Zebroski v. Portland

Hello. My name is Peggy Zebroski. I’m a retired Physician’s Assistant. I moved to Oregon in my 30’s and spent most of my career as a medical provider for Planned Parenthood and Multnomah County clinics.

 

I’ve been involved in a variety of social justice movements since girlhood, beginning with marching with the farmworkers led by Caesar Chavez in the 60’s.

 

On President’s day a year ago I stood with a group of people in front of the federal building here in Portland, asking for justice for the killer of Quanice Hayes. This young man was killed while on his knees, confronted by a group of policemen wielding guns. I helped carry the banner of Don’t Shoot Pdx in the street. Confronted by bike officers, we remained in the street; then riot squads arrived. We  took to the side walk in confusion. There I was pulled abruptly from the curb and slammed into the pavement. As I lay face down on the wet street, an officer quite deliberately kneeled on my head, grinding it into the pavement. “You’re hurting me”, I remember saying- my nose was broken. I was arrested and spent the afternoon in jail. Months later, with the invaluable help of lawyer Matt McHenry, all charges were dropped, my record now expunged.

 

The Portland police have many faces. If you are well to do you may see them as protectors. If you are poor, houseless or of color, they are constant threat. If you challenge authority by action in the street, even with nonviolent protest, they respond with masked and armed violence, a dazzling array of ‘less then lethal’ weaponry designed to engender fear and cause pain. I was with thousands of protestors last May Day when police declared the march illegal offering contradicting commands unheard by the vast majority of marchers, then attacking with gas and percussion grenades from many directions; havoc ensued. All the marchers were dealt with as criminals for the actions of a few.

 

We’re living in a time of attacks on freedom from all sides. Some folks have stopped reading the news  to shield themselves from today’s harsh realities, as day by day civil rights and social supports are shredded and corporate power and greed are unmasked and victorious. Are we, those who protest these attacks, terrorists who should be violently crushed by faceless giants in riot gear? Should this violence have it’s desired effect, keeping us from expressing the outrage we feel? Portland Police Bureau has a history of treating peaceful protest as terrorism. I’m grateful that we still have the courts, and that the ACLU is working to unmask these tactics for what they are.

 

In the words of Martin Luther King;

 

“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

  

Let’s tear down the dam.