The contrast is jarring. Videos were everywhere showing Kyle Rittenhouse shooting his rifle. Yet, there was a killing in Portland, a bullet to the chest that left one man dead, and the only piece of information about it is the hat.
The man who was shot and killed was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Portland that has clashed with protesters in the past.
There may be video, but it’s not offered, no link, no embedded video. And apparently it doesn’t really do much to illuminate what happened.
A video that purports to be of the shooting, taken from the far side of the street, showed a small group of people in the road outside what appears to be a parking garage. Gunfire erupts, and a man collapses in the street.
The Washington Post was similarly uninformative.
A man was seen with a gunshot wound laying motionless on the ground in the area near where the opposing groups had fought and where mace had been deployed. He was wearing a hat that said “Patriot Prayer” — a far-right group whose leader was swarmed later Saturday night as he was chased through the streets.
WaPo did, however, make clear who was to blame, as activists demanded of “journalists.”
Trump supporters in trucks were at one point blocked in by the Black Lives Matter activists, and began exiting their vehicles, precipitating the violence.
The Patriot Prayer group drove pickup trucks through Portland, through the protests, to provoke and challenge the ongoing nightly protests. They were looking for a fight.
The pro-Trump rally drew hundreds of trucks full of supporters into the city. At times, Trump supporters and counterprotesters clashed on the streets, with people shooting paintball guns from the beds of pickup trucks and protesters throwing objects back at them.
How to describe Patriot Prayer “protesters” is unclear. White nationalists? Pro-Trump? Pro-police? They are certainly a hard-right fringe group. But the description after the killing was “trash.”
BLM & antifa celebrating the murder of a patriot prayer member. pic.twitter.com/66lBCLb4aH
— Brittany 🍇 (@Brittany3l) August 30, 2020
Following the riots in Kenosha and the killing of two people by Rittenhouse, lawprof Carissa Hessick raised the question of why the riots and looting reflect poorly on Biden while the presence of gun-toting kids like Rittenhouse don’t reflect poorly on Trump. It struck me that the answer was self-evident, that the BLM protesters claim the moral high ground, and must therefore act in a way that supports their self-proclaimed virtue or be revealed as a fraud. Burning buildings, smashing cars, can’t be what the good guys do or they’re not the peaceful, loving, tolerant, empathetic side.
The Trump side, on the other hand, is exactly what one expects them to be. No one takes seriously Trump’s rhetoric, using all twelve words he possesses in random groupings, and his supporters are brutes. They make no claim to the moral high ground, and they’re not expected to be anything else. They are what everyone expects them to be.
But buried in last night’s shooting in Portland is that a BLM or Antifa protester had a gun and used it. No doubt there are corners of social media with the video of what purports to be the shooting, perhaps describing it as a fight where the PP guy sprayed the Antifa guy with mace, and got a bullet to his chest in return.
That the protests in Portland, ongoing since the death of George Floyd, persist is a testament to the fortitude of the protesters. Regardless of how you feel about them or their cause, tenacity isn’t one of the foremost traits of Millennials and Zoomers. That a right-wing fringe group decided it was a good idea for them to drive into the middle of this ongoing action was a terrible, if not unsurprising, idea. It was bound to happen eventually.
For the protesters, the rioters, the looters, they have garnered the attention they crave for their cause, and some have gotten a Gucci bag out of the deal, which apparently is the new flavor of social justice, according to the latest NPR indulgence in fringe insanity.
The police could stop this, but it would require a massive use of force since Officer Friendly politely asking the rioters to stop isn’t likely to work. Trump could have sent in his agents, but every Democratic mayor involved demanded that he not. Biden called for an end to the rioting and looting, but nobody cared because his only use to them is to get rid of Trump, after which their hatred will be focused on his failure to capitulate to their progressive Utopia.
As for the business destroyed, the buildings burned, the cars trashed and the diners threatened to bend their knee to the mobs, the cries of the unduly passionate white radicals about the centuries of oppression of black people cover all wrongs. No details matter enough to undo their outrage, so there is no rational discussion to talk them off the cliff.
The introduction of the other tribe of violent idiots is a nightmare, even if it is entirely unsurprising. That last night in Portland, the dead man ended up being the one wearing the Patriot Prayer hat probably wasn’t expected, as the right takes the view that they’e better armed and more prepared for violence than the soft college kids of the left are. They may be wrong about that, even if they have more “assault rifles” at home than the black bloc.
But the dead man, the details of which no one in the mainstream media either knows or seems willing to say, is a fact. This didn’t happen on social media, but in the streets of Portland. And what would be very surprising is if it didn’t give rise to those on the right doing whatever they can to make this conflagration worse. Will tonight bring more white nationalists in more cities out to confront the left-wing protesters, but this time with more guns and the inclination to use them first?
The hope was that this would die down as the left-wing protesters got bored, tired of their nightly screaming and marching and burning down the businesses of black and white people who have nothing to do with their grievance and whose misery won’t be helped by the radicals’ self-righteousness. But if the white nationalists take to the streets as well, this could become the nightmare scenario, where they shoot and kill.
All the while, the police stay back at a distance so they can’t be blamed for doing their job.
Why did you describe Patriots Pride as “White nationalists? Pro-Trump? Pro-police?” Why not describe then as loyal american citizens who obey the law, don’t riot and loot, have JOBS and contribute to society. In anywhere except the large cities that’s how they and groups like them are viewed in my opinion.
Everybody loves their team and can’t understand why their delusional view of their goodness isn’t shared by everyone else. You’re entitled to your opinion.
Aren’t you kinda stereotyping there?
I know educated, hard working people that aren’t racist that support Trump.
They don’t like his tweets but they support his immigration and tax policies. Does that make them evil?
Would you refuse to defend them based on their political leanings?
Nothing here suggests that everyone who supports Trump is a member of Patriot Prayer.
Is this strictly referring to the Trump supporters at the riots? The context is unclear and could easily be interpreted as overly broad stereotyping.
I’ve made clear my view of Trump many times already. They haven’t changed.
The author is a leftist who supports anarchism and criminal behavior! I wouldn’t be surprised if the author has friends that are pedophiles!
Right?
You would look pretty cool in a mohawk behind a set of drums….
And just think of all the 50 year old groppies that would come out of the woodwork.
I think even Neil Diamond would be jealous.
It’s starting to look a lot like Berlin in the 20’s. Various Communist clubs going at it with various Friekorps units and SA Brownshirts. I fear that unless the police start taking control of the rioting as soon as it starts this kind of violence will only intensify. The shooter in Wisconsin and the dead Patriot Prayer member will become martyrs to the right wing lunatic fringe. They will become more aggressive and self justifying. The Antifa types, the left wing lunatic fringe, will in turn mourn their martyrs and and look for opportunities to take reprisals. Very dangerous times these. It’s not Nazi Germany, but still…
Dont worry Barbra Streisand is gonna release a new hit single and fund some daycare centers in the “riot zones”…
Besides the mail still gets there on time right?
There you go, labeling Law abiding citizens as the ” right wing lunatic fringe”, but I noticed you said nary a word against the left wing lunatic fringe, aka Antifa or the like.
There’s no requirement that anybody has to love and hate as you do. You get to lean your way. He gets to lean his.
You seem to be making an equivalence of the man shot in Portland with the thugs shot in Kenosha. All we know about the man in Portland is that he was wearing a hat that you and Antifa don’t like.
The men Kyle Rittenhouse shot were chasing him with the intent to at minimum beat him senseless as they have others. The surviving member of the assailants stated that he wished they had killed the boy.
Please tell me I’m mistaken, or change the name to Social Justice.
Right or left, always so fucking whiny when they don’t get their tummies rubbed.
Change the title to Social Justice, you don’t appear to like or understand what justice is.
I will no longer be reading or sharing from this blog. There are better ones that uphold justice as well as the law.
Had you ever read anything here before, you would know what a flaming asshole you sound like. Bye.
Oh no, you’re gonna be down one flaming nutjob. Whatever will you do?
To tell you the truth, I kinda prefer the crazies like Jay to the pompousness of this alt-right flamers. At least Jay’s good for some laughs.
He will be missed.
The good thing about your comment is it reminds all the lawyers here just how the right and left are similarly delusional, trying so desperately to spin the narrative to their bullshit.
Since we usually hear complaints from the psychotic left, it’s kind of you to bring some balance from the psychotic right.
I’m not sure if “kind” is the word I would use.
The problem is that there is no way to know what is true anymore. (Maybe there never was.) Everybody lies with abandon and sheds crocodile tears by the gallon.
Is there any example in history where the absence of authority doesn’t end up much like what we are witnessing in Portland , Kenosha etc?
My thought is what a pointless reason to die.
Pointless all around, to die, to be beaten, to have one’s home or business destroyed, to be arrested, all of it. What a waste.
Of course, the media chose sides in the street battles long ago. What option did they really have? They were compelled by conscience to back those who are burning, looting, mugging and murdering for love and tolerance.
The media can’t bring itself to report the news. Then again, even if they did, it’s not necessarily good for the other tribe anyway.
We are witnessing the collapse of civil society live and in color. If we don’t catch the 10 second sound bytes and toned down euphemisms on cable, we can see the profanity and gore on the internet in its unredacted glory. All of the actors in this epic tragedy have cloaked themselves in the divine righteousness of their cause, and the streets of their new Utopia must first be washed in the blood of the “other” before peace and harmony will be deserved. ” Live and let live” is now official heresy and those who wish to be left alone in peace are branded “silence is violence” outcasts and can be targeted with impunity.
Bringing to bear the force of government to enforce actual laws and restore order is the one thing many of our political class agree would be “bad”, since they are largely unaffected on a personal level by the escalating violence. It’s not like the peasants calling for more police, not less, actually know what’s best for them (they’re such children). The lack of meaningful government response is allowing all sides to ratchet up the violence a little more every day. I haven’t seen meaningful leadership from any side in all this mess, just more vitriol and calls to “action”. Lot’s of posturing an rhetoric from the elected officialdom, but no useful actions towards a more peaceful future.
I predict that when the hammer falls (and fall it inevitably will), either the jails or the morgues will have a sharp population increase, to the sorrow of many who abandoned reason and simple respect for their fellow man. As imperfect as our society and laws may be, the alternatives being brandished by the raised fists of the mobs on the right, left, or anywhere else are far worse.
Well said. While I hope there is still a way to pull out of this collapse, since most of America wants nothing to do with either of these groups and just wants to live in peace, I’m deeply concerned that there is no good way for this to end, and that what happened in Portland is the start of the next, more violent, phase. And no one seems willing or able to end it.
What’s interesting is that you didn’t give either side a pass in this post, but only the alt-right showed up all whiny and butthurt. I assume that’s because you were critical of Patriot Prayer for driving into the middle of the Portlandia Bowl ready to make trouble, and they’re so fragile that they need to pretend their heroes.
I don’t know whether they assume that because of your past criticism of riots and looting you would be on their side, or they’re just that fragile, but they sure look as bad, if not worse, than the SJWs now. Did you see that coming or was this a surprise.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition. Or the fragile fruitcakes. But it happens. I am surprised that they were quite as butthurt as they were, being all tough and law & ordery, but live and learn.
But don’t they say they’re just hard-working, law-abiding lovers of liberty?
I believe they do. And the ACLU says it’s a civil rights organization. Weird how people believe they’re the heroes of their own stories.
It’s disgusting how delusional they are. Trumptards show up and INSTIGATE violence and then act like their the victims. They showed up with paintball guns. What else did they think was going to happen? One of them ran over a bike with their truck. You can’t just show up and run over people. I think you’d have a hard time arguing that their side, which worships the use of force, isn’t more inclined to visit bodily harm on its opponents than the “angry/racist [laugh] mob” they hate so much.
Three days ago there was an article in the WaPo with a picture of a MOB of Blue Lives Are Sexy (lol) counterprotestors going after a Dem. They were yelling “Democrats are effing idiots and Democrats are demons,” Like one guy in the artcl said “It makes me feel angry that this is allowed and that our police are allowing this kind of hate-filled atmosphere to take over.” I hope that little ass Rittenhouse gets fried.
Disgusting.
I “unspammed” this just for the irony of it. Change the head on the corpse and you’re every bit as delusional as the other tribe.
From the Twitter Link: “Kill the F*cking Nazi’s”
Why are the women the worst?
I’ve been saying for the last three and a half years that the worst part of Trump’s presidency isn’t Trump himself. He’s awful, but he’s just one man. The Trump presidency will be over soon, and when he’s gone the office will more or less go back to what it used to be. But the rest of our institutions—the media, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the blue half of local government—in their minds, Trump has given them license to engage in open, aggressive, and unapologetic partisanship. The other half of the population will never trust them again. And why should they?
Thus we see Rittenhouse charged with murder even though there are videos from multiple angles showing beyond any doubt that he acted in self-defense, while his surviving assailant isn’t even charged. The guy in Portland was, by all indications, straight up murdered; and the media and the local government feel justified in ignoring it because he was on the “wrong” side of the argument.
People aren’t going to forget this, and it doesn’t bode well for our republic.
I’ve written in the past about “TrumpLaw,” the pathetic phenomenon where people are prepared to undermine law as an institution to get Trump. The problem, as you note, is that once Trump is gone, and he will be one way or another eventually, we’re left with the damage to the very institutions they claimed to be protesting.
Having served in places where the law is either nonexistent or thoroughly corrupt my two cents is this is just the start. The only good news is that we still have a long way to go to get to Mogadishu.
I believe the Somali word for police officer is “warlord.”
That has a nice ring to it.
Perhaps it had something to do with neither the victim or the suspected shooter’s name being released for a considerable period of time? The Oregonian finally reported last night the victim’s name was Aaron Danielson, and the suspected shooter’s name is Michael Forest Reinoehl, a 48-year old vet that appears to be deeply disturbed.
The article goes on to describe the scene of the shooting, which apparently involved lots of spaying of mace and bear spray (a product that is 2X more potent than the Carolina Reaper pepper). Lots of chaos amongst hundreds of people, the sort where the Portland Police finding the relevant footage was likely akin to digging for a needle in a proverbial haystack.
The article also interviews the suspect’s 36-year old sister, who along with the rest of the family has been estranged from the brother for three years. The sister learns of his purported involvement by receiving a barrage of threats from the victim’s acolytes, which is because the suspected shooter uses his sister’s address to dodge debt collectors.
Perhaps Reinoehl has been arrested by now, but Portland and Oregon authorities still seem pretty mum about everything. Is that because Reinoehl and his family are being inundated with death threats, as the article concludes?
Rittenhouse, however, surrendered himself in his hometown and the main threat he seems to face is extradition and trial if Illinois decides to hand him over to Wisconsin. The video of Rittenhouse killing two people involved a reporter chasing after Rittenhouse’s first victim, which is only possible because the teenager and isolated himself. When Rittenhouse opened fire he was not accompanying the rest of the Kenosha Guard, because the teenager had foolishly separated himself from the group. That wasn’t the case in Portland.
Is the as-yet unrealized media frenzy over Danielson’s death because of media bias against the victim’s political leanings, or because the Portland scene was considerably more chaotic than, unbelievably, Kenosha? Time will tell, but the latter is more likely, isn’t it?
Biden could win the election tomorrow (9/1). He appears on a joint platform in Kenosha with Trump, the Governor, and the Mayor. They all issue a joint statement supporting peaceful protest for chance and rejecting all political violence. Takes away the only issue Trump could win on.
Is anyone in American politics that smart?
There’s a continency in there that might be outside Biden’s control, and beyond anything Trump would ever do because it would be presidential.
Hey everybody, watch how easy this is:
Attending violent protests with a gun is dangerously stupid. Don’t do it.
Now, if only anyone cared or listened to you.
Why you gotta make me reveal that you care?
I have no gun and don’t riot. But I do care.
we can hook you up.
In this day of computers and social media, it is tempting to imagine that news will magically appear within seconds of the event. Since you posted this, both Oregon Live and Willamette Week have posted articles relevant to your complaint. They probably qualify as “mainstream media”, if not on the WaPo or NYT level (or coast).
Patience, young grasshopper.