The past three months in Portland have seen massive protests against police violence and racism gradually give way to nocturnal often violent balancing act between a core of pro-Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist protesters and law enforcement.
But in the past week, the city has reverted to a pattern of more politically polarized street violence that the city has highlighted during the Trump era, with broad-left and anti-fascist activists sometimes opposed to far-right groups.
Last weekend, a “Say No to Marxism in America” lawsuit saw serious, widespread violence. Much of it came from rally participants – which included members of far-right groups such as the Proud Boys – and was targeted not only at left-wing protesters but also reporters.
One judge Protestant drew a firearm on opposing Protestants. Earlier he had shot a paintball gun in the crowd, and a local journalist was caught in the crossfire. Others appeared be armed with firearms and knives. Some wore wooden shields with nails driven through it.
One pro-Trump Protestant took to a snack cart with a baseball bat. Others did with and destroyed the car.
Near the height of Saturday’s violence, a reporter’s hand was broken by a right Protestant with a stick, and video of the incident went viral on social media. That reporter, Robert Evans, has been handling the protests since they began, for Bellingcat and other outlets.
That assailant was identified by Bellingcat on Tuesday as Travis Taylor, a Portland-based Proud Boy who was previously observed attending violent street demonstrations in the city.
In a telephone interview, Evans told the Guardian that the right-wing protesters were “absolutely ready to fight”, “were very aggressive from the jump” and were provided with “knives, rifles, paintball guns with frozen pellets, batons”.
Neither the Portland Police Department (PPB) nor the District Attorney Multnomah County (MCDA) responded to questions about whether Taylor would be charged or prosecuted over the incident.
It was the worst violence of its kind in the city since a notorious afternoon in 2018, which also involved Proud Boys, who came from all over the country to attend a rally that culminated in another brutal street revenge.
But as that precedent indicates, polarized violence was not so much a new development linked to the massive anti-racism protests going on around the US as a return to the dynamics that Portland has experienced since the election. of Donald Trump.
From 2017 to 2019, the city was a magnet for street protesters and street fighters from groups such as Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, who were regularly met by anti-fascist protesters.
During appearances in 2018 and 2019, hundreds of right-wingers from across the country descended on Portland, and right-wing media and e-celebrities worked hard to identify the city with “antifa,” a move that conservatives from Trump have tried to demonize.
During this period, PPBs were regularly accused by protesters and media of heavy-handed, one-sided enforcement.
This year, however, when the Black Lives Matter protests erupted in Portland, members of extremist groups had not been a major factor during an uninterrupted 85-night strip of protests. Instead, the focus of many Protestants was the presence of federal agents in the city – which became a national scandal when local elected officials sought to force the Trump administration to withdraw.
Mainstream media attention was then diverted to the apparent resolution of the conflict over the unwanted presence of federal agents. But now the renewed presence of legal groups in the city has some fears that the fresh violence will continue, especially since activists say the PBB has a record of failing to intervene to prevent legal violence.
Amy Herzfeld-Copple, the deputy director of Portland-based progressive non-profit, the Western States Center, wrote in an email that: “Portland police allowed all-right and paramilitary groups to sow chaos and violence against the community with apparent impunity. “
She added: “There is a real risk that protests for racial justice and police reform will be subsumed by alt-straight chaos if city leadership does not change its approach.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office did not immediately respond to questions about last weekend’s violent incident.
Not all locals accused PPB of the violence.
James Buchal, chairman of the Republican Party Multnomah, wrote in an email that “as Republicans we condemn the cowardly and totalitarian attacks on pro-police protesters” by left-wing protesters.
And not all locals view the confrontation with far-right groups as a distraction from the cause of protests against police brutality against Black communities.
A spokesman for Rose City Antifa, a long-established local anti-fascist network that has supported the protests in the city center, wrote in an email: “Brutality of the police and white nationalist organization are two sides of the same coin, and they should be addressed as such. . ”
