We’ve always been very cautious about doing any reporting from war zones. But here’s a report from TPM Reader TB …
I am assuming (or hoping) that TPM has received reports from others here in Portland regarding the huge gulf between the way the Administration is describing things and what is happening in reality. Either way, I feel compelled to share my observations because I am completely flabbergasted that the Administration continues to so blatantly manufacture this “warzone” imagery. I’m used to the hyperbole they use, but this goes so far beyond hyperbole, I can barely find the words.
So to be clear, Portland is as calm now as I have ever seen it. I’ll acknowledge that protest is part of our fabric, and we’ve had some doozies. Things that come to mind in the past 25 years I’ve been here are the May Day Protests of 2000, a particularly rowdy event a few years later when George W. visited, Occupy Portland in 2011 and, of course, the summer of 2020 when most of the country also experienced protests around racial injustice. So compared to those, the small crowd that has been gathering at the ICE facility this year is almost nothing. But that’s not the comparison I want to make. That crowd has been smaller than most gatherings that occur…there are family BBQs at my local park that attract more people and have more things burning.
I’ve worked in downtown Portland almost the entire time I’ve been here, and have been coming into the office daily since the pandemic shutdown ended. Each day the City is more vibrant and shows less of the deterioration that built up during the pandemic. When I ran home the other day past the ICE facility, it felt like any day prior to COVID, including days without protests. For Secretary Noem to witness this with her own eyes the other day and still try to feed into a narrative that the City is war-torn is nothing but insidious.
On a bright note, if there is one, the people here are laughing at this disconnect. And a side benefit seems to be that folks are jumping to social media to post beautiful photos and videos of the City, which are a delight to see, and which remind us why we love this place. But beneath that laughter and expression of love for the City is a sense of frustration of how difficult it is to watch a different narrative be told on the other side of the country, and the fear that so many people between here and there might believe that other narrative simpye because it’s coming from a place of authority.
