I had been wanting to go to this site to photograph/document things but for a month hadn't made it. When I finally did, it was late on a wet wintry afternoon, so I just stayed an shot for an hour or so but there was no way of staying out of the cold rain, so as it was getting dark I headed for home!

This particular day had particular significance, because earlier in the week the liberal/progressive mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, had announced that the protestors' camps would be shut down as of midnight of this (Saturday) night.

As it turned out, the protestors stayed peaceful, but while some left, more showed up so that by midnight there were several thousand people present to "face off" the police. The police managed to get the streets cleared off, but as for the parks, they backed off.

UPDATE:

Since posting these photos, I became aware that on Sunday evening, the police made their move, evicting people from their tents and arresting about 50 people. There have been reports of some injuries, although as a whole an actual riot was avoided.

The police have fenced off the parks/squares. As of tonight, the Occupy crowd has moved to the Pioneer Courhouse Square, which is pretty much the "heart" of downtown Portland.