Absurdity inflates at Portland's ICE protests
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What happens when a frog attends a protest? He starts a ribbiting revolution. Photo: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
A wedding between Kenny from "South Park" and a unicorn bride. Two Tyrannosaurus rexes skipping down the sidewalk, claw-in-claw. And a green frog gyrating in front of a line of armed law enforcement agents.
- All of this has taken place over the last week in front of the driveway of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland — the epicenter of President Trump's efforts to send National Guard troops to the city.
The big picture: Protesters are increasingly using costumes (inflatable or otherwise) to troll the president's recent comments that the city is "war-ravaged" and reclaim Portland's reputation as a place for all things weird.
State of play: One of the constant figures at the ICE facility protest since Trump first announced his plans to send troops three weeks ago is 24-year-old Seth Todd. He was the first to don an inflatable frog suit to protest the administration's immigration policies and kicked off a much larger trend.
- Todd was even pepper sprayed through his costume's air-intake vent by a federal agent. "I've definitely had spicier tamales," he told the Oregonian.
- Now, a new organization, Operation Inflation, aims to raise money to purchase more than 100 inflatable costumes and give them away for free to protestors.
What they're saying: Jordy Johnson, one of the organizers, told KOIN that if Trump wants to invoke the Insurrection Act "he's going to have to point at people in inflatable chickens and inflatable frogs and inflatable unicorns."
- Jack Dickinson, 26, has deployed a similar tactic — and has been a regular fixture of the protest scenes — by wearing a chicken suit and American flag cape.
- "What they rely on is fear," he told Willamette Week. "So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we're actually not that afraid."
Meanwhile, even local lawmakers are capitalizing on the stunt.
- In a video ahead of this week's "emergency" naked bike ride, members of the Metro Council put out a video statement urging protestors to be respectful while seemingly in the buff themselves.
The bottom line: Whether or not Portland's tongue-in-cheek message is making its way to Trump is unclear.
- Conservative influencers are largely shaping the administration's understanding of on-the-ground happenings in Portland, as well as working with them to spread Trump's political message.