with the ultimate command presence while we had smoke blown in our faces, and non-stop attempts by the hundreds of protesters in front of us to bait us into arguments and debates.Police weren't there to argue and debate. We stood quietly and professionally holding the line standing shoulder to shoulder with Salem's riot team who were on my left side (I am on the far right side of the picture) while protesters with poor personal hygiene programs dared us to react. It was interesting that our turtle gear and helmets with shields are intended to protect us from flying debris (weapons, hard objects thrown, as well as spit and other body fluids) but the protesters cover their faces intermittently (when not eating or smoking) with material intended to protect them from criminal repercussions of their intended illegal actions. My eyes scanned the always moving crowd for potential weapons and threats and I could find nothing in common with their expressed chants, songs, or presentation. One protester brought his young child down, faced off with officers on my right and pleaded for them not to hurt him as he had his kid....why or why would a parent bring their kid down to a potentially confrontational scene as that was beyond me but we laughed at the lack of common sense later on. No force was used by anyone on the line while we were there as we acted with integrity and professionalism. I was very proud to be a member of that team, and have been for at least 9 years. Once PPB got the two parks under control we backed up slowly as a team and opened up the street for vehicular traffic that protesters had shut down earlier. PPB audibly and repeatedly warned the protesters of impending arrests for anyone impeding traffic once we backed off and immediately one gal started dancing in the street and the guy pictured above lay his towel on the street and sat on it, moving with us as we retreated from the crowd. Both subjects were pulled from the streets by PPB officers who reached through our line and pulled the people back behind us and away from cars driving by. We learned later on that PPB had been going 15 days straight with no days off for any officers due to the constant need to keep the peace and keep the streets and public places open for the working majority racking up tons of overtime and very long hours for police. It was a very interesting experience and a side of the news you just won't see watching your TV. As we near Thanksgiving I am very thankful for my health, family, opportunities (both professional and personal), a challenging and gratifying career, friends, warm home, and a sense of humor during trying times.

[mobrien316]

Very well written. Doubtful the mainstream media will pick it up, since it doesn't agree with their worldview.

[marinepilot]

Well done, would love to see the picture(s) that went along with it and are referenced in the article.

[retdetsgt]

Well done, would love to see the picture(s) that went along with it and are referenced in the article.

I accidentally deleted it permanently when I was trying to forward the email....

I just wrote the person back asking to have it resent. If she does, I'll put it here. It's cool...

[retdetsgt]

[pac201]

Very well written and articulate. I commend them for their professionalism.

[Norm357]

An excellent responce to felony douchbaggery.

[Andrew G.]

I enjoyed reading that.

[Cat_Doc]

The second officer from the right in the picture cracks me with with his non-verbal body language.

He seems to be saying, "What the f***?"

[retdetsgt]

I can't believe the body armor they have today. We had a helmet and face shield during the race riots and anti war demonstrations, that was it. Nice to see the shin protection and other stuff.

[Andrew G.]

I can almost see the expression on the face of the officer second to the left.

"You better move. Now."