Much credit has to go to the Portland Antifa, who turned up in numbers to mock and dissipate any action by the racists. Eric Ward summarizes the day on Twitter, as does Robert Evans, with lots of photos. It sounds like the Proud Boys rally mostly fizzled, although there was a scattering of arrests and weapons confiscated. I think the best sign that they failed, though, was that they were reduced to arguing that they won because Go look at President Trump’s Twitter. He talked about Portland, said he’s watchin’ antifa. That’s all we wanted.
. Your victory is getting Donald Trump to blab some nonsense on Twitter? That’s what he does every day while sitting on the toilet.
Here’s a great overview of events from Ward:
Today’s white nationalist rally in Portland, Oregon was a complete rout.
The largely non-Portland crowd was mostly abandoned by its leadership the night before. People arrived with no places to sleep and calls to cell phones went unreturned. This morning found hate group members without places to eat, water and access to restrooms. An increasing number of businesses (like the one pictured) were denying service.
The promised five hour hate rally lasted about 45 minutes; participants were forced to rally underneath a bridge and then had to beg police to escort them out (a very long walk) over year another bridge. Rally leaders then quickly took to their cars to allegedly attend a BBQ that just happened to not be in Portland.
Other remnants of the rally were forced to walk around downtown Portand for nearly two hours as they searched for their cars. I heard at least two Portlanders give them wrong directions. Tired, thirst and walked out; people started to drift away in droves, leaving a dejected looking Joey Gibson (leader of Patriot Prayer) with an increasingly smaller and smaller crowd around him. Not getting the physical confrontation he sought and contemplating his growing civil and criminal legal woes, Joey was very subdued today.
After analysis?
The social pressure and evolving diverse and incredibly fun tactics of PopMob; the seriousness of the Portland Police; and the number of city, civic and business leaders mobilized seems to have taken serious steam out of the white nationalist/alt right protest.
It’s clear from the speeches and comments today that White nationalist/alt right leaders are wary of the increasing civil suits led by the Oregon Justice Resource Center and criminal liabilities they are facing from disrupting communities.
Really proud of Portland today. Super impressed, from the leadership in the streets to city hall. Folks will be back to political positioning and eating each other alive tomorrow, but hope everyone gives each other a small nod of respect tonight
You are an amazing community Portand and you showed up this month and it mattered. Community and leadership made this happen and you showed up with a lot of both. Goodnight from the Rose City. #OurCityOurHome
Keep up the pressure. It’s great when the pinnacle of success for the Proud Boys is getting a pat on the head from Daddy Trump, and nothing more.
So how many were thrown this time?
I’m really proud of my city for how we handled that yesterday. The PPD was completely on point the whole time. They kept the groups from teh begininning, and when most of the proud boys decided to march across the Hawthorne bridge they made it to the east side and I laughed my ass off because they looked like they got lost on the esplanade. When they tried to head back, the cops were like “NOPE, you’re not going back this way”. Everything kind of fizzled out after that. I’m guessing a lot of Florida men had to walk further than they have in decades to find their cars again. All in all, Portland is not Charleston. We’ve had three years to refine our methods and we know how to handle a protest. The only thing that would have made it better is if there had been a nice steady rain storm to make all the maga idiots really uncomfortable.
BTW there was only about two dozen Antifas there, you had to really be looking to spot them. I suspect a lot more of the counter protesters were Antifa or were sympathetic to them like myself, but out of uniform so to speak. We denied them the conflict they so desired. What happened yesterday should be a model for other cities, and how to deal with these people. Mock them, or ignore them, but do not engage them.
What a perfect take on Traffic Cone #1: Desert your followers in the middle of the clusterfuck, leaving them to fend for themselves, while going off to get something to eat.
And it doesn’t matter from which end he squeezes out his tweets. It’s all the same stuff.
This was published a few days ago (Friday 16 Aug) in the Grauniad. I myself have not read it yet (for various reasons, some perhaps good, others probably not), and so am offering neither an excerpt nor summary nor comments: How Portland’s liberal utopia became the center of a rightwing war in the US.
Ray Ceeya @2 “What happened yesterday should be a model for other cities, and how to deal with these people. Mock them, or ignore them, but do not engage them.”
YES!
Now that Trump wants to declare Antifa a terrorist organisation, but not, obviously, the Proud Children, I wonder if he will retroactively declare the German resistance to Hitler a terrorist organisation. The Germans, after all, described the French Resistance as terrorists.
@ Ray Ceeya, #2
Mocking them is important, but ignoring them is how we wound up with Nazis occupying the White House, marching in the streets, and going on shooting rampages.
It isn’t necessary for every encounter with Nazis to turn into a brawl; when they’re cowed into slinking off the streets and back under their rocks (as they were here) then we’re doing something right. However, anytime they turn up in force to march and recruit, like they did in Charlottesville, they must be engaged with an overwhelming response.
Fascist scum like the Proud Boys should never feel safe to reveal themselves in public.
“What happened yesterday should be a model for other cities, and how to deal with these people. Mock them, or ignore them, but do not engage them.”
We need to be using every tactic we can. When they’re coming into the cities spoiling for a fight, we should do what Portland did; when they’re marching through marginalised communities, we should be standing as a shield; when the police won’t defend us, we have to defend ourselves.
All tactics need to be on the table, not least because if we take one away, the fascists will pounce on it as a weakness. If we’re never prepared to fight, then they’ll just use a show of force every time.
That comment about Twitter finally clears up the Proud Boys’ motivation. They’re jealous of all the attention AOC and other leftists get from Trump’s Twitter feed when all they ever get is a “good people on both sides” equivocation. Poor li’l things. They threw a tantrum in the sweets aisle and still didn’t get anything from orange daddy.
@2, whoever trained that leader uses methods I trained a few dozen people in.
Misdirection, redirection, denial of pathway to the actual area of interest.
The best battles won are those one never has to fight.
Allowing a protracted movement, priceless and rarely fully perfected.
The movement goal, primarily to avoid unnecessary contact and violence, if everything goes to plan, embarrassing, via displaying significant idiocy in the process.
A couple of other fingerprints and remaining, as planner, trainer and executor, anonymous, entirely what I trained.
Or it’s convergent evolution, which honestly, given US law enforcement’s state today, not exceptionally likely.
US LEO’s get a handful and change, at most, education. This is advanced SF methodology.
Combining psyops, specops and a handful of other redirects, misdirects and distraction, in a way to destroy the reputation of all leaders concerned.
Wars aren’t won by how many are wounded or killed, they’re won by removing the desire to continue the conflict, as it’s too destructive to the sponsoring party to continue, lest fulfill a true Pyrrhic victory.
Which is precisely what that was, a Pyrrhic victory from hell, gone slightly south.
My hat off to the author!