Proud Boys and Patriot Prayers
Yesterday in Portland (the Oregon one not the Maine one):
For the first time in more than a year of street brawling, Portland police today deemed a march by Proud Boys and other right-wing protesters too violent to continue.
Marchers with the right-wing protest group Patriot Prayer beat antifascist protesters with wooden and PVC pipe flag poles that federal police had allowed the group to keep.
Portland police policy is to confiscate all possible weapons, and they did not allow the antifascist protesters to have flag poles. At least one protester was severely injured in the brawl and lay motionless on the ground after police broke up the altercation.
Seems like a conscious deliberate attempt to recapitulate the rise of Nazism. Street brawls were the early Nazis’ bread and butter.
After two weeks where Portland’s leftist protesters drew national attention for blockading federal immigration offices, right-wing groups led by Congressional candidate Joey Gibson returned to Portland in greater numbers than have been seen since last summer, seemingly bent on wresting back the spotlight with street violence.
Patriot Prayer attracted far more attendees than usual, including many men wearing black-and-yellow Proud Boy shirts and others dressed in costumes with helmets. They had a permit to march in downtown Portland. Many arrived from out of town via a chartered former school bus.
Many fine people on both sides. On both sides.
I read sites on both the left and the right, and the whole Antifa movement is covered so differently that they barely seem to be talking about the same things.
To the Left Antifa is mostly ignored. When discussed, they’re well-meaning if somewhat misguided protestors.
To the Right they’re vicious thugs always looking to stir up violence, and they’re covered frequently as a rising threat.
I know nothing about the right wing groups here (Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys). They could be universally horrible people. I’m not saying there’s any good people on their side.
But look at this biased writing from the article you linked:
Why write it in reverse order like that? And it’s even worse earlier in the article where they don’t even mention the gravel and firecrackers.
And watch the video:
https://mobile.twitter.com/xBc26x/status/1013237906540859394
The right wingers are standing there with flags and the Antifa people start throwing gravel at them. Then there are fireworks sounds but it’s not clear where there going off. Then there’s a big explosion in the middle of the right-wing group. Only then, and not even right away, do the right wingers surge forward. Some of the allegedly disarmed Antifa people are clearly brandishing club-like weapons.
Misleading reporting doesn’t help. Here, at least in the second incident, Antifa were the clear instigators of the violence.
Oh, and here’s apparently the guy that was lying motionless:
https://mobile.twitter.com/HonourableRight/status/1013253311670054913
Unlike what was implied, he wasn’t hit by a flagpole. He was the one with a weapon. It’s hard to see in the blurry video, but if you watch closely or step through you’ll see he has a stick or club in his right hand and he’s swinging it, aiming for some guy’s head. The guy knocks him out cold with a punch. Stepping through the video, as best as I can see his hand is bare and empty (no brass knuckles, etc.).
They don’t show the start of the confrontation, so it’s possible the Antifa guy was attacked first.
Yes, as I said, street brawls were the early Nazis’ bread and butter.