Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen


Unsafe to Protest? Realities Behind the Portland Picture

September 11, 2020

We’ve seen it on the nightly news: the police, the tear gas, the fires, and the wall of moms. Our guest today, David Rovics is there in Portland Oregon and he explains that the city’s police protected the far right thugs as brother cops,just not official. The invasion by secret federal troops, grabbing people and throwing them into vans, brought out many more locals. Rovics explains that protesters organized into effective affinity groups, and that burning barricades were defensive against violence to humans. Over the three months, the dynamics have evolved. America has much to learn from Portland.