Ailing woman run down by mounted officer
http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/October.4.2000.04.59.38
spider-wd083.proxy.aol.com.
http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/October.4.2000.04.59.38
spider-wd083.proxy.aol.com.
I have CFS, Fibromyalgia and a vertigo disorder, a syndrome very similar to MS, and was not feeling well on May Day, but took part in the march anyway. Marching through the streets of Portland was a huge crowd of labor, housing, and migrant activists (many who brought their children). I watched as Portland PD repeatedly rammed their horses into the crowd. At one point a baby carriage had to be lifted over a wall to avoid being crushed. I saw some kid get a can of pepper spray unloaded onto his face-around the corner I heard the bean-bag guns go off. ATV's, horses, riot gear, pepper spray- all to control a peaceful crowd with many children in tow.
I was so sick, I couldn't keep up with the crowd. As I stumbled up Jefferson St.(alone and on the public sidewalk), I heard hooves behind me. The officer yelled "You need to catch up with your group!" I yelled back "I HAVE MS- I CAN'T WALK ANY FASTER!" He said (verbatim) "Perhaps you need a little encouragement." Then he rammed me ALL the way down the block with his horse. After he was distracted by a call and left I stumbled on another block or so and collapsed from exhaustion.
My story is not so violent and shocking as many others here, but I felt so depressed for weeks after. This human being regarded me as a piece of trash that needed to be swept off the streets. It was more a violence to my soul than my body.
But I will thank him until the day I die, because I was no activist before that march, but I am now. I think the Portland PD made a lot of hardcore activists out of us former armchair types that day.
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Activist, the Portland Police warned you and your fellow activists to leave the area. If they used all the equipment you mentioned then this was not a peaceful protest or march but turned into civil disobediance which can and usually does turn into a riot situation where innocent people are hurt at random and usually by the riot instigators and not the police. I am sorry this happened to you but in some countries horses are trained to stomp on protesters. In the US they are trained to use their flanks and sides to push crowds.