Fights break out between groups of protesters at rally
PORTLAND: Small scuffles broke out on Saturday as police in Portland, Oregon, deployed “flash bang’’ devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-fascist protesters.
Four people were arrested during the protests, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement on Saturday night. Officers also seized “multiple weapons throughout the day’’, police said.
A reporter for The Oregonian was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter he was “okay’’.
Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathered around midday in a riverfront park.
Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as “Alt right scum not welcome in Portland’’. Some chanted “Nazis go home’’.
Officers stood in the middle of the fourlane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.
The counter-protesters were made up of a coalition of labour unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band.
The rally organised by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture.
This time, Mr Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside US District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate.
Mr Gibson disputed the group’s classification by some as a hate group.
“We’re here to promote freedom and God. That’s it,’’ Mr Gibson told Portland TV station KGW while walking with demonstrators. “Our country is getting soft.’’
Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints. In a statement, police said weapons may be seized if there is a violation of law.
Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields.
Just before 2pm, police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers.
“Get out of the street,’’ police announced via loudspeaker.
Mr Gibson’s insistence on bringing his supporters repeatedly to this liberal city has crystallised a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the US West, including Berkeley, which also drew violent reactions.
But the Portland events have taken on outsized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathiser was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women — one in a hijab — whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017.
A coalition of community organisations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carry guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called “the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys’’ and protect the city.
Mr Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic US Sen Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he won’t stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their rightwing views without interference.