Protesters gathered at the Red House on Mississippi road, a home owned by the Kinney Afro-indigenous family that would have been evicted for owing less than $100,000 during a pandemic in the winter. A total of 7 initial arrests occurred, with police indiscriminately attacking protesters.
Further reading on the Red House can be found here: The Story: Red House on Mississippi; Background on the case below.
Protesters then began to take down the fence at the Red House, and barricaded the Mississippi road to stop the police from coming in. While they were still putting up barricades, police moved back in to continue evictions, sending a 2nd wave of reinforcements. They were pushed back by an extremely angry crowd after they attempted to advance on the protest site.
Police were then chased onto the open road, where they were hit by a protester’s fire extinguisher and were forced to retreat and wait for the 3rd reinforcement wave to arrive.
Police then returned to the scene, passing through another road not yet blockaded by the protesters with fences. Several police windows were smashed in of cruisers on the retreat, that were also dented by protesters’ kicks and punches and were covered in fire extinguisher. Several tires were also flattened, making it impossible to flee the scene quickly.
Once the police were completely chased out of the zone, calls to arms by the PNW Youth Liberation Front and other groups to the dubbed Red House Occupied Zone were made, with the fence immediately surrounding the house removed. Barricades were put up, with several layers of defense in anticipation for massive police presence later in the day.
As can be observed, several nail pikes were also set up to flatten any police tires that dared enter the area. Barricades were placed on Mississippi Avenue, and Albina Avenue, the former heart of Portland’s Black community before gentrification displaced them.
Food was quickly brought on the scene, with a working fridge and mountains of food being placed near the Red House.
