If what happened to citizen journalist Mike Strickland last Thursday on the streets of Portland, Oregon looked familiar it’s because it’s happened to other reporters.
Strickland, whose YouTube nom de guèrre is “Laughing at Liberals,” was filming a Black Lives Matter protest last Thursday in downtown Portland. Protesters included anarchists, Occupy acolytes, Black Lives Matter activists and — now we know — self described Black Panthers who called for violence at the protest. The crowd surrounded the 36-year-old videographer as he tried to cover the event.
Strickland has a concealed weapons permit. He unholstered his gun and pointed it in the direction of the descending crowd.
After he sensed the threat was over, he re-holstered his pistol.
But mobs going after reporters isn’t new for the BLM crowd.
There’s this incident in Ohio where some guy told reporter Brandon Blackwell:
“I got 800 black people behind me. What the f**k are you gonna do?”
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There was this incident featured on Bill O’Reilly’s show from Minnesota.
This young lady person told the Fox News reporter that in no uncertain terms was he able to cover their event on public property:
BLM FOX NEWS
BLM protesters harass, intimidate & assault Fox News reporter
And then there’s was the situation with Mike Strickland last Thursday. This time the intimidatee drew his weapon.
Man pulls gun on crowd of Portland protesters
Michael Strickland is facing menacing and disorderly conduct charges after pulling a gun on crowd of Portland protesters. July 7th 2016 link for more info he…
Strickland is the only reporter that I’m aware of who has ever defied the mau mauing mob by choosing to defend himself.
There are some who believe he shouldn’t have pulled his pistol, but as you can see from the video nearby, he was deeply fearful of the crowd. And, in one of my previous posts, I talked with four police officers of various ranks, three of whom who said what he did was legal and the other said it was arguably legal.
Strickland sits in Multnomah County jail on $250,000.00 bail because when he arrived at his first hearing, the DA increased the charges and bail. He’ll be in court again July 18th.
The District Attorney’s office appears to have sided with the thugs instead of a citizen journalist who was in fear for his life.
The DA’s overcharging and outsized bail puts all journalists and protesters on notice: Some people are more equal than others.
Strickland needs to contact the NRA for a high powered pro-gun lawyer referral. This is a bigger issue than just pulling his gun out for protection, which he did lawfully.
Agreed!!
What can we do to help this situation?
Give money to his defense fund at Oregon Firearms Federation Foundation.
https://oregonfirearms.ejoinme.org/MyPages/DonationPage/tabid/70447/Default.aspx
Why is He in jail? We can’t even defend ourselves against a mob?!?! One of the gun lobbying groups needs to be on this!!
I could be wrong, but I believe in Oregon merely pointing a gun at another human being is a form of assault – at least a misdemeanor. The DA might be trying to make an example, i.e. private guns bad, and is thus pressing the legal arguments as far as they go. But on the other hand, DA’s are also trained to seek plea-bargains rather than to take cases to trial – one critical tool they use to convince the accused to take a plea deal rather than go to trial is to jack up the possible charges to a maximium and then offer fewer charges (got to trial and face a year; take the deal and do a month).
Apparently Portland Police or DA amended charge to Measure 11 crime, any idea why? Also Portland defense attorney David Lesh 503 546-2928 had good analysis of those crimes on line. Anyone know this attorney?
Appologies for the double post but what I said above is a good explanation for why the DA might being a jerk over this:
The DA might be trying to make an example, i.e. private guns bad, and is thus pressing the legal arguments as far as they go.
But on the other hand, DA’s are also trained to seek plea-bargains rather than to take cases to trial – one critical tool they use to convince the accused to take a plea deal rather than go to trial is to jack up the possible charges to a maximum and then offer fewer charges (got to trial and face a year; take the deal and do a month).
Did those other reporters survive? Oh please, this is just more BS to justify your obvious racism, and his,
Yes, because talking about a guy in jail over unholstering a weapon is all about “racism.”
Unholstering his weapon because he “thought his life was in danger” aka there were some black guys near him.
The BLM people do not care about justice or liberty or none of this would happen. The BLM core is racist and is just another take on the KKK. No rationale thought, just intimidation and vile yelling. They act out in a manner that is consistent with they way they say they are treated by the police. Hypocrisy rules the day.