Protesting George Bush in Oregon

1/5/22

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Chanting slogans against President Bush, about 500 activists marched through a Portland neighborhood Saturday to protest the president's policies just before his arrival here.

"Hey George, we didn't like your dad and we don't like you," the protesters shouted, alluding to hostile receptions that Portland activists would give Bush's father when he was president.

The protesters -- many of them opponents of the war in Afghanistan -- had planned to march to a job training center where President George W. Bush spoke to unemployed people.

But police barricades and a line of riot police prevented the marchers from getting close to the job center.

As the protesters milled around the barricades a military helicopter watched them from above.

Three young women were cited for interfering with a police officer because they refused to leave a secured area, said Henry Groepper, a Portland police spokesman.

Arrested at the training center location were Kathryn Alsop, 22, of Portland; and Shayne Weinstein, 21, of Portland. An unidentfied woman was later cited at Parkrose High School, where the president gave a speech.

The march started from a park several blocks from the job center.

Later, outside Parkrose, mounted police cleared an intersection by spurring their horses into a crowd of jeering protesters, pushing them onto the sidewalk.

Nancy Vaught, 57, who stood on the president's route with her husband hoping to snap a picture of the motorcade, said she was upset by the chanting and hooting crowd.

"We're very disappointed in all this," she said. "We like that the president is visiting."

The protest was organized by a peace group called Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, which has objected to civilian casualties in Afghanistan and on limits on civil liberties at home. But also among the marchers were activists representing environmental and anti-globalization causes.

Some activists carried a large effigy of a businessman with a cigar in his mouth.

One of their signs read "Election-Stealing Terrorist President Not Welcome Here." Another read "Another Bush, Another Recession."

Bush's father, former President George Bush, used to refer to Portland as "Little Beirut" because of the protesters he encountered in the city during visits.

"He's going to experience the same thing as his dad," said protester Jim Henry.