Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys are escalating their efforts in Portland, but the city came out to kill that noise. And as expected, local law enforcement made things worse. This November will be 30 years since neo-Nazis murdered an Ethiopian immigrant in this town.

PORTLAND, OR – The latest outing in town Saturday by Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys brought out a huge antifascist turnout that kept things tense between the two sides but only turned violent when the police, who eventually declared the rally a civil disturbance, began to disperse the antifa crowd, which began a series of skirmishes in various areas downtown as the neo-fascists attempted to leave.

The Vancouver, Washington-based Patriot Prayer saw their biggest numbers to date with over 200 participants joining them. That however, still wasn’t enough to match the thousands of those opposed to them. The threats of violence was also not enough to deter those who indeed came out against them. Organizer and Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson changed the rally location from its original Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where those with permits to carry concealed weapons could legally arm themselves. While many of antifa was kept across Naito Parkway from the neo-fascists, many still were able to stand on their side of the street as well and effectively surrounding them.

Earlier, when the neo-fascists began to arrive, they were behind the barricade that the police set up for the rally, but because they were not allowed to keep weapons or anything that can be used as weapons such as flagpoles in the area, they opted to stand outside the barricades, where they remained for the duration of the rally only moving further down into the park after Gibson reportedly announced he made a deal with the Portland Police Bureau that they could go in unsearched, and then later returning to their original spot.

Despite their usual declarations that they are libertarian and not a fascists or racists, the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer were joined by groups such as Anti-Communist Action, who has provided security for various White nationalist events, including for Richard Spencer when he spoke last year in Gainesville, Florida, and an Arkansas-based organization called the Hiwaymen, a neo-Confederate group that and like Anti-Communist Action was among those who attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last year.

One known nazi in attendance at yesterday’s #PatriotPrayer #ProudBoys rally in #Portland was Christopher Ritchie from Austin, TX. Ritchie is seen here in the same body armor he wore when participating in street fights at #UniteTheRight in Charlottesville https://t.co/E1raAbOi60 pic.twitter.com/EjriePlJGy

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) August 6, 2018

For hours, the rally remained peaceful with shouting and chants going back and forth between neo-fascists and antifa. Things took a turn when immediately after antifa chanted “All Cops Are Bastards, ACAB!” and “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?”, riot police began firing dozens of flash-bang grenades and rushing toward the crowd, shoving some protesters out of the street in an effort to cause the crowd to disperse. Many, including a reporter at the Oregonian and a antifascist protester who was hit from the back of his helmet with a gas canister, were injured. The assembled fascists cheered on the action with shouts of “USA! USA!”, and were also attempting to leave, but the actions of the police caused antifa to end up confronting them blocks away. Police however were able to keep the two side apart, and eventually they declared the gathering a civil disturbance, ordering everyone to disperse or face arrest.

Police later charged that antifa started to throw projectiles at them, prompting the action leading to the dispersal, but video suggests that no such action by antifa took place just before the first grenades.

Unedited video of the moment when @PortlandPolice let out the first flash bang and began trying to break up today’s protest #defendpdx #AllOutPDX #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/sC1OAVD7PZ

— Ric Peavyhouse (@RPeavyhouse) August 5, 2018

A trauma nurse reportedly said that the round @PortlandPolice fired into the back of the anti-racist protester’s head “would have been lethal if he wasn’t wearing a helmet.” https://t.co/E1raAbOi60 pic.twitter.com/RYRcRrL7ul

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) August 6, 2018

Tusitala ‘Tiny’ Toese, a Proud Boy/Patriot Prayer dude implicated in multiple assaults in the Portland area, thinks police did a great job today. pic.twitter.com/Ubf5KhzocD

— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 4, 2018

As the rally dispersed there were several random clashes between antifa and neo-fascists, some of whom were reportedly driving around in the area looking for people to attack. According to a Daily Beast article,  a group of four or five neo-fascist rally participants that included a young white man with a bushy red beard wearing a distinctive green costume and toting a shield bearing the logo of Kekistan, the fictional country of 4Chan racists, attacked a random group of pedestrians that included two young black men, only to be chased off by antifa. Again, the police seemed to focus on going after the antifascists despite the efforts of the neo-fascists to attack people in the street.

https://t.co/9eqnZJjOHY

— Idavox (@IdavoxOPP) August 6, 2018

There is a long history of clashes in Portland with neo-Nazis and antifa, the most significant among them coming after members of East Side White Pride, a group affiliated with Tom Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance, murdered Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw on Nov. 12, 1988. Metzger, who said the neo-Nazis performed a “civic duty” by murdering Seraw, and his son John famously lost a $12.5 million lawsuit filed by Seraw’s father and his son filed at no cost by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The now-defunct neo-Nazi organization Volksfront was founded in Portland in the 1990s and eventually broke up in 2014 after pressure from antifa mounted. In 2010 antifa activist Luke Querner was shot in the back and left a parapalegic, and while no one has ever been arrested for the crime, it is believed he was shot by a neo-Nazi. Patriot Prayer has now apparent connection to the past groups, but their activity as of late in town has been seen as a continuation of the past thirty years.

Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have been holding regular rallies since April 2017, mostly in Portland, one of those rallies, which also brought out Identity Evropa, attended by Jeremy Christian, who weeks later allegedly stabbed and killed two persons and injured a third when they intervened as he harassed two Muslim women on a light rail train at the Hollywood Transit Station. They have become increasingly violent with the two groups planning and encouraging that violence. Gibson even implied that the police will even allow “mutual combat” between themselves and those opposing them, even if the groups were armed as planned. Sgt. Chris Burley, Portland Police Bureau’s Public Information Officer, did not address directly the “mutual combat” notion, but said in a statement that they plan to ensure the public’s safety and not stand down if things escalated. “ The Police Bureau will intervene to the best of its ability whenever there is a life/safety issue; however, because of the complexity of crowd situations officers are not able to immediately appear wherever a violent act may be occurring,” he said.  “The Police Bureau’s top priority is the safety of the community and officers.”

After Saturday’s rally, antifascists gathered at an area club for a Rock Against Fascism show, while the neo-fascists returned to Vancouver, Washington. Although there were reports that there were a number of the neo-fascists’ vehicles were towed out of a Fred Meyer parking lot, the Columbian reported that they had actually parked in the public lot at Marine Park after being warned that their vehicles will be towed from the store’s lot. Security and tow trucks were waiting inside the Fred Meyer parking lot waiting to pick up anyone who left their car at the private shopping center. Portland-based commercial real estate firm NAI Elliot, which manages the property, announced Friday that anyone who parked except to shop or work would be towed at their own expense, and nearby businesses blocked off their lots as well.

Patriot Prayer is planning another rally in Seattle, Washington on Aug. 18.