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St Paul Principles Flyer
Public infighting and policing of tactics divides the movement and does the State’s work for them. When we allow space for all tactics, we are stronger, we are larger, we are united in purpose, and the powers that be are more challenged to hold us back.
The St Paul Principles are a good baseline for solidarity and support:
1. our solidarity will be based on respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of other groups.
2. the actions and tactics used will be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.
3. any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.
4. we oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence. we agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others.
We’ve made a small flyer to be distributed at protests. Security Culture basics are on the other side. St Paul Principles Flyer
Resuming Public Gatherings!
We’re going to be resuming NAC Public Gatherings starting in August!
The next one will be August 16th 5-7pm @ https://meet.jit.si/nacpublic (Use Chrome for best results)
This will be an opportunity for new people to learn about NAC and a time for existing people to connect and socialize.
We hope to see you there!
Misc action reports of police repression
These anonymous action reports were submitted to NAC from multiple people for publication. NAC did not organize these protests, we are just sharing people’s experiences.
This post will be updated with shorter reports as people submit them.
Submitted 6/4/20
The police chased protesters down Alder St into residential areas before cornering them and setting off tear gas and rubber bullets, we had to run around closing all the windows so the tear gas wouldn’t get into our home. Our neighbors got hit more directly in the cross fire and had one of their windows and their door broken by police bullets. The police then stationed themselves across the street and watched our block for several hours after.
Sunday May 31st
Myself and 4 other friends were out there as Medics and were fired upon and tear gas with our hands up while we were walking away from them. We collected one of the gas canisters after the top 10 left and on the bottom and had an expiration date of 03/07. Frontier gas expires the chemical components within the tear gas create cyanide. I heard from the officers to talk to them about it and his response was well I didn’t throw it. the situation at 13th and Olive the people didn’t go into the street until the police have already impeded traffic. The people went onto the sidewalk at the request of the police and sad and protested peacefully. The police fired pepper bullet add an older lady standing in the street video recording them. the police were the ones that incited violence last night not the protesters.
When we posted about the expired gas cans, the cops swarmed us demanding to see it, stating they had to make sure that it was no longer active and that we needed to give it to them. We refused. We also had several proud boys roll up on us while we were stationed at Broadway and high. I tried to approach the cops about it and they said I wasn’t allowed to approach them with bottles of fluid in my backpack. They left and came back and pulled up behind the proud boy who was threatening to kill us. They didn’t do anything. They just let them go.
Video: Police shooting rubber bullets at people in their yards
Here is good footage from the protests last night (taken by an RG reporter). 17 people arrested Sunday night as of last count.
Open letter to defund and deescalate EPD
This is an open letter from a local deescalation group. We’ve copied the letter here with permission so it’s easier to share. Original PDF version here.
Press Statement & Open Letter to Eugene and Oregon Leadership
June 3, 2020
Contact: deescalateeugene@pm.me
Where is the City Leadership?
“We’re billing the City of Eugene for doing their job for them.”
Thousands of people have protested in our community this past week in support of black lives and against police brutality. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful. And the City’s response? Eugene Police Department (EPD) has brought out all of its military equipment and put its full military force on display. They have repeatedly used tear gas, a known lung irritant, against our community—not just protesters. An elderly bystander was pepper-sprayed while filming on the sidewalk, and multiple journalists were tear gassed without warning. There are also reports that EPD has been using expired tear gas, which breaks down into lethal cyanide. This is all happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affects the lungs and can result in death, and impacts black and brown communities disproportionately.
Meanwhile, EPD is stalking and hunting down peaceful protesters, for violating artificial and poorly communicated curfews, and for “blocking traffic,” often when there is no traffic. All to exact revenge for the property damage done by a few people on Friday? ‘Hunting’ seems like an exaggeration, you say? An officer was overhead on the police scanner saying, “When you go hunting, you aim to shoot.”
What is the City of Eugene doing? Where is the leadership? Where are the City’s resources going? These are among the many questions that an informal de-escalation group are asking. The group was formed in response to the “God, Guns, and Trump” and other similar rallies in an effort to interrupt inflammatory escalation strategies from armed white supremacist provocateurs targeting marginalized communities. The de-escalation group has been on the ground this past week, and now they are advocating for the city to deescalate its police force.
Once again, the far-right is openly armed in our city. They have formed their own police force that is following the marches of nonviolent protesters with their personal vehicles, patrolling downtown, surreptitiously filming people, threatening protesters, attempting to run over protesters, and promising to shoot anyone who harms private property. Many groups have documented these behaviors. EPD, for the most part, is absent, standing by, or overtly assisting. In fact, EPD apparently allowed one agitator, who recklessly drove into a group of marching protesters and got out of his vehicle brandishing an assault rifle in the middle of the crowd, to drive away after they pulled him over.
Members of the de-escalation group have intervened multiple times over the past week to protect peaceful protesters from being shot or run over by armed extremists. That’s right, members of our community doing the cops’ job for them, without weapons, for free.
One of the de-escalators stated: “We need to write up an invoice for our supplies and people hours and send it over to the City. We’ve all put in our full forty for the City. Let’s present the Mayor with the bill and let her know that the invoice is payable to the food bank.”
On Sunday night, the cops, with their full military force, were the ones rioting. EPD was pursuing, threatening, and assaulting young protesters with tear gas and pepper balls on the streets of downtown Eugene. Just blocks away, the far-right had its own patrol—truckloads of armed, angry, white men—with ostensibly the same purpose.
Despite EPD’s recent efforts to increase its budget, this week’s unethical policing clearly demonstrates the need to allocate City resources elsewhere. As we hear calls to defund and demilitarize police forces around the nation, we echo those calls in Eugene. Eugene desperately needs increased accountability and transparency for EPD and the City Manager and increased funding to de-escalation services and other community-driven solutions, like CAHOOTS.
As of now, City of Eugene officials from the top down are complicit in EPD’s use of excessive force against people protesting police brutality. People are grieving monumental losses to police violence. At this moment in history, while homelessness runs unabated, a pandemic threatens the well-being of our entire community, and white supremacists attempt violence on peaceful residents, our City funds not relief, but fear and violence doled out by EPD. Is this the response our City wants to be remembered for?
#DefundEPD #DemilitarizeEPD #DeescalateEPD
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Anonymously report police repression
We’re expanding our anonymous action report to include reports of people’s experiences with police repression and brutality. We will publish it anonymously.
Please share information here:
A POC participant’s narrative on the George Floyd protest in Eugene 5/29/20
This anonymous action report was submitted to NAC for publication. NAC did not organize this protest and we do not have a collective stance on the events of the 29th.
The voices of those involved in controversial events and their reasons for action are often lost in the discussion because they cannot share them without repercussions. We are providing a platform so those directly involved can share their perspectives.
[Submitters note: a printed copy of this was handed to me at the large march on Sunday, May 31st. I’m submitting it here because I think it’s an important narrative, I hope the original author is okay with that. I don’t know whether this matters since the report is anonymous to begin with, but I figured I’d mention it.]
A POC participant’s narrative on the George Floyd protest in Eugene 5/29/20.
I’ve read many sources describing the protest as a “riot,” an “unruly mob,” or a bunch of white people coopting a POC cause. As a person of color (POC) who participated in the protest, I feel that it’s important to circulate my thoughts, rather that to allow the criticisms, narratives, or assumptions of others dominate the conversation.
I was relieved to be informed that people would coming together Friday night to denounce the murder of George Floyd instead of waiting until Sunday. The anger I felt over this murder could not wait for the proper approval of the city, and for liberal white women in Eugene who typically dominate the protests in this town to be ready to protest. While the rest of the country was responding, Eugene was waiting, and as a person of color in this majority white town, I was once again being reminded of how this town cannot relate to the passion and struggles of POC.
But for once, passion literally propelled people to take to the streets in true solidarity. It’s what was needed to be heard. Remaining at the courthouse corner, unseen, and unheard, would have challenged nothing. The rest of the town would’ve gone about their evening as if it were any other.
We marched through the streets shouting, “No justice, no peace.” We invited people who cheered us on to join us. In deciding our route, we simply talked to one another to decide which way to go. It was spontaneous, and supportive. At one point, people started marching up towards the freeway, and 2 cop cars almost hit a protestor. As we continued forward, 2 cops sprayed protestors with pepper spray. One Mexican woman was screaming that she couldn’t see because they sprayed her directly in the eyes at close range. Protestors helped rinse this woman’s eyes, but she couldn’t see for hours. This was much earlier in the evening, hours before the tear gas, that the news and police reports failed to mention.
[Submitters note: here there were included pictures of the pepper-sprayed protestor. I’m not including those for safety and also because I don’t think the photo quality would come out]
Still, we marched through the town, but we began to encounter people who were violently threatening us in opposition. As we marched on 6th, one black car circled around several times trying to run over protesters with their car. At one point they drove forward as a man was standing in front of the car. There was also a proud boy following us before a few people confronted him. Another man in a white truck was threatening protesters on 6th, and eventually pulled out his rifle on us. News reports of people saying, “someone has a gun,” failed to mention that it was people looking to hurt us. White supremacists are no secret in this town, and now they are taking this opportunity to try and hurt people.
By the time we arrived back to 7th & Washington, we had experienced a lot of violence towards us. People were trying to silence us, and it did not end throughout the night. One woman protesting was slammed to the ground and beaten by a man in a car who was trying to run over another women’s bike. So, when people took to setting signs, cones, or dumpsters on fire, it was a way to be heard. As many have said, property can be replaced, lives cannot. And just to clarify, as a POC in such a white town, that was the most people of color I have ever seen together at a protest in Eugene. It did feel good to be with POC I had never seen before to stand against injustice, and to be around white people who didn’t just take it easy because “it wasn’t their issue,” or to put themselves at risk when other white people were trying to attack us.
In conjunction with many of the national protests, the feeling that I got was that people are fed up. This began as a protest against police brutality, to advocate for justice for George Floyd, and to stand in solidarity with POC around the country, but we all know that the issue goes deeper than George Floyd because it is not the first case of police brutality. People of color are tired of being treated as inferior and disposable. We are tired of seeing our people struggle and die early deaths under a racist system. All you need to do is look at history to see the way POC have always been murdered, brutalized, and exploited to build up wealth and opportunity for mostly white men. Look at current statistics of wealth disproportions and demographics in prisons to know that there is structural racism. All you need to do is look at the way entire POC immigrant families are treated in ICE camps to see how we are dehumanized. All you need to do is look at national reports of the George Floyd protests to see constant examples of police brutality while people fight for justice.
Right now, is not a time to tear down those finding the courage to stand up for what’s right. George Floyd needs justice, and all people of color deserve justice. Stop and think why so many people around the country are taking to the streets and setting things to fire. Why we are taking the risk during a pandemic that we are disproportionately affected by. We are tired, and we don’t have the comfort of waiting it out for things to get better, our lives are on the line now.
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!
Anonymous action report
If anyone involved in the actions last night would like to share their perspective we have set up an anonymous form for direct action reports. You can share your thoughts anonymously and we can publish them.
The voices of those involved in controversial events and their reasons for action are often lost in the discussion because they cannot share them without repercussions. We want to hear from you.
https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/action-report
This is a new thing for us. Feedback on this idea and form are welcome.
Radical Zine Reading Online: Abolish Whiteness
We’re doing another Radical Zine reading next Saturday the 2nd at 2pm! We’ll be reading “Abolish Whiteness”
This is a short zine, and no pre-reading is required. We will read it out loud together.
We’ll meet here: https://meet.jit.si/nacabolishwhiteness (Use Chrome for the best experience. Please arrive a bit early to work out technical issues.)
Zine: https://imaginenoborders.org/pdf/zines/AbolishWhiteness.pdf