Portland on edge after attack
UNEASE ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY GROWS AFTER STABBINGS
Unease about white supremacist activity in Portland deepened after the fatal stabbings of two men who tried to shield young women from an anti-Muslim tirade, and some people worry that the famously tolerant community could see a resurgence of the hostilities that once earned it the nickname “Skinhead City.”
The attack aboard a light-rail train happened Friday, the first day of Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims. Authorities say Jeremy Joseph Christian started verbally abusing two young women, including one wearing a hijab. When three men on the train intervened, police say, Christian attacked them, killing two and wounding one.
Court documents released Tuesday for the first time mentioned a fourth man who was the first to intervene and was not attacked, but they did not identify him by his full name.
Christian, 35, was defiant during his brief initial court appearance Tuesday, shouting: “You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism!”
He made repeated outbursts, saying, “You’ve got no safe place!” and “Death to the enemies of America!”
Christian, who faces aggravated murder and other charges, didn’t enter a plea. He has been appointed public defenders. Lane Borg, head of the local public defender agency, said the office was “saddened by this tragedy” but urged people to let the justice system take its course.
In the probable cause affidavit, prosecutors said video feeds in the back of a patrol car captured Christian saying after his arrest that he had stabbed three people in the neck. His court-appointed attorney, Gregory Scholl, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The deaths stunned the city, but also underscored nervousness about recent events, including a series of apparent hate crimes in the region and contentious public rallies that have drawn national attention.
The Pacific Northwest has a long and violent history of white supremacist and other racist activities, despite its more recent reputation for being one of the nation’s most socially liberal regions.
“The idea that Portland is so liberal supersedes this dark, hidden secret about racism,” said Karen Gibson, a professor of urban studies at Portland State University.
Many of the early settlers to Oregon were from Southern states and brought with them negative attitudes about blacks, Gibson said. Only about six per cent of the Portland population is black, while more than 70 per cent is nonHispanic white, statistics show.
Some residents said President Donald Trump has caused those racist demons to stir again with his administration’s travel ban, his promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico and his crackdown on illegal immigration.