'De-arrests' and leaf blowers: Portland protesters find new ways to stand up to federal agents

[Nevilledog]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/de-arrests-and-leaf-blowers-portland-protesters-find-new-ways-to-stand-up-to-federal-agents/ar-BB17kxur

PORTLAND, Ore. — Life has been a series of adjustments for protesters in Portland as they clash nightly with federal agents.

“We came out here dressed in T-shirts and twirling Hula-Hoops and stuff, and they started gassing us, so we came back with respirators, and they started shooting us, so we came back with vests, and they started aiming for the head, so we started wearing helmets, and now they call us terrorists,” Mac Smiff, a local Black organizer in Portland, said. “Who’s escalating this? It’s not us.”

Protests in Portland have been going on for two months, but the situation intensified when federal agents — from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Marshals Service — were deployed to the city beginning the weekend of July 4.

Since that time, the agents have used tear gas, pepper spray and shot “less lethal” munitions, at times indiscriminately, into crowds. The city saw its largest turnout of the protests this past weekend, when upwards of 5,000 people gathered in front of and around the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, which has been heavily guarded by federal agents.

*snip*

[Mike 03]

1. De-arrests. This is cool.

Jayla Lindseth, a Black protester, urges people to come to the protests with at least a few other friends who can help protect one another, and to “de-arrest.”

“When I say de-arrest, I mean if you see your friend getting grabbed [by officers], grab them back,” Lindseth advised. “We’re out here fighting for change.”

I wonder if in practice this works, at least some of the time?