Support the Wall of Vets, a new group that arose from the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon.

 

This is one of many posts we are devoting to the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland. We thought about doing it as one huge mega-post, but concluded it’s easier to digest if we break everything out into a series.

 

We realize in doing things this way, we run the risk that stories in the queue might be overtaken by events. We’re accepting that risk.

 

As of late July, Trump dispatched federal forces to the area, insisting that it’s out of control. (Spoiler alert: The people coming out are just protesting, aka exercising their First Amendment rights. Some are spraying graffiti on federal buildings.)

 

The arrival of outside forces only spurred still more Portlandians and Oregonians from surrounding areas to join the nightly Black Lives Matter protests, which have continued for more than 50 days–pretty much since the earliest public actions to decry the death of George Floyd.

 

The first “Wall of” group to wink into life in Portland was Wall of Moms, which is exactly what you think it is–a wall of Moms, linking arms and staring down the forces threatening to tear-gas and generally break up the protests.

 

Chris David pretty much willed Wall of Vets into being. David, a 53-year-old Navy veteran whose attempt to speak with federal forces ended with them attacking him, called for his colleagues to form up and protect the protests.

 

They did.

 

The Portland, Oregon Wall of Vets made its formal debut on the night of July 24, 2020.

 

David asked veterans to wear white shirts, and asked their allies to wear blue shirts with white armbands.

 

Things are still pretty liquid as of late July 2020. Wall of Vets doesn’t seem to have a website yet. We will update this page as more information comes in.

 

 

The #WallofVets hashtag lets you keep up on the various groups’ activities, as do these Twitter handles:

@VetsWall

@WallofVetsUSA

@WallofVetsP

 

 

For now, the Wall of Vets regional and local branches are most active on Twitter. Handles for known Wall of Vets groups follow.

 

 

First, here’s the Twitter handle for the Portland, Oregon branch of Wall of Vets:

@PdxVets

 

The Los Angeles branch’s handle does not state its location:

@wallofvets

 

San Francisco, California:

@WallofVetsSF

 

Washington, D.C.:

@wallofvetsdc

 

Las Vegas, Nevada:

@VetsWallVegas

 

Chicago, Illinois:

@VetsWallof

 

Seattle, Washington:

@VetsSea

 

New Jersey (apparently state-wide):

@vetswallnj

 

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