The PSU College Republican presentus-interruptus by Mike Strickland is now becoming national news.
You can find the background I’ve posted on Mike Strickland and his First and Second Amendment case at this VictoriaTaft.com link.
Video of Strickland’s presentation, disrupted for more than an hour by Antifa/Anarchist protesters, one of whom we’ll just call Cow Bell Boy, was broadcast by many sources, including on Twitter by journalist Andy Ngo. It was picked up by The Daily Caller and featured prominently on the publication’s Facebook page. You’ll want to turn down the sound a bit if you’re at work:
Like a toddler who learns he can control Mom and Dad by throwing a wing ding, Cow Bell Boy rang his dingle dangle, shouted and made hiccup-like “yep!” sounds worthy of Dave Hester from “Storage Wars” to stop free speech in a public room. He later boasted, “I’ve been totally successful, I’ve shut this entire shit down all by myself.” He had two helpers with him, but basically, Cow Bell Boy was right. Police officers present did nothing.
During the dingle-dangle-wing-ding, videographer Nate Millsap said to him:
“I was just wondering if you had any balls to say what you are standing for or not standing for. You just shut people down and that is all that you know.”
Pondering his answer – or was he considering his balls? – as the diminutive man-bunned protester looked up at the six-foot-five, 280-pound boulder-sized Millsap, he creepily responded,
“Oooh, toxic masculinity!”
Millsap, who curates the YouTube channel Stumptown Matters, told VictoriaTaft.com that he laughed and responded:
“I’ve got all the masculinity you need and then some.”
If you know what “Toxic Masculinity” is you’re more informed than most. Or you’re a liberal arts intersectionality major at a university somewhere.
At a website called Tolerance (yes, really), invoking the latest made-up word in the feminist lexicon can be “tricky”:
“It’s a phrase that—misunderstood—can seem wildly insulting, even bigoted.”
Intolerant, insulting and bigoted? That’s quite a trifecta! (And, as an added bonus, if you were offended by the phrase then it would be your fault for ‘misunderstanding.’) We guess Cow Bell Boy thought he’d ‘trigger’ Millsap with his insult. That boy was barking up the wrong redwood.
Joey Gibson, the founder of “Patriot Prayer,” a pro-freedom, anti-Antifa group and who is all-too-familiar with Cow Bell Boy, gave VictoriaTaft.com his own definition of “Toxic Masculinity.”
Warning to Cow Bell Boy, you may be triggered:
“The term “toxic masculinity” is only used by boys who have tried their entire lives to be men but never figured out how. So instead they insult other men.”
Gibson, a former U.S. Senate candidate, told KGW-TV recently that America is getting soft and we need men and women to stand up for what’s right:
“We’re here to promote freedom and God and that’s about it. We’re the American Spirit where we stand up for our beliefs unapologetically and unafraid. Our country’s getting soft, it’s getting soft and we need leaders to step up.”
Meanwhile, back at Strickland’s presentus-interruptus, Cow Bell Boy only took his leave when he thought he’d burned enough of Strickland’s time to prevent him from giving his speech before the building curfew.
Cow Bell Boy, or one of his buddies, told VictoriaTaft.com via Twitter (more on that later) that he was never escorted out by police as I reported Wednesday. I can see by this angle of Andy Ngo’s video (above) that the Antifa protester was absolutely correct. Police response was even worse than I thought.
Coming to hear Strickland was a calculated act of bravery. Those gutsy enough to come to downtown Portland after dark to hear about Strickland’s case knew the cops wouldn’t have their back. They knew if they defended themselves or attempted to resume order in the room that they’d end up like Strickland: arrested, jailed, tried, convicted and deprived of their rights.
Strickland’s conviction is on appeal at the Oregon Appeals Court and is he represented by nationally known attorney Robert Barnes.
Here’s a link to his defense fund which has been set up by the Oregon Firearms Federation. Please give generously.
An Antifa protester holds a Cascadia flag in front of a projector to prevent Mike Strickland from showing supporting media for his First Amendment presentation
This post has been updated to indicate that Portland State Police did *not* escort out the Antifa/Anarchist free speech disruptors.
Before Ann Coulter, Milo and Ben Shapiro were met by the fire bombing mobs who would later become widely known as Antifa, there was Mike Strickland. In 2016, Strickland was arrested, charged and convicted in Portland for drawing his legally concealed weapon to stop a phalanx of Antifa protesters who conspired to beat the citizen journalist out of their Don’t Shoot Portland/Black Lives Matter protest in downtown. No shots were fired. No one was hurt.
As a result of the widely publicized incident, Portland State University and Portland Community College campuses banned Strickland for two years.
As I wrote this week, there was a simple reason why banning him was irresistible:
Though the incident didn’t occur near any of the campuses, Strickland was well known by campus administrators for reporting on the speeches, marches and antics of the University professors and protesters. Protesters included the Occupy, Antifa, IWW (Wobblies) and ISO, as well as the usual Portland Professional Protesters, Incorporated™ social justice, environmentalist, anti-Israel groups. Strickland’s reports on those campuses made national news. University and College administrators saw an opportunity to keep their well known antagonist off campus and took it.
VictoriaTaft.com
Tuesday night, Strickland was back on campus in front of a group of College Republicans, live streaming cameras and citizens and tried to tell his compelling story (read many of my stories here). However, some Portland area Anarchist/Antifa antagonists were also there and had different plans.
Strickland was shouted off the stage several times by a man interrupting the speech with wild rantings, screaming and using the new anti-free speech weapon of the moment … a cowbell.
Strickland, Laughing at Liberals on YouTube, posted this video of the dingle dangler:
He dingle dangled his bell and spoke over Strickland, who kept a smile on his face for the 68 minutes it took cops to get rid of them. More on that in a minute.
Cowbell Ringing person interrupts Strickland’s presentation.
The agent provocateur identified himself as “Sawyer” and silenced his cowbell only long enough to stand in front of Strickland’s projector, preventing the citizen journalist from showing video and supporting documents about his case.
The last time we saw “Sawyer” he was heckling a bunch of men with the Proud Boys in downtown Portland and one of his fellow Antifa mates got hit by a truck. Notice that “Sawyer” never stops talking into his megaphone:
This is Sawyer’s co-conspirator. Austin Goodrich is well known to some area folks for all the wrong reasons. This apparent Bernie Bro has allegedly harassed, stalked and threatened people in Hillsboro who displayed Trump for President signs in 2016.
He was back Tuesday night to apparently harass and intimidate Strickland and people there supporting him, such as 83-year-old Kay Bridges who is herself a citizen journalist and was live streaming the event on Facebook. View her video here:
Mike Strickland has been scheduled to speak at PSU College Republicans for months… but the Cowbell Crew tries to shut him down. This is hard to watch … but we had as many as 60 at a time on the LIVE feed including Victoria Taft and Mike's trial attorney. It was after Mike asked if he could file charges and Campus Police said NO .. and then I said "What about me." and he didn't answer …suddenly the guys decided to leave. Hmmmmm….. So if any of you have seen the Oregon Push Back Page …. Mike and the implication of his appeal nationally is what is at stake here in Oregon. This is a small example. If you don't know the whole story… please research. He was defending his First Amendment Right with his Second Amendment Right and was charged and convicted while the MOB became the victim according to the judge. It is a long story .. and we can elaborate but time is short for tonight. OregonPushBack.com
When asked who the two main antagonizers were, this is what several said about Goodrich:
Austin later remarked over on my Facebook page that he wasn’t an Antifa member and scoffed at being called a Bernie Bro. Here’s Austin’s Facebook page:
“Creating action.” “Family First.” Gee, he seemed like such a nice guy I thought I’d ask him for a quote:
Those watching the spectacle saw the dramatic difference between the ‘protesters’ and the behavior of the man Antifa and company have lied about for going on three years, Mike Strickland.
Randi commented:
“What a contrast between calm, cool, collected, courteous Mike Strickland, and a room full of out of control motor mouth kooks, with nothing better to do than shut down Mike’s privilege to speak.”
Katie said:
“If this is how they act when law enforcement was around, then we know how they acted when they surrounded and attacked you. They really are afraid of what Mike may have to say.”
Another said:
“To bypass the one-man cowbell choir, Mike’s presentation begins at about 68:00 minutes into this video due to the Breach of Peace.”
Edwin wrote:
“I wish people would remember this. This is America. Every citizen has the right of free speech. Even if you don’t like or agree with what that person is saying. They have the right to free speech. And yes even hate speech is free speech.”
Lauri said:
“The first 45 minutes were the most telling I don’t know how Michael put up with all of that hate. The haters rang bell’s and screamed at him and talked over him and put them selves between him and the projector to make it impossible for him to give this lecture”
And Jack had an excellent question:
“Why the hell are the cops just standing there like zombies?”
Why the hell, indeed.
A real head scratcher, this.
As the cowbell and scream fest continued. Strickland was banished to the back of the room since he couldn’t speak over Antifa’s noise. But they found him and surrounded him again.
(The young woman (pictured above) claims to have been a reporter from the student newspaper, “The Vanguard,” but you wouldn’t know it from her behavior. She spoke over Strickland, clearly sided with Antifa protesters and treated Strickland with obvious disdain. She’ll be with the Washington Post any day now.)
The spectacle was all in view of the PSU cops.
Portland State University’s finest.
Strickland told VictoriaTaft.com that he spoke with Sgt. Halliburton (pictured above) and asked him at what point would they consider the situation disorderly conduct and he replied, “I’ll decide when.”
For the attorneys in the audience, that was the wrong answer.
Jason Short, one of Strickland’s attorneys during his first trial and who was watching the livestream of the event, opined that it looked like disorderly conduct, but conceded college cops in Portland were unlikely to do anything.
James Buchal, attorney and the head of the Multnomah County Republican Party suggested to VictoriaTaft.com that it might have been Disorderly Conduct by the cowbell ringing pair:
1)A person commits the crime of disorderly conduct in the second degree if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, the person:
(a)Engages in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior;
(b)Makes unreasonable noise;
(c)Disturbs any lawful assembly of persons without lawful authority;”
We have a winner!
Police escorted the duo out of the room only after Strickland implored them to do so saying he wanted to file a complaint.
After talking with the officers on site, the Antifa/Anarchist disruptors, including Cow Bell Boy, left.
That [Writing a report] apparently sounded like too much work for the officers and they escorted the two out of the room. No report was taken that VictoriaTaft.com was aware of as of publication.
Strickland was able to continue with his speech, but not before Antifa’s antics had burned up most of the College Republicans reserved time in the room.
Mission Accomplished.
Strickland’s case is under appeal at the Oregon Court of Appeals. A decision on his case is expected any time.
Strickland’s Defense Fund has been set up by Oregon Firearms Federation. Please give generously here.
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Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, (D. Antifa) announced Tuesday that he will not run for President of the United States.
Reaction was swift:
Had he thrown his black balaclava into the ring Merkley would have become the 15th candidate running on the Leftist side of the political aisle. The slate of Democrats/Socialists who have announced so far is: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, John Delaney, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson. More, such as Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke and others are still coyly hanging back. Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that they would not run for office.
Merkley released his announcement on Twitter to avid supporters.
The 62-year-old former Princeton and Stanford student told them of his family’s hardscrabble upbringing, including a story – “family lore” – that his grandmother slept in a boxcar of a train for a short time.
Merkley’s name recognition might have been an issue in his now-erstwhile run for president. Few people know who he is. However, Oregon’s ‘Accidental Senator’ keeps the door open to a Cabinet position with a Bernie Sanders Administration. It’s clear that Jay Inslee (he’s Washington State’s Governor and also running for president) has the inside track to become Sanders’s “green czar” and is said to be preparing his first ‘five year plan’ for the demise of the U.S. capitalist economy, using the Alexandria Ocasio Cortez “Green New Deal” as his blueprint.
So, the world says goodbye to a possible Merkley presidency, remote though it may have been. Oregonians are lamenting a missed opportunity to get rid of him from the U.S. Senate and now Jeff Merkley will go back to obscurity.
Strickland was banned by the University after Antifa protesters attacked the journalist twice for filming the rally, provoking him to draw his legally concealed handgun to back them off. No shots were ever fired. In fact, the trained concealed handgun carrier kept his finger well away from the trigger.
The University, as well as Portland Community College, banned Strickland within mere days of his arrest for a period of two years even though the incident didn’t occur on any campus.
Strickland and fellow Citizen Journalist Dan Sandini Outside Multnomah County Courthouse after Strickland’s arraignment July 8, 2016
Though the incident didn’t occur near any of the campuses, Strickland was well known by campus administrators for reporting on the speeches, marches and antics of the University professors and protesters. Protesters included the Occupy, Antifa, IWW (Wobblies) and ISO, as well as the usual Portland Professional Protesters, Incorporated™ social justice, environmentalist, anti-Israel groups. Strickland’s reports on those campuses made national news. University and College administrators saw an opportunity to keep their well known antagonist off campus and took it.
Strickland could be known as Victim Zero. Before Ann Coulter, Milo Yianoppolous, Ben Shapiro and others were bullied off campuses due to the violent fiery temper tantrums by what has come to be known as Antifa protesters, Strickland was banned from campus on the say-so of Antifa radicals and due to the overzealous prosecution of Leftist prosecutor Kate Molina of the Multnomah County DA’s office.
UC Berkeley Antifa protesters throw fiery tantrum because they don’t want to hear conservative gay Jewish speaker Milo Yiannopoulos/ YouTube
The above-mentioned protesters will likely attempt to interrupt Strickland’s compelling talk.
On Tuesday evening Strickland plans to talk about liberty and how the First Amendment was “invalidated” by judges, college administrators and Antifa during and after the July 2016 incident.
They shouldn’t interrupt it. They should sit down, shut up, listen and learn because they may be next.
The Oregon Firearms Federation has set up a defense fund for Strickland. Give generously here.
Public documents obtained by a Portland attorney reveal that Portland Public School staff, planned, executed and paid for what the media and the school district branded as a ‘student’ anti-Second Amendment protest last March 14th.
Screenshot/Willamette Week
Willamette Week reported at the time:
Portland students at Roosevelt High School in North Portland, Lincoln in Southwest, Cleveland in Southeast, Franklin in Mt. Tabor and Sunset High in Beaverton were a few of thousands around the state, and nation, protesting for an end gun violence.
Many of the morning’s demonstrations included sitting for 17 minutes in silence—one minute for every person shot in the Florida school shooting. At Lincoln High, where Mayor Ted Wheeler was present, 17 desks were situated with 17 roses on them.
It was followed up by another one in April in which students were given time off to protest.
Screenshot/Willamette Week
Portland’s protest community, or as I call them Portland Professional Protesters, Incorporated,™ permeate the community, especially in government – teaching – and quasi government non-profit jobs. I wouldn’t be too far off in suggesting that they leave school on Friday afternoon to join a drum circle by 4pm and then don a balaclava for the evening’s Antifa destruction. There is no chance they don’t bring their far Left politics to the schools. No chance. This is the state that adopted the law – offered by a teacher – to register underage voters. They call it “pre-registration.” Gee, I wonder what political organization they align with.
The Oregon Firearms Federation, a civil rights and education group, said that the local attorney who obtained the records found that the district had orchestrated everything:
In response to a Public Records Act request, PPS has now released documents showing that the demonstrations were organized by PPS, and involved a massive dedication of school resources. From the School Board (which passed a resolution calling for a ban on the possession of all semi-automatic weapons) on down to the individual schools (which reprogrammed class bells to create a special protest period, so no one would have to be marked absent from class), the entire Administration organized itself to undermine the core of our Constitutional republic.
Attorney James Buchal, who also serves as the Chair of the Multnomah County GOP, told VictoriaTaft.com that the school staffs are using kids as political human shields:
“The Portland Public Schools exploited students to manufacture political pressure for gun control, camouflaging their own anti-gun agenda as private speech by students.”
As OFF put it:
[Buchal] is seeking PPS parents and students who are willing to step forward and serve as plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to enjoin PPS from further political indoctrination at taxpayer expense.
Buchal says the political pressure on students in these “indoctrination factories” is onerous. He told OFF:
[U]nless parents rise to confront these indoctrination factories, America as we know it will be gone in another generation or two…
Buchal told VictoriaTaft.com that, so far, no parents have stepped forward to be plaintiffs in the case, but Buchal says they can reach him at jbuchal at mbllp.com.
The story of Ben Kerensa, the loutish and violent Antifa activist who conspired with others to attack citizen journalist Mike Strickland to violently prevent him from filming a Don’t Shoot Portland/Black Lives Matter protest in 2016, has taken yet another – ironic – turn.
You’ll recall that Strickland was attacked by ‘protesters’ who, according to court testimony, conspired to confront and attack the successful YouTuber who kept a close and skeptical eye on Portland’s protest culture.
Strickland covered Portland’s Professional Protesters, Inc.™* for years without incident. On July 7, 2016, however, activists decided Strickland needed to go. They surrounded Strickland and hit him with, among other things, Antifa flag sticks to harm and intimidate him and push him away from the protest. Kerensa led this effort.
Strickland filmed throughout the attack and afterwards. When multiple activists came back to attack him again, Strickland, a licensed conceal/carry permit holder, drew his pistol. No shots were fired and no one else, except Strickland, was hurt. Strickland, a well-trained gun owner, showed a poised discipline and never let his finger get close to the trigger. For defending himself against a band of thugs bent on stopping him from performing a First-Amendment-protected activity, Strickland was arrested, jailed and convicted for drawing his weapon. His case is on appeal.
Four months later – four months! – and mere days after the days’ longviolent anti-Trump protests seen on national news, yet another nation-wide, orchestrated ‘protest’ was planned in Portland concerning the Dakota Pipeline.
Kerensa was filming the protest that day and was told by a Portland Police sergeant that it was illegal to film a cop. That’s patently untrue and Kerensa knew it. He filed a complaint against the sergeant. Though cops are allowed to lie to the public – what, you didn’t know that? – the officer, who claimed he lied to de-escalate the protest, an understandable move after an avalanche of violent protests, was found to have to have violated the spirit of truthiness (or something) required by the Citizens Oversight Board. In January of 2018, the ironically-named Police Chief, Danielle Outlaw, ratified the findings of the Board.
Now comes December 2018 and the Portland Police Citizens Review Committee, having taken none of the violent protest history into consideration, voted to sustain Kerensa’s complaint against the sergeant. The Oregonian reported:
Committee members said they were perplexed by the captain’s reasoning for her finding, even though Sgt. Erin Smith acknowledged he misrepresented the law to get protester Benjamin Kerensa to stop videotaping him during a Nov. 30, 2016 demonstration in front of fuel storage facilities in Northwest Portland over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Kerensa, who is thought by activists to be a police ‘snitch,’ said he had every right to film the protest:
“I had the constitutional right to film the police. There’s no circumstances [sic] where an officer should be allowed to infringe on First Amendment rights.’’
It is a First Amendment protected activity to film protests, something Kerensa violently ignored only four months before.
But, just as Portland Judge Thomas Ryan did before in the Strickland case, the Review Committee ignored reality to take the word of an Antifa thug, bomb hoaxer, police impersonator and violent felon over the word of a cop, whose job we thought was to protect people from violent people like Benjamin Kerensa.
Let’s leave the Committee’s idiocy aside for a second and go to my main point of this post. The ironic and retch-inducing cant of this thug cannot be overstated. Four months after he attacked Strickland for filming a protest and violently deprived him of his First Amendment rights, Kerensa himself was filming a protest and piously stood on the Constitution for his right to film a protest and a cop.
One got the support of Portland leadership. The other didn’t.
Strickland was jailed for defending himself against a Kerensa-led violent mob bent on beating him again. Kerensa is viewed as some sort of freedom fighter and is embraced by the ACLU (which never lifted a finger to help Strickland).
Only in Portland.
Editor’s note:
As I’ve chronicled here and will continue to do, Kerensa’s bizarre attempts to reinvent himself into a public do-gooder reveal him as a fabulist and dangerous man. Now the convicted bomb threat hoaxer, hacker, thug and police and FBI impersonator has reinvented himself into a practicing Muslim.
“Think about what your [sic] doing and the possible consequences.”
Sure, it could be nothing but bluster and fluff, but Antifa has never shown anyone it’s soft and fuzzy side. Now we’re being patted on the head and told it’s going to be alright because these (and other) threats against me and other people on the right by people representing themselves as Antifa are too “vague” and are “common.”
After having been intimidated and threatened in person and in writing by people in Antifa, I asked the Portland Police Bureau to add my name to the undoubtedly growing list of people threatened, assaulted and violated by the group the feds refer to as domestic terrorists.
We’ve seen this in the way Mayor Ted Wheeler has framed his ordinance to crack down on protesters, blaming Antifa violence on the right.
On Thursday, I got an email back from a Portland Police Bureau investigator who shall remain nameless because of the doxxing, threats, vandalism and violence done to other cops, ICE officers and city officials (looking at you, Ted Wheeler) by the Leftist Portland Professional Protesters and their shock troops, Antifa.
I’m being told in essence that I must rely upon the good will and good behavior of Antifa not to kill, assault or doxx me.
How comforting.
Here’s part of the message:
“Through our investigation we discovered that politically motivated indirect online threats are a common tactic used by Antifa to intimidate, and that steps are taken to assure the person sending the messages remains anonymous.
Our primary concern was to determine if state or federal law was broken and if there was any legitimacy to the threat. Our conclusion was that there wasn’t enough evidence to support criminal charges and we didn’t find corroborating information to substantiate an imminent targeted attack against you.”
There’s more, which I’ll lay out in another post this weekend, but the official response doesn’t inspire confidence, let’s just put it at that.
I did have some responses for the official which I put in an email back to him:
“This appears to mean that PPB is either unequipped or has no desire to bring in the forensic experts necessary to track down who’s making these threats even though they are “common.” If they’re “common” that means they need to be stopped and that there is more than one victim. They can be tracked down.”
“It may take the FBI to do it, but why not bring them in to investigate? Antifa is a national organization possessing what appear to be franchises – cells – in many cities, including Portland. As such they are a continuing criminal enterprise and subject to federal jurisdiction as well since they are considered a domestic terror group. Are you being allowed to work with the Feds or has Portland pulled out of the JTTF again?”
“I gather that Antifa will have to actually follow through on one of their threats of harm before anything can and will be done.”
“[W]hat is the state-of-play on self-defense in Multnomah County now? Is it what it used to be in that if you were physically threatened you could defend yourself? Or is it the Mike Strickland rule, wherein you could have many people conspire to assault you (as proven in court), converge en masse, and then, if you pull a weapon to ward them off with no shots fired, you’re the one in violation of the law? “
The only conclusion we can come to at this point is that Portlanders are on their own. The City won’t enforce the law against law breakers only people who defend themselves against Antifa.
Portland has a mayor, but look who’s really in charge.
Back when I was in public school in Portland, Oregon we were taught the importance of messaging by how the media and institutions had derided the messy effort to vanquish racism and inequality by dismissing it as “the negro problem.”
All onus for any disruptions and any violent reactions were put squarely on aggrieved blacks who demanded equality. Their efforts were met by Southern Democrats blocking school house doors, drenching them with water canons, and violence by men in masks. The institutional Southern Democrats and their party’s shock troops, the KKK, brought the pain, but the reactions were still considered to be “the negro problem.”
The same sleight of hand is at work by Northern Democrats in their efforts to shut down the speech by more conservative speakers. Before readers get triggered by comparing conservatives of all colors to blacks and invoke some reworked Godwin’s Law, I urge you to re-read the first sentence of this essay.
During the past two years we’ve seen Leftist institutions shut down school house doors at universities and colleges to conservative voices. We’ve seen first-hand the violence brought by groups – specifically balaclava-wearing Antifa – that seek to silence conservatives through violence and intimidation. The ensuing violence has been treated as a “conservative problem.”
How else to explain the closure of the entire campus of Vancouver, Washington’s Clark College, because of the visit to campus by Patriot Prayer to “protest a gun safety ballot measure,” Measure 1639.
(For Mon. Oct 22nd) Closed. All locations. For more information visit https://t.co/6n1KUHQmax.
The campus visit was to underscore the provision of the measure that prevents the ownership of handguns and semi-automatic rifles by citizens less than 21 years old – even those who have wielded more deadly weapons in battle as members of the U.S. armed forces.
Here is the full email from @ClarkCollege President Bob Knight that announces classes will be cancelled Monday because right-wing group Patriot Prayer plans to visit campus to protest a gun safety ballot measure.
As this OPB reporter pointed out, the school president alleged, “many accounts of violence have been associated with events organized by this group in the past.”
Joey Gibson riling up the Left
Indeed, there have been many “acts of violence” surrounding Patriot Prayer events in the past, all of which have been started by the institutional Left’s shock troops, Antifa. Just ask the cops.
Patriot Prayer began as a group to counter Antifa violence by punching back. Their unofficial motto appears to be, “If Antifa starts it we’ll finish it.”
On August 4th in Portland, the Patriot Prayer group marched in downtown without any violence whatsoever by the group. Why? Because police kept the instigators of the violence, Antifa, away from them.
Don’t get me wrong, they may pray, but Patriot Prayer guys aren’t choir boys. By punching back they offer on a silver platter an excuse by the lazy media and Leftist institutions, but I repeat myself, the moral equivalence they’ve sought.
Sure, Vancouver, Washington is where a pick up truck with Trump bumper stickers was firebombed:
Fox 12 News
But you’ll seldom hear about the violent political Left as a “Liberal problem.” It’s always because the right provoked the violence simply by being there, like just a few miles away at Clark College.
Fox 12 News
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has cited a peaceful Patriot Prayer march, in which the police finally kept Antifa at bay, as the reason for a crack down on free speech. After that event, Antifa attacked their usual nemesis, the police. But Wheeler blamed “the conservative problem” for the move.
Photo by KXL
Talk host Lars Larson was scheduled for a campus visit to Portland State University today. The appearance coincided with the Republican Club’s observance of Second Amendment Week. But Larson carries a legal, concealed weapon, so the school shut him up and canceled his event.
For bad journalism you can’t get much worse than the hit piece about the Patriot Prayer group contained in Wednesday’s edition of Willamette Week.
This poisonous piece of agitprop – suffused with factual errors and pernicious assertions – took the hysterical ravings of the Portland mayor and his spokespersons and constructed a narrative to smear the group that had all the the sturdiness of dryer lint. Worse, the Potemkin-like story was used to “galvanize” the mayor’s office to write a new ordinance curbing first amendment rights.
The piece, headlined “Portland Police Found Right-Wing Protesters With a Cache of Long Guns Atop a Parking Garage. Why Didn’t the Mayor Know?” was so misleading, so factually-challenged, so fundamentally dumb that the Portland Police Bureau had to issue a page-long statement ‘clarifying’ the misreading of the circumstances, mischaracterizations of the law and misstatement of facts contained in this counterfeit ‘news’ item.
Willamette Week
The Willamette Week reporter began the piece by ascribing to Mayor Ted Wheeler the outrageous and detached-from-reality characterizations of the alleged activities of the Patriot Prayer group – without ever correcting them. Ever.
From the piece:
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler intended to look decisive Monday afternoon by announcing an emergency ordinance that would give police broad authority to control warring protest groups.
But as he justified his action, the mayor opened a can of worms. He described an alarming discovery—a nest of guns on a downtown roof—that raised more questions than it answered.
She then began the recitation of supposed facts:
In the early morning of Aug. 4, hours before a massive waterfront protest, Portland police officers discovered a group of Patriot Prayer supporters on the roof of a parking garage in downtown. According to a description provided in the mayor’s proposed ordinance, the men had a “cache of firearms,” which a mayoral staffer would later describe as “long guns.”
Let’s break this down. Look at those terms. Using “Cache of firearms,” “a nest of guns on a downtown roof” made it sound like James Hodgkinson or Micah Xavier Johnson (the leftist loons who shot Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and several other Republicans and the Dallas police officer sniper, respectively) were setting up a sniper’s nest to take out the innocents below.
Patriot Prayer calls for replacement of Ted Wheeler October 13, 2018 Twitter/Mike Bivins
The paper, quoting the proposed new ordinance, which appears to call for campus-like free speech zones, expressly stated that this “cache of firearms” is what prompted the proposed change in the law:
“Prior to the start of the scheduled demonstrations [August 4] police discovered individuals who had positioned themselves on a rooftop parking structure in downtown Portland with a cache of firearms,” the ordinance says.
The reporter then added:
“It is unclear when Police Chief Danielle Outlaw learned about the Patriot Prayer supporters waiting on the roof with long guns.”
Cue the scary music. The paper now upped the ante by characterizing Patriot Prayer as “waiting on the roof with long guns:
Police say they seized the guns—but could not detain or cite the protesters because they had concealed handgun licenses that allow them to carry the weapons legally. Officials say they later returned the firearms.”
First of all, you don’t need a permit to own a “long gun.” Furthermore, several of the members did have permits to conceal carry pistols. So, which is it, Willamette Week? Which ones did the police “seize” because they were illegal?
The Portland Police Bureau could just be talking out both sides of its mouth, but here’s the “clarification” it issued an hour after someone hit the publish button on the Willamette Week hit piece:
Portland Police Bureau
About that nest of snipers:
“…[O]fficers witnessed several people parking their cars and gathering on the top floor of a parking garage, located approximately three blocks away from the where the event was to be held at the Salmon Springs Fountain.”
In short, police say the Patriot Prayer supporters were parking in the parking garage and getting ready for their march, which included carrying open and concealed guns. They were getting suited up for the expected clash with Antifa/communista, which never happened – a fact that made Wheeler’s response two months later seem completely untethered from reality.
Here’s what the police say they observed:
Police watched them place items that could be used as weapons, such as make-shift sticks and signs with sticks, into their vehicles and some of them kept these items and said they would not enter the park. The group eventually departed the garage on foot.
Meanwhile, four individuals were located on the northeast side of the top floor of the garage. The sergeant involved contacted them and they confirmed they had three rifles and had concealed weapon permits. The men told the sergeant they were going to stay at the garage and act as a quick extraction team in case any of their group was injured during the demonstration. The men were compliant and allowed the sergeant to inspect the weapons. All three firearms were in cases (one was disassembled) and none were loaded.
[ … ]
…[N]o firearms were seized or taken as safe keeping from the individuals in the parking garage,No arrests were made as no laws were broken.”
PPB did indicate that it was concerned that protesters on both sides have begun talking openly about carrying their pistols and wearing body armor.
I’ve spoken with insiders who say Antifa members routinely carry. It would seem prudent, therefore, to wear perfectly legal body armor if your mere presence triggers the Leftists.
Here’s how WW previously characterized protesters:
“Portland city officials say they cannot stop right-wing groups like Patriot Prayer from demonstrating, even though their rallies often devolve into violence.”
Oregon Firearms Federation President Kevin Starrett told VictoriaTaft.com that Willamette Week and Mayor Wheeler got their assignment of blame and prescription for a cure exactly backwards:
“Once again the incompetent leftists who mismanage Portland push fake news to distort the truth and cover for the thugs who rule Portland’s streets. Ted Wheeler has only the most tenuous grasp on reality but is determined to demonize the people standing up to the fascist mobs who terrorize people unfortunate enough to have to drive through his miserable city.”
In fact, Ted Wheeler actually allowed the police to do their jobs that day. He, in fact, issued a statement about that success. Police kept apart Antifa away from Gibson’s group so there was no violence. That is, until the communist group got upset and began picking fights with cops. Willamette Week reports, “the day ended with a chaotic, violent clashbetween police and left-wing counterprotesters.” Repeat: Not Joey Gibson’s group.
But Willamette Week had a narrative, dammit, and it was going to push it for the Left. It intoned, “How much danger did the public and the mayor not know about on Aug. 4?”
Mayor Ted Wheeler, we learn from this story, just found out about the guns in the parking garage two days ago. But the mayor and his minions wrote a new ordinance to curb free speech and did so based on this phony story that there was a “nest” of gunmen with a “cache of weapons” “waiting on the roof with long guns.” The group members broke no laws and cooperated fully with police at a march for free speech that included no violent outbursts. Wheeler worked his Jedi mind tricks to blame Patriot Prayer, formed to counter Antifa violence, as the chief reason the city needed a new protest law.
Let us all know when DHS names Patriot Prayer as a domestic terrorist organization as it already has Antifa.
We saw what you did there, Ted. He encouraged this gaslighting episode probably because he didn’t want Antifa and the group’s fellow communistas camping in his front yard again.
Sad to come home the second night in a row with protesters in my front yard flipping me, my wife, and child off. Now shouting threats.
A couple clashes of violence occurred between the Patriot Prayer group and Portland Professional Protesters, Incorporated™ antifa division™, on Saturday evening in downtown Portland but there were no arrests, according to Portland Police.
Patriot Prayer was holding a march for “law and order” and called on the city to replace Mayor Ted Wheeler, whose flaccid response to the thuggish antifa protesters has been pilloried across the country:
Twitter/Mike Bivins
As usual, local videographer Mike Bivins (who hasn’t been beaten by antifa – see Mike Strickland) provided the backdrop:
Follow along here for my protest coverage of the Patriot Prayer protest in downtown Portland. Someone put up some signage in downtown Portland, mentions the Proud Boys. Stay tuned pic.twitter.com/Ssoo7xL8nW
— Mike “Vampire Hunter B” Bivins (@itsmikebivins) October 13, 2018
Forty five minutes before the planned march, I drove through the designated area and it was as calm as a glassy lake on a summer’s night.
Just before the march was to step off, Patriot Prayer members showed up and consulted with cops:
This man at the Patriot Prayer rally has a shirt indicating that he hunts Antifa for rewards pic.twitter.com/ihhX2vHvep
— Mike “Vampire Hunter B” Bivins (@itsmikebivins) October 14, 2018
ZZ Top is blasting, and people are coming down to this block for the Patriot Prayer event pic.twitter.com/Phq9pdZesJ
— Mike “Vampire Hunter B” Bivins (@itsmikebivins) October 14, 2018
They promised no violence:
Scene: “Tiny” on the mic, saying that they’re not here to fight, but will defend themselves if the “masked ninjas” (Antifa) show up. These guys from Washington state want Portland, Oregon’s mayor removed. pic.twitter.com/6K1lfUcLvu
— Mike “Vampire Hunter B” Bivins (@itsmikebivins) October 14, 2018
But antifa showed up to ‘avenge’ the “alpha males” and “racists” of Patriot Prayer who dared telegraph their evil plans to march for “law and order” in downtown Portland. And violence happened:
Huge brawl just happened and police came in to firenless lethal rounds on people. Right-wingers were clubbing people w clubs outside of Kelly’s Olympian, way worse than NYC last night. proud Boys and Patriot prayer and Antifa just had a huge wild fight pic.twitter.com/a750y2ai7J
— Mike “Vampire Hunter B” Bivins (@itsmikebivins) October 14, 2018
The way it looks on Bivins’s video (which he reportedly sold to NBC), is that antifa tried to block the patriot prayer guys’s paths.
The incident gave rise to an age old question which I posed:
If antifa stays home it doesn't happen. If police do their jobs and 'protect' those patriot dudes it doesn't happen. It's stupid and ridiculous. But it doesn't happen without the Leftist antifa. If patriot guys don't show antifa still commits violence. Anyone see a pattern?
Bullshit. Proud boys start shit whether antifa is there or not.
— Get out and. Vote November 6th. (@slsprojectz) October 14, 2018
Your Antifa butt buddies are creating havoc and terrorizing neighborhoods. Your just a blind idiot! The “ patriots” had every right to protect themselves
Antifa fancies itself as anti fascist. Here’s the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of fascism:
fascism noun
fas·cism | \ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm also ˈfa-ˌsi- \
Definition of fascism
1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
early instances of army fascism and brutality
— J. W. Aldridge
Antifa, Incorporated™ stops after this statement to define fascism:
“…[O]ften capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race …”
The group stops there because it’s the only part of the definition they can squeeze into their view of fascism. It doesn’t even matter that the Patriot Prayer people have a panoply of ethnicities involved to counter the “racism” epithet, Antifa believes PP’s voting for Donald Trump is de facto fascism, which, of course, in their heads gives them license to hate and commit violence against the blacks, whites and Hispanics in the right-wing group.
Antifa members have convinced themselves that they will ‘defend the honor of Portland’ and do anything to stop the legal speech of the Patriot Prayer group.
Now look at the second definition of fascism:
“[A] tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
early instances of army fascism and brutality.”
Antifa may believe that Patriot Prayer is a fascistic organization whose members don white sheets and conical caps every Saturday night at the weekly cross burning, but in their zeal to ‘defend the honor of Portland,’ they deny the group the ability to hold a peaceful protest and exercise their freedom of speech through “dictatorial control … and brutality,” which actually isfascism.
Antifa, Incorporated™ self aggrandizing representations that they are ‘defending the honor’ of anything is as full of hot air as the Patriot Prayer guys’ expectations of a ‘peaceful’ protest.
Twitter/Mike Bivens
Question for the comment section: What came first, antifa or patriot prayer and would there be any violence without antifa?
Comments are moderated so don’t lose heart if yours is not immediately published.
What are the stakes in the Mike Strickland versus Antifa case out of Portland, Oregon?
The City of Portland, prosecutors, police and judiciary have, so far, sided with Antifa protesters over Strickland, a videographer whose job it was to chronicle the radical mob which has preyed upon Portlanders for years.
“Before they chased old men in cars and canceled parades; before Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro, Milo Yianoppolous and Charles Murray were silenced by mob violence; before Professional Paid Protesters, Incorporated™ screamed at Senators, overturned cars or set a ‘deplorable’s’ limo on fire; there was Michael Strickland.
Strickland is believed to be Antifa’s ‘victim zero.‘”
The videographer and concealed carry permit holder was covering a Don’t Shoot Portland/Black Lives Matter protest on July 7, 2016. Strickland was surrounded and beaten by the Antifa mob (read about their conspiracy to do so here) and when they couldn’t bully him out of the protest on public property, the mob came back to finish him off. I reported on the clash:
“Strickland drew his licensed concealed handgun that Antifa knew he had (I know, I asked), a Glock semi automatic pistol. Strickland, showing amazing trigger discipline – never allowing his finger to come close to the trigger – held off his attackers as he backed away from the mob. To be clear, Strickland was the only person hurt that day. No shots were ever fired.”
One question remains: Is the judiciary even aware of the violence and vandalism perpetrated by a group that the Department of Homeland Security has designated a domestic terrorist group?
Strickland’s attorney, Robert Barnes, worries that they have no clue, telling VictoriaTaft.com and others on Friday:
“The judges haven’t ‘got’ what’s happening – the Judiciary as a branch. The judicial branch hasn’t figured out – other than Justice Brett Kavanaugh experiencing it personally – the rest of the judicial branch hasn’t deduced what’s happening in the public arena, what’s happening in these protests, what’s happening at these social gatherings, what’s happening in these tactics – these mob tactics –that are being utilized.
The reason why the press is nervous about the use of the word ‘mob’ is because of how accurate it depicts their tactics and techniques over the past two years. Tactics they experimented a little bit with at Occupy Wall Street but that went sideways because everybody was busy assaulting everybody inside, so they’re going, returning, back to those roots and those are dangerous roots for political expression. It’s going back to the street violence of the 1920’s and 1930’s as a technique and a tactic and the court system doesn’t realize it’s happening.”
After arguments in the case of Oregon V Strickland held Friday in a Oregon Appeals Court tribunal, Barnes summed up the high stakes involved in the outcome of the case.
Here are 12 quick takes from Barnes:
1/12 "So right now if you’re in the black bloc what do you think? I can harass somebody and get them arrested if they try to defend themselves."@Barnes_Law after #Strickland#Oregon Appeals Court arguments in Man v Antifa case.https://t.co/eINjYDFnAg
The case of the Portland, Oregon man, forced to pull, but not fire, his legally concealed weapon to ward off a mob of Antifa protesters, has been heard before the Oregon State Court of Appeals.
Photo: Laughing at Liberals
Michael Strickland’s conviction on 21 counts against him, stemming from a July 7, 2016 protest, was appealed in oral arguments Friday morning before a three judge panel of the Oregon Appeals Court.
Photo: Victoria Taft
Robert Barnes represented Strickland while Susan Howe was the attorney for the state of Oregon.
The case was heard by Douglas Tookey (appointed by Gov. Kitzhaber), Scott Shorr (appointed by Gov. Kate Brown) and Rex Armstrong (elected to six year term in 2018) in a hearing that lasted less than an hour on Friday morning.
Strickland summed up the proceedings in a news release (see below):
“We raised several assignments of error regarding the admissibility of certain evidence, denial of change venue that was based on defamatory and untrue statements made by Multnomah County deputy district attorney Kate Molina to media, the 1st Amendment restrictions that have been placed on me by the courts, and the fact that I was denied my Constitutional right to face my accusers.”
He added:
“If the courts can do this to a privileged, straight, white, male in Portland, then just imagine what they can do to an underprivileged, transgender, immigrant of color in a rural county.”
Barnes, who practices law in California and Nevada, worked with local co-counsel, and traveled to Oregon to argue the case.
Barnes agreed that Strickland is Antifa’s ‘Victim Zero’ and asserted that judges all over the country are woefully ignorant of the violence committed by this group. He said Strickland’s case has sent a message to Portland and beyond:
“[R]ight now if you’re in the black bloc what do you think? I can harass somebody and get them arrested if they try to defend themselves. And then they want people not to defend themselves so that they feel terrified, so that the feel scared, so that they feel frightened, so that their behavior can be publicly and privately coerced. And that’s the danger. And that’s why this case is bigger than one person. This battle will be just the beginning of a long extended battle. If this can happen to him here it can happen to anyone, anywhere, and it means that nobody is safe. And that’s why this case is so significant.”
“This battle will be just the beginning of a long extended battle. If this can happen to him here it can happen to anyone, anywhere, and it means that nobody is safe. And that’s why this case is so significant.”
Barnes told VictoriaTaft.com, and others gathered outside the court house, that it’s easy for an appeals court to simply rubber- stamp the trial verdict, but he wanted to remind the judges of a higher legal principle:
“[W]e were trying to force the issue back into the legal terrain to sort of the high plains of what the law is ‘cause that’s what protects everybody and it needs to be equally applied. And it’s forcing them to face that when they don’t always want to face that when the easy political decision for them to make is just to affirm the case and not to overturn the police; not to overturn the prosecutor; not to overturn the judge not to enhance and expand the protection of ordinary individuals against the black bloc of Portland.”
“[T]he easy political decision for them to make is just to affirm the case and not to overturn the police; not to overturn the prosecutor; not to overturn the judge not to enhance and expand the protection of ordinary individuals against the black bloc of Portland.”
After the conclusion of the hearing on third floor of the Oregon Supreme Court building, Strickland told those gathered:
“I think at its heart that it is a first amendment issue. And I hope that the judges realize that a person has a first amendment right to be a public area, filming a public event and that a mob of thugs do not have the right to use force to prevent that person from doing such and that my actions were solely in self defense on this case.”
Strickland issued a press release (below) and a YouTube video about the hearing:
“LaughingAtLiberals
Published on Oct 12, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Oregon Court of Appeals heard oral arguments this morning, October 12th, 2018, regarding the matter of State Of Oregon vs Michael Strickland, appeals case number A165019. I, Michael Strickland, am hopeful that the honorable Judges of the appeals court will recognize the dangerous case law precedent that was set in this case and that they will vacate my conviction.
We raised several assignments of error regarding the admissibility of certain evidence, denial of change venue that was based on defamatory and untrue statements made by Multnomah County deputy district attorney Kate Molina to media, the 1st Amendment restrictions that have been placed on me by the courts, and the fact that I was denied my Constitutional right to face my accusers.
If the courts can do this to a privileged, straight, white, male in Portland, then just imagine what they can do to an underprivileged, transgender, immigrant of color in a rural county.
At its heart, I believe my case is a 1st Amendment matter. As of the verdict of finding me guilty, the courts have essentially ruled that a person does not have a right to be in a public area, filming a public event, in their capacity as a professional news journalist, and that a mob of aggressive thugs have the right to use physical force and intimidation tactics to prevent a journalist from engaging in free press, and if the journalist tries to stop the thugs from assaulting and robbing them, then it’s the journalist who is guilty of crimes, while those who perpetrate and instigate violence become the victims.
This should strike fear into every journalist in the state.
Representing me on the appeal is LA-based Attorney Robert Barnes, who says “Right now if you’re in the black bloc [anarchists, antifa], what do you think? I can harass somebody and get away with it. I can harass somebody and get them arrested if they try to defend themselves. And that’s what they want. They want people to not defend themselves. And then they want people not to defend themselves so that they feel terrified, so that the feel scared, so that they feel frightened, so that their behavior can be publicly and privately coerced. And that’s the danger. And that’s why this case is bigger than one person.”
As we saw in the viral videos from last weekend, mob violence has been legalized. This is due, at least in part, to the ruling in case. Political violence is now encouraged and the mob is emboldened to attack people on the streets because they know they can legally get away with it, and anyone who opposes them or finds themselves in a position where they have to defend themselves against direct physical threats is guilty of crimes.
This puts everyone in Oregon at risk of being robbed, injured or worse. For example, a group of KKK members now have the legal right and lawfully authority to attack people of color in the street. Everyone’s rights to free press, to be safe from mob violence, and to defend one’s self are in the hands of the Honorable Judges of the Court of Appeals”
