Portland, Maine: Protest shuts down key interstate ramp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Beth and I drove to Portland early yesterday afternoon to join a large protest in solidarity with Gaza. I was asked to be a police 'liaison' along with one other person. 

The people began arriving at the busy intersection of Franklin Street & Marginal Way just before 1:00 pm. Soon the two sides of the highway closest to the on-ramp for the I-295 Interstate were full of people - about 100 on each side.

At 1:40 the first policeman arrived and about that same time a ceasefire banner was hung from the interstate overpass. That is when people poured out into the four-lane section of road to effectively shut down traffic.

It took the cops awhile to get reinforcements there but eventually about 25 city police began re-routing traffic on the other streets leading to the blocked intersections. Folks were in the road for an hour which meant access on and off the major interstate was shut down at that ramp.

During the first hour of the event speeches and chanting were interspersed as the very loud crowd made eye contact with the passing cars - many of which honked and waved in support of the protest.

One of the things the two of us volunteering as police liaison did was to keep asking the cops to give those blocking more time. And they did that. Several times they gave a 10-minute warning but then nothing happened. (They might have just been waiting on a 2nd paddy wagon to arrive since they were not certain how many would risk arrest.)

Eventually they gave the final warning and arrested 11 activists from throughout the state.

It was a great event - very well organized by the young leadership. In fact I'd say that about 80% of those attending were under 35 years old. The Democrats are losing alot of young voters over Washington's complicity with Israel in the genocide of Palestine.

Sadly our Maine Congressional delegation is worthless on this issue. They've done nothing to help stop this Israeli-US bloodbath in Gaza. We've got to create even more heat on them.

As I was leaving I congratulated the police captain in charge of the operation. I told him they did a professional job and he surprisingly (with out any anger) said 'You all did too'.

Those arrested were Mark Roman, 76, of Solon; Sophia Fuller, 77, of Belfast; Abigail Fuller, 63, of Portland; Jamila Fuller, 69, of Waldo; Paige Milligan, 34, of Brunswick; Lisa Savage, 69, of Solon; Roryalice Hoecker, 29, of Portland; Haley Marchant, 33, of Old Orchard Beach; Hallie Herz, 25, of Portland; Yusef Ebrahim, 27, of Portland; and Natalie Joyce, 25, of Waterville.

It is important to remember that Maine has only 1.3 million people in our very large state located in the northeast. We have alot more trees and lobsters than people. 

It took the corporate media a long time to get to the protest but eventually two TV stations and a newspaper showed up.

Bruce

~ Photos by Mary Beth Sullivan (Click on them for a better view)