M1: Video: Portland Police Beat Protesters, Pull Their Hair, Drag them in the Street, Attack Media

photo by Lauriel

<This story is part of our feature about the many protest events on May 1, 2012. Visit the feature page to see more.

by Adam Rothstein

Updated: 11:45 AM – Updated with additional video footage of the first incident. If you have footage of this or any other incident that you would like to share, please email us at portland.occupier@gmail.com.

Updated: 7:10 PM – The name of the third cameraperson is Chops.

It’s been a long day out at the various May Day events, and we are still processing all of our video and photos from the day. However, videos have surfaced that are such egregious examples of the Police violence that was unleashed against protesters today, that we wished to publish these videos without delay.

The first shows a woman being thrown to the curb, and her head being slammed into a bicycle. It was taken during the General Strike march, between 12 and 2 PM on May 1. After the police see the camera man filming, they charged him with police horses, to which he reacts, understandably upset at almost being trampled.

Another piece of video shows the same scene, from a different angle, and clearly shows the police pushing horses onto people standing, doing nothing more than filming the arrest and being upset.

The third piece of footage shows police attacking people standing on the sidewalk, throwing them to the group, and then assaulting a young woman, including pulling her hair very forcibly. Then, they drag another person across the Light Rail tracks. Again, in this situation, the camera man was attacked while in the process of documenting the arrests.

It is very troubling that this sort of violence is used to attempt to enforce traffic infractions. Furthermore, the threatening gestures made towards the media, on a day when several members of the media were beaten by police and arrested, is very concerning.

We thank our brave media people who braved this violence, so that the people can see what their police force is paid to do to the citizens of Portland. The first video is by OPMC’s Mike BH, and the second is by John W. The third is by a person whose name I unfortunately forget [edit: his name is Chops], but who stopped by the media van, concerned that this video would not be seized by the police if he were to be arrested. Thank you all, for helping tell the truth.