Thread by @oregon_history

25 years ago today, something happened here at 214 W Burnside. And it kinda freaked #Portland the fuck out.

Of course - 25 years ago, the place looked quite a bit different... It was called the X-Ray Cafe.

(It wasn't really established in 1890. That's some silly shit...)

But silly shit - silly ART is what the X-Ray was all about! It was an all ages music venue, right on rough and tumble Burnside.

If you aren't old and it's not ringing a bell... JB talked about it on our podcast walking tour right here... orhistory.com/archives/5790

And Sarah Mirk wrote about the venue here. oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/x_ray…

Correct! Owned by Tres Shannon AND Ben Ellis. I had a chance to interview both of them over the past few weeks.

So it was no booze and all ages and they booked trippy performance bands and street musicians and touring bands that didn't play Satyricon or Starry Night.

Needless to say - there wasn't a lot of dough - but I'm guessing a shithole on Burnside in the early 90s didn't go for tooooo much dough...

Decorations were not New Portland style...

But this isn't a history of the X-Ray, this is about Sunday 7/18/1993. PUNK ROCK HELL, aka The X-Ray Riot. And that spot on Burnside looked like this...

The was an Anarchist Un-Conference coming through town between Frisco and Le Couve. They wanted to have some events in Portland as they stopped along I-5.

I have some photos of the programming of the UnConference from the City Archives, if you'd like to see 'em?

They'r grammerrs weren't so good...

The Anarchists had lots of activities planned while in P-Town... like a Scavenger Hunt!

"Pickpocket a yuppie wallet" Lulz.

A list of resources for visiting Anarchists. This was before we had computers in our pockets, so I'm thinking this shit was helpful...

(Shout out to Sisters of the Road still being up in this piece 25 years later, doing good work to this day!!)

So pretty good looking graphics in the mix too.

It was the "Holiday in Beirut U.S.A," a spin off of the fabled nickname that the Bush Administration (the Old Bush) gave to Poh-land OrYgun. "Little Beirut!"

Portland supposedly got this nickname due to the protests in our downtown streets when Old Bush and Quayle visited four times - 1989 to 1991.

Oh - and everybody all banged up rn about Daryl Turner calling us a cesspool. In October of 90, Police Union Pres Stan Peters called the Little Beirut protesters `'street scum'' and ``knee-jerk liberals.''

This is important.

People were pissed about the Portland Police Bureau beating up Little Beirut protesters. Peter didn't give a fuck.

So THIS is the context of "Holiday in Beirut." The Anarchists were coming to town, and the cops were down with a fight.

Not that the Anarchists weren't looking to stir some shit up - they were! They wanted to fight some Nazis! Cause Nazis were uncool even back in 1993!

So when the Anarchists where on their Holiday in Little Beirut, and not beating up Nazis, they wanted to have some fun! And THAT FUN would be had on Sun 7/18 at the X-Ray!

Tres and Ben had booked some punk rock bands on that Sunday, and they started getting more and more requests for punk rock shows that day.

The Big O says 9 punk rock bands for the all day show - Tres says it was more. It was sooooo much Punk Rock that Tres scratched the line-ups off the calendar and called the show PUNK ROCK HELL!

Tres and Ben said they didn't really know that it was part of an Anarchist UnConference. They didn't know about the UnConference.

Not that that matters all that much, tho... TS: "If it was sold to us as an Anarchist Day, I still think we would have booked it. But it was never an Anarchist Day. It was PUNK ROCK HELL."

So allllll these punk rock bands are at the X-Ray. And a bunch of Anarchists. And some punk rock dudes too. Just having a good fucking time, maaaaannnn...

Straight edge vegan puck rock girls and dudes at the XRay Cafe on a Sunday afternoon. Fucking 90s Portland on 11.

And so some folks heard there were some Nazi skinheads at Pioneer Square. And some of the more violent Anarchists decided to go to the Square and kick their Nazi asses.

They left the XRAY, went to Square and found it lacking in Nazis, so they went into Nordstroms and freaked the fuck out of some customers, spit on the MAX and went back to the XRay, with some of Portland's Finest tagging along in a squad car.

And what showed up? The Portland Police allll dressed up in riot gear. 40 of em. Some horse cops too. They closed Burnside, and kids came pouring out of the XRAY.

So you had maybe 65 Anarchists and 40 or more Portland Police. Right on fucking Burnside. Ominous. Like the Yard but poor and on the other side of the river.

And Ben Ellis, Xray co-owner, was in the middle of both of em, trying to keep everyone's shit together.

Now this is when Portland is deep in their experiment with Community Policing, which Chief Tom Potter brought to PDX, and Chief Charles Moose (Portland's 1st black chief) really refined.

(That's Moose in that picture) And here's Moose, Potter and Derrick Foxworth (Portland's 2nd black chief). Foxworth plays in our tale tonight.

There wasn't much Community Policing going on during that July Sunday. No discussions. BE tried to talk to the cops and they threatened him with billy clubs.

Nor had the warned Ben or Tres about the Anarchist UnConference ahead of time. They just showed up ready to fulfill their side of the "Little Beirut" moniker.

I look at it like when you have a dance partner - right? You know your roles. You know your partner's.

Well it was time to dance, bitches.

The Anarchists broke loose and started tear assing through the streets of Portland. Breaking windows. Jumping on cars. Knocking over newspaper boxes.

Ooops! Sorry - technical Old Timey vocab. We used to have these in #Portland.

The New Market Theater, McCormick and Schmick’s restaurant, and the Portland Outdoor Store were all recipients of the anarchists’ rocks and rage, and broken windows were common.

BUT - Ben Ellis said he saw Portland Police officers break windows with billy clubs too.... Sooo? *shrugging person emoji*

It was a clusterfuck, you know? Nobody won. Everyone lost. Thirty-one anarchists were arrested for multiple charges, “including rioting, disorderly conduct, vandalism and disobeying a police officer"

Both sides had different shit to say.

Sgt. Foxworth: I think my God, if we hadn't been there, this would have been much worse. If we had not shown up, I think the situation would have gotten completely out of hand... (cont)"

Foxworth: "You would have had unruly groups of thugs running the streets."

*gasp!!*

*Gasp!!*

Foxworth said, "When you give groups like this credibility, when you give them play in the media, when you side with them, you give them room to breathe,"

(Which really sounds kind of fucking weird!)

Chief Moose defended the Police response as well. "I think the officers and command people that addressed that issue addressed it in the only way possible. (cont)"

Moose: "They were going against a group that it's their culture and code not to compromise and not to negotiate. Wen you talk about that their credence is anarchy, then where do you go from there?"

Editorial/Historian Note: imho, THAT'S THE FUCKIN' MONEY QUOTE RIGHT THERE!

There were many that felt that the mere PRESENCE of the riot cops incited violence from the Anarchists. Ben Ellis had some thoughts on that when I spoke with him last week.

BE: "Their presence becomes part of the problem and they need to be selective in being present. By showing up, they become players in the thing, they're not just impartial observers. They show up and create a dynamic."

BE: "This 'riot' was a prime example of that... It was a situation of their making."

So right now I'm pondering that. I'm really thinking about that...

Cause when the turtles show up- like, where do we go from there?

How do we chill that shit out?

And how do we still get to exercise our freedom of speech, our right to assemble and be straight edge, right?

And it's not like I have the answers - I'm a Historian, not a present-ist. I don't have the answers, I just hand out weed at Trump rallies... wweek.com/cannabis/2017/…

But somewhere in there, we can look at 25 years ago today, and see where we are at - and where we want to be. And @PortlandPolice play a vital role in that discussion.

Thanks for following along, Folks! Now Imma plug next week's show where I'll play audio from these interviews and look at other Portland protests!

THANK YOU!! -DKC