Newly founded community center in Portland targeted by police
Posted 12 years ago on Aug. 7, 2012, 12:39 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
via Portland Liberation Organizing Council and Occupy Portland. For more information and photos, see the Portland Occupier.
Portland, OR – Sunday night, August 5th, at approximately 11pm, six officers from the Portland Police forced their way into a newly created community center inside of a duplex owned by Alicia Jackson, and arrested one person inside. The duplex was reclaimed earlier in the day by approximately 250 people from the surrounding community during a neighborhood block party. The duplex was built on land that belongs to Ms. Jackson, which had been illegally foreclosed on by the banks in 2011.
“The neighbors have shown that they support this community center and are opposed to this duplex contributing to the gentrification of this neighborhood. The police came in tonight protecting the banks and the developers that are selling out our community and profiting out of the pockets of working people,” says Alicia Jackson. “Developers should not be allowed to profit from stolen land.”
Ms. Jackson had self-evicted from her home, adjacent to the duplex, in late 2011 after a long period of intimidation from the banks and financial institutions. After her illegal foreclosure, the bank sold her home and land, which was then divided and sold to a developer who then built the duplex. The community reclaimed Ms. Jackson’s home on May 1st, 2012. She has been living in the home with the support of her neighbors since then. Ms. Jackson is a member of the Black Working Group and has been organizing with her neighbors to stop the gentrification in NE Portland. The Black Working Group and Blazing Arrow Organization supported Annette Steele in defending her home against eviction on Friday, July 27th.
During the day on Sunday, August 5th, Alicia Jackson hosted a block party on her street in NE Portland where the community and neighbors helped to reclaim and liberate the duplex built on her land. The duplex was intended by the neighbors to be transformed into a community center for people, specifically youth of color, that would house an edible food garden, community fitness center, and meeting space for organizing against gentrification and violence in the neighborhood. These home and community center liberations are part of a broader movement to fight foreclosure and defend the historic people of color communities in north and northeast Portland. The duplex had not been inhabited since construction.
When the police arrived and forced their way into the duplex, a network of community support was activated and within the hour approximately 100 people came out to the homes to offer defense, witness, and assistance to the people living in those homes.
The police arrested one person who was a part of the liberation of that space earlier in the day and is a part of the Blazing Arrow Organization. The police went through the house with a police dog and a forensics unit, and left the homes at approximately 1:40am on Monday morning. The press release written by PPB at the time of arrest contains false information, including a false photo of the person arrested.
Said Lobo of Blazing Arrow: “The police are charging the arrestee with burglary and trespass of a home, but the fact is that nobody was living in this duplex since it was built, because nobody has wanted to move onto land that has been stolen from the original resident. Ms. Jackson and the community have not stolen anything– we have only taken back what was stolen from us. The burglary charge will not hold up in court because they have absolutely no evidence that the person who was arrested stole anything, or that they were planning to commit a crime. The community took this land back, to make a community center. If they’re going to charge one person with burglary, they might as well charge the whole community with it.”
To get updates about urgent community support needs for foreclosed homes and evictions, join the rapid response network by texting @ploc-openrrn to 23359.
The Black Working Group, formed out of Occupy Portland, is an organization working to fight against foreclosure and police violence in N and NE Portland.
The Blazing Arrow Organization was formed to organize the community to resist foreclosure and police violence.
We need a highly organized and sustainable National Reform Movement. The poor design of our government is what is allowing corruption to take control of it, and causing many of the problems we are concerned about. The Demand of OWS should be a redesign of our government to embrace a comprehensively designed ethical governance system (CEGS). A CEGS will include the best of current, democratic governance, economic, and social systems, while introducing new ideas to redesign the governance structure to protect it against corruption and halt the oppression of the people.
I wouldn't say that our efforts need to be directed into building or re-designing governing structures to be more ethical. We will still be alienated from them through centralized, representative mechanisms and the pre-figured systems that oppress individual agency (even CEGS would do that). What this article shows is that we need precisely the opposite; we need community. It is the community that came together to liberate this space for social, communal purposes. Why then should we retreat back under the wing of some structure that will always dominate the power relationship?
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