Yesterday, in their continued admitted attempts to “troll the left,” Patriot Prayer held another of their series of rallies on the waterfront and were met by hundreds of Portlanders dedicated to stopping fascism in its tracks.
The rally/counter protest started and ended in a similar fashion to previous Patriot Prayer events: Leader Joey Gibson makes veiled threats that violence will occur; Portlanders take Gibson at his word and and vow to show up in huge numbers; Portland police dons their riot gear in response; the two groups are separated and scream at each other for three to four hours; the police say that someone allegedly throws something, which the cops use as an excuse to employ overly rough crowd control tactics on counter protesters, making them appear to be protecting the fascists; as the cops chase (and injure) counter protesters, it frees up the fascists to go on the attack; people (usually on our side) are injured; Patriot Prayer celebrates the success of their trolling, and get on their busses and leave, knowing they’ve secured lots of national press which they hope will embolden more fascists.
For them, it’s a formula that has worked before, worked yesterday, and will undoubtedly work in the future. Next stop for them is Seattle on August 18, where they will surely employ similar tactics, and then back to Portland in the not-too-distant future. In short, rinse and repeat.
On the upside, the Mercury Photography Action Force (Kathleen Marie, Kenton Waltz, and Patrick Bunch) were in full effect yesterday and came back with great photos. Check them out!
Just look at all these Fortnite cosplay jackwipes.
What do you mean “our side?” This was the fucking rag that was encouraging people to stay away from the protests on Saturday. If the turnout had been bigger, the cops would not have unleashed that kind of force on us. You directly aided them. Get fucked.
Joey Gibson’s movement was down to 25-30 people June 3rd 2018, due to antifascsit organizing.
Joey Gibson cried into his phone for an hour as he ran to his car.
Joey Gibson had to call out for nationwide reinforcements.
Joey Gibson got possibly 400 people and was outnumbered 5:1 by Portland.
Joey cost his own people towing charges at a $1000 a pickup towing yard because he was such a great leader he forgot to mention he hadn’t secured rights to the parking lot he told the they could use (good on ya, Fred Meyer’s!)
Joey Gibson has to keep asking for help because his movement in the NW is completely finished due to the resilience, organizational fortitude, strength, and intelligence of the city he calls a “disgusting, dark city” while his lieutenants wear shirts extolling the virtues of fascist dictators.
Joey Gibson’s movement in the Pacific Northwest is on life support and once his people realize how much of a con he’s been running on them, it’ll be over for good, certainly once the lawsuits start.
Mercury, get your reporting up to standards. Stop playing this nonchalant, breezy, “I’d rather be having a rose’ at my condo” game or the people of this city will be as done with you as they are with Joey Gibson, Ted Wheeler, and the cops.
The trolling only works because the counter protesters take the bait.
Alternatives: 1) ignore them 2) have a separate protest in a completely different part of the city that overshadows them while not creating the situations which lead to violence.
Is that a tree or a python being carried across the street? Either way I’M impressed!