Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s progressive bona fides won’t be established until the downtown Nordstrom closes and is turned into a homeless shelter.
By then he will realize that being progressive isn’t part of his job description.
Nordstrom was one of the many downtown businesses – large and small – that closed Saturday because of a planned demonstration between two political factions that call each other fascists.
Instead of residents and tourists exploring downtown, shopping and supporting businesses that pay taxes, City Hall spent millions of dollars protecting left-wing and right-wing protesters.
When it was all over, Wheeler seemed pleased with himself. Nobody was seriously injured. The violence he feared didn’t happen. The cops didn’t use any flash-bang devices that are often directed at left-wing protesters when they assault others or throw things. Wheeler had a chance to grandstand and talk tough about who was welcome and unwelcome in “my city,” as if he owned Portland.
Perhaps at the start of this work-week he will consider who really paid for his lack of leadership. How much money did local businesses lose? How many employees won’t get paid for what would have been a workday? How many public transit users found their bus or train had been halted because long after the right-wing protesters dispersed, left-wing protesters blocked downtown streets?
At a press conference after the protest, Wheeler talked about the millions of dollars in police costs the city will have to pay. He didn’t seem to appreciate why: because of his history of appeasing.
He wants police to do their jobs and enforce the law, but he doesn’t want anybody to get hurt or offended – especially on the left, which would challenge his commitment to Portland’s progressive values.
Consequently, on Saturday it looked like each demonstrator had his/her own cop. For a crowd estimated at 1,200, there were about 700 officers from more than a dozen agencies participating. Not everyone in the crowd was a protester. Some, like me, weren’t taking sides but were there to observe. Many protesters were female and appeared inclined to be more verbal than physical.
Wheeler has been jeeringly referred to as the “boy mayor” or “Mayor Weasel” (an insult to weasels who can actually be fearless). After Saturday’s protest was safely over and nobody was injured, Wheeler sounded like he was ready to lead the national charge against white supremacy. Naturally, he used the opportunity to remind everyone that Portland is at “Ground Zero” because of its progressive reputation.
Wheeler, the scion of a wealthy lumber family, might very well be regarded as a white supremacist himself. Among the speakers to address left-wing protesters gathered at one end of the Portland waterfront was a woman who called herself by the Chinook name meaning “Aspen Leaves Turning Gold.”
She asked the predominantly white crowd to acknowledge they were on stolen land. (For a nice, ironic touch the police loudspeaker could be heard in the background, “Get out of the streets!”)
Aspen Leaves Turning Gold declared that America was never great.
“It was always founded on the backs of the African people. … It will never be great until we smash the state,” she said to loud cheers.
She was followed by Anna of Rose City Antifa, who bragged about causing someone to lose his job because of his politics. Like most antifas (short for anti-fascists) Anna wore a mask to hide her identity.
That was the quality of free speech from the left-wing side of the demonstration. At the other end of the waterfront, where the right-wing faction was gathering, a black pastor named Muzic Martin preached “Flow, holy spirit, flow.”
He asked for protection of law enforcement and to acknowledge the name of Jesus Christ as creator of heaven and earth.
A man walking by yelled towards the crowd encircling Martin, “Where’s the beer, boys?”
Nobody seemed to take offense. Nearby a man wearing a red T-shirt that said IMPEACH looked on. None of the right-wing protesters pounced on him or attempted to run him off.
Two leaders of the right-wing faction, Joey Gibson and Joe Biggs, said the goal was to bring attention to antifa’s domestic terrorism, which they said was achieved – especially after President Trump weighed in with a tweet saying there is consideration to identify antifa as a terrorist organization.
Gibson held an American flag and wore a red MAGA cap. The day before, he had been charged by Multnomah County District Attorney’s for inciting a riot in May outside a downtown bar called Cider Riot. Gibson denied the charges and considered them politically motivated.
Less than two hours into the demonstration, Gibson and his group, Patriot Prayer, were allowed to use the Hawthorne Bridge that had been closed to all traffic because of the protests. They walked over to the other side of the Willamette River in east Portland, leaving their opponents downtown on the west side. Police would not open the bridge to anyone else.
Some of the antifas – mostly male – became agitated when they realized Gibson’s group was out of reach. They wandered into the now sparsely-populated area where their opponents had originally gathered.
“The Hawthorne Bridge is closed to everyone but Nazis!” a man yelled.
Pastor Martin, who hadn’t followed Gibson and the others across the river, urged: “No hate, in the name of Jesus!”
Then somebody shouted, “We have a nazi here!”
About 25 people surrounded a short, dark-haired man. There was shoving and pushing.
Martin screamed, “It doesn’t matter … it doesn’t matter … it doesn’t matter.” His voice started to get hoarse.
A man yelled, “Put the baton away!”
Other people jeered: “He’s scared! He’s terrified!”
A couple of others, though, tried to calm things down: “Give the guy an out! … Give him an out!”
Perhaps the two voices of reason belonged to antifas who remembered what happened earlier this summer when some of their associates ganged up on conservative journalist Andy Ngo. They surrounded him, stole his camera and beat him up badly enough that he required hospitalization. There have been no arrests in his attack.
The guy Saturday was allowed to leave while a heavy-set man with reddish brown hair announced: “A particular nazi has been escorted away.”
On the ground nearby was a discarded sign that said “Skin color is not an accomplishment.”
Was it left by someone in Gibson’s group? Or was it brought over by the antifas? The message could have applied to both sides. Being white isn’t an accomplishment, and neither is being brown or black.
I’ve been to many of these protests over the past two years, and I always visit both sides. I’ve never had anyone in the right-wing faction put their hands on me, verbally threaten me or tell me I had to leave a public place because I was asking the wrong questions. Rose City Antifa is another matter. Their members exhibit an intolerance that is truly fascist. No wonder they cover their faces.
From Hong Kong to Bloomington, Ind,, antifas and other protesters have been busy this summer.
“A specter is haunting the world – the specter of a new kind of revolution,” writes James Adams in his essay “Will Hong Kong’s Revolution Come West?” in The Spectator.
He notes that while the right lacks coherence and organization, “the hard left have an umbrella organization in Antifa… .” However, he said the group’s interpretation of “anti-fascism” is historically naïve and politically deceptive.
“(T)he anti-fascist slogan is a mask for pro-communist policies. But it’s enough to bring thousands to Antifa rallies where everyone accepts that violence is at the core of Antifa’s ethos,” he writes.
It’s an ethos that has worked in Portland to antifa’s advantage. Wheeler buys into antifa’s assertion that it has to respond any time a right-wing group seeks a permit to march or gather. If Rose City Antifa had chosen to ignore the presence of Gibson and his group on the waterfront, it would have been business as usual in downtown Portland on Saturday.
Instead, in the days leading up to Saturday, Portland police officers visited local downtown businesses and advised them to close. As police commissioner, Wheeler had to have approved this tactic.
He has contributed to the metastasis of antifa’s own fascism and bigotry, which seems to find a nurturing home in liberal communities. Consider what happened this summer in the college town of Bloomington, Ind.
Like Portland, this predominantly white, liberal town was targeted by antifa after members accused two longtime sellers at the local farmers’ market of being white nationalists. Why? Because they posted comments that antifa deemed “pro-white.”
As reported in The New York Times, antifas showed up one weekend dressed in black to protest in front of the sellers’ stall that featured organic tomatoes and kale. Protesters handed out buttons that read, “Don’t Buy Veggies From Nazis.” This, in turn, attracted the attention of a conservative militia group.
Bloomington’s mayor opted to suspend the market for a time — kind of like Wheeler asking downtown businesses to close.
The farmers’ market has since reopened, but it has lost some of its community spirit – thanks to antifa’s special brand of hate.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
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Glad to see the cops clean up with some overtime. Ted Wheeler has no one to blame but himself. Everyti e he opens his mouth he speaks from the Antifa playbook. They’re the ones who shut down streets and cause damage and bully anyone who disagrees with them. I’m glad you mentioned public transit. I know a Trimet driver. Saturday’s Antifa tantrum screwed up people’s commutes. Thanks Rose City fascists..
Joey Gibson at least has the guts to show his face and put his name out there. I try to stay away from downtown. I didn’t go to the protest. Your description of the Golden Leaves Indian telling white Antifas they’re on stolen land was hilarious. The fools applauded. They don’t realize they’re the thieves.
I mentioned earlier James Adams and his essay, “Will Hong Kong’s Revolution Come West?” He points out that the classic modern revolution had identifiable leaders — like Castro, Lenin or Mao — and specific demands. Today’s demonstrators “have no identifiable leadership structure. There are no inspiring speeches, no rallies with leaders on a stage… .”
That certainly describes Portland. Gibson shows up and waves an American flag, and antifa recyles rhetoric from the 60’s. In the run-up, the media reacted like Pavlov’s dog. Then afterwards they seemed disappointed that the revolution didn’t live up to expectations.
https://spectator.us/hong-kong-revolution-come-west/
Spoke with a PPB officer last night while sorting out an altercation.
According to him the Bureau rank and file have received cooperation from Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer. That and their requests for protection.
The Oregonian is one monstrous lie. It is almost impossible to see the point of telling the truth in a world where a fixed point for navigation is a hate crime. Language used of to be a help in organizing one’s life instead of the meaningless swamp that it has become.
The discarded sign, “Skin color is not an accomplishment.” That would certainly be the conservatives. The modern American left is consumed by color. They long ago weaponized color. They long ago discarded content of character and achievement as anything other than racist constructs.
You’ve reviewed the 1619 project?
The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.
As long as we’re rewriting the world here’s a bit from my local St Johns paper:
The word “neighborhood” has been scrubbed from the bureau’s name and entirely removed from proposed city code language that defines it. To many residents that [Neighborhood] has negative implications.”
I suspect that those residents troubled by the word neighborhood are college trained ideologues that see the language as a tool they can use to get power as well as a fertile resource for taking people’s eyes from what is the true source of their problems (smother responsibility in favor of “they done it to me”).
Why not despair in world that has decided that to lie to to one’s self is the absolute pre-condition of existence?
In Portland the Nazis are antifacists.
Yes, I’ve seen The 1619 Project. Not surprisingly, there are calls to make it required reading in the schools. Is it any wonder some American classrooms are dominated by black swagger?
Every single white person who’s crying guilty tears over America’s history of slavery should empty their bank accounts, cash out all their financial holdings, sell their home and car and take the proceeds and give them to the nearest black person. Make amends. Stop shoveling guilt on others. Stop nurturing the Black American Whine. (As I’ve said before, I’d rather be a black man in America than a black woman in any country on the African continent.)
The Oregonian is in such sad shape I hate to kick it while it’s down. OPB is another matter. Yesterday on “Think Out Loud” the show’s host agreed with Facebook critics who complained about their coverage of the protest. To make amends, OPB invited an antifa supporter on the show and allowed her to use the moniker “Effie Baum.” (Get it? A diminutive for F-Bomb). She denounced the radical right and acted as if hate only comes in one political flavor. The antifa’s brass band exists — not for entertainment purposes — but to drown out viewpoints they disagree with. (When I was on the antifa side of last week’s protest, they were passing out ear plugs.)
I’d like to see anonymous employees from The O or OPB don MAGA hats and Trump shirts and walk into an antifa protest. See how much love and tolerance antifa shows them. From my observations, the right-wing is much more willing to engage their opponents than the left.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-Board-of-Supervisors-sanitizes-language-of-14292255.php
Great minds think alike. A friend pointed out the Chron’s story to me last week. It reminded me of a long-ago headline in the Columbia Journalism Review: “Person the lifeboats! The language is sinking!”
https://reason.com/2019/08/23/im-radioactive/
That’s a most excellent CJR headline.
Thank you Pamela, another well written article.
Read the Spectator and the Chronicle. How can an ordinary person hang on to their sanity? Criminals can’t be called criminals? Expect the same law to head north. We’re degrading law enforcement.
The Oregon legislature this past session did approve HB 3146: In state documents, “inmates” will now be called “adults in custody.”
You’re probably right. Eventually, Portland’s progressives will embrace the San Francisco law and demand that we stop calling felons “felons.”
You would think the news media, in their alleged commitment to the truth, would not go along with this nonsense. Instead, they contribute to it. Last week, The Portland Tribune editorialized about the Aug. 17th protests and criticized “violent actors on all sides,” but the editorial writers clearly downplayed what antifas have done: “Smashing a window doesn’t protest fascism and it doesn’t project strength. Smashing windows makes you a twerp.”
Twerp? No, smashing windows is an act of vandalism. It’s a crime. It makes you a vandal.
As hijacked language is a theme here, a helpful series on that very topic – focusing on how the left has done just that. A four part series, each part short but worth reading
Forgot the link
https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-battle-for-americas-unconscious-mind-part-1/