Andy Ngo, editor-at-large at The Post Millennial, unveiled antifa’s horrific tactics at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. He warned that antifa has turned rioting into “an art form” in Portland and that the far-left agitators are likely to spread to cities across America.
“Antifa and its allies have made rioting an art form in Portland,” Ngo testified. “Unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon be happening in cities across the country.”
“Even when they aren’t starting fires, using explosives, and trying to maim officers, they leave threatening messages such as decapitated pig heads outside the courthouse,” he insisted. Indeed, while the violence in Portland appears to have abated somewhat, threats like a burning pig head have continued, along with fires set near the federal courthouse.
Ngo castigated left-leaning journalists for ignoring the violence. “Unfortunately, too many in the media have chosen to ignore or downplay this extremism masquerading as racial justice,” he said.
Although this journalist himself faces many threats from antifa — and has indeed suffered at their hands — he dared to speak out against antifa, explaining the rioters’ violent tactics in his testimony.
“In Portland, the violence has been organized and led by the local chapter of the Youth Liberation Front, a shadowy antifa organization with secret membership,” Ngo explained. The Youth Liberation Front has cells across the U.S. “They openly advocate for violent uprisings in Portland and elsewhere.”
On July 25, for example, the group called for “national calls to action,” and that weekend saw street violence in cities across America, including Seattle, Oakland, Austin, Atlanta, and Richmond.
Democrats Continue Whitewash Antifa Rioters as ‘Peaceful Protesters’
At antifa events, “hundreds of so-called protesters work together” and “both violent and non-violent participants play a role,” with the non-violent acting as “human shields.”
Ngo described how agitators break into units, “one to monitor police movement, one for street medics, one for vandals and arsonists, and so on.” Due to this regimentation, some rioters can later claim that those involved in the riots are “medics,” as protesters did in a recent Seattle lawsuit.
Agitators coordinate on encrypted channels like Signal, Ngo added.
“Antifa has mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous,” he testified. “For example, projectiles that look like water balloons can be filled with chemicals; small slingshots can be used to project rocks, glass, and ball bearings into police lines; umbrella tips can be fastened with discrete pocket knives; powerful handheld lasers can cause serious damage to the eyes.” (Indeed, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli testified that 113 out of the 277 injuries federal officers suffered in Portland involved eye injuries, many caused by industrial lasers.)
Antifa agitators also “have access to a rich stream of cash from GoFundMe” and other online crowdfunding sites. “Any street rioter who is arrested is instantly bailed out.”
Ngo concluded by warning that “antifa’s goal is not just to bring down the criminal justice system but to bring down the republic itself.”
Indeed, Portland activist Lilith Sinclair explained the mentality behind her “protest:” “There’s still a lot of work to undo the harm of colonized thought that has been pushed onto Black and indigenous communities.” As examples of “colonized thought,” she mentioned Christianity and the “gender binary.” She said she organizes for “the abolition of … the “United States as we know it.”
Marxist critical theory encourages people to deconstruct various aspects of society — such as capitalism, science the nuclear family, the Judeo-Christian tradition, even expectations of politeness (as the Smithsonian briefly taught) — as examples of white oppression. This inspires an aimless and destructive revolution.
When vandals toppled a statue of George Washington in Portland, they spray-painted “1619” on the statue, in reference to The New York Times‘ “1619 Project,” which redefines America as fundamentally racist and oppressive. When Claremont’s Charles Kesler wrote in The New York Post “Call them the 1619 riots,” Hannah-Jones, responded (in a since-deleted tweet) that “it would be an honor” to claim responsibility for the destructive riots and the defamation of American Founding Fathers like George Washington.
In a November 9, 1995 op-ed, the 1619 Project founder condemned Christopher Columbus as “no different” from Adolf Hitler and demonized the “white race” as the true “savages” and “bloodsuckers.” She went on to describe “white America’s dream” as “colored America’s nightmare.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) expressed a similar sentiment when she called for the “dismantling” of America’s “economy and political system,” in order to root out supposed racist oppression.
Yet the “1619 riots” have arguably oppressed black people far more than the U.S. supposedly does. The riots have destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments. At least 22 Americans have died in the riots, most of them black.
Antifa is taking advantage of the outrage over the horrific police killing of George Floyd in order to carry out terrorism and spread an anti-American and Marxist revolutionary agenda.
Americans need to be wary of antifa and its tactics, and Americans across the political spectrum should condemn this terrorist group.
"Antifa and its allies have made rioting into an art form in Portland." pic.twitter.com/GziQPrJEnu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 4, 2020
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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