See update below.
Antifa radicals were behind several violent assaults that resulted in injuries in Portland, Oregon, during a right-wing free speech rally on Saturday. The assaults included a journalist who was hit in the head with a water bottle, a counter-protester who was clubbed in the head with a modified trench club, and Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, who was attacked while he walked through the antifa crowd. There were only four arrests.
The right-leaning Patriot Prayer group and the Proud Boys marched in a Portland park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate.
The counter-protest was organized by “a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups and artists,” according to CBS News.
“Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent,” said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups that organized the counter-demonstration. “Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence.”
Here are the Patriot Prayer folks at the rally:
Washington-based freelance journalist Mike Bivins provided live coverage on the scene.
Antifascists and others opposed to Patriot Prayer showed up and start chanting “proud boys off our streets fascists retreat.” PB’s go to cross street and confront antifa but are called back. pic.twitter.com/QsRjHBO6NS
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
“ACAB all cops are bastards” black-clad antifascists chant as they approach The waterfront pic.twitter.com/9GTapQpVlf
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
As the hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters converged, police in riot gear tried to keep the two groups apart and confiscated any weapons they saw.
Several dozen riot cops show up, clearing the roadway. #defendPDX #alloutpdx pic.twitter.com/lABYsFVdCi
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
BREAKING: POLICE JUST OREDERED ANTIFA (group on the west side of Naito) TO LEAVE THE AREA. Cop on loudspeaker cites armed counterprotesters as the reason. #DefendPDX #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/tuzK4AabzF
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
Most aren’t budging pic.twitter.com/fb8AzLYHPe
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
Soviet squad makes its way to the front of the standoff. #DefendPDX #AllOutPDX #Portland pic.twitter.com/DClTQbclr1
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
The police ordered the crowd to disperse after antifa started throwing projectiles.
When antifa counter-protesters refused police orders to get out of the street, officers fired rubber bullets and flash bangs into the crowd. Authorities said they threw rocks and bottles at officers.
Breaking: Portland Police using flash grenades on antifa. #DefendPDX #AlloutPDX. Part 1 pic.twitter.com/pA1Q7OVtzc
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
A reporter from the Oregonian was hit in the head by a flying bottle of water as the police were clearing the street of counterprotesters.
Was just standing next to @Oregonian reporter @edercampuzano, he got hit with something and is bleeding. Medics helping him. Things are getting extremely intense, even for those of us standing back from the center of these groups pic.twitter.com/F4ID7Dj2Zp
— Tyler Dumont (@TylerDumontNews) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/edercampuzano/status/1025879902216568832
Campuzano said in a follow-up tweet that his editor took him to Urgent Care where the one-centimeter-long gash on his head was shut with three staples.
A flag-carrying protester found himself surrounded by antifa goons, who were trying to snatch his flag away from him.
In the video below, taken by Bivins, one of the antifa counter-protesters can be seen hitting the besieged man on his bottom and back with what looks like an umbrella. Then he smacks the man on the top of the head and he goes down — hard.
Man down. He’s dripping blood from his head. This is serious. He got in a struggle with some black clad dudes over a flag and one of them clubbed him. Video coming. #DefendPDX #Alloutpdx pic.twitter.com/2rWnAkAC2J
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
Video shows a struggle for a flag and then a black-clad person hit this dude in the head before he drops. I was watching the blood pour out of his head and into the street. #DefendPDX #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/KPRk1D8l00
— Mikeford “Marilyn Von Mole” Biziths (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018
That was me with the flag and the head-wound in your video, by the by. pic.twitter.com/Hgn0HpDi34
— Paul Lenhart Welch (@mokvohk) August 4, 2018
Ironically, the man was there to protest the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, but got beaned in the head by antifa because he was carrying an American flag.
I know the affiliation of those who tried to take my flag . . . Sadly, they claimed to be Anti-facists, while acting like facists.
OMW back from the hospital, now.— Paul Lenhart Welch (@mokvohk) August 4, 2018
This man ended up with four staples in his head.
If it is all fake, these 4 fake-staples are annoying . . . pic.twitter.com/nUHkISagnj
— Paul Lenhart Welch (@mokvohk) August 4, 2018
He said he thought there was something very hard attached to the umbrella.
Something heavy & very hard, a piece of metal or stone, I would guess.
I think the fellow was swinging it in a sleeve or sock.— Paul Lenhart Welch (@mokvohk) August 5, 2018
Twitter sage Thomas Wictor analyzed the weapon behind the brutal assault.
https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/1026266313788813312
Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange filmed this incredible short video of Joey Gibson peacefully walking through a left-wing crowd as they screech and howl like demons, knock his cap off, and paw at him. Toward the end, one masked antifa goon cuffs him in the face with a gloved hand.
Extreme language warning:
Gibson, who is considered a long shot to unseat U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said in a live video on Facebook last week that he won’t stop holding rallies in Portland until they can express their right-wing views without violent interference.
“I refuse to do what Portland wants me to do because what Portland wants me to do is to shut up and never show up again. So yeah, I refuse to do that, but I will not stop going in, and I will not stop pushing, and I will not stop marching until the people of Portland realize that and realize that their methods do not work,” he said.
On Sunday, the counter-protesters accused the Portland police of being “heavy-handed” against people protesting a rally by “extreme-right demonstrators,” according to The Charlotte Observer.
When the counter-protesters refused to disperse, police released a volley of stun grenades.
One of the rounds reportedly hit a counter-protester in the head, becoming embedded in his helmet and injuring him. One woman was taken to a hospital after being hit in the arm and chest with a “flash-bang” grenade, local media reported.
Police “targeted Portland residents peacefully counter-protesting against racist far-right groups, including white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazi gangs,” the Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America said in a statement.
The far-left groups are calling on officials to investigate.
Update 9:49 a.m. PST:
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