Portland protesters block traffic, threaten drivers

Over the weekend protesters in Portland, including masked Antifa members, held a march to protest the police shooting of Patrick K. Kimmons. Portland resident and columnist Andy Ngo posted this video of protesters directing traffic Saturday and shouting at anyone who dared to disagree with them:

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One angry protester shouts at the driver in the blue car for being “a little whitey” and then calls him a “white supremacist” and a KKK member, all for refusing to obey some random woman issuing orders in the street. Meanwhile, police seem to be watching from a block away and doing absolutely nothing, even as the man in the car calls the police for help.

Another driver apparently struck a protester as he was trying to get away from them. In the clip below, you can’t really see the person being hit but you can see them leaning on the hood as the car slowly makes a turn. Then when the driver gets free he guns it and is chased by the angry mob down the street.

You can see that the crosswalk was set to “walk” when the driver entered. He’s an older man and it appears he might have panicked a bit with the protesters surrounding him. KATU reports police are now in contact with the driver who claims the protesters did $3,000 worth of damage to his car. He wasn’t able to give descriptions of the people who damaged his car, probably because there were so many of them around his car and some had masks. So far, no one has been arrested.

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As Andy Ngo points out, this isn’t the first time this year that Portland has become a semi-lawless zone. This summer, a group of protesters set up an Occupy camp next to an ICE facility. When the protesters began blocking access to the building, ICE employees called 911 for help. The cops never responded to those calls because Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler had ordered them not to interfere with the protesters. The Occupy Camp was finally cleared out on July 25th after the city’s police chief told the mayor enough was enough. Having received 76 service calls from the site in a matter of weeks, she wanted the camp cleared and order restored.

Portland has also been the scene of frequent clashes between the group Patriot Prayer and Antifa. This summer a Bernie Sanders supporter who was carrying a flag during one of these dueling rallies was cracked in the head by Antifa an goon who apparently mistook him for a Patriot Prayer supporter. This sort of lawlesness has been going on since Trump was elected. Back in November of 2016, Antifa members rioted causing an estimated $1 million in damage to businesses downtown.

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The lesson police learned after Charlottesville was that they cannot sit back and let protesters and counter-protesters clash in the streets. Police need to be proactive to prevent things from escalating toward violence. But it seems the city of Portland, especially the city’s mayor, hasn’t learned that lesson.

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