October 16, 2018
Portland’s Lan Su Chinese garden is a great spot for a fall walk. Or rather an ambling, since something beckons to be looked at every 2 seconds. I have written about it before, and indeed today’s images were taken last October, but they perfectly represent what is there now. What they did not capture is this month’s exhibit, though, by Alice Debo, a graphic artist, and Jen Fuller who works with glass. I had the opportunity to see Jen’s representation of leaves in the making – she works in the studio of a friend of mine – the botanicals look like being made out of spun sugar and have a tender fragility that captures the mood of fall.
The mood of fall, the fragile, not tender, version, hits you if you sit down at any corner of this contemplative garden and allow your thoughts to gather. Not sure what’s in yours, but some of my thoughts circle around the various attempts these days, by a variety of actors, the bad as well as the seemingly less bad ones, to curb our constitutional rights.
There is the concerted attempt to curb protests in DC by effectively blocking them along the north sidewalk of the White House and making it easier for police to shut them down. The National Mall, site of MLK’s rousing speeches, Lafayette Square, Pennsylvania Ave, the area at Trump’s hotel. Not coincidentally this comes at the heels of protesters being labeled “angry mobs” and constitutional dissent describes as mob rule.
As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which opposes the effort, describes: ‘‘And now you have the Trump administration that is not only engaging in extreme rhetoric against demonstrators and suggesting that protests should be illegal, [but] taking concrete actions to suppress dissent and suppress free speech.’’
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trump-proposal-could-squelch-washington-d-c-protests/
Then there is the National Park Service. It proposes charging organizers for the cost of erecting barricades or reseeding grass. Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the District of Columbia points out that fee requirements could make mass protests “too expensive to happen.”
So many inroads to curb dissent. It all reminds me of the 1970’s in Germany, where a new law stated that even peaceful demonstrators could be charged for the entire cost of police operations, helicopters, wate canons, over- time and all, if they were present at a demonstration where violent actors did not disperse upon police instruction. Think about your willingness to go and demonstrate if by no action of your own your life can be ruined if you are the bystander the cops happen to get their hands on.
Closer to home, we had yet another violent clash between white supremacists and left protesters this week. https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2018/10/15/23708319/joey-gibson-encouraged-proud-boy-violence-in-portland-they-are-going-to-feel-the-pain
In response, beleaguered Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler proposed an emergency ordinance that would clamp down on how protests are handled. It would allow the police commissioner in charge (currently Wheeler) to assess if a planned protest will become a threat to public safety based on “statements or conduct” by members of any protesting groups or based on “other credible information” obtained by police before the event. He can then restrict time and place of any planned protests well as how many people are allowed to participate. This is particularly worrisome given the Portland Police Bureau’s use of the “both sides” narrative, equating aggressors from the alt- right with reactions from the Antifa -left.
As commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who is not happy with how fast this proposed ordinance is pushed through, points out:”There is a legitimate balance to be struck between public safety and free speech,” Eudaly went on. “In my view, this begins with an acknowledgment that in our city, although our policies must be content-neutral, it is far-right extremists and hate groups who are necessitating these measures.” PPB, for example, has only now acknowledged that they confiscated whole caches of fire weapons brought in by the white supremacists at previous brawls back in August. No charges or arrests, the and now, just like there were no arrest in NYC some days back when the very same Proud Boys engaged in violent clashes. No wonder comparisons of police passivity during the Jim Crow era and police inactivity now are starting to crop up in the media.
The ACLU gave this statement:
“The mayor’s proposal grants broad authority to the mayor’s office to regulate constitutionally-protected speech and assembly with no meaningful oversight for abuse,” said dos Santos in a press statement. “This action by the mayor demonstrates a lack of trust in the public and is an end-run around our usual democratic processes.”
Art today:
北宋 郭熙 樹色平遠圖 卷
Old Trees, Level Distance
Artist:Guo Xi (Chinese, ca. 1000–ca. 1090)
Period:Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)
Date:ca. 1080
