The local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) just noticed that antifa is a violent bunch of thugs after black bloc-clad attackers beat yet another reporter and tossed her into a busy Portland street for daring to do her job.
After years of similar attacks on reporters, SPJ was finally jostled from its slumber by an attack on reporter Maranie Staab, from a lefty news organization called “News2Share,” for disobeying her Leftist compatriots and doing some reporting.
Antifa responded in the same way they accuse police of doing: They sprayed her with chemicals and threw her into the street.
Shocking video from yesterday’s Portland riot shows antifa robbing female photographer @MaranieRae & hitting her to the ground. She goes to retrieve her equipment & is hit w/pepper spray. Video by @JLeeQuinn: pic.twitter.com/rCkaybcfUR
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 23, 2021
The attack on Sunday, August 22, wasn’t the first violent act against reporters and just plain folks that day, but it was the first time the journalism organization noticed.
Assaulting journalists runs counter to the ideals of our democracy. SPJ Oregon stands by journalists’ First Amendment right to cover incidents and demonstrations and to provide clear documentation of these events to keep everyone informed. https://t.co/LsJB3rWuUa
— Greater Oregon SPJ (@SPJOregon) August 24, 2021
The antifa black-bloc mob also was seen harassing and threatening photographers from Portland’s legacy media. They sprayed an older woman who dared to watch their antics and scold them, and chased a 65-year-old man on the downtown streets. He is seen on video shooting once at an unknown attacker or attackers. Video of the other side of that gun fight showed two black-bloc outfitted antifa.
The mayor and police chief announced before Sunday’s planned rally by mostly right-of-center citizens, the location of which was changed after antifa forward-deployed personnel and weapons, and allegedly positioned snipers, that Portland should “choose love” instead. “Choosing love” meant the depleted and defunded cops wouldn’t show up to stop violence between antifa and the right-wing “United We Win” rally.
A Friendly reminder to join us today for the Call to Action to Denounce Hate & Violence and to #ChooseLove. To watch, please click on the link below 👇https://t.co/zB9QZNNfeR
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) August 20, 2021
However, Portland did muster a few cops, including an undercover officer, to tend to the shooting aftermath. Dennis G. Anderson was arrested. Antifa shooters were not.
There’s a reason for that.
For years antifa has conducted a long march to silence negative or merely honest coverage of the group. Everyone not them is a “fascist” or some gradation of “racist.”
The legacy media have played along.
Official Portland has chosen sides. It has endorsed the antifa message. It accords a disproportionate amount of virtue to a group that brands itself anti-fascist, and malevolence to anyone who dares get in the way. It’s straight-up viewpoint discrimination.
Reporters “allowed” to cover them must give the group their explicit allegiance. They must be fellow travelers.
The arrangement works just fine for antifa.
During the riots of the summer of 2020, The Washington Post did a fashion spread with dressed-up black-bloc antifa members receiving glowing blurbs about how wonderful and virtuous they are. To anyone who actually knew what was going on in Portland, it was a disgusting display of gaslighting.
Antifa loved the piece, by the way.
Their violence—from lasers in the eyes of cops to IEDs, looting, fire-bombing, and chemical spraying—is nearly always soft-soaped and blamed on a small subset of the “mostly peaceful” protesters. Media assume that antifa really is anti-fascist because, why, it’s in their name and everything!
In 2016, Michael Strickland, a YouTuber, freelance journalist, and content provider for several news websites and local media, was beaten to the point where he unholstered his gun to stop an onslaught of black-bloc antifa members from attacking him for a second time. No shots were fired and his attackers backed off. But guess who was arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed for pulling a gun to save himself? Strickland took the appeal of his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which I chronicled in an 18-part podcast series.
In 2019 during a May Day protest, antifa beat and sprayed independent journalist Andy Ngo with a chemical “milkshake.”
In May 2021, while under cover reporting on an antifa action, he was chased, beaten, and had to find shelter in a local hotel. He thought they’d follow through with their threats to kill him. He managed to make it to safety.
Statement on May 28, 2021 Antifa assault:
No journalist in America should ever face violence for doing his or her job.
Yet on Friday, May 28, Antifa tried to kill me again while I was reporting on the ongoing protests and riots in Portland, Ore. for a new chapter of my…
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 3, 2021
There are several other, lesser-known reporters who have been targeted by antifa in Portland. Some of them are right-wing. All have been willing to show the actions of antifa. Antifa doesn’t like it. “Consider this a warning,” threatened an antifa on a flyer from years ago in Portland. Andy Ngo posted it on Twitter, but no one paid at SPJ paid attention.
#SPJ doesn't know about this apparently.
Via @mrandyngo from YEARS ago. pic.twitter.com/d5ombrYb9C
— Adult in the Room Podcast (@adultinthe) August 26, 2021
The city’s choice to selectively enforce the rule of law has allowed the proliferation of open-air attacks by antifa, a recent attempted kidnapping of a child in broad daylight, mass shootings at clubs on recent weekends, gang warfare, and record shootings.
Only now are people willing to notice that these thugs, their anti-police ideals, rioters’ veto, and their spawn from their antifa summer camps – to which the City of Portland gave an award – have taken a toll on public safety and journalism.
A pall has been cast over Portland that is as stifling as if it were from a nearby wild fire.
This fear is felt by people, the Andy Ngos and Mike Stricklands, who know they’ll never be protected in Portland because a complicit media is too afraid to tell that story.
Story cited here.