Occupy Portland stocking up on gas masks, homemade weapons, police warn

Site is scheduled to be cleaned up on Sunday

BY Nina Mandell
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, November 12 2011, 1:39 PM

Gas masks, homemade weapons and potluck dinners are being gathered by demonstrators at the Occupy Portland site, police warned Friday.

Officials said it seemed many of the protesters are building shields and makeshift weapons in anticipation of the site being temporarily closed for "maintenance" on Sunday, according to a press update on the Portland Police Bureau website.

Since city Mayor Sam Adams made the announcement that the park would be cleaned on Thursday, officials said they've seen increasingly ominous signs.

"We understand a call has gone out to Oakland, Seattle and San Francisco and perhaps other cities encouraging people to come to Portland and engage in resistance," the press release said.

Officials also warned they expect "as many as 150 anarchists" to arrive, adding "people may be in the trees during a police action".

It was not immediately clear why having people in trees was dangerous.

Cops are also concerned that Occupiers are attempting to obtain a large number of gas masks.

At the Occupy site, protesters insisted to the Oregonian they were peaceful - but wanted to make a statement.

In a press release handed to the newspaper, Occupiers said they were just getting ready for Sunday's cleanup.

"We are committed to it remaining peaceful but very concerned about information that people are massing for and preparing for a confrontation with police," the press release said.

Patrick Johnson, who the newspaper found packing up his suitcase, said he believed about a quarter of the protesters would stay - and cause trouble.

"They believe that this has not been a successful occupation because nobody got shot, there have been no mace cans to the head…they're ignorant," he told the paper. "This is history. There were some failures in it, but the cool thing is…we got to try."

While in many cities, including New York, the Occupy protests have stayed calm, many protesters in Portland voiced concern that their peaceful demonstration could have the same fate of Occupy Oakland, where police used tear gas and batons on protesters last week.

Police insisted they were working with the group to facilitate peaceful acts of resistance.

"We've talked to a few people who said they want to be arrested. If that's the case, we're telling them to take a seat, tell the officer they want to be arrested and we will process them in the nicest possible manner. We understand that when people want to practice civil disobedience and be arrested, we can facilitate that," Police Chief Mike Reese told the Oregonian.