Riots, looting, vandalism, etc.

[crescent]

You might want to double check your sources.

Maybe you can provide yours. So far all I've seen as far as property damage goes is one window.

There were reports of opening a gate and fighting with police - but this is a city where the police have a reputation for initiating the fights with protesters and, at any rate, Checkmite only referenced property damage.

 

[sir drinks-a-lot]

Maybe you can provide yours.

Google "portland riots" and look at any of the first ten links.

 

[crescent]

Google "portland riots" and look at any of the first ten links.

I did that. They changed "window" to "windows". Nothing else.

....So far all I've seen as far as property damage goes is one window.

There were reports of opening a gate and fighting with police - but this is a city where the police have a reputation for initiating the fights with protesters and, at any rate, Checkmite only referenced property damage.

 

[Checkmite]

I did that. They changed "window" to "windows". Nothing else.

Indeed, my mistake. Looks like about three or four adjacent windows.

 

[eeyore1954]

Republican lawmakers in the Oklahoma House approved a bill to grant immunity to drivers who hit protesters.

On a party-line vote, the House passed a bill that grants civil and criminal immunity for drivers who unintentionally injure or kill protesters while “fleeing from a riot.”

Lawmakers say they are trying to address instances of violence or extreme disruption, but activists believe lawmakers instead chose to criminalize those who already feel targeted by police.

What is the full text. Fleeing can be a little vague. If I am in a car with my wife or family and protesters start banging on it I would flee even if surrounded. I may unintentionally hurt or kill someone. If I come near a riot get scared and flee by recklessly driving away I may unintentionally hit and hurt or kill someone. In the first case I would hope I should be acquitted and in the second case probably not.

 

[Checkmite]

It's been four days. Any sign of the massive nationwide city-burnings, or does it look like the four broken windows in Portland are about the extent of it?

 

[angrysoba]

It's been four days. Any sign of the massive nationwide city-burnings, or does it look like the four broken windows in Portland are about the extent of it?

Seems like that’s it, which is great!

 

[The Great Zaganza]

No matter what happened, it was worse than Jan 6th.

 

[Warp12]

It sure is awesome that there was mostly only the threat of left-wing rioting this time. Bravo, guys. We'll forget all about 2020.

 

[Trebuchet]

It's been four days. Any sign of the massive nationwide city-burnings, or does it look like the four broken windows in Portland are about the extent of it?

But according to Trump, the entire city was burned over a year ago, so those must have been the last four windows left in the place.

 

[dirtywick]

I think it was Jared Diamond who, when writing about the end of the civilization on Easter Island, wondered what the guy who cut down the last tree on the island was thinking. I'd imagine the guy who smashed the last window in Portland had a similar experience.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Man opened fire into a Portland protest march against the police killing of Amir Locke. One woman was killed and 4 other people were wounded. Eyewitnesses describe the man as the aggressor, aggressively confronting the marchers shortly before firing on unarmed people:

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2022/02/20/38576071/one-dead-five-injured-from-shooting-at-black-lives-matter-march

The woman described seeing a man angrily walking towards them after exiting a house.

“We were unarmed and actively working to de-escalate him and get him to leave,” she told the Mercury. “He wasn’t threatened by us. He walked up to us yelling about protestors in his neighborhood and opened fire within 90 seconds.”

She said she was standing about ten feet away from the man when he shot her, and bullets also grazed her knee and arm. Another woman was shot in the stomach, leg, and chest. Another was hit in the neck. The fourth woman was fatally shot. The woman who spoke with the Mercury said that volunteer street medics were the first on the scene to respond to their injuries.

The woman said the entire encounter was recorded on her GoPro camera, which the police confiscated as evidence

Unconfirmed reports that the shooting was stopped when the man was critically wounded by returning fire from an armed marcher.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Okay but just to be clear are all the Windows and Trashcans okay?

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Okay but just to be clear are all the Windows and Trashcans okay?

It's extremely unfortunate that PPD got the GoPro before the video could be distributed elsewhere. Their record when it comes to siding with right wing street thugs is pretty consistent.

Hoping that the report that the shooter took a few rounds of rifle fire is correct, because I have very little confidence that PPD will treat this shooting as a serious criminal matter.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Starting to get a bit suspicious now. We have a mass shooter that was taken into custody at the scene of the crime and PPD still isn't releasing the name.

An "anonymous police source" is feeding information to the press that paints this as a "clash" between the homeowner and the marchers, but a total blackout on official details.

A guy walked out to a protest and opened fire into the crowd. Odds are good his social media is full of right wing day-dreaming about mass murder, just like so many of these other vigilantes who engineer "self-defense" mass shootings. Why is PPD stalling on info?

 

[rdwight]

It's extremely unfortunate that PPD got the GoPro before the video could be distributed elsewhere. Their record when it comes to siding with right wing street thugs is pretty consistent.

Hoping that the report that the shooter took a few rounds of rifle fire is correct, because I have very little confidence that PPD will treat this shooting as a serious criminal matter.

It seems those present are being told to not cooperate with police. Also reported to have removed shell casings from the scene. If this did not involve PPD, would you find victims doing this odd? The unarmed protestors just trying to deescalate narrative also seems out of place with an immediate return of fire from a protester with a rifle. The person is either a sniper or was within eyesight of the homeowner, otherwise they would have to have been shooting through a street filled with protestors and luckily were able to connect on the other shooter with no collateral damage.

The thing that annoys me is that so much has to do with spinning a narrative when it comes to this stuff. Protestors could have been armed and the guy that shot at them still could 100% be in the wrong. The police have the go-pro footage which should give a somewhat clear picture, although there is no doubt additional footage that people present are not releasing. Much like you have bad faith in the PPD, I have bad faith that nothing will be released by protestors if the visuals aren't overwhelmingly supportive of the best possible version of their story. Being more favorable to them, it's possible they want to remove any possible identifying visual of the people they protest with so they are not targeted.

It all reminds me of that Bill Hicks **** talk on marketing people. Everything has to run through the lens for best optics, and when that is applied to terrible situations, all people involved look bad.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

It seems those present are being told to not cooperate with police. Also reported to have removed shell casings from the scene. If this did not involve PPD, would you find victims doing this odd? The unarmed protestors just trying to deescalate narrative also seems out of place with an immediate return of fire from a protester with a rifle. The person is either a sniper or was within eyesight of the homeowner, otherwise they would have to have been shooting through a street filled with protestors and luckily were able to connect on the other shooter with no collateral damage.

The thing that annoys me is that so much has to do with spinning a narrative when it comes to this stuff. Protestors could have been armed and the guy that shot at them still could 100% be in the wrong. The police have the go-pro footage which should give a somewhat clear picture, although there is no doubt additional footage that people present are not releasing. Much like you have bad faith in the PPD, I have bad faith that nothing will be released by protestors if the visuals aren't overwhelmingly supportive of the best possible version of their story. Being more favorable to them, it's possible they want to remove any possible identifying visual of the people they protest with so they are not targeted.

It all reminds me of that Bill Hicks **** talk on marketing people. Everything has to run through the lens for best optics, and when that is applied to terrible situations, all people involved look bad.

PPD might be playing games with this domestic terrorist, but witnesses to the shooting are not. This woman was the source for various news reports of the shooting and was shot herself by the man.

It was all traffic corkers he opened fire on. Four women. Unarmed. Non threatening. One with a cane. Two more heard the shots, came to help, he shot them too.

If you’re outside Portland and have marches, find your corkers and buy them ballistic vests. I wasn’t wearing mine.


...

We were unarmed traffic safety volunteers who weren’t with any protestors. Four women trying to de-escalate & he unloaded a 45 into us because he didn’t like being asked to leave and stop calling us terrorist c*nts. We were in high vis and dresses. He murdered a disabled woman.

Shot 4 unarmed women wearing hi-vis vests doing traffic control for a protest, came in screaming profanities and immediately drew and opened fire. Was shot and critically wounded by an armed marcher, stopping the shooting spree.

https://twitter.com/dontgetkettled/status/1495798062203416581?cxt=HHwWisDRlbOaksIpAAAA

Still very odd that PPD is protecting the identity of a mass shooter.

It was a 50-60 year old white man. The exchange lasted under two minutes. He came there to kill us, I am positive. He thought we were protestors.

Nothing shocking there. Seems this attack occurred at the periphery of the larger demonstration, where traffic "corkers" direct traffic away from people in the streets. Had these people not been looking out for the march more people would have likely been shot by this gunman.


There's really nothing odd about armed protestors in Portland considering the multi-year history of the extreme right attacking these demonstrations with a variety of weapons. It's not even the first time these demonstrations have resulted in right wingers shooting at people. Wearing armor and carrying firearms is just common sense for protestors in Portland. Being armed can't prevent attacks, but it left this gunman leaving in an ambulance critically wounded, which is about as strong deterrence as you could ask for.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Silence from PPD and the city is deafening:

Mayor ted wheeler deliberately incited aggression towards protesters for more than a year. The police have made it abundantly clear that they do not investigate violence against leftists.

And so it was up to a protester armed with a rifle to stop this mass shooting.

In 2020 a protester started a fire that scorched some plywood. Mayor Wheeler held a press conference the next day.

So far he has said nothing about the woman who died or the people who were injured in this shooting. He did however express sympathy to police investigators.

https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1495860431017152518?cxt=HHwWjMC4hd_IrsIpAAAA

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Portland shooter identified, it's exactly what you would expect for someone who would open fire on a crowd of unarmed people protesting a police killing:

The man suspected of shooting and killing a racial justice demonstrator Saturday night has been identified as Benjamin Jeffrey Smith, 43, of Northeast Portland.

She said Smith slowly became more radicalized starting in the later years of the Obama administration and accelerating during the Trump administration. At times, she heard him yelling racial slurs in his room and deriding women.

“As the years went on, he’s just gotten more and more radicalized. He got angrier and angrier,” Christenson told OPB. “I have not been comfortable living with him for a while. I did not feel safe with him, especially this last two years with the whole COVID thing. I think that made him even more angry.”

...

“He talked about wanting to go shoot commies and antifa all the friggin time,” Christenson said. “He was just a sad angry dude…he talked about wanting to do this for a while. He was angry at the mask mandates, he was angry at the damned liberals.”

The shooter's brother has been trying to get into contact with PPD, but can't get ahold of anyone. Nice to see they're taking this seriously:

Smith’s brother, Aurthur Killion, said Smith had had issues with protesters in the neighborhood but otherwise seemed fine when they last spoke a week ago. Killion, who learned about the shooting and his brother’s involvement when a reporter contacted him, said he hasn’t been able to find out any more details.

“I’ve called every hospital there and all of them say he’s not a patient,” Killion said. “I’ve called both the detectives that were listed on one of the articles I read and neither of them would answer their phone. I called the detective branch itself and got a recorded message and that was it. Your police department in Portland sucks.”

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/21/alleged-killer-in-normandale-park-protest-shooting-identified-as-benjamin-smith/

PPD's earlier statements saying it's "complicated" and a "clash" seem little more than them carrying water for a domestic terrorist.

ETA: Another Andy Ngo fan that has committed a mass shooting. Ngo is hard at work trying to smear the victims of a spree shooter as the instigators.

Ngo is now deleting his previous, alarmist tweets about the march.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Some takeaways from morning press conference with Portland mayor, police chief, DA, and federal officials on weekend mass shooting at Normandale Park:
- No charges have been filed against suspected shooter
- Police believe a piece of evidence has been taken from the scene

-Mayor Wheeler has not spoke to any victims/victims' families
-Wheeler said he doesn't regret past comments made on making left-wing protesters "hurt a little"
-Not currently being investigated as hate crime
-Chief Lovell not sure why shooter was wrongly defined as "homeowner"

- Wheeler says the "homeowner" speculation was proof of dangerously rushing to share info
- Wheeler puts blame on colleagues on city council for not supporting his gun violence prevention programs
- No confirmation if feds have investigated shooter in the past for threats

https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1496207847885279232?cxt=HHwWgMDUtYjHzMMpAAAA

PPD seems to be slow walking another criminal investigation in which anti-police protestors are the victims yet again. 48 hrs after a mass shooting attack and no charges for the shooter. Fortunately this man was ventilated by a marcher and isn't expected to be going anywhere under his own power anytime soon.