Crazy stuff on MLK

This afternoon I was driving southbound towards the pool with Gladys and her best friend in the back seat. As we approached Killingsworth the street was partially condorned off by police with yellow tape, and there were soldiers in army camoflague (including painted faces) going towards the blocked street with machine guns.

I am not kidding. I swear. I have 2 child-witnesses who saw it all too.

So I slow down, partly rubber-necking, and I yell at a pedestrian "what is going on?" They say they don't know....but you can see the folks waiting for the bus all looking concerned and curious.
As I drove away I kept thinking...what on earth was going on? In all my years of urban life (including some exciting and big protest marches in DC with a wall of riot police nearby) I have NEVER seen soldiers with painted faces entering a street like that....Ok, after 9/11 I did see National Guardsmen walking around the Capitol/airport/train stations with automatic weapons. Keep in mind that was in DC and NYC weeks and months after 9/11. Even those guys didn't wear paint on their faces.

I get on the Net and search all the Portland news sites (the Oregonian's online version, one of the TV stations sites, plus an advanced Google search of blogs and the like). Nada. Remember, I have no access to the local TV news and hate the radio...this might be one of those moments I wish I did. This too shall pass.

I hope that they were filming some gritty urban thrilled in our 'hood. I hope that someone, somewhere tells me what the heck was going on.

Update: I decided to call the police non-emergency number, because curiosity was getting to me. They told me that they couldn't tell me anything, and one lady, a supervisor, told me that she was too insiginficant to be able to release any information. Geez. That is the worst thing a person could say when someone wants info. They assured me that these painted people were police, not soldiers. Somehow that didn't bring me much comfort. Let's see what the newspaper reports tomorrow.