Portland, OR: June 11th Letter Writing and Noise Demo at Juvenille Detention Center

The following June 11th report back from Portland, Oregon was submitted anonymously to It’s Going Down.

On June 11th, some anarchists in Portland held a letter writing night at the Social Justice Action Center. While writing letters, we discussed projects like developing new forms of communication for Portland anarchists so that we can better communicate anarchist specific semi-public events off of social media networks. These discussions ranged from ramping up community tabling of literature and propaganda, to periodical print newspapers and wheat pasting, and online and mobile app communication platforms such as rocket chat and slack. After the letter writing event we held a noise demonstration outside of the Juvenile Detention Facility.

Once there we could hear that the kids were in the rec yard playing basketball. Between us was a 10ft or so wall where the tape of last years June 11th noise demos banner still hung. We were able to talk to them and ask first if they cared if we played a little music for them, that it might cost them rec time, and they agreed. Someone managed to scale it this time and put up a banner that read “You are not forgotten <3” along with our boombox blasting jams. We took requests and after one song that was definitely not the Mozzy they were looking for, we were able to oblige.

Not long in to their song, men from inside the prison came out and began to hassle us about the music and being on the wall and property. We were able to retrieve the boombox so as not to lose it, but left the sign hanging because why would we take that down? The men left us to go back inside and said the police were on their way. When they were out of sight roman candles and smoke bombs began to go off along with “woooos!!” and cheers of “fuck the police” and “fuck 12” exclaimed from both sides of the prison wall. We chanted “all cops are bastards” and bid farewell with roman candles alight. Amidst the spectacle the monsters further exposed themselves to the children, removing our banner from inside jail which read ” you are not forgotten <3″, affirming their despicable constitutions. We made it out of sight narrowly avoiding the cops which proceeded to prowl the surrounding neighborhood.

We met up afterward and felt that the demonstration was different than what we expected it might look like, but highly successful nonetheless. We also brainstormed ways we could be more prepared personally, and logistically for the next one.

It was an extraordinary moment being able to hoot & holler with the kids in solidarity against their jailers. We want to encourage our peers in Portland and around the world to get creative and have fun with positive actions like this one which will benefit our communities. Never compromise and never let the state dictate what is possible in OUR world!

-some anarchists