Todd Pitt

Yesterday evening I was just a normal guy going to get dinner in Portland, when I was returning to my car which was parked at the corner of Hawthorne and 49th I walked into the middle of a heated anti-police protest being carried out by a group of about 30-40 vocal protesters. This is my first hand account citizen witness of the protest incident as it unfolded. Here are links to all of my witness photography of this protest on flickr and all of the videos I shot of the protest on Vimeo.

Prelude to a Random Protest

I was working all day and up into the evening on Tuesday March 23rd on my laptop at cafe on Hawthorne. I drove up and parked my car the the corner of 49th & Hawthorne walked up to the Sapphire Hotel and ordered dinner to go. I got my dinner and walked back down to my car, but as I crossed the street I noticed that something was going down on Hawthorne. A black line of people were silhouetted in the night against a backdrop of red and blue flashing lights, they were advancing towards me. I hopped in my car, set my to-go dinner on the passenger seat and quickly pulled my car off onto the side street parking it there, as I did I could see in the rear view protesters rapidly approaching and heard shouting.

Citizens of Portland, Carry a Camera

I felt in my gut that something important was happening or going to happen. So I grabbed my camera out of my bag, locked my car stepped out to the corner of the street and just started shooting the protest. The protesters turned off of Hawthorne Blvd onto on 49th Street headed into a residential area. I think it is important to say here that I have no knowledge of what occurred with the protest or the police up to this point.

The Protesters Turn onto 49th

There was a lot of police following them marked cars, unmarked cars, motorcycles and officers on foot. I estimated the group of protesters to be about 30-40 in number and they were on foot, skateboards and bicycle. As the group of protesters rounded the corner onto 49th a few of them knocked trash cans and a street sign from the side of Tanker Bar out into the street to block the police cars who were driving very close behind them. At this point I figured out what the protests were about, because I overheard two people who were watching talking about the Police the fatal shooting and of a man with at the Hoyt Arboretum.

Some people came out of the bar to see what happened and one woman commented

“Well that is a good way to get yourself arrested.” – A Bystander

A police officer stepped out of his patrol vehicle and threw the sign from the Tanker back onto the side walk, then resumed following the protesters up 49th Street. You can see this here in Video 1 -

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 1 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.

Why not just walk to the sidewalk an place the sign back where it belonged? A few Portlanders did put the signs and the trashcans back on the side of the building. At this point I decided to follow the protest, photograph and shoot video of it.

The Second Protest In Two Days

The protesters were chanting angry anti-police slogans like this:

“FU*K THE POLICE! NO JUSTICE NO PEACE!” – The Protesters

“Cops! Pigs! Murders!” – The Protesters

Here you can see, hear the chants and the police ordering the protesters out of the street, threatening that anyone could be arrested and anytime here in Video 2  -

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 2 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.

Portland Policeman Hits Protester With Motorcycle

This video contains footage of exactly how the anti-police protest escalated. The protesters were walking in the street on 49th/50th Ave, the lead line of police on motorcycles who were following began to rev their motorbike engines accelerating up too close behind the protesters.

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 3 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.

WATCH FROM 0:30-01:22 TO SEE THE ASSAULTS

Shocked witnesses, concerned citizens, photographers began shouting at the Portland Police -

“Look what you did! Look what you did! I saw you” – witnesses

“Are you going to run people over?” – witness

“You are running people over! Look at you.” – witness

Here is some more footage of the same moments of the assault taken from a different angle by a East Portland KATU news.

A Portland Motorcycle Policeman escalated the situation at the protest to the point of violence by running into a protester with his motorcycle, then a protester retaliated, hurtling his bicycle at and striking the Police Officer. The man who allegedly assaulted the Portland Motorcycle Policeman was named Joel David Dow. He was charged with assault second degree and assaulting a public safety officer, bail was set in the ballpark of $290,000.

The Portland Police Arresting The Suspect

This is the scene of the suspect being arrested for Police Assault in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Southeast Portland.

Another citizen journalist recording the arrest right up close and personal.

The police with big red bottles of mace or pepper spray.

Portland residents watching the event unfold from their front yards and lawns as the PDX Police confer.

March Continued to Police Building On Burnside

The protesters took the march to the police literally. They marched too and stopping right in front of the SE police traffic division building on Burnside. The police set up a perimeter, guarding the station. The protesters rallied around the station Flag, periodically chanting and drumming.

PDX Police in Front of The SE Traffic Division

The Police Glaring At Me

Protesters Camped Out In Front Of The Traffic Division

Protesters Rallying Around The Flag At The Police Division

Marching On As The Police Began To Flank The Protesters

Protesters Marching Away from the Police Building on Burnside

Black Masks, Black Flags

Protesters Marching Down Burnside

More Footage of the Protest

Video 4

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 4 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.
More footage of protesters and the cops.

Video 5

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 5 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.
More protesters chanting “Cops, Pigs, Murders!” and lots of police on motorbikes. Three of them circled around me while I was shooting this clip.

Video 6

One observer in this video was singing the star spangled banner, very badly but made his point. Freedom?

“Oh say can you see, by the dawns early light…”

Cops cops more cops and cops with mace canisters. Chanting.

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 6 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.

Video 7

Portland Police Brutality Protest and Assault 7 from Todd Pitt on Vimeo.

The Police arresting the man who threw his bike at the police officer and neighbors coming out of their houses watching the arrest.

Protest Route Through SE Portland

• East On Hawthorne Blvd (where I encountered the protest)
• Left Turn North on SE 49th Ave, over Belmont Street
• Right Turn East for one block SE Stark Street
• Left Turn North on SE 50th Ave
• Left Turn West on E Burnside Street
• Stopped in front of the SE Portland Police Department.
• Continued West down E Burnside Street down past 44th Ave (discontinued following Protest)

Links to Other Media About The 3/23/2010 Protest

• Heated protest against police shooting erupts
• Emergency Response to another Police Murder
• Police Abuse march for Police Accountability
• Portland Police Abuse Protest for Police Accountability 3/23/10
• Portland man arrested for police assault at shooting protest
• The Portland Mercury Anti-Cop Protest Turns out…

What the Protest Was About

• Portland police shoot and kill transient, spark community protest
• Police release name of man fatally shot by Portland Officer

Disclaimer

I want to make a few things very clear. I was first person witness, a citizen journalist by happenstance and I am not affiliated with any government organization, the cops and was not a part of the protesters or the protest group who organized this event. I just saw what happened. All of the videos and images I took are original and unedited, you can use them but must link to the sources and this post.

Under Construction, Phase II is Underway

Phase I (Creation/Function) – Completed

The site is up running, meta-data, metrics tracking, RSS is straight, bookmarking is in order, basic badges are up, taxonomy has given way to folksonomy, I hacked up the theme, did the header graphics creation and optimization…well you get the picture.

Phase II (Migration/Extension) – Underway

This blog is currently under construction in Phase II and undergoing content migration, I expect all of the content that was on Todd Pitt 1.0 to be accessible within two weeks. Also, I will be adding features, widgets, plug-ins and technological gadgets into the Todd Pitt 2.0 so that it is much more social, integrated with my other sites, has more features and well..is more of a representation of myself.

Are Fails Always Fails?

So my attempts to blog every day for three months was less then a success, not surprisingly.  Well lets see there was the holidays, family stuff, preparing for a new baby, being sick and a whole host of other random stuff going down.  Never a dull moment I swear, but hey would I really want it any other way?  Nope. I love my wife, my daughter, my work in social media and my life.

Setting realistic goals is something that everyone struggles with from time to time, especially when you become impassioned about a subject, topic or project.  Seeing it through is often an act of total self determination under fire, but it is not really a failure if disengage from a project as long as you are keeping to your priorities.  Keeping my fitness and family on track is no doubt a much more important thing then blogging on any day.

Some people will lose sight of these life priorities and get lost in the social media, missing out on important things that are happening in the real world and often times allowing portions of their lives to go to hell in a hand cart.

I am really happy that 2008 is over and that it is 2009 now.  Though I did achieve exceed many of my goals for 08′, a few things that were pretty important did not go down quite the way that I envisioned or would have preferred them too.  My list of mental notes of what I want in my life, work, health and family has grown longer, more concise.

This is a great gift that has provided me with a new direction which I am actively and vigorously pursuing.  I am getting very focused on my visions for my work and lining things up to make them happen, though it has been a tough couple of months, I am moving in one direction: forward.

Here is a short list of my personal goals for 2009 -

• Complete at least two digital poetry projects
• Write, play, meditate or pray everyday
• Swim, mountain bike, run or racquetball consistently
• Shoot 10,000+ plus photos (only hit 7K this year)
• Produce 3 video projects
• Create 5 collages (digital or paper)
• Make 20 new friends and 100 new acquaintances
• Participate in 3 communities, build at least 1

I am conducting a new experiment: can I blog everyday for 3 months? As I surfed around the blogosphere the other night, I read that that the “hump” for forming blogging into a human “habit” is if you do it on a daily basis is 3 months. Meaning that if you blog for 3 months straight everyday you will blog roughly everyday after that.

So here goes now let’s see if I can get habitual with my Web 2.0 efforts!

Rolled down to D.C. tonight to drop Kyoko off to meet up with her sister Junko at Teasim. I got an Immi for the evening and went over to my best friend Lex’s place in the hood. Alexis is great with kids, and Immi loved hanging out with her. The Immi-chan tried to pull the hoops out of Lex’s ears and was tugging on her red hair a bit.

Lex’s boyfriend John plays in a band called Vagus and he has picked up many bad habits from the road and the mobs of rabid groupies. He wasted no time teaching my daughter how to hold a beer bottle and down a brewsky or two…this photo is totally classic!

Behold A Possessed Budweiser Immi

Imogen was also having fun pulling on John’s hair, come to think of it she enjoys pulling on everybody’s hair!

Immisaurus Rex Wrecking Hair-dos Everywhere

John was really good with Immi too. I think she was thoroughly entertained and liked learning a few bad habits from her would-be rockstar Uncle Jonny!

Decided to make a few stylistic changes to my this Blog & Photoblog which will take effect today:

First off I will now be posting all Photoblog pictures on the Main Blog page under the category “Photography” in addition to the Photoblog page. This is for both aesthetic reasons and functionality reasons. Some people may just want to see the Photoblog and others may want to see the collective mass of work I produce all in one medium. This way it is more user friendly and the blog will be more collage like.

Second I have added a category called “Immi” to post more pictures, videos, stories and my insights into the world of Imogen my beautiful babydoll of a daughter. Many people already frequent my wife’s baby blog called “immi” and to see what is going on in the life of an Immi. Kyoko has done such a good job creating a fluid aesthetic that I do not want to alter it in any way by contributing to it, because it is already perfect.

Third I added two categories one called “Blog Updates” and another called “Todd Pitt.com Updates” to keep track of changes made to this blog and my official website. Let me know by posting your comments if you have any suggestions on how to improve or streamline this blog.

Check out my latest multimedia creation entitled Cloud Mosaic.

This project took me about two days of straight work from conception, to storyboard, to web completion.

Cloud Mosaic is entirely composed from 46 original cloud photographs that I took all over the United States in last four years or so. I used random numbers generated from an atmospheric noise algorithm in order to determine the photo selection and timing when creating the animated gif tiles that compose this piece.

I loved making this project because it uses various elements of my artistic preoccupations (randomness, web graphics, photography, nature, divinity, both abstraction and the theoretical) to create something that I don’t think I will ever get tired of looking at. It is a kind of a living photo or photographic compilation. Cloud Mosaic is a piece of visual poetry I have been composing for years, yet only took a few days to manifest into creation.

Permanent Cloud Mosaic URL:
http://www.toddpitt.com/multimedia/cloudmosaic/index.html

This is what happens when people are unemployed. They apply all of their spare and idle brain power to absolutely senseless things like igniting 80,000 bottle rockets…nuf said.