CHAOS IN PORTLAND

Bear spray, bloody brawls at Patriot Prayer 'law and order' march in Portland

A demonstration billed as a march for "law and order" in the streets of Portland descended into chaos as rival political factions broke into bloody brawls downtown Saturday night.

Members of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and their black-clad adversaries, known as antifa, used bear spray, bare fists and batons to thrash each other outside Kelly's Olympian, a popular bar on Southwest Washington Street.

The melee, which lasted more than a minute, ended when riot cops rushed in and fired pepper balls at the street fighters.

The Portland Police Bureau reported seeing protest and counter-protest participants outfitted with hard knuckle gloves, knives and firearms earlier in the evening. Police said they made no arrests Saturday night, but will continue to investigate.

The wild scene unfolded amid mounting tensions among both groups, fueled in part by a pair of national news stories.

A march in Portland against police brutality last week drew headlines after law enforcement's hands-off approach to the event was blamed for an encounter between protesters and an elderly driver, which outraged many, including Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson and his supporters.

On Friday, viral video surfaced showing members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing fraternal organization, beating two or three protesters in New York City after an event at the Republican Party headquarters.

It was against this backdrop that Gibson, who counts a number of Proud Boys among his ranks, organized the so-called "Flash march for Law and Order in PDX" — ostensibly to protest Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and his oversight of the city's police force.

Waving American flags and breaking into patriotic chants, Gibson and several dozen supporters set off to a street memorial for Patrick Kimmons, a 27-year-old black man shot and killed by police, an incident that prompted last week's march.

As they arrived at the vigil on Southwest Fourth Avenue and Harvey Milk Street, they were met by a large group of counter-demonstrators chanting "Black Lives Matter."

The two sides exchanged taunts and threats as police stood by and warned against physical confrontation.

About 20 minutes later, the violence erupted a few blocks away among a smaller group of the participants.

Below is a detailed timeline of events from the evening. (Much more at the original link.)

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Things are heating up in Portland.

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Another article from the Willamette Week, the further left weekly arts paper in the city:

Portland Streets Descend Into Bedlam, Again, as Proud Boys and Antifascists Maul Each Other
"Flash march" leads to wild brawls in downtown after national media stoked tensions between warring protest groups.
By Katie Shepherd | Video By Mike Bivins |
A sudden march by Proud Boys through downtown Portland tonight turned into a melee, as tensions between radical groups stoked by national media erupted in a street brawl that police struggled to contain.
Right-wing extremists and masked antifascists clashed on the street outside of Kelly's Olympian, a downtown bar. Several brutal fights broke out at once, with black-clad leftists swinging at their MAGA-hat wearing adversaries. Some of the right-wingers struck with batons. Both sides used pepper spray.
Joey Gibson, the leader of Vancouver, Wash.-based protest group Patriot Prayer, organized the march in response to a series of conservative media stories criticizing Mayor Ted Wheeler and Portland police for a hands-off response to small protests against police brutality last weekend. A couple of videos showing protesters yelling at motorists and standing in the street led Fox News and others to criticize Wheeler for allowing "mob rule" in his city.
Adding to the already high tensions between warring protest groups in Portland, videos showing a large group of Proud Boys beating two or three protesters in New York City after attending a Friday event at the city's GOP headquarters drew widespread attention today. The videos led national media to scrutinize the Proud Boys, a fringe group that has close ties with Gibson and Patriot Prayer.
Tonight, the Patriot Prayer crowd, peppered with Proud Boys and others sporting American flags and "Don't Tread On Me" banners, marched through downtown Portland shouting about unseating Wheeler and sending Antifa home.
The crowd chanted "USA" as it approached a vigil for Patrick Kimmons, a man fatally shot by Portland police last month. The leftist protesters at the vigil had been chanting "Black Lives Matter." Someone in the left-wing crowd set an American flag on fire, but a Patriot Prayer marcher snagged it before it could burn to ashes.
Shortly after leaving the vigil, some people in the far-right crowd clashed with antifascist protesters for the first time. After exchanging insults, a masked left-wing protester pe Gehrke)pper sprayed a handful of right-wing supporters.
But the true chaos broke out later, shortly before 8 pm, on Southwest Washington Street outside Kelly's Olympian.
A man who appeared to be Tusitala "Tiny" Toese kicked a counter-protester who was on the ground. Another right-wing supporter ran up and stomped on the man's face. One of his fellow protesters pushed him away and said "Let him go."
Portland police intervened to break up some of the skirmishes. An officer can be seen on video firing pepper balls at four right-wing protesters who were beating a single antifascist protester on the ground.
The street brawl is just the latest in a long list of violent clashes between Patriot Prayer and antifascist protesters. Past run-ins have sent people to the hospital.

Minor incident. Way overhyped.

I want ANTIFA/BLM (and the rest of the smelly, undisciplined herd) to assemble in mass and cross the true line of civil unrest in Portland.

The Proud Boys don’t even need to show.... just bate them on Social Media (the opposition is that stupid).

I have a friend, who knows somebody, who told him that these dudes bait the San FranFeakShow/Berkeley ANTIFA/BLM all the time to show someplace and LOL........

At the end of the day, THE LEO are at fault here. Quit blaming it on the Mayor. LEO more worried about pensions than Public Safety. If the LEO were serious, they would geth their UNION to stand up for the Mayor. LOL = UNION... part of the problem right there.

Let them burn the place. The local folks VOTED for it. They own what they VOTED FOR.

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