I had a police officer stationed in my high school. At one point he got a warrant to investigate me for a stolen calculator, that I didn’t steal. He kicked down my door after school one day with 8 other cops in riot gear with guns drawn on my Grandma.
I’ve created a homeless resource guide for the entire city of Atlanta. This guide should have every resource a person struggling with homelessness could get. It also has coupons for things like tents, meals, coats, etc from local businesses. I’m super proud! Creating thousands.
So I say all this because these white school board members voting for more cops just don’t know what this all feels like. I will have this trauma for the rest of my life. It permanently messed me up. It ruined high school and narrowed my opportunities.
Our white students feared detention, I feared arrest. To hear white people tell me that Officer was there for my protection is laughable. He was there to oppress people of color.
Fuck I’m literally still crying I can’t believe writing that shit was so hard for me. I’m so used to talking about whatever even personal stuff and never being nervous but this really cuts deep. I was so damn young. I was good. They really fucked me up y’all. I don’t even cry lol
Anyways, just writing this thread really fucking hurts. I am one of the lucky ones. This isn’t about safety this is about trauma that you are giving little kids. Just please don’t.
I was expected to go to school the next day with him there. I had to hold it all in. I had nightmares about it for years. I couldn’t focus in class, I was always terrified. The white kids were getting stickers from him as I feared for my life.
And I didn’t even steal the damn calculator. I wasn’t the best kid. I smoked pot and cussed with my friends. But I knew white kids doing cocaine at 16. They had never had an interaction with police except when they got their damn stickers.
And before you say I just had a bad cop, he quit being a police officer. He told me through a mutual friend that he quit because of me. He was horrified looking back at what he was forced to do to me. Idk what forced means in this context. Just what he said.
I was just a kid. People of color already have the entire deck stacked against us but to then throw salt in the wound and have those officers sit in the room next to us and expect us to learn? The same ones who harass us all day in and out of school?
The police didn’t just harass me and my high school friends at school. It was just part of life being black in a white neighborhood. Being stopped at the age of 14 and asked why I’m in my own neighborhood...
Every knock on the door terrified me my entire life, up until this day. The funny thing is, I was not political at all before this. But this and other experiences I had with police throughout my life pushed me into fighting for justice.
This is just the life of a black kid. It’s just expected to be normal. It was the life of all my friends. We thought that was just life. We knew it didn’t happen to our white peers but we just thought it’s how it was. We thought we were flawed.
Being with my friend who was a recent rape victim when she saw her abuser and called the cops because she had a restraining order and police showing up and handcuffing me for their protection even though I wasn’t involved. I was 14. He Didn’t cuff the white kids around.
I ran upstairs and hid under the bed because I thought he was there to kill me. He took my computer, phone, and trashed my entire room as an officer held me and my grandmother in my kitchen at gun point.
Eventually everyone knew I was always being talked to by the officer so it impacted my reputation and only enforced the stereotypes my white peers already held.
After that the coaches would not let me become captain, again impacting my college options. It also impacted which kids would risk associating with me. For some kids this means hanging out with kids who are actually committing crimes and falling into that life.
He took me to jail where I sat for hours. My parents were on vacation, there was no one I could call. He then told me I was not under arrest but that he was trying to teach me a lesson.
At one point he finally returned my items. I was obviously not charged. But he would constantly pull me out of class in a public manner and question me about the calculator. He would do so with my vice principle in the room.
I cannot state enough how terrified I was in school at all times. Every morning I wondered if he would arrest me at school. I saw him everyday. Every night when I was supposed to do homework, I was worried he would kick my door in again.
I didn’t expect this to blow up but since it did, there are things you can do.
- pressure your local officials to remove officers from schools
- uplift stories like these
- support PoC activists and businesses we need y’all to use your privilege to help offset these stories.
Then, as I was in contention to become the captain of the track team, despite his efforts, he showed up at practice and handcuffed me in front of my coaches and teammates.
On my way to the Portland protest. If the far right kills me please don’t let it go. No thoughts and prayers.
- Protest in the street.
- Storm the concentration camps.
- Impeach Trump.
- Know that I love this city and that if I go I’d want it to be defending it from bigots.
And when I say support I don’t just mean tweets. Buy from black owned businesses, donate to black and PoC orgs, compensate people for the work they are doing to change the world. My cash is $gregorymckelvey but there are people in your town too. Support them.
I only added commissioner elect Hardesty and Commissioner Eudaly because they can use these stories as more fuel to convince their colleagues, I trust them. I didn’t add Nick Fish cuz I couldn’t find his twitter handle lol. Someone tag him.
Wild how all of my friends still have the trauma of being gassed and beaten by Federal troops for standing at a park in Portland that was close to a Federal building. But MAGA just stormed the Capitol in an open act of sedition and that is allowed.
Medics attending to a protester that is not moving are quickly chased down and beaten by Trump’s federal officers.
This is what the Portland mayor has no comment on.
I was one of two medics on scene when the man who died last night was shot. I barely had time to begin an examination before the cops pushed and baton-ed me off of his body. That man was alive when I left and it will haunt me for the rest of my life that they screamed about 1/2
Thread time. This one is important but complex, bare with me. I swear this is good info if you are a protester, live in Portland, or just want to resist Trump.
As many of you know I work in politics. This is why I know why Portland Police is live streaming lately.
My next door neighbor is elderly. He just flagged us down because he is sicker than he has ever been. He has no toilet paper or food. He looked like death and was crying. He can’t go to the doctor because his fever isn’t high enough. Although it is high.
Yesterday there was a mass arrest of non violent protesters. The excuse was they looked threatening because they had shields. Today the far right is out with guns and apparently this isn’t threatening looking?
At the first protest I ever held a young anarchist came up to me and offered to be my security. He stuck by my side for a week, never leaving the protest. When PPB beat my partner at another protest, he was the only participant who came to the hospital. He was murdered yesterday.
My wife is at the hospital tonight because of what we believe is the impacts of tear gas. Pray for her. And add a small prayer for me as I parent by myself. Kids in bed, here is to hoping they stay that way through the night.
Tomorrow, city leadership and most of the press will pretend this video doesn’t exist or is justifiable. We won’t hear a word. Despite the fact 100% of people who view this will be outraged.
If plywood was lit on fire or a window broken, The Mayor would hold a press conference.
Don’t let
@tedwheeler
push the blame of what happened upon others. Portland has sustained protests because of his inaction. Portland had a problem with police because he is the commissioner. Portland cops treated the medic like this because he has told them it’s okay.
I can’t protest anymore. The police won. And that defeat hurts so much, I feel like I failed. I went from the fearless kid at the front with a megaphone to the thought of a flash bang keeping me up. All that time in jail, batons, watching my friends bleed, the chaos and screams.
In Portland, a black father has been in jail for almost a year and a half without ever being convicted of a crime. This is disgusting and people should lose their jobs.
On June 7, 2018, Portland Bail Out posted $10,000 security to release Virgil Lee Adams, who had been incarcerated in the Multnomah County Jail since February 13, 2017. (Thread)
Oh my god. Watch this now. Just saw this on
@coryelia
live stream.
@PortlandPolice
just walked this crowd together and then violently charged it. Including journalists and legal observers. This is horrible.
I am so angry. For over 80 days we have seen Portland police mercilessly beat and gas Black Lives Matter for advocating against police brutality. Today the Alt-Right showed up to Portland with guns and is attacking us. The mayor is silent. Police enjoying the show.
Moral of the story is check on your neighbors. Exchange numbers. We need community right now. Lots of Americans have never talked to their neighbors. It’s time to get rid of our rugged individualism even while we practice social distancing.
I thought we were in a budget crisis? Now we have unlimited funds for militarized weapons, tear gas, and police overtime? How much protective gear for our vulnerable populations could that have bought?
“I shot the Syrian Refugee Crisis, I shot Paris Protests, I shot Bangladesh, I shot Hong Kong, and it was
@portlandpolice
who beat the shit out of me” - John Rudoff
Another death threat. This is the price of standing up in our community. To be clear, everyone on this list is courageous. The person writing these letters is a coward.
Whatever happened tonight in Portland, things have escalated. Get ready, whatever that means for you. Take care of yourself. These are very scary times.
What’s amazing if you read all the responses is how disgusted and shocked white people are and then all the black people who are saying how normal this was for them. That’s why empathy and believing victims is so important. Hopefully people are learning.
I had a police officer stationed in my high school. At one point he got a warrant to investigate me for a stolen calculator, that I didn’t steal. He kicked down my door after school one day with 8 other cops in riot gear with guns drawn on my Grandma.
Don’t let anyone tell you the Portland protests are not diverse. The protests are more diverse than the city itself and these white allies are dope regardless.
#PortlandProtest
@dom_lucre
It’s called a pickled punk this one belongs to Joe Coleman at his Oddities museum in New York. This was a common practice in Victorian times and had a resurgence amongst traveling carnivals or circuses. A king of Denmark (forgot the name) had thousands.
Please say a prayer for my Son Stokely. He is being admitted today. They don’t know what’s wrong with him but he won’t stay awake and his blood sugar won’t go up.
Y’all think COINTELPRO is all about getting protesters to turn into collaborators but really it’s about turning y’all into people who accuse their comrades of being collaborators. That’s much easier and more effective. Just study it before you tweet about the other protesters.
Organizer gives route details, says police will close off lanes, Proud boys riding with caravan and continuing on to Salem for rally with others like Patriot Prayer’s Joey Gibsom
Someone was shot by a fascist in Olympia and this is the headline because this is what the police press release said.
I worked in communications and cannot express how powerful it would be to be able to generate your own exact headline and story with any/all press releases.
Despite having a 3 week old baby, our family has made the decision to move into the ICE occupation. We won’t leave until ICE does. As long as families are being separated, our family will take a stand. Please join us
#OccupyICEPDX
I guess “Portland mayor gets gassed by Trump” is just a better story than “Portland mayor retreats after gas and then threatens to gas the crowd himself” 🤷🏾♂️
Yesterday Dominique Dunn was murdered by a white man in Portland in a racist attack. He was called racial slurs and then murdered while walking away. These attacks are not rare in Portland and continue to expose white suppremacy. The family is asking for prayers.
About Portland's 8 p.m. curfew ordered by
@tedwheeler
.
I asked if someone would be cited for visiting a grocery store at 8:30 p.m.
The answer?
“The City is not interested in citing people who are going about their business, causing no harm, and uninvolved in criminal conduct.”
People resigning now, companies suspending Trump now, politicians disavowing him now. In the final hour.
The fact that THIS was crossing the line to them just ensures me that they were fine with muslim ban, kids in cages, Helsinki, Federal Troops in Portland, impeachment, etc.
For the 15 racists who refuse to believe what was a hard story for me to tell, I have hundreds of PoC in my mentions and messages telling me how my experience echoes what they went through in school. That makes it worth it and if I have to take the heat to validate you I will.
But the main purpose is to provide footage of the protesters and their faces to Donald Trump and Donald Trump's federal officers. As you know, the feds are currently kidnapping people in Portland.
He said he didn’t want to knock on our door cuz we have kids. We just moved so he didn’t have our number. He waited till he could catch us outside so now we are going to the store for him.
My house got broken into and so my neighbors called the police on me. Racism lurks all around us and it sucks to have neighbors more likely to call the cops on me than to make sure everything is okay. And I’m such a good neighbor 😢
Since George Floyd was killed, the Portland Police have spent at least $6.2 million on policing protests.
Mayor
@TedWheeler
, this is a grossly irresponsible use of city money.
#DefundThePolice
We don’t know everything but he was run down outside of cider riot, a frequent hang out spot for antifascists and a previous target of right wing violence. I am deeply saddened. It’s a loss for our entire community.
Let’s be clear. The people of Portland voted with 87% of vote for limits. Ted broke the law. Now city resources are being used to defend Ted and argue that money is free speech. In short, Portland is working to expand the scope of Citizens United against the will of the people.
A judge ruled the city of Portland must open an investigation into Mayor Ted Wheeler's sizable loan to his own reelection campaign, which breaks voter-approved campaign finance rules.
Portland Police tried to seriously injure my partner
@KatNStevens
by twisting her neck. It’s literally on tape. Her crime was being next to me while I was being arrested. My crime was being at a protest. We are still in ongoing litigation around this incident.
Shit, just found out power is still out at our house but our hotel we got for $300 for these two nights is now 1k a night which is gross price gouging. I think by tomorrow snow will have subsisted enough we can drive to my parents who are on a hill.
I’m just trying to picture this in my head.
There is a large hectic protest zone that police most certainly cannot just walk through. But yet they did. And then out of the blue some protester said “hey Mr. Officer look at that strange back” and then it was full of crime? Lol.
Tonight Portland Police were near Lownsdale Square Park. A person pointed out a bag to them. Inside the bag Police found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails
NASCAR driver Ray Ciccarelli announced that he's quitting because NASCAR banned the Confederate flag.
He finished his career with 0 wins.
He went on a long rant shaming kneeling during the anthem & banning the flag:
One small purpose of these streams is to try and turn the public against the protesters. They think if protesters appear as fringe actors, the public will support a violent crackdown. However, they never film the violent crackdown. They turn it off then.