Do you remember Portland in President Trump's first administration?
MSN
Portland was ravaged by violence in 2020 as liberal protesters, Black Lives Matter activists, Antifa anarchists and others converged on the deep blue stronghold following the death of George Floyd during an interaction with Minneapolis police on Memorial Day of that year.
Those protests caused lots of trouble and at the end fixed nothing. Daily looting, destruction and more.
See
"Trumplicans" #169↗, January, 2020:
Here's an example: A story broke last year about antifa attacking people in NYC for no reason. It got some coverage, again, later, when the assailants in the incident were charged and convicted; it wasn't antifa, but Proud Boys.
This was pretty much a recurring phenomenon in Portland, Oregon, last year, such as stories about antifa chasing and attacking a man and his twelve year-old daughter, but it turned out to be people fending off right-wingers, namely a known provocateur named John Turano and his adult daughter Bianca, who rightists have repeatedly claimed is a young girl victimized by antifa. And it really is that stupid: Provocateur and his adult daughter pick a fight, people film them running away, say antifa is attacking a little girl; you'll find there just isn't much of a both-sides issue between rightists and antifa.
See, we've been through the rightist scaremongering make-believe, before.
So, yes, there is a reason I disbelieve certain typal stories when I hear them; to the other, that I should have such practice in the first place is itself problematic, but this is America, these are right-wingers, and history reminds we are fools to expect better from them.
And Portland is significant for certain reasons. We don't have the same kind of controversies up in the Seattle area. There is much back and forth between rightists and pretty much everyone else, including antifascists, but it just doesn't go the same way. Even more, Seattle is home to a notorious police department that has, variously over the years, been caught committing racist crimes, and on at least one occasion argued through their union that cops can't do their jobs without breaking the law; still, Seattle isn't Portland, the place where the White Aryan Resistance was defeated. And if you've ever wondered how James Dean's lone wolf became a term associated with terrorism, the answer is time and tide, and the White Aryan Resistance. After they were broken in Portland, leader Tom Metzger advocated lone wolves, the unorganized, ideologically linked individuals doing whatever they needed to protect the white race, such as the bomb threat against a video rental store in 1994, in Rhode Island. And if it looks like the lone wolves have come out to play, in Portland, sure, why not. They've been there the whole time; the breaking of the White Aryan Resistance is fundamental history in understanding why Portland makes a nearly perfect example compared to your story, Yazata. There were even rumors that the cops were helping antifa, and what the evidence revealed was that the Portland Police Bureau was in deep, aiding and abetting rightists.
And it goes like that. Claims arose that some antifa attacked a woman, blindsided her, and knocked her unconscious. That one didn't get far, as I recall, before the video emerged, and when a man marching with Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer was arrested for the attack, both groups quickly disavowed not only him, but any participants in the Cider Riot incident, as not current members ....
.... Using Portland as a comparative example to wherever you're describing, we see examples of why such typal claims as you have posted meet such skepticism. People have been through versions of this before.
And if there is a general trend some people perceive wherein conservative and rightist rhetoric against liberals and leftists turns out to describe what conservatives and rightists are actually doing, the mess in Portland, last year, was actually a frenetic demonstration ....
.... Rightist histrionics in Portland really are an extraordinary iteration. But there is a recurring pattern of hearing horror stories like yours that just don't pan out.
On that occasion, someone was promoting some "no-go zone" make-believe that used to be popular among conservatives.
(By the way, look closely: The "MSN" story you quoted is wire copy from FOX News. You know how I could tell, or, as such, why I thought to check? The statement that Portland was ravaged by violence in 2020 as liberal protesters, Black Lives Matter activists, Antifa anarchists and others converged," is right-wing posturing. The only violence that ravaged Portland in 2020 came from rightists and law enforcement, including masked snatchers [DHS] driving rented vans. And even that stretches the word "ravaged". It was a dumb, shitty, fascist pain in the ass, and a hint of what Republicans are willing to do, and seems pretty mild compared to the race raids ICE is carrying out now.)
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