Okay, so now we have a dead guy
To no one's surprise, a protester was shot and killed in downtown Portland last night. The deceased was apparently part of a right-wing crowd that drove a caravan of pickup trucks and other oversized vehicles from Clackamas Town Center and Clark County, Washington to and through downtown Portland.
It was a wildly dangerous, out-of-control scene downtown. Protesters and counter-protesters engaged in all-out brawls, much like the one that erupted and continued for several hours last Saturday. This time, large rolling vehicles were in the mix.
It's not clear who shot the dead "patriot." Whoever it was, shot him and walked away. It was on the Third Avenue side of the SmartPark garage between Alder and Morrison. The police are "investigating."
So is Twitter. There are some pretty telling photos. I suspect the shooter will be identified before too long.
I will repeat what I wrote here less than two weeks ago, when a right-wing demonstrator was beaten unconscious on a downtown street. Maybe now that we have a fatality, someone will listen:
I don't know where the mayor and the governor have been all weekend, but they had better wake up and act soon. I'm happy I'm not in either of their shoes. However, if I were, I'd have to be considering something along these lines:1. A state of emergency.2. A citywide curfew, from sunset to sunrise, until things cool off. And a huge enforcement effort to back it up. I'm talking National Guard level. Along with a place to detain, overnight, up to hundreds of people who won't comply. The Convention Center would work. Or the Expo Center. Or an airplane hangar out in Troutdale. You want to protest? You still have 14 hours a day to do that. But if you march around at night, you go to jail.3. Tight police monitoring, and controlling, of the "counter-protesters," just as the cops are all over the "protesters." End the widely held perception that the police are white supremacy sympathizers.4. A demand that the rookie district attorney get off his high horse and get on board with enforcing a curfew.5. A new police chief. The guy who's in there now can't handle this.Because someone is going to get killed.I repeat: Someone is going to get killed.Maybe multiple someones.Crazed zealots firing handguns and trying to run people over? Raging mobs beating people unconscious? The majority of Portlanders have had enough. It has to be stopped.
Now someone has, in fact, been killed. Do we keep up the wishy-washy response and have more blood on our hands? Do we keep feeding the Fox News propaganda machine? Mayor Ted, Governor Kate, Chief Chuck – get going or step down!
Footage of shooting in Portland tonight, just minutes ago. No details yet.
— Rosie's LEGO Riots (@DarnelSugarfoo) August 30, 2020
You're doing great, @tedwheeler!pic.twitter.com/A11DgY4crY
"Troubled times had come to my hometown."
ReplyDeleteAnd here comes the talking out of the ‘both sides of their mouths’ politicians when some sternness is needed. Deborah Kafoury has already been quoted that this incident will be used to make the BLM movement look bad and that Trump will use it to divide people. Deborah I got some news for you......people are able to make up their own minds without needing Trump to tell them what they should think.
ReplyDeleteCan’t these local ‘leaders’ just put aside their personal biases and do what is right for the community as a whole? We have enough radicals as it is and for them to keep playing the same old tired “we are down with the struggle” BS is just prolonging what is needed to go back to some semblance of normalcy.
Its called power brokering, rember how they gave LEO , 20% of all the cannabis tax under Obama, necause they were going to raided, lol, and now they have balls to call for defunding publicly? What about the enhanced union protections voted in almost a year ago to date that specifically gave public unions increade powers and increased bargaining rights, oops. Legally, they seem to be in a pickle.....
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take a step back right now and ignore the tragic aspects to all this. When I was 19 my best friend since around 4th grade was killed in a terrorist attack in Rome. It changed me forever in the obvious ways: sadness and a newfound rage that I had never experienced before. But making it even more surreal was that it was the #1 news story in the world for a few days. It was tough enough to accept without hearing Walter Chronkite leading with it on the CBS News. Today I'm reliving that surreal aspect.
ReplyDeleteIf you had told me something that happened on 3rd and Alder would be the lead story in America and that President Trump would be tweeting about it, even mentioning the victim by his first name, I would have had trouble believing it was real. Yet here we are. Then throw in the detail that my wife went to Junior High and High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin and it feels like the universe is closing in on me. It feels like a cosmic curse that I'm going to wake up from. This can't be real. And yet it is.
Maybe Clackamas County could put their war toys to good use instead of just shoot-out fantasy props.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1300172533686308865
It really is pathetic how Kate and Ted try to pass the buck regarding this and other violence regarding the protests of the last 3 or more months. First it was “everything was fine until Trump’s goons showed up” and then a month after they leave blaming him for a murder on THEIR streets. I don’t know how they can look themselves in the mirror honestly.
ReplyDeleteAnd how come every time that they feel that they have to make a clear statement about the riots and the associated violence that they always feel the need to either blame ‘white supremacists’ while at the same time as never naming “you know who”? And of course there is the obligatory talk about needing to reform the police to make it more equitable. It always comes off as forced and not sincere.....almost like they are just regurgitating talking points.
Seriously, how in over his head is Mayor Ted Wheeler? He could walk the bottom of the Mariana Trench and still not be in over his head more than he is as Mayor of Portland.
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