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Portland Knife Attack: Tension High as 'Free Speech Rally' Set for Weekend

By Jason Wilson, Guardian UK

29 May 17

With a suspected white supremacist charged with murdering two men, an ‘alt-right’ organizer refuses to back down. ‘Antifascists’ are vowing to oppose him

he racially charged double murder that shocked Portland, Oregon has increased tensions in a city already prey to a marked increase in political street clashes this year.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53, were fatally stabbed on a city train after intervening when a suspected white supremacist began yelling “hate speech” at two women who police believe to be Muslim. Another man was injured. The accused, 35-year-old Jeremy Christian, is due to appear in court on Monday.

On Sunday, after a candle-lit vigil and strong words from the city’s mayor the night before, “alt-right” organizers refused to back away from a planned “free speech rally” in downtown Portland on Sunday 4 June. In turn, self-described “anti-fascist” activists committed to opposing them.

Joey Gibson, a YouTube personality and self-described “libertarian” behind the Patriot Prayer group, organized a 29 April rally in the city at which Christian was filmed giving fascist salutes and yelling racial slurs, and where counter-protesters claim he approached them armed with a baseball bat.

Gibson, who is promoting the event next Sunday, told the Guardian: “We are going to continue with our rally. There is no way that we will stop. It is even more important that we come out with a strong message of love.”

Gibson has organized rallies this year in Portland and just over the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, where he lives. Most have involved confrontational postures against antifascists, such as those made by Christian in footage from the 29 April event. Some have become violent.

Alongside racist and misogynist commentary, posts on Christian’s Facebook page expressed deep animus for “antifa” activists. Gibson however has denied any connection with Christian, and has posted video he says shows Christian being ejected from his rally because of his bizarre behavior.

“Jeremy Christian has nothing to do with us”, Gibson told the Guardian. “He’s not even a Trump supporter. He showed up at our march out of nowhere. None of us knew who he was. None of us had ever seen him. Folks from antifa and liberals in Portland have used pictures of him at the rally, trying to paint the picture that we’re all white supremacists.”

Gibson said he was not racist: “I believe in God, and I believe God sees us all as equal. To say someone is lower than someone else because of the color of their skin is insane to me.”

Asked about his recent support for a protest against sharia law, he said: “I completely stand against sharia law because it goes against everything I believe in. Muslims are the biggest victims of sharia law. I believe in a woman’s right to be her own person, I also believe in LGBT rights too.”

Asked about the “alt-right” label, which has been applied to a range of far rightwing groups and individuals risen to national prominence, he said: “What is the alt-right? I don’t really know. I’m Joey Gibson. Even with Trump, I support him, but there are things I don’t agree with. We either go towards freedom, or we go towards tyranny.”

‘He definitely marched with them’

Rose City Antifa is a long-standing antifascist group in Portland, a major organizer of opposition to Gibson’s rallies. A spokesman who gave only a first name, David, said Gibson’s disavowals of Christian rang hollow.

“He definitely marched with them,” he said. “When you have an event like this you can say, ‘These people are with us, these people aren’t with us’ as much as you want. But these are the people who turned out to the event.”

The spokesman said Portland’s reputation as a liberal city masked long-term political realities.

“The sad, unfortunate fact is that Portland does have a long history of white supremacist activity,” he said, mentioning the 1988 murder of an Ethiopian immigrant, Mulugeta Seraw. “There have been white skinheads and militia groups centred on Portland. These people have never gone away, but recently they have been comfortable coming out and showing their true colours.”

The spokesman pointed to an article on the Rose City Antifa website which identified a number of white supremacists who attended the 29 April event.

“He may have been the most brazen and visible white supremacist, but he was certainly not the only one,” he said. “At previous rallies we’ve seen KKK members, members of the group Identity Europa and other unaffiliated white supremacists. There was another person at the 29 April rally who had a swastika pin on their backpack who was allowed to stay. They simply made that person remove the pin.”

The spokesman said the presence of such people, and escalating violence at the rallies, undermined Gibson’s claim that his events were intended solely to promote free speech.

“It doesn’t matter what the purpose of a rally is,” he said, “it matters what happens at that rally. How do the organizers of that rally conduct themselves? Who comes to join that rally and what’s the effect of them coming together?”

Gibson said he expected a tough reception next Sunday. “There will be more hatred, opposition, anger,” he said. “Because here are people running around irresponsibly saying Jeremy Christian was part of our group.”

Antifascist leaders had come under pressure, he said, since the Department of Homeland Security described anti-Trump protests in the city involving “black bloc” anarchists as “domestic terrorist violence”.

“I guarantee right now, there is going to be at least one kid arrested in downtown Portland who gets arrested because he believed the lie,” Gibson said.

Rose City Antifa is in turn determined to organize a “popular turnout” next Sunday. At the candlelight vigil on Saturday evening, flyers co-sponsored by the group were circulated.

The group’s spokesman said: “The thing that they’re going to discover is that Portlanders are tired of this. They’re tired of this circus. They’re tired of the excuses [Gibson] gives for throwing these rallies. People are tired of seeing white supremacists together in their streets.

“I think there’s going to be a very large turnout indeed.”

If such predictions prove true, next Sunday could see a continuation of political confrontations in the city which started around one major, national event. The election of President Donald Trump.