John Glendenning is a 46-year-old Portlander and co-founder of the right-wing Oregon Liberty Activists (OLA). Before the Portland’s Resistance march on Friday, a separate anti-Trump group is planning to burn American flags in Pioneer Courthouse Square (in response to Trump floating the idea of revoking the citizenship of flag burners). Glendenning and his OLA crew will be there with fire extinguishers.
MERCURY: So, you’re organizing the flag-extinguishing event?
GLENDENNING: Yes. I talked to the fire marshal here in Portland, and it’s illegal to burn anything downtown. Flags, campfires for the needy, none of it can be burned down there, so why are the police going to stand by and watch an illegal activity? Burning a flag isn’t illegal—hell, I burn United Nations flags in my fire pit and put it on the Internet all the time. But not in the middle of downtown where it’s illegal to burn anything. Frankly, you can hardly even smoke down there. That’s the ground we stand on. I’m conservative but I have a bunch of liberal friends, but they’re not a bunch of anarchists running around being anti-American. But these far-left anti-American scumbags—that’s exactly what they are, and I’m not going to be chased away. I know people who have had their car attacked for being Trump supporters. I’m not gonna keep quiet, I’m not going to hide, and I don’t care what the media make people look like, because I don’t think conservative issues and limited-government people have been given a fair shake by anybody in the press.