WEBVTT - The Return of the Right 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.000 For most of the last decade, the city of Portland's 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:26.440 national reputation was largely informed by the sketch TV series Portlandia. 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:29.520 The show began airing in two thousand eleven, right at 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.159 the start of the relevance of the word hipster, and 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.480 portrayed Portland as something of a stereotypically loony liberal paradise, 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.800 a place where people know the names of the chicken 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.280 served in their restaurants. This image dogged the city until 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.360 two thousand seventeen, in the beginning of the Trump Years. 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.160 For millions of Americans, the first time they heard about 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.559 Antifa or saw images of people in black block was 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.280 from news footage of the street fights that grew increasingly 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.600 endemic to Portland as the Trump Years wore on. But 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.560 anti fascism has a long history in the City of Roses, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.480 one that goes back further than the reign of Donald Trump. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.640 Rose City Antifa is the oldest organization in the United 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.160 States with Antifa actually in its name. It formed in 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.760 two thousand seven as part of a local effort to 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.080 stop a music festival from the neo Nazi Hammerskin Nation. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.440 The festival was supposed to be coming to Portland, and 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.800 our Cier was successful in stopping it. The organization has 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.679 continued up to the modern day. While its members do 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.160 take place in street actions to counter fascist demonstrations, the 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.400 bulk of their organization's work happens online, revealing and doxing 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.720 white supremacists and other fascists. The history of anti fascist 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.440 organizing an Oregon goes back a lot further than even 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.880 our Cier, though, as we discussed an episode one, Oregon 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.000 is the only state that was founded to be whites only. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.720 The Clan had an overwhelming presence here in the nineteen twenties. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.680 In the early twenties, virtually every member of the Portland 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.480 Police Bureau was a member. The first president of the 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.160 Portland Police Association was a former member of German American Bund, 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.840 an organization established by the Nazi Party. Oregon in particular, 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.520 and the Pacific Northwest in general, has held a special 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.760 place in the hearts of white supremacists for more than 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.640 a century. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, the clan 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.000 saw another surge, and Nazi terrorist groups like the Order 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.239 carried out a string of successful attacks. White supremacist ideologus 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.080 began floating the idea that the Pacific Northwest might be 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.360 the perfect place for a white homeland. The idea was 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.080 that since the PNW was already one of the whitest 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.800 parts of the country, Nazis would have an easy time 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.520 moving here and forcing non whites out through violence. This 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.480 idea was most directly pushed by a man named Harold 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:44.919 Covington with a now defunct Oregon based organization, Volksfront. Covington 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.600 coined the term Northwest Imperative to describe the white supremacist 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.280 drive to conquer the Pacific Northwest. As the Nazis flooded 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.200 into Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, anti racists started organizing to 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.640 oppose them. The group Anti Racist Action was formed in 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.120 port in nineteen seven, and it's probably the most direct 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.200 ancestor to Rose City Antifa and contemporary anti fascist groups. 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.359 For years, the men and women of Anti Racist Action 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.120 or a r A battled fascists in the streets. People 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.280 were sometimes killed and often grievously wounded. Mike Crenshaw grew 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.560 up in Illinois, but moved to Portland in nine He 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.360 quickly got involved in anti racist organizing. At one of 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.440 the high points for fascist violence in Portland, history, however, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.920 from not really seeing white folks at all unless they 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.480 were in sec of authority to move into white communities 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.680 where white people were definitely the majority. Um and not 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.920 just in authority but also everywhere. So there were there 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.480 were experiences I had when we lived in smaller towns 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.720 in Illinois where we me and my brother would be 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.000 like the only black kids in certain schools, you know, UM, 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:57.960 and then Minnesota often being in a public ghost restore, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.560 are being in downtown, you know, you're one of very 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.560 two black folks. So being by the time I was 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.360 a teenager, you know, I remember going down tough like 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.280 to visit people in Alabama and Mississippi and being afraid 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.640 that that the clan was gonna get us, you know, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.039 being afraid that if we were out in the woods 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.880 at night, that the clan was gonna get us, because 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.480 that the racial terror that was a reality for our 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.760 people in America was something that we had learned about, 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.040 you know, and we had seen pictures of it in magazines, UM, 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.080 and we or we might have even known some people 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.080 directly are indirectly who've been killed, you know, as a 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:40.560 result of racism and mob violence or or police rutality 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.080 or something. So you know, there's always a sense of 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.200 fear associated with this existing here, you know. And that said, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.760 being a teenager on the streets in Minneapolis, I understood 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.680 that the clan, you know, since early childhood and being 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:56.839 scared in the night and stuff like that. I understood 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:03.120 a violent, racist, racist terror organs. So when I was 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.560 in the hardcore punk scene, you know, as a black 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.880 kid again one of the only people in that social scene, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:15.440 in that subculture that was black. UM, when I heard 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.880 that neo Nazis were coming around, I had a very 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.880 visceral reaction to it. I was like, wait a minute, 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.320 these people that hide behind mask and and where she 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.520 you know, to consider there, I just see that have 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.880 been lynching us for hundreds of years. These people feel 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.120 comfortable being part of the community and being out front 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.840 about it. So when I heard that I was I 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.640 had a very like I had almost immediately, I had 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.120 a militant reaction. I was like, oh, hell no, that's 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.520 not that's not acceptable. And you know, being a young 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:56.000 man um and hanging out on the streets, having already 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.400 dealt with physical violence and being ostracized and lead and 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.239 lead up, this is part of being growing up in Chicago. 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:08.440 That's you know, um having the fight all the time 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.240 and stuff I was. There was no way I was 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.520 letting it go out. Mike had moved to town just 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.960 a few years after probably the single most defining moment 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.080 of the modern struggle against white supremacy in Portland, the 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.920 nine eight murder of Mudlghetta Sara. Sara was a twenty 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.640 eight year old Ethiopian immigrant who lived in an apartment 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.200 complex at the intersection of Southeast thirty first Avenue in 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.159 Pine Street. His building was adjacent to the building where 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.680 Nick Heis, a member of the racist skinhead group east 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.039 Side White Pride, also lived. On the night of November 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.479 Sara returned from a party Nick Heis, Kenneth Miski, and 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.080 a crew of other racist skinheads rolled into the same 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.839 parking lot. They were drunk and their blood was up 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.919 from a night of distributing white supremacist propaganda. The propaganda 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.360 Miski and his friends had put up all night belonged 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.280 to a group called White Ariyan Resistance or War, which 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.880 was led by the recently deceased Nazi Tom Metzker. At 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.800 this point, Tom lived in southern California, but over the 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.960 last few years his organization had increasingly propagandized two disaffected 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.520 young white men in Oregon. The goal of Metzger's propaganda 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.960 was to promote racial violence, and on the night of 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:21.360 November he succeeded. According to eyewitnesses, Miski and two other 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.400 Nazis pulled their vehicle up in front of Sara's parked car. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.320 The nazis girlfriends were also in the vehicle, and they 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.000 egged their partners on with cries of let's kill him, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.160 let's kill him, and that's exactly what they did. Miski 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.920 hit Mulugetta from behind with a baseball bat and kept 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.640 beating him after he dropped, while his fellow Nazis kicked 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.400 the prone man with steel toed boots. Mulugetta Sara died 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.200 of his injuries. His killers were convicted of murder. They 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.920 pled guilty and never faced trial. Morris D's, head of 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.120 the Southern Poverty Law Center, sued Tom Metzker in civil 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.600 court and won a landmark judgment against him. The lawsuit 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.480 established the legal precedent that someone like me Skar head 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:05.320 what's called vicarious responsibility for Sara's death because Metzker had 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.960 good reason to know that his actions and the propaganda 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.480 he put out would lead to violence. The murder of 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.960 Mula get A Sara was a galvanizing moment for the 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.520 Portland anti racist community. By the time Mike Crenshaw showed up, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.080 everyone knew what the stakes were. I had a group 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.840 of friends that I was hanging with, you know, and 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:27.679 we were all firing with the anti racist skinheads element, 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.080 as that's who we wanted to be. And so when 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.480 we heard these neo Nazis had organized themselves with the 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.240 leadership of the Plans women, into a gang called the 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.240 White Knights, we decided that we were going to confront them, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.760 and we did it. We confronted him. We gave him 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.280 an opportunity to their abuse. We said, are you guys 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.880 white power? And they said yeah, And we said, look, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.640 the next time we see you, we're gonna ask you again, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.280 and if you are still white powers, then we're gonna 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.560 suck you up. You know. That's what happened. Some of 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.719 them change, some of them, some of them denounced it. 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.160 A four of them actually detected. But before the one 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.760 that getting of a long subtect speriod of violence, you know, 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.560 a few years went byve where we were little fighting 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:15.680 baily Um and it was it was, it was, it 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.560 was heavy man. In addition to anti racist action, the 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.880 group's Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice also confronted Nazis in the 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.480 streets of Portland. The podcast series It Did Happen Here, 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.679 not to be confused with my own podcast series It 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.520 Could Happen Here, documents the story in more detail than 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.840 we can afford to do here. But it's fair to 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.960 say that the murder of mulugettas Sarah informs the tactics 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.880 of many anti fascists in Portland to this day. The 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.560 basic idea is that if you allow these people to 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.679 organize and gather unopposed, they will commit murder. It's just 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.080 a matter of time. In two seventeen, after a solid 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.640 year of patriot prayer and proud boy gatherings in the 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.480 attendant street fights they provoked, Jeremy Christian murdered two men 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.600 on a Portland max Light rail train. This had an 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.560 equally galvanizing effect down the city's anti racists. Things, of course, 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.160 escalated further after Charlottesville, and the year two thousand eighteen 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.280 in the city of Portland was one of the bloodiest 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.200 years of fascist violence faced by any city in the 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:27.800 United States. My colleague Garrison is going to take over 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:29.800 here to give you an overview of how the street 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.320 battles between fascists and anti fascists evolved from two thousand 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:38.440 seventeen on. As Trump ushered conservative nationalism into the mainstream, 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.520 the vast mega movement brought street battles with their political 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.000 enemies back into vogue. The most prominent of the far 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.800 right groups that gathered in Portland was Patriot Prayer, led 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.600 by self described street preacher Joey Gibson. Patriot Prayer formed 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.240 alongside numerous other far right and neo fascist groups in 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:04.559 to support the candidacy of Donald Trump. Throughout ten Patriot 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.640 Prayer put on dozens and dozens of rallies throughout the 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:12.319 Pacific Northwest, and especially Portland. While Patriot Prayer rarely numbered 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.600 more than a few dozen members, they were capable in 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.800 drawing in hundreds of people By allying with militias like 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.320 the Three per Centers and street games like the Proud Boys, 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:26.080 and also explicit white nationalist groups like Identity Europa. These 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.040 street demos regularly escalated into violent brawls with police almost 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.160 always taking this side of the far right and carrying 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.079 out attacks on anti fascist demonstrators. Here's I was someone 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:41.319 with the Youth Liberation Front explained their entry into activism 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.959 and anti fascism. Reminder, we've redubbed the audio with a 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.480 voice actor because these children are regularly threatened with murder. Yeah. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.199 I think for me, it was definitely what was going 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.080 on in my everyday life that kind of pushed me 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.160 to get more involved in politics. I was, I was 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.520 working in school, and then I heard about Jeremy Christian 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.760 killing people on the Max I ride home and fucking 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.720 then not like really consumed me and it was integral 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.400 and to me, becoming like anti fascist and any racist 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.760 and not just kind of pushed my growth into anarchism 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.440 and ecology. So I think things happening in my world 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.080 around me was the first thing that definitely pushed me here. 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.880 Jeremy Christian attended multiple Patriot prayer rallies before he stabbed 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.480 three people and killed two in a racially motivated attack 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:30.400 on Portland's Max rail on. While Christian was eventually kicked 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.680 out of a Patriot prayer rally for openly sig hiling 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.160 the fact that Joey Gibson chose to hold a rally 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.560 immediately after the murders suggests that many of their members 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.760 may not have disavowed him as much as they claimed. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.240 The far right rallies that immediately followed Christian's stabbing spree 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.960 grew ever more violent. Gibson and company used their new 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.400 found notoriety to hold events in cities throughout the West Coast, 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.600 many of which ended in brawls. Through it all, Gibson 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.160 maintained a close relationship with the Portland Police Bureau, specifically 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:10.000 Lieutenant Jeff Naia, the previous commander of ppb's Rapid Response Team, 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.160 the very same team of quote riot police who would 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:18.360 be responsible for suppressing BLM rallies. In in text messages 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.679 from Lieutenant Naia to Gibson found via public records requests, 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.920 Lieutenant Naia was showcased giving Gibson information about Antifa during 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.480 rallies and instructing Gibson and other Patriot Prayer members on 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.840 how to avoid being arrested themselves. At one point, Naia 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.400 went so far as to tell Gibson that he and 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.920 other officers were trying specifically not to arrest a violent 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.360 right wing straight brawler Tiny Toast, who had outstanding arrest 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.080 warrants at the time. Naia told Gibson, quote, just make 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.880 sure he doesn't do anything which may draw our attention 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.520 if he still has the warrant in our system. I 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.600 don't run you guys, so I don't personally know the 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.720 officers could arrest him. I don't see a need to 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.120 arrest on the warrant unless there is a reason unquote. 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.800 The texts were from seventeen to eighteen, but only released 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.559 in February of twenty nineteen. Back in June, a rally 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.400 that was originally planned to protest police violence turned into 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.360 an anti fascist rally after Patriot Prayer announced they would 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.040 show up to counter the original protest. After some brawling 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.520 in the streets, the Portland Police Bureau arrested multiple anti fascists, 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.920 but failed to arrest anyone on the right. This appears 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.480 to have been done under orders from Lieutenant Naia. In 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.520 live stream footage, officers are seen walking up to and 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.080 telling Gimpson, quote, I just talked to Jeff Naia, and 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.360 he asked me to tell you that he has probably 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.000 cause to arrest a couple of the guys here. They've 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.240 arrested the other side. So it's not singling you guys out, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.000 but it's time to go. If you guys can go home, 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.960 there won't be any arrests. Two months later, at another 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.400 opposing anti fascist patriot Prayer Slash Proud Boy rally, Portland 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.280 police shot munitions at anti fascists as they ordered them 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.320 to disperse. One of these munitions, a flash bang grenade, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.680 was launched at the head of a self described anti fascist, 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.640 Aaron Anthony can To. The grenade split his skull open 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.720 and embedded all the way through his bike helmet. Kento 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.880 was treated at the scene by several volunteer street medics 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.120 and eventually was taken to the hospital. He suffered a 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:31.120 traumatic brain injury with severe hemorrhaging. Had he not been 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.320 wearing that bike helmet, he would have most certainly died. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.520 Fast forward to the start of For the first two 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.800 months of BLM protests in Portland, the far right was 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.280 oddly absent. This was seen as strange by everyone on 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.720 the ground. For years, far right demonstrators had shown up 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.600 at every possible event to do violence, but as soon 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.960 as tear gas and beatings started in May, those familiar 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.880 fascist faces were nowhere to be seen. There were, however, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:03.520 constant rumors of quote Proud Boys circling the area unquote, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.520 and every once in a while a random local fascist 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.360 would show up briefly. Also during the day, some would 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.240 wave Blue Lives Matter flags in front of the j C, 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.440 but for the most part, the right wing was mostly 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.680 absent until August. August sixteenth start out like any normal 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.000 day in Portland during the summer of By this point, 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.640 the fed War was over, and there were small gatherings 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.640 of protesters throughout the city at a different location each night. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.200 On the sixteenth, people were back at the Justice Center. 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.720 During the afternoon, there were the standard speeches about police abolition, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.920 and as the afternoon turned into the evening, people started 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:44.040 meandering around. At around ten pm, a small group who 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.720 had appointed themselves as quote protest security attempted to aggressively 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.960 escort out someone from the parks around the j C. 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.680 For unknown reasons. Quote security led this person over to 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.720 the nearby seven eleven, where they were more or less 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.200 randomly jumped by someone else. We should say a bit 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.760 here about the seven eleven near the Justice Center. Early 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.320 in the summer, it had earned the nickname Comrade seven 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.879 eleven because the workers inside repeatedly pulled in protesters to 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:16.640 rescue them from police bull rushes and clouds of tear gas. Unfortunately, 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.159 as the summer wore on, the seven eleven became a 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.760 gathering place for less savory individuals who coalesced at the 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.880 fringes of the movement. Street fights, some involving people tangentially 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.000 involved in the protests and others involving drunk people who 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.399 just wanted to fight, became an almost nightly occurrence. It 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.560 was not uncommon to see puddles of blood in the 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.000 intersection leading to the seven eleven, so it was not 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.240 super surprising that the person Quote Security pulled out of 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:47.000 the protest got jumped near the seven eleven. After getting punched, chased, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.720 and tackled, he ran away, but Quote Security stayed out 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.240 in front of the seven eleven. A woman nearby approached 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.480 them and asked what was going on. The Quote Security 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.320 then got aggressive with her. Other people near the seven eleven, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.000 whose affiliation is unclear, began stealing her stuff, a backpack 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.359 and skateboard. She then chased people around and tried to 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.800 pepper spray the people stealing from her. Videos filmed at 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.119 the time suggests that most of the people involved in 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.960 this fracas were very inebriated. While all this was going on, 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.639 another person arrived at the seven eleven. He parked his 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.440 truck outside and attempted to de escalate this tricky situation. 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.480 A small crowd of around twenty people formed around the 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.400 woman who had been attacked. Upon hearing this woman had 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.280 quote maced people, the small group got aggressive, a few 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.320 people through water bottles. Someone who had been caught in 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.280 the pepper spray crossfire ran up and began punching this woman. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.480 Violence waxed and waned for several minutes, and then the 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.600 man with the truck repeatedly tried to de escalate the situation. Eventually, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.800 he gave up and got into his truck again, which 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.800 made a weird sound and lurched forward after he turned 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.639 it on. One of the self appointed security people then 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:58.600 walked up to the driver and began to hit him 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.880 through the open window. A couple of people also began 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.440 hitting the truck driver's girlfriend, who had walked around the 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.000 truck toward the small crowd. While all this was going on, 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.600 a much larger BLM demonstration was occurring a few blocks away. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.840 I was there at the time, and I didn't even 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.120 know any of this was going on. But some BLM 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.000 protesters noticed the commotion and wandered over to the seven 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:23.560 eleven and tried to stop people from attacking the truck 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.840 driver and his girlfriend. The driver, still under attack from 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.080 his window, reft his engine a few times, and when 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.399 the road was completely clear, he drove away, but he 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.879 crashed about three blocks away from the seven eleven. The 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.480 self appointed security people chased after on foot, and when 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.040 they arrived at the crash site, one of the quote 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.119 security people pushed the truck driver onto the ground and 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.560 stopped him from leaving or walking around. The truck driver 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.399 explained that he wasn't trying to hurt anybody, and this 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.480 angered one of these so called security people, who then 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.040 began punching and kicking the truck driver, who was already 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.119 on the ground. The two other self appointed secure he 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.600 tried to restrain this one security guy who was repeatedly 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.040 hitting the truck driver, but this agitated security dude was 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.880 able to break free and brutally kicked the truck driver 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.560 in the back of the head, briefly knocking him out. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.720 Volunteer street medics rushed the scene from the protest a 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:20.719 few blocks away to provide aid. This was a terrible, confusing, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.560 and profoundly avoidable series of events. It had very little 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.880 to do with Portland's BLN movement, save that a small 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.600 number of self appointed security had been present at the 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:34.119 protest before this brawl started. This is not how it 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.960 was presented in right wing media, which portrayed the whole 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.359 situation as a mass BLM gang assault on a white 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:44.399 man for no other reason than his skin color. Much 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.440 of the disinformation came courtesy of the far right blogger 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:52.199 and social media personality Andy No. No had gained popularity 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.800 among the right in the past few years by writing 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.199 about the dangers of Muslim immigrants and fear mongering about Antifa. 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.439 In the past, No had also selectively live streamed and 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:07.240 filmed Antifa and Patriot Prayer slashed prowdboy rallies. At one 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.360 of these rallies, he was assaulted with milkshakes and punched 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.800 and shoved several times. This was a little after no 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.280 had been present to selectively film a right wing assault 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.439 at a local left wing hangout that left a woman 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.359 hospitalized with severe injuries. No had presented the scene to 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.000 look like right wingers were defending themselves, but in actuality, 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.520 they initiated this brutal attack, and it was later found 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.159 out that No was actually at the planning of this 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.200 violent assault. In some footage secretly filmed, No was seen 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.040 laughing as Patriot Prayer members discussed beating up left wing 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.879 activists and so called communists. After he was beat up, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.160 No raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and mostly stopped 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.119 going to protests himself. Instead, he either embedded footage from 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.880 actual on the ground journalists or used stolen footage from 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:00.200 various far right accounts that download, edit, and repos most 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.520 footage from protests. All the footage Andy No shares about 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.359 this head kicking incident is heavily edited to make it 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.560 unclear to his followers what is actually happening and to 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:14.040 make nose twisted narrative more believable. No started posting about 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.240 the truck driver assault by describing Portland as being quote 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:23.000 occupied with BLM and Antifa rioters unquote, further saying that 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.040 the man had simply crashed his car and that quote 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.119 the mob had pulled him out of his vehicle and 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:34.520 quote beat him senseless with No, there are always attempts 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.360 to paint Portland as being full of quote Antifa mobs 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.240 roaming the streets looking for anyone to beat up, with 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.040 the police never actually showing up to stop these dangerous Antifa, 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.800 which this is, of course, far from the truth. The 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:51.760 police themselves quickly showed up to this very incident after 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.399 the head kick and arrested the perpetrator as soon as 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.920 they identified him. No continued to post other people's clips 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:02.160 while describing quote rioters and quote the mob attacking this man. 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.960 But in the videos he shares, it's almost entirely one 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.320 person doing all of the violence, and other members of 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:13.280 this quote mob trying to physically restrain this main person 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:15.960 from hitting the truck driver. In a clip of people 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.280 trying to provide first aid, and he describes quote rioters 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:22.640 when no riot was actually declared that night, standing over 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.080 the truck driver's unscious body after quote they beat him up. 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:30.440 No also writes quote they pour water on him, as 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:33.400 if people are just doing for fun. Now, water isn't 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.240