re: #432 iossarian

It’s when the police split demos up into small or medium-size groups, and keep them in specific locations, usually without access to drinking water/lavatories.

If you ask to leave the “kettle”, you are allowed to, but you are then assumed to have left the demonstration/protest, so you’re not covered by the “right to assemble” or equivalent in the same way (in other words, the police can then require you to leave the area, and your rights decline pretty swiftly after that).

Given the violence of some demonstrators in recent years, I’m okay with everything except not letting people go back. The police are not responsible for your toilets or your water. However, you should be allowed to go and locate those items for yourself without leaving the protest.

Also, the “kettle” should be in a location reasonable to the demonstration. A demonstration about the mayor of Portland, for example, should be allowed to meet downtown, in a location they do not block traffic, and not in, say, Beaverton, or in some out of the way Portland neighborhood.