Portland fears violence
Right-wing group of demonstrators descend on city
Portland, Ore. Members of the rightwing Proud Boys and their supporters arrived in a Portland, Ore., park Saturday as leftist activists prepared their own counter rallies, raising the temperature of a city already on edge as officials pleaded for the ralliers to refrain from violence.
Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency in advance of the arrival of the Proud Boys, an all-male group whose members — many of whom support President Donald Trump — often engage in provocations, threats or fighting with opponents at their events. Brown’s declaration cleared the way for a major law enforcement presence in hopes of keeping the dueling groups apart, but there were fears that people traveling to the park with violent intentions would nonetheless find a way to sow chaos.
Downtown Portland has been rocked by protests this summer, first over the police killings of Black people and later over the Trump administration’s move to send federal agents to the city in an attempt to quell the demonstrations. And demonstrations across the United States kicked up again last week after a grand jury in Kentucky decided not to indict either of the two Louisville police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency room technician.
In New York, hundreds of demonstrators held a sit-in for more than an hour on the Brooklyn Bridge, where many took a knee in honor of Taylor. People also took to the streets in Oakland, Calif.; Seattle; Boston; and Albuquerque, N.M., where a motorist reportedly tried to drive a car through the crowd, though no one was reported injured.
In Philadelphia on Saturday, dozens of Proud Boys marched through downtown, followed by officers on bikes. Some carried American flags and Trump 2020 flags while chanting derogatory comments about antifa.
In Portland, the Proud Boys have described the event Saturday in the city’s Delta Park as a rally to
“end domestic terrorism” but many in Portland saw it as a thinly veiled excuse by the right-wing group to brawl with their ideological opposites. Among the roughly 200 Proud Boys members who were gathered Saturday, hours before the main event, some were carrying guns. Others had bulletproof vests and tactical gear.