RandomGuy
09-15-2021, 12:47 PM
A recipe for violence. Make up shit about ANTIFA, lather rinse, repeat.
Right out of the 1920's and 30's era fascist playbooks. Predictable at least.
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Robert Evans
Tue, September 14, 2021, 1:21 PM
Protest City - Credit: Rian Dundon for Rolling Stone
If you want a vision of our nation’s future, you can find it in the mace-soaked streets of Portland, Oregon. The City of Roses put it all on display on a recent Sunday in August, when the Proud Boys, an extremist group whose purpose, according to their founder, is to do violence to their political enemies, gathered in Northeast Portland. Downtown, hundreds of left-wing demonstrators gathered in anticipation of the Proud Boys’ arrival. Things got ugly at both sites. In the northeast, the Proud Boys flipped a van and beat a man bloody while he sat in a parked truck. There were paintball-gun fights and, of course, mace. Downtown, one right-wing agitator allegedly fired a handgun into a crowd of anti-fascists, at least one of whom returned fire. Prior to the rally, Mayor Ted Wheeler had advised citizens to “Choose Love.” After the shooting, local activists responded with a slogan of their own: “Choose level IV” — body armor.
Clashes are increasingly part of daily life in Portland, a city that, by the looks of it, is the nation’s leader in per capita ownership of body armor and gas masks. But while it would be easy to write this off as ‘Portland being Portland’ — a city George H.W. Bush nicknamed “Little Beirut” — that would be a mistake. The bloody tactics workshopped in Portland have already cropped up around the country, from Charlottesville to anti-mask protests to January 6th. The Proud Boys have no intention of going away, their critics have no intention of backing down, and where this ends is anyone’s guess. As U.S. representative and far-right extremist Paul Gosar put it at an Oath Keeper gathering when asked about a potential second civil war: “We’re in it. We just haven’t started shooting each other yet.”
....
Deep Ties Between Local Republican Party and the Far Right
Xander Almeida has been a member of the Multnomah County Republican Party since 2008. Almeida first became aware of the influence militant groups had on the local Republican Party in 2017, when he received an email warning him about “antifa” threats to a planned parade.
“And [the MCRP] said, don’t worry. We will get the three percenters out,” Almeida tells Rolling Stone. He provided the official notes from a June 26th, 2017 meeting, which include a proposed resolution that, “the MCRP may utilize volunteers from the Oregon Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, and other security groups.” The resolution passed.
None of their meetings have ever been attacked by anti-fascists, but the MCRP remains deeply worried about the possibility of such an assault. In May 2021 they hired a Proud Boy affiliate to provide security at a meeting where they voted to recall party chair Stephen Lloyd. The recall petition slammed Lloyd for calling for more diversity within the party and alleged that his attempt to make meetings more open to the public put local Republicans at risk from Rose City Antifa, the oldest-named “antifa” organization in the United States.
For his part, Almeida now protests with Portland anti-fascists, including Rose City Antifa, against Proud Boys and other anti-democratic extremists. He is still a registered Republican, but says that he has felt “less and less” conservative in recent years. He says he feels alienated by his former ideological allies. When we met on August 22nd, he wore a helmet, motorcycle pads, and a respirator.
Portland: The Northwest’s Friendly Proving Ground
Since it’s rare for right-wing militants to face severe penalties for engaging in violence, many have come to see Portland as a proving ground and a place where they can test tactics in a friendly climate.
Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a notorious brawler who has been affiliated with both the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, was jailed last year for assaulting an anti-fascist bystander. Toese was still legally prohibited from attending protests when he went to an August 22nd street fight. Police took no action. When we reached out the Portland Police Bureau for comment, a spokesman responded that it was the court’s duty to monitor someone’s actions before trial, not the cops. “That is not something we actively track,” the spokesperson said. “If anyone is aware that someone is violating their pretrial conditions, they’re encouraged to notify the court so the court can impose appropriate sanctions.”
....
Rest of the rather long article here:
https://news.yahoo.com/portland-oregon-ground-zero-violent-182117395.html
Right out of the 1920's and 30's era fascist playbooks. Predictable at least.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Evans
Tue, September 14, 2021, 1:21 PM
Protest City - Credit: Rian Dundon for Rolling Stone
If you want a vision of our nation’s future, you can find it in the mace-soaked streets of Portland, Oregon. The City of Roses put it all on display on a recent Sunday in August, when the Proud Boys, an extremist group whose purpose, according to their founder, is to do violence to their political enemies, gathered in Northeast Portland. Downtown, hundreds of left-wing demonstrators gathered in anticipation of the Proud Boys’ arrival. Things got ugly at both sites. In the northeast, the Proud Boys flipped a van and beat a man bloody while he sat in a parked truck. There were paintball-gun fights and, of course, mace. Downtown, one right-wing agitator allegedly fired a handgun into a crowd of anti-fascists, at least one of whom returned fire. Prior to the rally, Mayor Ted Wheeler had advised citizens to “Choose Love.” After the shooting, local activists responded with a slogan of their own: “Choose level IV” — body armor.
Clashes are increasingly part of daily life in Portland, a city that, by the looks of it, is the nation’s leader in per capita ownership of body armor and gas masks. But while it would be easy to write this off as ‘Portland being Portland’ — a city George H.W. Bush nicknamed “Little Beirut” — that would be a mistake. The bloody tactics workshopped in Portland have already cropped up around the country, from Charlottesville to anti-mask protests to January 6th. The Proud Boys have no intention of going away, their critics have no intention of backing down, and where this ends is anyone’s guess. As U.S. representative and far-right extremist Paul Gosar put it at an Oath Keeper gathering when asked about a potential second civil war: “We’re in it. We just haven’t started shooting each other yet.”
....
Deep Ties Between Local Republican Party and the Far Right
Xander Almeida has been a member of the Multnomah County Republican Party since 2008. Almeida first became aware of the influence militant groups had on the local Republican Party in 2017, when he received an email warning him about “antifa” threats to a planned parade.
“And [the MCRP] said, don’t worry. We will get the three percenters out,” Almeida tells Rolling Stone. He provided the official notes from a June 26th, 2017 meeting, which include a proposed resolution that, “the MCRP may utilize volunteers from the Oregon Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, and other security groups.” The resolution passed.
None of their meetings have ever been attacked by anti-fascists, but the MCRP remains deeply worried about the possibility of such an assault. In May 2021 they hired a Proud Boy affiliate to provide security at a meeting where they voted to recall party chair Stephen Lloyd. The recall petition slammed Lloyd for calling for more diversity within the party and alleged that his attempt to make meetings more open to the public put local Republicans at risk from Rose City Antifa, the oldest-named “antifa” organization in the United States.
For his part, Almeida now protests with Portland anti-fascists, including Rose City Antifa, against Proud Boys and other anti-democratic extremists. He is still a registered Republican, but says that he has felt “less and less” conservative in recent years. He says he feels alienated by his former ideological allies. When we met on August 22nd, he wore a helmet, motorcycle pads, and a respirator.
Portland: The Northwest’s Friendly Proving Ground
Since it’s rare for right-wing militants to face severe penalties for engaging in violence, many have come to see Portland as a proving ground and a place where they can test tactics in a friendly climate.
Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a notorious brawler who has been affiliated with both the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, was jailed last year for assaulting an anti-fascist bystander. Toese was still legally prohibited from attending protests when he went to an August 22nd street fight. Police took no action. When we reached out the Portland Police Bureau for comment, a spokesman responded that it was the court’s duty to monitor someone’s actions before trial, not the cops. “That is not something we actively track,” the spokesperson said. “If anyone is aware that someone is violating their pretrial conditions, they’re encouraged to notify the court so the court can impose appropriate sanctions.”
....
Rest of the rather long article here:
https://news.yahoo.com/portland-oregon-ground-zero-violent-182117395.html