Until late last week, the bulky, homely pedestrian bridge leading to the Hollywood MAX platform was as mundane and utilitarian a structure as you could find in Portland.
That changed on the afternoon of Friday, May 26, when the bewildering acts of a bigot took the lives of two men standing against racism, and very nearly killed a third. Today, and for the foreseeable future, that pedestrian bridge is something else: an unlikely symbol of selfless sacrifice, overflowing with flowers and messages of hope.
It was, after all, the Hollywood station that authorities rushed to on Friday, responding to the increasingly alarming details of an attack that had just unfolded.
Witnesses reported a MAX passenger spewing racist vitriol at two teenage girls—both of them Black, one wearing a hijab—when three bystanders intervened. In a detailed account released Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors said the alleged assailant, Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, turned his attention to the men, managing to stab or slash all three in the neck.
Ricky John Best, 53, an Army veteran and city employee, died at the Hollywood platform.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, a 23-year-old Reed College graduate, died after being taken to the hospital.
Micah David-Cole Fletcher, a 21-year-old Portland State University student, survived thanks to aid he received from witnesses.
Christian was apprehended not far from the platform, and prosecutors described a litany of vile confessions following his arrest. He faces a host of felony and misdemeanor charges, including aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, intimidation, and unlawful use of a weapon.
The Hollywood station was front and center once again on Saturday evening, when somber Portlanders flocked there by the hundreds bearing candles and flowers and, above all, their sincere gratitude to the men who’d paid such a drastic price for intervening.
“They lost their lives because of me and my friend and the way we looked, and I just want to say thank you to them and their family,” a tearful Destinee Mangum, one of the two teens Christian had allegedly been harassing, told KPTV. “I appreciate them because without them, we probably would be dead right now.”
Today, that mundane pedestrian bridge is utterly transformed—covered with flowers and written tributes to the three heroes of Friday’s attack. “This will not stop us,” they read, and “I would die for you” and “love prevails.” In response to such unspeakable ugliness, the bridge is suddenly beautiful.
But it’s hard not to see worse changes afoot.
The slayings Christian allegedly carried out last week appear to be the most violent outcroppings of overt bigotry the city has experienced in recent months, but they are far from unusual. As Donald Trump’s victory has emboldened far-right causes, people with racist, white-supremacist sympathies have gleefully glommed on. That includes Christian himself.
Last month the man showed up, armed with a baseball bat and wrapped in a Revolution-era American flag, to a right-wing “March for Free Speech” along 82nd Avenue in Montavilla. Christian was enraged by left-wing protesters. A police officer quickly confiscated his bat, but he continued ranting at the crowd, yelling “Fuck all you niggers!”
Christian repeatedly gave the Nazi salute throughout the hours-long event and yelled “Hail Vinland,” a term used by far-right white nationalists to assert that they “are Vikings in a new land continuing the ancient battle for the preservation of their people,” according to an antifascist expert who spoke with the Guardian. Notably, Christian had a length of chain looped repeatedly around his neck—a choice that would offer protection should someone slash or attack that part of his body.
On Facebook, Christian expressed admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and far-right Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, and regularly lauded Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
The man had exhibited more recent troubling behavior, too. KATU reported on video footage of Christian on a MAX train a day before the attack, shouting: “Fuck all you Christians and Muslims and fucking Jews. Fucking die.” Though no one was engaging him, Christian also said he was “about to stab some motherfuckers.”
The three victims of the knife attack are now icons of resistance to that racist tide, and support for the men and their families—along with the teens who were the initial targets of hostility—has been effusive. As of Tuesday morning, four crowdfunding efforts had raised more than $1.2 million.
The pictures that have emerged of the men since Friday are universal in their admiration.
Best was an employee of the Bureau of Development Services, a job he took after a 23-year-stint in the Army, according to KATU.
The man’s family—which includes his wife and four children—told the station he was cheerful and principled, always looking to help those in need of assistance. His co-workers gave similar accounts to local news outlets.
“He couldn’t just stand by and do nothing,” Best’s oldest son Erik told KATU. “He died fighting the good fight, protecting the innocent. Honestly, that’s what he probably wanted.”
The Oregonian quoted a witness who said Best was trying to stop Christian’s unhinged and profane ranting about Muslims, saying: “I know you’re a taxpayer. But this is not okay, that he was scaring people.”
Meche had recently earned an economics degree from Reed College, where professors praised his acumen. His family issued heartbreaking statements of mixed anguish and pride after the young man succumbed to his injuries, and his mother embraced supporters at Saturday’s vigil.
“My heart feels empty from the loss of my big brother, but also from the cruel awakening that hate & judgment can cause someone to do such a thing,” Meche’s sister wrote on Facebook. “I am so proud to call someone so brave and strong my big brother. You have always and will always be my hero.”
Meche was urging Christian to get off the train when he was attacked, according to the Oregonian. Among his last words, a witness told KOIN, were “I want everybody to know, I want everybody on the train to know, I love them.”
Fletcher, the lone survivor of the knife attack, is a poet and student who’s demonstrated with Don’t Shoot Portland. He was released from the hospital on Monday, but has not yet offered his own account of the attack.
The account released by prosecutors on Tuesday alleges Christian first confronted Meche, then pushed Fletcher when he stepped in. When Fletcher pushed back, authorities say, Christian slashed him with a folding knife, then immediately attacked Meche.
At that point, Best stepped in and was also attacked.
There were other heroes, too. Stories have emerged of citizens on the packed train rushing to the aid of the injured men, offering comfort and medical attention. Others pursued Christian as he fled the station, and alerted police to his whereabouts.
As fallout from the murders continues, the significance of an already-planned “Trump Free Speech Rally” set for Sunday, June 4 has ramped up. The event was organized by Vancouver-based right-wing organizer Joey Gibson, who goes by “Patriot Prayer.” Gibson also organized the April 29 rally where the bat-wielding, slur-yelling Christian garnered attention. The organizer and others disavowed and criticized Christian at the time, but other, less-overt white nationalists were also in attendance.
Gibson’s plan is to bring several major “alt-right” figures to Terry Schrunk Plaza on June 4, including convicted felon Kyle Chapman—known as “Based Stickman” because he’s assaulted left-wing protesters with a large stick—and Tim Gionet, a right-wing troll who goes by “Baked Alaska.”
Rose City Antifa and other leftist groups have planned a “Stand United Against Fascism Rally” directly across the street at Chapman Square.
A separate right-wing “March Against Sharia” is scheduled, in concert with events around the country, for June 10.
The tension surrounding these rallies caused Mayor Ted Wheeler to make an atypical and controversial request on Monday, May 29. Wheeler said that the federal government had already issued a permit for Gibson’s June 4 rally (the feds control Schrunk Plaza), and called on officials to immediately revoke that permit, saying he feared violence.
“Our City is in mourning, our community’s anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation,” Wheeler said in a statement. “I am appealing to the organizers of the alt-right demonstrations to CANCEL the events they have scheduled on June 4 and June 10. I urge them to ask their supporters to stay away from Portland. There is never a place for bigotry or hatred in our community, and especially not now.”
Gibson said he’s not canceling the event, and a spokesperson from the US General Services Administration, which manages Schrunk Plaza, would not discussion the government’s plans Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the ACLU of Oregon and others criticized Wheeler for his request, saying it encroached on free speech.
“The government cannot revoke or deny a permit based on the viewpoint of the demonstrators,” the organization wrote in a statement. “Period.”
There are concerns about the approach in City Hall, too.
“We are walking a very fine line here,” Commissioner Nick Fish told the Mercury. “I appreciate the mayor’s concern for public safety and desire to avoid more violence. I also share the concerns of the ACLU and others that we must never make any decision based on the content of speech, no matter how abhorrent.”
Doug and Dirk, your article does a terrific job of honoring the victims. Unfortunately you steer too far into politics to drive a political narrative. This vile person was not a Trump supporter; he supported Senator Sanders and after the election, he supported Dr. Jill Stein.
Attributing this vile person’s actions to people on the right is yellow journalism. Through your logic, someone on the right could argue that Senator Sanders is aligned with nazis and the Oklahoma bomber because he wrote supportively on Facebook and Twitter about the Senator and these terrible people of the past.
You are seeking to promote division rather than dialogue. As you enrage our community, you could cause the violence you seek to condemn in this article.
Too many people in this country are using the “other side is terrible” as their excuse for doing reprehensible things as we saw this week with the repugnant display put on by Kathy Griffin.
You should lead by example rather than foment and inflame the anger. Maybe if we stop giving the crazies and the attention seekers their time in the spotlight, people who want to make real change in the world and help one another can have a productive conversation and get things done.
@Hone1989: I continue to be amazed how people on the right (you) don’t see the connection to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and this murderer’s actions. Trump has yet to denounce the endorsement of the KKK during the campaign, or the support of white supremacists such as David Duke and Richard Spencer.
Did this anti-Muslim, bigoted “patriot” post his support of Bernie Sanders at one point? Sure did. But does that somehow mean that his views don’t best align with the alt-right? Nope.
He’s quoted as saying after his killings: “This is what Liberalism gets you.”
You and other alt-righters can use the ONE point that he liked Bernie at one time… but that does not erase the connection between Trump and the alt-right’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and white nationalism.
As far as I know, Bernie isn’t anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant or a white nationalist…
@Douglas_Banter: You’ve proved my point. You are taking this demented vile person’s actions and ascribing it to a political movement because it fits your narrative. You fail to see the gaping hole in your logic because you are blinded by anger and rage.
You are losing our argument.
I also think it is reprehensible for you to drop the “as far as I know Bernie isn’t anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant or white nationalist” at the end of your comment. He is not any of these and has never acted in this way. Shame on you for insinuating it. Stick with facts. Don’t try and weave a narrative that foments hatred and anger.
Getting back to the matter at hand, I agree that speech should be protected and I’m not interested in censoring the public square. But should speech that is designed to be hateful and discriminatory (or even violent) be protected?
@tommyspoon: who gets to decide what is designed to be hateful or discriminatory? Presidents Obama and Trump have had lots of things said about them in public that their supporters would argue were designed to be hateful, discriminatory or violent. Do you think there are enough people who are fair and impartial that could serve as the speech police? I don’t think I would want to give that type of power over my first amendment rights to anyone.
The best way to move forward is to have a dialogue and talk with one another and not interject vile people like the man who attacked those three people into the discussion about finding common ground.
That was my objection to the direction the authors took this article.
“gaping hole in your logic” and yet you failed to explain exactly what you think that hole is.
Questions you will refuse to answer because it doesn’t fit your narrative:
Anti-Muslim rhetoric can be best aligned with what party? Republicans? Liberals?
White supremacists views align best with what party? The Right-wing? Liberals?
Calling oneself a “patriot” is often heard at which party’s rallies?
Denouncing Liberalism (“That’s what Liberalism gets you” -Alt-Right “Patriot” Jeremy Christian after murdering two people) comes from which side of the political aisle?
Although the answer is glaringly obvious, you won’t and can’t answer… wanna prove me wrong?
The gaping hole in your logic is that this vile person is mentally unstable and you are attributing his comments to the other side. The other side can parrot your argument back at you saying supporters of Senator Sanders say hateful things and commit acts of violence.
Don’t bring the crazies into the discussion because it is just as likely that the crazy might have liberal or progressive statements about their beliefs in their past. Basing your argument about the other side on the actions of crazy people dilutes it. The other side will just say your example is someone eveyone knows is crazy.
We have to have a sound foundation for our opinion and ideas. If we base our argument on crazies, we have as little hope of winning as the professor who went to Berkeley and beat up marchers with a bike lock. He lost the debate through his violence and will likely go to jail and become the poster child for liberals that will be continuously thrown back in our faces when we make an argument.
Man, you righties are dense. That isn’t a “gaping hole” in my logic; it’s just you not liking the facts I pointed out. Sorry bud, your tactics ain’t gonna work on me.
And isn’t it ever so convenient that you didn’t answer any of my questions? (Questions that reinforce my point)
Answers:
The party that white nationalists best align themselves with is the right-wing. (“Patriot” Jeremy Christian called himself a white nationalist)
The party that people who spew anti-Muslim rhetoric align themselves with is… you got it: The right-wing. (Jeremy Christian was anti-Muslim… see the connection now?)
Why don’t you Google “Rigt-Wing Extremists Bigger Threat Than ISIS” and educate yourself on the REAL threat to this nation.
Glad I could be of service to your ongoing education, though there’s really no point in continuing in this back and forth… your worldview is quite twisted. Good day! 🙂
Douglas, if you are so blinded by rage and anger that you have to attribute the actions of a crazy person to those on the other side.
When you go off on these tirades, you make us look unreasonable , irrational and unable to have a productive discussion.
You make us look like the thugs to set fires and smashed windows in Berkeley.
I’m fighting for the soul of my party. Right now I have to fight establishment who cheated Senator Sanders out of the nomination. He would have easily beaten Trump. Instead, our party leadership stuck us with a candidate who is bought and paid for by Wall Street and who takes millions of dollars from countries that oppress women and gays and lesbians. I watched as the leadership of our party was taken away from the first Muslim serving in Congress and given to another establishment flunky.
On the other side, I need to take it back from goons who only want to fight and brawl and not win with ideas. In case you missed it, we lost the election because of the electoral map. Being angry, beating up people and trying to shut down anyone you disagree with doesn’t win elections.
Here in our state, we have the same problem with the establishment flunkies. We had a governor who wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on our healthcare exchange which failed completely all the while he was doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to his girlfriend.
The healthcare promises that were made to us have been broken. As a breast cancer survivor, these are serious problems that need to be fixed. All the screaming of those out there on our side who just want to brawl is not going to solve the problems or win over voters. Maybe instead of trying to pick fights and beat people up, you could start adding some constructive solutions to the discussion.