Antifa held an anti-ICE, May Day march in Portland and it turned into a riot

Another “mostly peaceful” left-wing event which ended in a riot, though the violence, in this case, wasn’t one-sided. The event started earlier in the day as a “festival of resistance” in support of anti-fascism and anti-capitalism. People put up tables hawking books about communism, etc. But just as Portland police were declaring the event a success, fighting broke out at a pro-Antifa bar called Cider Riot. This KGW report does a decent job summarizing the day but I’ll go into more detail below:

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Reporter Mike Bivins was on hand as various left-wing people gathered in a park not far from where the Occupy ICE protest took place last year:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123677866351374339

Some right-wing groups were also on hand:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123681486035652608

Reporter Andy Ngo was also on hand and described the event in the park as a celebration of “Marxism, socialism & communism.”

The left-wing group marched to the ICE building to protest:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123698394747293696

Cops were surrounding the building so they couldn’t get too close but they did block the streets for a time:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123700035974303744

Naturally, the left-wingers started chanting “All cops are bastards.”

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This guy just decided to scream:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123702162851287047

Someone dressed in black with his face covered punched Andy Ngo. He reported it to police and they did nothing, saying they didn’t want to incite the crowd. Ngo also recognized one woman marching with the left-wing group as the woman who cut off the PA system at an event featuring James Damore last year.

The same woman was later punched and appeared knocked out by someone from one of the right-wing groups. Whoever did this should be ashamed (and arrested). It’s really not clear from this clip who did it though it was pretty clearly someone from the right-wing group.

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123784667453382657

Later on people from the right wing groups showed up at a pro-Antifa bar and that’s when things started getting really out of hand:

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You can see in the clip below, both sides were spraying mace:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123780386557964293

Someone from the Antifa crowd, wearing a mask of course, sprayed a lot of bear spray including directly into Andy Ngo’s face. He was unable to see and was helped across the street by a stranger.

I’m not sure if this next fight happened before or after the bear spray, but two guys had a kind of MMA brawl in the street:

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123784338674475008

Eventually, the right-wing guy got knocked down and the crowd went wild. You can see Joey Gibson of Patriot Prayer shake hands with the Antifa brawler.

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1123782353116176385

Personally, I wish there was a way they could both lose. This isn’t about free speech at this point. This is a couple of idiots brawling. They should both have been arrested. One of the lingering questions about all of this is why no one was arrested. Police took a statement from Andy Ngo about his assault but later released a statement saying no reports of assault had been received. Portland police have been under pressure for allegedly working with Patriot Prayer in the past. I wonder if they decided in advance it was best for them to make no arrests.

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Reporter Andy Ngo appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show last night to discuss May Day in Portland. The bottom line for me is this: People can scream and carry on all they want but anyone throwing punches on either side should have been arrested.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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