march of frogs | Edge

By the time I arrived, the waterfront park in downtown Portland, Oregon, was filled with people as far as the eye could see. The “No to Kings” protest in June involved about 10,000 people across the city. Many times that number were seen in the city center alone, with thousands more choosing to join local protests in their neighborhoods or in the suburbs.

Unable to get an accurate estimate of the number of attendees, I instead tried to count the inflatable frog costumes. I gave up on this after about twenty minutes: there were too many frogs.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating so-called “Antifa” a domestic terrorist group — a designation that does not exist. The presidents’ order was followed by a national security presidential memorandum ordering members of his cabinet to force Chase and prosecution The shadowy forces of Antifa and their alleged well-moneyed funders. Two days later, the president ordered the National Guard into “war-ravaged Portland” to “protect” Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Antifa, turning the mid-sized city into a hotbed of combat.

A lawsuit followed, as did the state of Oregon and the city of Portland He went to court To accuse Trump of hallucinating a war zone that does not exist, a new symbol of resistance was born. A viral video captured a protester in Inflatable frog suit A flock of military ICE agents stares, so to speak, and suddenly inflatable costumes appear strict Not just at the protests in Portland but across the country.

In Portland, June protests were dominated by American flags and the crossed-out crown symbol. The October protests, on the other hand, were all about the frog. Throughout the crowd, there were inflatable frog costumes of varying degrees of quality – mostly green, with a couple of pink frogs and a Halloween-themed skeletal frog. There were many other inflatables, too – unicorns, sharks, dinosaurs, chickens, squirrels, flamingos, aliens, Garfield – but the frog became ubiquitous in all its forms. There were people dressed as frog kigurumi, people wearing frog masks and frog hats and little paper frog cut-outs pinned to little hats. Banners and T-shirts featured frogs and words like “polygon” and “jump.” Three inflatable frogs posed for photos on the waterfront path; Protesters crowded around with their phones, excited like kids at Disneyland waiting to take pictures with Mickey Mouse.

Aside from the signs, the crowd itself wouldn’t look too strange at Disneyland. Many of the signs were repetitions of phrases such as “Stop Fascism,” “Fuck Ice,” or “Fuck Trump.” Women strolled through the park wearing T-shirts and T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Aunt Tifa” in bright letters. Several signs referenced the Executive Order and National Security Presidential Memorandum that portrayed Antifa as a centralized, organized movement paid for by George Soros. One sign read: “I’m not a paid protester, I’ll pay to protest this bullshit.” “Oh Cankles-McTaco-Tits! No one paid me to be here,” read another. An inflatable zebra carried a sign that read, “Soros: Venmo me @AntifaZebra.”

“The administration thinks we’re all getting paid by Antifa to be here,” said Ralph Christiansen, who has lived in Portland all his life. He was holding a sign that said “Still Waiting for My Antifa Check” and wearing a baseball cap over his gray hair, indicating he was a military veteran.

“I haven’t got it yet,” Christiansen joked. “Maybe I didn’t fill out the right paperwork or something.”

“I’m a vet, and I think a lot of the people working in policy making right now are not on our side,” he said when he said. Edge I asked him why he was protesting. “Every day I wake up and say, ‘What did they do now? What did they do now?’ He described strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela. “Every day, there’s something new, and I’m really tired of it. I hope things like this change it.”

“The lies are getting so old, so old,” said Connie Copeland, an elderly woman who carried a sign that said, “I am Aunt Tifa.” One Oregon-born local said she has been present at every No Kings protest in the area throughout the year.

“People are being kidnapped off the streets without any kind of regard for who they are, and it is very clear that we are in trouble and we have to stand up and speak out,” said Copeland, who was wearing a frog T-shirt.

When asked about the clip that brought out a million frogs, she confirmed that she had watched it and loved it. “Oh, it’s great. Because again, it’s a peaceful thing and Portland is the absolute best at being peaceful and loving and accepting of everyone.”

“I look around and I don’t see a war zone anywhere,” City Councilman Samir Kanal said on stage, going on to praise the weather, parks, Willamette River and Portland’s various sports teams. “We have therapy llamas at the airport and naked bike rides and we have chickens and frogs standing up for democracy.”

The waterfront park area around the Battleship Oregon Monument is about two miles from the ICE facility where the original Frog faced off with camouflage-covered federal troops; A small but dedicated group of protesters has been showing up regularly every night for months. This weekend’s “No Kings” protest may attract people of virtually all ages; The crowd at the ICE facility tends to skew young. There are a wide range of reasons why this is the case, the most important of which is that federal law enforcement continues to shoot people with pepper balls. Getting hit repeatedly with less lethal objects is a young man’s game.

“These young, peaceful protesters are the spearhead of our movement,” one speaker at the rally said, drawing a line that connects and separates the No Kings protests from the ICE facility protest. But it was clear that the ICE facility protest had set the agenda in at least one respect. “We will respond to fascism with absurdity, which only Portland can do,” the speaker said to loud cheers from the crowd.

Later, another speaker took the microphone to chant: “Show Trump what democracy looks like!”

“This is what democracy looks like!” The crowd responded.

“Show Trump what Portland looks like!”

The crowd, all dressed in glitter, fur and swaying inflatables, chanted, “This is what Portland looks like!”

The weather became more seasonally favorable when I arrived at the ICE facility. The downtown waterfront showcases Portland’s magic—the sparkling river, the arched bridges above, and the trees currently filled with golden fall leaves. Meanwhile, the ICE facility is wedged between a freeway ramp and a Tesla dealership, in a building in a neighborhood built around OHSU Hospital.

About a dozen soldiers — wearing camouflage clothing, body armor, helmets and masks — were deployed on the roof of the building, looking out at a crowd of 500 people, many of them wearing costumes. There were unicorns, dinosaurs, sea urchins, lobsters, and of course lots of frogs. Three inflatable bald eagles swayed holding a sign that read, “Real Americans are Antifa.” Others came dressed in foam Halloween costumes – Banana and Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants (But in fishnets) I started dancing furiously when Britney Spears’ EDM mix started playing.

Counter-protesters and right-wing banners are Regular presence on this sitebut for now, their presence is dwarfed by the massive wave of festivals. I met some of them outside the immediate vicinity – a pair of men shouting “Heil Hitler” and “Hitler should put you in prison” at me over a loudspeaker. The intended effect was tempered by the fact that they were on Lime scooters, and also by how frantically they rushed when a speeding motorcycle began following them around the building.

If No Kings looked a bit like Disneyland, the ICE protests felt like a carnival in a parking lot, or perhaps a pride parade in an REI clearance section. Stacks of massive speakers blared everything from dubstep to Lily Allen. At one point, the speakers played “Bella Ciao”, a song made popular thanks to the Italian anti-fascist resistance against dictator Benito Mussolini, without any reaction from the audience. (I’ve never heard this song at a protest in Portland Before the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk was arrested; A local journalist confirmed he didn’t hear it either.) The next song — “YMCA” by Village People — was better received, and protesters began aggressively doing the YMCA dance in front of the ICE agents looming above them.

About a third of the demonstrators wore gas masks or respirators. The fumes of pepper balls and pucks still linger on the sidewalks, making it uncomfortable to stand there without a face covering of some sort.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the only fucking terrorist in Portland,” one protester told the feds over a loudspeaker, mocking them for their militaristic group. “Look around. Your enemy is a barista named River.”

As the Federals stood from the top of the building, state troopers rode unhindered through the crowd on bicycles. Local police liaison officers were wandering back and forth. Banners and chants still mock the police, but no one seems particularly bothered by the actual police. All eyes were on ICE instead.

“Jump!” The crowd chanted at the Federals on the roof. “Jump!”

As the feds directed a bright light at them, middle fingers appeared across the crowd. When I looked behind me, I saw a sea of ​​faces upside down in the rain, eyes sparkling in the light.