Flawless and powerful press conference

I love these people. They are members of Portland Liberation Organizing Council,  an offshoot of Occupy Portland, and they have their act together. Today they called a press conference in front of a foreclosed building in northeast Portland, and they announced to the media their intention to join the neighborhood in "reclaiming community access to land that has been unjustly occupied by the banks" on May Day.

We heard four brief, hard-hitting, well-rehearsed speeches. They had press packets and fliers. They had a podium. They had a banner. They set everything up in front of a well-chosen abandoned house with fields around it, where there was plenty of parking and not much traffic. They contacted the mainstream media and the alternative media, and they had a small but strategic audience. They delivered a brilliantly-organized press conference, and not one law enforcement person showed up.

Back in November Sam Adams, Portland's Mayor, shut down the encampment and urged us to move on to the "next phase" of the occupation, a phase, he said, "where we can focus all of our energies on economic and social justice." One of the speakers today quoted that speech and spoke directly to the Mayor through the television cameras: "That phase is here, Sam. We call on you to support the movement by restraining your police force as we take positive action to remedy social injustice. On May Day, it begins."

For the Occupier story, click here.  For more of my pictures of the press conference, click here.

I've converted this to B&W on the advice of eo, and I've cropped it according to advice from Barrioboy. The original is here.