Anti-Trump Protest Group Asks for Permit to March to Mayor Ted Wheeler's House

"He's perpetuating this idea we only get hurt or sprayed or physically beat because we don't have a permit."

Student and activist Gregory McKelvey speaking to the press on the PSU campus in October of 2016. (Ellena Rosenthal)
By Rachel Monahan

UPDATE, 12:15 pm Feb. 22: The city has issued a permit to Portland's Resistance that requires the group to stay on sidewalks, according to a copy of the permit provided by the mayor's office. With this kind of permit, police involvement is not required, says Mayor Wheeler spokesman Michael Cox.

UPDATE, 10:45 am Feb. 22: Portland's Resistance has called off the protest in an exchange of text messages with the mayor's office on Tuesday evening.

Spokesman Michael Cox texted that police needed to be involved to clear the route for a permitted march, but offered, "[Police] do not have to be conspicuous."

Organizer Gregory McKelvey wrote back, calling off the protest, but objecting to the conditions: "I do think that it is troubling that in order to protest the police legally we need to ask the police for help." Cox responded that the city doesn't require permits for all protests.

ORIGINAL POST, 2:09 pm Feb. 21: Portland's Resistance, a group formed to protest President Donald Trump, is now seeking a permit to march to Mayor Ted Wheeler's house, after arrests Monday that the ACLU of Oregon described as "violence against peaceful protesters" and "shameful."

Portland's Resistance, which has not previously filed for permits with the city, is requesting official city approval to march to the mayor's house on Wednesday evening, according to a copy of the permit application, provided by organizer Gregory McKelvey.

McKelvey says he initially believed that the forceful police crackdown on the group's Jan. 20 protest weren't the mayor's fault, but the repetition a month later has changed McKelvey's views.

Now he wants to call the mayor out.

"He's perpetuating this idea we only get hurt or sprayed or physically beat because we don't have a permit," says McKelvey.

"It's entirely hypocritical because he protested at the airport"—referring to the day last month when Wheeler joined McKelvey for an unpermitted protest at PDX to protest Trump's Muslim and refugee ban.

McKelvey has asked the city to waive the permitting fees and has said on the application that the group does not want a police presence for a group.

"We probably won't get a permit to protest," he says. "It isn't [whether] we do or do not have a protest that causes the violence at the hands of the police."

Here's the email McKelvey sent to the city with his application for the March:

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.