Help us fight against the racist Portland Police

This is a joint campaign to raise money for the legal defense of Portland couple Jess Wieandt and Ariston Vallejos as they face blatant racial discrimination, significant defamation, and egregiously inflated  legal retaliation from the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau for exercising their rights to protest. Ariston is musician, a credentialed independent journalist, and an educator within Portland Public Schools that works with Autistic students. Jess worked as a front line health care worker for over 10 years, and worked through the pandemic in emergency overflow Covid-19 facilities  before she lost her job and license in February due to the PPB's lies. All funds gathered with this campaign will go towards legal retainment and associated ongoing costs during criminal court proceedings. Initial retainer fees have been quoted at $20k each in addition to ongoing fees. After criminal proceedings,  we intend to file suit for damages and discrimination. Any surplus funds acquired will be distributed directly to our local BIPOC community members in need as they struggle to exist within the white supremacist dominated space of Portland, OR. 

The Story:

Jess and Ariston were violently arrested on June 19th in downtown Portland Oregon while trying to leave a protest that was viciously escalated by the Portland Police Bureau. Throughout the entire process, both Jess and Ariston were subjected to racial discrimination in many ways, including but not limited to:

-Excessive force during Jess's arrest that gave her a concussion even though she did not resist

-Erasure of both Ariston & Jess's race when they were recorded as being "white" during booking

-Refusal to give Ariston phone access in jail while other individuals in the cell block had phone access, leading Ariston's father to initially think that he was killed by police

-And the worst instance of discrimination: upon release, both Ariston and Jess were forced to leave the jail after having ONLY their socks and underwear returned to them. Jess and Ariston were both forced outside into the rain without their phones, wallets, ID, or even shoes and expected to safely get home somehow. This was made even more cruel and dehumanizing due to the fact that a white man who was arrested and released alongside Ariston was given all of his clothes and belongings. The Police to this day have not released the clothes, shoes, keys, phones,  IDs, and other personal belongings casually stolen  from Ariston and Jess, and all these items have since had to be replaced. 

This, however, is not the worst of the story. Last month, Jess lost her health care career of over 10 years due the the Portland Police and the City of Portland's vicous lies rooted in white supremacy. Mike Schmidt, the so called "Progressive" and "Soical Justice" oriented DA has moved full speed ahead to arraign Jess and Ariston with 13 felonies, knowing that a single felony arraignment would be enough to revoke Jess's nursing license. So somehow, we now live in a society where the simple accusation of a crime is enough to ruin someone's career, well before due process trials have even BEGUN. 

This is absolutely WRONG, and we simply do not accept this. The city of Portland just last week won infamous awards in the media for not only having the most racist and violent police force, but also for having the least accountable and transparent city government in the nation. City council just last week paid a 2 million dollar settlement to Quanice Haye's family, 4 years after he was ruthlessly and unrepentantly murdered by PPB officer Andrew Hearst at the age of 17, while he was on his knees with his hands up surrendering.  We all know that Portland Police and the local Portland government is saturated with white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers. We CAN NOT and WILL NOT continue to endure this behavior by our so called "public servants," and this campaign represents the beginning of our tenacious fight back. 

If you are willing to take a stand against white supremacy, please help us with the fight. If you think it is unacceptable that Portland Police officers get PROMOTED for unrepentantly assassinating the Black children of our community, please help us with this fight. If you are ready to stand against hate, racism, and rising violence towards our Asian and Asian American family members, please help us with the fight. And finally, if you want to put our whiney baby clown @$$ mayor Tear Gas Tevis in his damn place, HELP us with this FIGHT!!! 

So much love and thanks to you all and stay safe out there friends <3