Yeah, so this is my letter to the Oregonian after I attended a Labor Against ICE rally in Portland, a couple of blocks from my own apartment actually. Speeches from folks in labor, then we walked down to the ICE building.
Guy on the PA said expect tear gas so I got ready to move. They usually shoot a few pepperballs and if that doesn't move people they'll drop one or two gas grenades, maybe a flashbang. So I was getting ready to get the hell out of there when they did that. But that ain't what they did though, they gassed the neighborhood like 3 blocks in multiple directions.
Wasn't there Sunday but they did it again, even worse. Folks at the senior care building six blocks away across from the hospital's clinics were gassed in their apartment. So was I, but I thought I just did a bad job washing everything at the time. Someone who was there both days said they counted 41 tear gas and 18 flashbang grenades total, and who knows how many pepperballs and rubber bullets fired.
Because a few people trespassed Saturday. And a couple shook the gate Sunday.
Oh, that gas mask? I'm a legally blind insulin-dependent diabetic albino with asthma and I'm on chemo for my stage 4 melanoma. The medic told me I really should have something called "PAPR" but … that ain't happening. At least a full-face respirator then with 3M 60926 magenta with olive stripe filters or similar NIOSH-approved. Not green or yellow. One person had a mask with a diaphragm to make speech clear through the mask. That and a couple filters is getting on toward $200 which is like 1/5 of my disability before rent, utilities, food, etc.
But fuck these nazis! If I need this inside my own apartment, I'll be back out there helping people two at a time, because I can.
Thumbnail from my stream video.. There's timecodes in the description. My Youtube's not big enough for Youtube monetization and I won't anyway. Feel free to crosspost on lemmy or reddit since I'm currently banned there for saying child rape ought to be a capital crime. (No apologies for that, either.)