As we reached 5th and Taylor, the crowd continued to draw back, creating a large open space where the barricade was being reestablished on the corner. And who do we clearly see in that open space, with not a soul in front of him and in no danger?
Why, over on the left, that's our old friend officer Can't-Read-His-Nametag! And, say, he looks like he's about to fire that cannon of his.
Seconds after I snapped the above picture, I heard a couple of loud bangs, and was struck sharply on the right bicep, left forearm, right cheek, and to the left of my nose, simultaneously. It stung like nobody's business, I can tell you.
In the confusion, I wasn't sure where the projectiles had come from. I thought perhaps tear gas had been deployed, and the canister had exploded. The absence of tear gas, however, made me realize it must have been rubber bullets. I noticed several of the projectiles in the gutter, and picked them up as souvenirs. They were somewhat greasy at first, leading me to believe they may have been packed together in a shotgun-style cartridge.
Note
penny for size comparison.
Shortly after the shooting, several other protestors told me my face appeared bruised, so I snapped a quick photo of myself.
The mark on my right cheek is where I lost a layer of skin in a small area. The marks on the left side of my face turned out not to be bruises; I believe they're just a combination of nasty surface redness and some of the grease on the bullets. Also, I don't have a black eye in this shot, despite appearances; my eyes usually look like that. By evening, when I finally got close to a mirror, the marks on the left had faded, and my right cheek looked like this:
It has since scabbed over and shows no signs of infection.
To sum up the rubber-bullet incident, it seems quite clear from the above photographs that the officer with the obscured nametag and the rotating-chamber crowd control gun fired inappropriately on a retreating crowd. His actions were unnecessary, unprofessional, and dangerous to the well-being of citizens who were not committing any crime. If the Portland Police Bureau has any vigilance over their own, they should identify this officer and nail his ass to the wall as soon as is convenient. And I'm not just saying that because he's also the jerk who pepper-sprayed me.