Some days, it’s an embarrassment of riches! Unfortunately, the embarrassment in question is “articles about Portland.” Yesterday, we got news that the DHS was tapping the phones of protestors. In addition to being awful and an overreach of authority on the part of the Feds, it is terrifying. If the Feds are tapping the phones of “antifa” what *actual* terrorist plots are they missing?
We were also designated an anarchist jurisdiction. If you’ve ever been with another car at a four-way stop sign here in Portland, you would know that the problem is too much politeness.
Today, however, I’d like to give the full Fire Joe Morgan treatment to this Times article about how protestors in Portland are streaming into residential neighborhoods and terrorizing the locals. The author managed to pack a lot of wrong into a short piece, so let’s begin, shall we?
Some Protests Against Police Brutality Take a More Confrontational Approach
The protests are moving into white residential neighborhoods, where activists demand that people choose a side.
Oh shoot, into white residential neighborhoods? Although, wait a minute… Does Portland have residential neighborhoods that aren’t white? The Times told me there’s more Black Lives Matter signs than black people here, so I’m not sure.
Terrance Moses was watching protesters against police brutality march down his quiet residential street one recent evening when some in the group of a few hundred suddenly stopped and started yelling.
Mr. Moses was initially not sure what the protesters were upset about, but as he got closer, he saw it: His neighbors had an American flag on display.
“It went from a peaceful march, calling out the names, to all of a sudden, bang, ‘How dare you fly the American flag?’” said Mr. Moses, who is Black and runs a nonprofit group in the Portland, Ore., area. “They said take it down. They wouldn’t leave. They said they’re going to come back and burn the house down.”
I am glad that he saved that flag! I’m not sure what Mr. Moses’ race and profession have to do with the rescue, since it wasn’t his flag, but nevertheless, we continue.
Nearly four months after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, some protesters against police brutality are taking a more confrontational — and personal — approach. The marches in Portland are increasingly moving to residential and largely white neighborhoods, where demonstrators with bullhorns shout for people to come “out of your house and into the street” and demonstrate their support.
There have been few protests focused on residential areas in Portland. Earlier in the summer, marches did pass through residential areas, but now they mostly start in front of the ICE building, the PPA, or PPB precincts. The protests congregate at police precincts because they are against police brutality and the PPB is a brutal organization.
The more personal tactics echo those being used against elected officials, with activists showing up not only outside mayor’s offices but their homes as well. The apartment building where the mayor of Portland lives has been vandalized.
Not the lobby of the Mayor’s condo! Good thing he moved out after this.
The American flag that generated controversy is displayed in Kenton, a neighborhood of Portland with small bungalows, lush front gardens and ripe fruit trees. Weeks after the confrontation, the husband and wife who fly the flag said they were fearful of retaliation from the roving protesters, who had found their phone number.
Wait wait wait… This was in Kenton? The dek says the protests are happening in largely white neighborhoods but the neighborhood used for the lede has twice the percentage of Black residents compared to Portland as a whole, 10% in Kenton vs 5% overall. Yes, these are small numbers. We’re still in the Pacific Northwest.
The same night the protesters came to the couple’s door last month, they marched into Kenton’s commercial district and used restaurant picnic tables as fuel for fires. They collected the colorful wooden dividers the neighbors had recently built for outdoor dining and set those ablaze as well. Mr. Moses and others in the community ran into the protests with fire extinguishers.
Protesters that night broke into the Portland Police Association building and set it on fire. A man was later seen scrubbing the sidewalk graffiti — a popular message was “PPB = KKK,” meaning that the Portland Police Bureau is the Ku Klux Klan.
This “recent” evening was on August 9th. The protestors didn’t march on Kenton; rather, they were pushed there by PPB officers charging at them firing crowd control munitions, after protesting in front of the Portland Police Association building. That night marked the 100th time PPB deployed tear gas against the protestors this summer, on what was then the 73rd night of protests. The fire was small. The indefatigable Sergio Olmos, then a stringer for the Times, even called it that. Further in his thread, there’s video of the PPB and State Police pushing the protestors into Kenton.
Some residents in Portland say the tactics are escalating as the protests become increasingly dominated by white people, including anarchists and supporters of antifa, the diffuse collection of militant left-wing activists that has a strong presence in the region.
So, there’s no actual quotes of people saying this in the article, but yes, I am sure “some” residents say that. I’m also sure that the “anarchists” here exist inside Bill Barr’s melon, in the same way that antifa presence is “strong.” It’s the same 200-300 people it’s always been.
The movement is splintered in Portland between more mainstream Black Lives Matter marches and the more aggressive, sometimes chaotic antifa or black bloc protests, where demonstrators dress in black and wear motorcycle helmets or ski masks to make it difficult to identify — or later prosecute — them.
The Multnomah County DA doesn’t want to prosecute most of the protestors because they’re being arrested for dubious reasons. Yet, counting all the local police agencies, police have arrested over 1,000 people for protesting this summer. The masks haven’t stopped the Feds from prosecuting protestors, either. They’ve charged 83 people with crimes related to the protests, and hope to apply charges of sedition, given the chance. The helmets, of course, were a response to protestors being shot in the head with crowd munitions and horribly injured.
One night this month, there were two protests promoted on the Black Lives Matter Portland Events page: a “nonviolent protest” in the city center and “an autonomously organized direct action march.”
No one appeared to be at the city center protest. But around 200 people were at the other event.
They gathered in an unlit park in a residential neighborhood around 8 p.m. Everyone wore black, including some protesters who had on body armor and motorcycle helmets. They hastily set up picnic tables and supply booths in the dark, using cellphones for light to showcase their goods. There was a food table overflowing with protein bars and Monster energy drinks.
A sure sign of evil is the presence of Monster energy drinks, even though everyone knows antifa prefers White Claw. Some research shows that this was a protest that started in Woodstock Park on September 2nd and that these *100* dangerous protestors “argued about where to march for about an hour.” Careful! Their opinions are loaded!
A small free literature selection was set up on the grass and overseen by three people in ski masks. It was a popular offering, and people crowded around, craning to see the pamphlets.
Titles included “Why Break Windows”; “I Want To Kill Cops Until I’m Dead”; “Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms”; “In Defense of Smashing Cameras”; and “Three-Way Fight: Revolutionary Anti-Fascism and Armed Self Defense.”
The energy was something like a carnival in the dark.
“Paint balloons, get your paint balloons,” someone barked.
Wow, those are almost as offensive as t-shirts that say “Fuck Your Feelings” and “Trump That Bitch,” wouldn’t ya say? Strong “this definitely happened” energy here.
But around 9:30, the group was in some organizational chaos. They had decided that the neighborhood close by was too racially diverse for them to protest in. They needed to go somewhere whiter.
So the protesters caravaned 20 minutes away to Alberta, a more affluent neighborhood that began being gentrified in the 1990s. They reassembled and marched through the streets.
Here, she means that they marched up a large commercial street to the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct. Once again, Sergio was there.
Neighbors in impressive Craftsman-style homes pulled down their shades and turned off their lights, though many could be seen peering out of dark windows. One woman stepped out of an expansive home looking angry; upon seeing the crowd, she quickly retreated indoors. A few young couples stood in their doorways. A Black woman driving past honked and cheered.
One white man stepped onto his patio clapping and hollering in support of the passing march. The group called for him to join. He smiled and waved them on, still clapping. They began to chant that he was spineless. He looked worried. But the march moved along, and he went back into his house.
“You’ll never sleep tight, we do this every night,” the protesters chanted.
From the video, it’s clear that the protestors are CHANTING AT THE POLICE. And what were they saying to them? “I don’t get no sleep because y’all, you don’t get no sleep because of me.” Definitely a thing you shout at people in neighborhoods after 100 nights of protests.
Please: keep San Francisco-based reporters south of the border where they belong, or we’ll be forced to protest in front of their houses.
This Week in Oregon Man
This Oregon Man shot himself in the dick showing off his gun to a friend at the grocery store.
An incredible tale of survival from an Oregon Man who rode out the fires on an island in the Little North Santiam River with only a plastic chair for protection. My favorite quote? “That chair was incredible. It helped a lot.”