A riot it wasn't

Unless I'm missing something, we got through Tyre Nichols Weekend without any major damage here in Portland. Frankly, I'm surprised. I wouldn't speculate on what makes this case different from similar cases in the recent past. But the black-bloc set marched around for only a short while on Friday night, without trashing anything, at least that the media is covering.

Apparently a crowd of about 150 people, mostly young ones, were protesting at one point, and a few  showed up at Dawson Park near Emanuel Hospital. I admire their courage hanging out in that place, at any hour. The cops have turned it and surrounding streets over to the drug trade. Many bullets have flown in that vicinity in recent years. I try to avoid it.

It's a relief that things stayed peaceful in our town. But that's cold comfort when you think about what a violent, heartless, enraged, hate-filled place the United States of America has become. I'm not going to say we're better than this, because we prove on a daily basis that we aren't. But we need to get better, and soon.