Portland's Bizarre Experiment With Not Policing Proud Boys Rampage Ends in Gunfire
Robert Mackey
August 23 2021, 8:22 p.m.
Portland’s police force chose to stand back and stand by as Proud Boys who came to the city to fight with anti-fascists assaulted protesters and a right-wing gunman opened fire.
Portland narrowly avoided tragedy on Sunday as the city’s police force abandoned its duty to secure the streets and officers made no effort to stop assaults on residents by members of the far-right Proud Boys gang, many of whom had traveled from around the country to live out their fantasies of attacking anti-fascist protesters.
The absence of the police, in line with a policy on nonintervention announced beforehand by Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell, reinforced a sense among anti-fascists that they were on their own. So when a right-wing gunman fired in the direction of black-clad protesters who had chased him away from their protest at gunpoint, it was shocking but perhaps not surprising that one of the anti-fascists fired back, according to witnesses.
Luckily, all eight shots missed their targets, and there were no reported injuries from the exchange of fire.
The shooting unfolded in broad daylight on a downtown street, in front of reporters who filmed it from multiple angles. Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, an activist and videographer from Los Angeles, captured the sequence of events in a thread he shared on Twitter.
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/23/portland-police-proud-boys-protest/
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