A Reportback from the Portland KKK Rally That Wasn’t

Shane Howard, who DLJ saw when he was shooting the A&E TV show that got canceled before it was even seen, had a rally that did the same thing. Our boy Luis says that didn’t stop antifa from having some work to do.

Luis Enrique Marquez

On Saturday February 8, Steven Shane Howard a grand wizard for the Ku Klux Klan was going to hold a rally for white people in Portland Oregon. He kept making open plans for the rally going so far as to request barricades from the police for his rally. But that morning police announced that the organizer had called off the plans for the rally. No mention of his name or of his organization was announced.

People decided to still show up regardless of the announcement- the reason for going still was clear, to send a message that any threat of hate in our community will rally a massive response to it- even the threat of it.

 Groups in Black Block started to arrive about 10am and people walked into the square in their affinity groups and stood around talking, saying hello to people who they knew. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) made an entrance as the square was filled up flying red flags, and there was a band dressed in wonderful banana costumes. One of the largest organizations there was the Youth Liberation Front.

While Neo Fascist groups stayed away, some of their supporters attempted to try and have a Andy Ngo type of moment where they would provoke a physical altercation with protesters so they could grift hard working people from dollars better served buying their children food and heat rather than some expensive camera gear for people who can barley use them. The first to attempt was Portland Andy, a well known YouTube troll in the Portland area, and the block quickly confronted him as he tried to gain entrance into the square and he was chased off.

Next was Eli Ritchie, a well-known pseudo journalist who had restraining orders against him by the ex-Chief of Police Daniel Outlaw, who this week became the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia, PA. The Block quickly confronted him and blocked off his cameras access to shooting the crowd, recognizing the danger that right-wing camera men present to Antifascist someone decided to end his threat for the day and dumped a can of bear mace at him.

While I have seen videos of the same thing happening to Brandon Brown, an associate of Andy Ngo that gets the footage he can’t) I did not see the action in person. I must say I fully agree with the actions of the block and all choices that were made to keep people safe.

One of the highlights of the day was the arrest of Brandon Farley, Brandon is a well-known incel and right-wing camera man, he is often seen at actions harassing women and marginalized people. One of his highlights has been his quickness to call on known hate groups like Atomwaffen and the Klan to  ”take notice and act accordingly”.   On Saturday he kept taunting antifascist by running at them then running away when they ran to him, this continued for about 20 min until the police decided that he was a menace to traffic and the city and arrested him for disorderly conduct. The crowd cheered as news of his arrest spread quickly.

And that was how the day went. Neo-fascist supporters would show up and the Block would keep the main group of counter protesters away. The cops were real hands off and didn’t mess with the counter protest. For the leftist of Portland Oregon it was a win, and showed that even at the threat of hate they will rally in numbers to defend marginalized peoples from hate.