This is from the latest shooting, in Portland, OR. The details are still few and far between.
Images from the scene Saturday night show a man wearing a hat featuring the logo of Patriot Prayer, a group that has regularly attended, hosted and engaged in violence at Portland protests through the years. The man was also wearing a “Thin Blue Line” patch on his shorts, indicating support for the police.
The shooting occurred around 8:45 p.m. near the corner of Southwest Third Avenue and Alder Street. Portland police are investigating it as a homicide.
Police secured the entire block as a crime scene and did not release suspect information Saturday night. No one was immediately arrested following the shooting.
The situation keeps flaring up.
A man affiliated with a right-wing group was shot and killed on Saturday as a large group of supporters of President Trump traveled in a caravan through downtown Portland, Ore., which has seen nightly protests for three consecutive months.
The pro-Trump rally drew hundreds of trucks full of supporters into the city. At times, Trump supporters and counterprotesters clashed on the streets, with people shooting paintball guns from the beds of pickup trucks and protesters throwing objects back at them.
Coming on the heels of the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third in Kenosha, Wis., Tuesday night, the incident was an ominous sign amid an escalation of weaponry and of rhetoric as protests of police violence and presidential politics merge.
As of the last time I checked, the latest victim of the violence had not been identified, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting are still unclear. What will the narrative be?
What does seem likely is that the man will become a martyr for the right wing, no matter who or what he was in life. The little we do know is that he was someone who belonged to a right wing group with a history of confrontation, that it happened on a day when there had been deliberate disruption on a large scale.
Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17 year-old vigilante who killed two people and wounded a third is being called a hero by some on the right; Tucker Carlson for one.
I’m seeing claims that one of Rittenhouse’s victims was a convicted pedophile, that Rittenhouse was defending himself from a Molotov cocktail, that one of his assailants had a hand gun, along with the larger narrative that BLM is a radical movement, terrorists, and Antifa is all over it too.
We have been informed that George Floyd had a criminal background and was high on Fentanyl; that Jacob Blake is an abuser of women with other criminal acts in his background. In other words, they had it coming in the view of some people. And it’s always amazing how bad we find out these people are after their encounters with the law.
For people who like simple black and white narratives, what could be plainer? There are good guys — and then there is everyone else.
There are two Americas at war over which one is going to prevail. There are competing narratives, and the middle ground is becoming no man’s land. The mainstream media is busy doing both sideism and amplifying Trump Party talking points. Right wing media is busy pouring gasoline on the flames — and Trump is fanning them.
Trump and his party have decided the route to reelection is to pose Trump as the only person strong enough to end the violence they claim is breaking out wherever liberals are in control. Never mind that this has been happening on their watch, or that Trump promised that only he could end the “American carnage” four years ago. If this isn’t Fascism, what is?
Watch to see how the latest shooting victim ends up getting portrayed, and by whom. Fascism runs on fantasies of national greatness and national grievance, of glorious history and frightening futures. It has an appeal that goes right to the gut — and the gut is an idiot.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers. It’s going to be a bumpy ride — buckle up and hold on.
Sunday, Aug 30, 2020 · 11:05:58 PM +00:00 · xaxnar
UPDATE: To clarify, 5 is full fascism.
There’s a comment from aoeu linking to a news report identifying the man. Some details:
The man shot and killed in Portland as a pro-Trump caravan that began in nearby Clackamas wound down and altercations broke out was a “friend and supporter” of Vancouver, Washington-based Patriot Prayer, group leader Joey Gibson said.
He later identified the man as Jay Bishop in a social media post.
...A dispute over a parking space ended in one person using pepper spray, the sheriff’s spokesman said. The caravan snarled traffic on Southeast 82nd Avenue as vehicles left en masse around 5:15 p.m. led by a few tractor-trailer cabs.
...Duncomb said Bishop was not carrying a gun, although his friend and a person who was with him were both equipped with canisters of bear spray.
...It’s unclear what led to shots being fired, but a succession of pops can be heard before a person begins walking toward a parking garage near Southwest Third and Alder before crumpling to the ground.
The report doesn’t make clear what happened; was Bishop the one involved in the dispute over a parking space, and did he use bear spray on someone?
While bear spray is legal when used on bears, it may be considered assault when used on humans depending on the jurisdiction. It’s closely related to pepper spray. It does not look like it is pleasant to be hit with it.
UPDATE #2: Gibson has linked to a Facebook page where friends of the victim are posting comments. You can see the full spectrum of responses in the comments, from sorrow to anger.
Update: aoeu links to a report from Oregon Live which names the alleged shooter. www.oregonlive.com/…. FellowTraveler has a post about it.
