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The beautiful city of Portland, Oregon is bracing for protests by contrasting groups this weekend. In the past protests, police, bystanders, and even a journalist have been injured. The police have been criticized for not intervening. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is promising that “things will be different” this weekend.
The Portland mayor was on Fox News Channel this morning with Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith making his promise of “things will be different” and being jaw-droppingly obtuse. Wheeler mouthed the platitudes “unified” and “not our values”. He claimed that since the last Antifa protest, Portland has built partnerships with federal, state and local agencies, businesses and athletes. Well, let’s hope so. We wouldn’t want a repeat of the “milkshake” beating that journalist Andy Ngo received the last time. In case you need a refresher on that outcome, Kim Hirsch covered it for Victory Girls and you can read it here. Since the late June,2019 attack on Ngo, no one has been arrested. Ngo tweeted:
Why hasn’t anyone been arrested? The Portland mayor claimed, today, that the police have photos of a couple of suspects. He also stated that the police have asked for videos to aid them in locating the perpetrators…several times. Hey, Mayor Wheeler! The Oregonian has the video. Or, you could just watch it on YouTube here. It’s not that hard if you really want to arrest someone. And, that might have sent a message to Antifa before this weekend. That might have given Antifa pause.
Rose City Antifa (founded 2007), the local chapter, even claimed credit for attacking Andy Ngo, as reported by the Daily Caller. Perhaps the Portland Mayor could tell the police that Rose City Antifa released the following statement:
“On June 29, 2019, Andy Ngo tried a repeat of his actions on May 1, 2019– to film the actions of armed men on a mission to attack activists, to be used for propaganda purposes,” Rose City Antifa’s statement read. “As on May Day, this past weekend he and the far-right mob were stopped, physically.”
“The events of this weekend are what we mean by community defense. The entire community came together, using multiple tactics, and sent a premeditated attack by the far-right packing. This is exactly what should happen when the far-right attempts to invade our town.”
One quick note, why are we continuing to permit Antifa to claim to be anti-fascist? The statement above is about as fascist as it gets. Antifa should be known as Fafa or Profa.
Of course, Mayor Wheeler doesn’t blame Antifa. No. On Fox this morning, he blamed hate speech that has been geared toward women and people of color coming from right wing groups. And, then immediately said that the protests are not about anybody’s politics. Like I said, obtuse.
Here is the video from this morning:
WATCH: @BillHemmer and @SandraSmithFox spoke with @tedwheeler on protests in Portland, Oregon #nine2noon pic.twitter.com/bfxV04ehiP
— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) August 14, 2019
According to Oregon Live, nearly 100 groups were to join Mayor Wheeler today to “warn” the protesters. From the article:
“To anyone planning to commit violence during demonstrations in Portland scheduled for Saturday, August 17, 2019, you are not welcome here,” the news release said. “If you choose to commit violence, you will face legal consequences.”
The news release said Wheeler, city commissioners Amanda Fritz and Jo Ann Hardesty, Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and some others from the group would speak at the event.
Tim Becker, a spokesman for Wheeler’s office, said the city started reaching out to various organizations last week, but the groundwork for the coalition had been laid long before that. He said that while the mayor’s staff contacted several groups, others reached out to the city and asked to be involved.
“So many people feel the same way — we don’t want this,” Becker said.
He said although there have been other protests in the past, the information officials have received about the potential size and violence of this one led them to form a coalition.
“This is unprecedented — at least for this administration,” he said.
The Portland Mayor is thick so I will give him a hint. Arrest the cretins who beat Andy Ngo. Make a statement that the police will not stand down or allow themselves to be victims. Let Rose City Antifa know they will be investigated thoroughly.
I am not holding my breath. Expect more violence from Antifa this weekend.
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Bob says: I’ll believe what Mayor Wheeler says after I see video of police beating the $h!+ out of masked Antifa idiots.
Rain says: if you add “except for Antifa” after each statement made by the mayor it sounds more believable and what i’m pretty sure is going to happen this weekend….
GWB says: Like I said, obtuse.
No, lying.
“If you choose to commit violence, you will face legal consequences.”
Yeah. Right.
Scott says: He means it GWB… if you’re a right wing individual that is… Antifa, that’s a whole different thing,..
Mayor Wheeler: “To anyone planning to commit violence during demonstrations in Portland scheduled for Saturday, August 17, 2019, you are not welcome here,” the news release said. “If you choose to commit violence, you will face legal consequences.”
Perfectly true. Don’t you guys get it? Non-leftist words are violence to the left, and attacks by antifa are legal in Portland.
Norm says: What’s the difference between “Antifa” and Brownshirts?
The color of their shirts.
GWB says: Sortof. Norm is actually correct, since AntiFa was actually founded ~90 years ago by the communists in order to combat the fascists. While the Italian fascists were actually blackshirts, the AntiFa folks were blackshirts, too. It was just Hitler’s goons that were brownshirts.
GlobalTrvlr says: I have tried from the beginning to get at least conservative media to quit calling them antifa and call them what they are – Actualfa.
“why are we continuing to permit Antifa to claim to be anti-fascist?”
Not me.
I have always called them what they are:
Democrat Fascists.
SDN says: Just remember, he belongs to the same party as the governor and mayor who set up the Charlottesville riots.
Now an independent report has come out, suggesting that much of the blame for the clashes, injuries and death lies with poor police work by the Charlottesville Police Department, the Virginia State Police and the University of Virginia Police.
The report, authored by former U.S. attorney Timothy Heaphy for the Charlottesville City Council, found, as reported by USA Today:
• Charlottesville police didn’t ensure separation between counter-protesters and so called alt-right protesters upset with the city council’s decision to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park.
• Officers weren’t stationed along routes to the park, but instead remained behind barricades in relatively empty zones.
• City police didn’t adequately coordinate with Virginia State Police, and authorities were unable to communicate via radio.
• State police didn’t share a formal planning document with city police, “a crucial failure.”
• Officers were inadequately equipped to respond to the clashes between the two groups, and tactical gear was not accessible to officers.
Furthermore, though no specific evidence of a “stand down” order was found, as some have charged, the report did find that police didn’t do their jobs: “We did not find evidence of a direct order to officers to ‘stand down’ and not respond to fights and other disorders. Even if there was no explicit ‘stand down’ order in place, CPD and VSP both failed to ‘stand up’ to protect human life.” Areas where conflict could be expected to occur didn’t have police officers assigned to them; areas where police officers were stationed were out of the way.
When violence first broke out, according to two witnesses Chief Thomas reportedly said “let them fight, it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.”
When the police finally decided to shut the rally down, they did it in a way that forced the protesters and counterprotesters into each other, instead of separating them, making violence far more likely. Meanwhile police who could have deescalated the violence stood aside.
And when I say “set up”, I mean conspiracy to facilitate murder, at the very least.
Dixon bragged on Facebook about confronting James Fields with an AR-15 rifle, moments before Fields drove his car into a crowd of protesters at the Charlottesville, Virginia protests (and in doing so, perhaps pushing Fields’s emotions past the point of reason). During Fields’s trial, though, Dixon changed his story, claiming it was not Fields’s car he approached with his weapon, but another one.
An AR-15 is not a concealed carry gun. How did he get it into the area without the connivance of one or more of the law enforcement agencies whose connivance in ensuring that the Antifa mob would be allowed to assault the protesters who had a permit?
SDN says: Needed to add a link there: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2019/07/unc-chapel-hill-a-sanctuary-campus-for-terroristic-radicals-on-the-taxpayers-dime/
ANTIFA THUGS IN MASKS ARE PURE LOCAL TERRORISTS AND NEED ARRESTED AND CHARGED AS SUCH WITH JAIL TIME! NOTHING BUT ANARCHIST ACTS HERE!
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