I just got home from hanging out with Occupy Portland. Some observations:
Lots of police presence on the outskirts but the mood was very relaxed. Occupiers and police hanging out.
In the camp: young person with a pet rat and a random cat running through. A security tent with lockers for people to store their stuff, a medical tent, an information tent, a food tent and other onlookers liker ourselves just checking it out. Overflowing garbage, a port a poty but otherwise uneventful.
Adjacent to the parks with tents, there is a 3rd park that had what I assume to be the general counsel meeting. They had a large projected computer presentation and an amplified mic. The crowd here had people with laptops and older people and better dressed than the main encampment that we walked through. It seemed moderately organized and there was a designated person to answer questions for new comers.
From my perspective, there are generally two groups of folks participating, the more organized, educated, thoughtful and for lack of a better term, the general riff raff.
Another thing I noticed beyond the expected signs of 99% etc., were signs about no LNG and signs about the proposed pipeline which I didn't really expect. It was an overall good experience checking it out for my fiance and myself and we're really curious of how things will pan out with the enforced dismantlement of the encampment this weekend.
We're hoping for a peaceful resolution to this but we also know that many are determined to fight to the bitter end.
