PORTLAND, OR –A truck which was driving in the area of the Portland Police Bureau Central Police Precinct was stopped allegedly by activists that were in the area.
The activists allegedly ordered the passenger to give a black power salute and chant “Black Lives Matter.” The passenger did as he was told and he was allowed to go through.
Was forcing this man to salute part of an organized effort of the protesters? Some think so.
BLM-antifa in Portland took over the street outside the central police precinct after smashing up businesses. They’ve blocked the road for hours. They make the passenger of this car give the black power salute & chant, “Black Lives Matter.” #PortlandaRiots pic.twitter.com/YHljeAAnQ3
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 20, 2020
Recently, the Daily Wire reported that they had seen a leaked email from a former official of the Department of Homeland Security. This email suggests that there is overwhelming information that suggests that protesters were “organized” by people with an ideology known as “Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired.”
Catherine Herridge, a reporter for CBS News tweeted that she had received information from a letter that was allegedly written by Brian Murphy, the former Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at DHS.
#Whistleblower #PortlandProtest Breaking: According to this @DHSgov internal email, obtained @CBSNews, former Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis Brian Murphy wrote colleagues on July 25th that the Portland violence was not “opportunistic” but “organized” citing pic.twitter.com/K7Aoe0yFbB
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 14, 2020
That letter claimed in July that the participants of the violent rioting in Portland were no longer considered to be from people who were opportunists, but rather they were seemingly organized.
Murphy alleged in that letter that the Antifa members were attacking federal properties because of that violent ideology.
In the letter, Murphy said:
“We have overwhelming intelligence regarding the ideologies driving individuals towards violence and why the violence has continued. A core set of threat actors are organized, show up night after night, share common TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] and drawing on like-minded individuals to their cause…
“I recognize we may not be able to attribute every individual as VAAI, however, we need to look at the totality of the intelligence both current and previous and recognize the motivation for the violence and why people have shown up to commit violence for about 60 days and why individuals are using social media to encourage the VAAI on the ground to carry out acts of violence.”
This information could lead credence to the claim that some of the protesters and rioters are, in fact, organized. On top of this email, DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News that federal authorities are investigating where the leaders of Black Lives Matter and Antifa are getting their money and moving their protests across the country. Wolf said:
“[The] Department of Justice is also targeting and investigating the head of these organizations, the individuals that are paying for these individuals to move across the country. What we know…is that we have seen groups and individuals move from Portland to other parts of the country.
“We had about 175 arrests in Kenosha, almost 100 of them were from out of state. So, we know they are moving around. We have seen them in D.C., in Sacramento, and elsewhere.
“They are organized. We have seen similar tactics being used from Portland and other cities across the country as well. So, we know that there is organization. I know the Department of Justice is also looking at that as well.”
It should go without saying that the DOJ nor any other federal authority is looking to shut down a peaceful organization. Rather, they are trying to determine who is pulling and paying for people to march around the country and create chaos through rioting and looting.
It is interesting that federal authorities are not the only ones that are seemingly fed up with the mass protests and riots. DHM Research recently conducted a poll of Oregon residents and found something that will not be seen in mainstream media, the people who live there are fed up with what is going on.
The poll, which was conducted between September 3rd through the 8th found that 66% of the respondents denounced the ongoing protests. 42% felt that the amount of force being used by the police to stop the rioting and protesting was not enough while 18% felt it was enough.
In addition, only 10% of people who answered the poll approved of Democratic Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s response to the chaos occurring in the state. 8% of people approved of Democratic Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s response.
That means that 90% of those who took the poll do not believe that Brown has been appropriately handling the rioting and 92% of people disapprove of Wheeler’s response. In contrast, 46% of people approved of the way Portland Police Department has responded to the riots while 45% disapprove.
DOJ reportedly considering bringing charges against Portland officials for not protecting citizens
The following editorial is written by a retired police officer and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today
PORTLAND, OR- With a break in the action in Portland as wildfires in the state have seemed to calm riots at least temporarily, the Department of Justice has been considering bringing charges against Portland city officials for dereliction of their oath to “protect” citizens of Portland, the New York Post reported.
DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec told Fox News this Thursday that both criminal, as well as civil charges against city officials have been explored, and had looked into how city leaders “were handling, or not handling” the destructive rioting that racked the city.
Kupec declined to confirm or deny whether any charges could be levied against any city officials. At Law Enforcement Today, we think the idea deserves some consideration.
The DOJ researched whether it could pursue charges against Portland city officials for allowing riots. Portland police were instructed to not protect the federal courthouse & the city is fining federal government for putting up the protective fence. https://t.co/rdAPDlbG85
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 17, 2020
While it isn’t known exactly which officials the department was looking at, clearly useless mayor Ted Wheeler would have to be included in that list, as well as far-left radical city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who has been a vocal participant in the riots and who has inserted herself into the middle of the chaos.
What could people such as Wheeler and Hardesty be charged with? One area falls under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A, Providing Material Support to Terrorists.
It is clear that Antifa and factions of Black Lives Matter have, in fact been committing terrorism against certain cities, with Portland being a perfect example of that. Neither Wheeler, nor city commissioners have taken any action to put down the violent protests, and in fact have encouraged them.
Hardesty in particular has been on the forefront of city officials encouraging the violent protests to continue.
Probably a better federal statute to charge officials under would be 18 U.S.C. § 1114 which covers “Assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees.”
Wheeler and Hardesty took no action whatsoever to discourage assaults against law enforcement officers, both those from the Portland Police Bureau, as well as federal law enforcement officers protecting the federal courthouse. Once again, they in fact encouraged the assaults, not only by words but by inaction.
As far as Wheeler goes, he was famously hit with tear gas during one of the so-called “peaceful protests” in July after the George Floyd protests in the city.
In particular, President Trump said that Wheeler had “made a fool of himself” when he joined in on the Black Lives Matter protests, which he called a “pathetic” attempt to seek favor with the rioters who time and again tried to attack a federal courthouse.
Wheeler also tied the hands of his police department in trying to respond to the violent riots, banning the use of tear gas for crowd control, which caused the Portland Police Bureau to issue a scathing statement against Wheeler while noting that the organized rioters had attempted to kill police officers.
A couple months back, President Trump sent federal troops and law enforcement assets to Portland as violent rioters made repeated attempts to attack the federal courthouse in the city. Trump only agreed to withdraw the federal assets after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) agreed to put members of the Oregon State Police in Portland.
Breitbart said that President Trump, who has slammed Democrats for refusing to acknowledge the violent rioting, and singled out Wheeler in particular, called him a “wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor,” and noted that the city of Portland “will never recover with a fool for a Mayor…”
Numerous officers in Portland have been injured by rioters, including being hit by bricks, having lasers pointed at their eyes, and being attacked with commercial-grade fireworks.
Over 100 people have been arrested, and now the Department of Justice has also been bringing federal charges against some of the rioters. This was in response to District Attorney Michael Schmidt refusing to prosecute many of those arrested.
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice refuted a New York Times report which said that Attorney General William Barr had asked federal prosecutors to look into bringing criminal charges against another feckless mayor from the northwest, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.
When a group of anarchists took over a significant part of downtown Seattle to establish a so-called “autonomous zone,” where several people ended up getting killed, Durkan said the encampment could allow for a so-called “summer of love.”
President Trump has blamed the national unrest on Democrats, with an overwhelming number of violent riots taking place in cities controlled by Democrats. In fact, when the Democrats held their national convention last month, not one speaker acknowledged the out of control violence across the country.
It wasn’t until polls showed Americans increasingly concerned about exploding violent crime throughout the nation that Democrats actually addressed the issue, if only by words.
Democrats have been leading the charge in criticizing law enforcement while endorsing protests, a large number of which have turned violent. In fact, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris has donated to a bail fund which pays to release protesters from jail and has encouraged her followers to do the same.
The Sun reported that the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which is the fund supported by Harris had bailed out a registered sex offender who has accused of raping an eight-year-old girl in 2015. Timothy Wayne Columbus, 36 was charged in the case, with a warrant for his arrest issued on June 25, however he was bailed out.
NEW: A man facing up to 30 years in prison for allegedly sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl is among those who were bailed out of jail by the Minnesota Freedom Fund promoted by Democratic nominee for Vice President @KamalaHarris https://t.co/Nm5dlmhpdP
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 17, 2020
The Daily Wire said that Columbus filed to have his bail money returned to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
In June, Harris had tweeted to her followers asking them to donate to the fund to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” For some reason the tweet disappeared, but here is a screenshot of it from The Sun.
Harris tweet pushing Minnesota Freedom Fund
Charging Harris federally would of course be a political minefield. However, the Department of Justice should seriously consider charging Portland city officials with federal crimes for their complicity in the Portland riots.
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
