4 ms·

I have friends and family living in Portland who got a close-up view of the BLM/Antifa activity there. People were afraid to go downtown. Women were afraid to g

by wrp 4y ago

I have friends and family living in Portland who got a close-up view of the BLM/Antifa activity there. People were afraid to go downtown. Women were afraid to go alone to the market or out for a walk. I know some people who were never interested in guns before who signed up for gun-safety classes and went shopping for a pistol for home defense. The violence, destruction, and fear were very real and had a lasting effect on how they view living in Portland. So, I have strong feelings about the ideologically motivated posts denying that the violence ever happened.

tadfisher 4y ago
I'm a middle-aged father of two, and I participated in the BLM/Antifa activity in 2020 with another middle-aged father. The idea that the Park Blocks were a locus of violence and destruction is a straight-up lie. You saw the usual after-dark anarchist/hoodlum behavior on the news, but they never seemed to portray the peaceful community that occupied those blocks for several months, children and elderly included, unified in their desire for police reform. So, I have strong feelings about ideologically-motivated posts trying to describe what I experienced as wanton rioting and looting. You weren't there.
- wrp 4y ago
  "They" were there (where they lived) and I just related their direct experience as related to me. This is an serious question I have for someone who was part of the movement, do you genuinely feel no empathy for the people who felt trapped in their homes and were buying firearms to protect themselves from events your group incited?
  - tadfisher 4y ago
    Do they live downtown next to the north Park Blocks? Because the area in question was four blocks centered on the Federal building and the county courthouse. Portland is a large city, and if you didn't pass by those blocks in question, you wouldn't have seen anything out of the ordinary. It was pretty surreal going there for the first time, because it was actually hard to find the protest without knowing where the Mark O. Hatfield building is located. I'm not minimizing the fear your relatives experienced. I do believe that the protest activity was selectively portrayed by the media deliberately to induce that fear, and to minimize the efforts of multiple community organizations working tirelessly to keep the protest civil, peaceful, and focused on communicating our desire for systemic reform. It's tragic and disgusting that the main legacy of that effort is the BLM/Antifa Boogeyman.

by wrp 4y ago

tadfisher 4y ago

I'm a middle-aged father of two, and I participated in the BLM/Antifa activity in 2020 with another middle-aged father. The idea that the Park Blocks were a locus of violence and destruction is a straight-up lie. You saw the usual after-dark anarchist/hoodlum behavior on the news, but they never seemed to portray the peaceful community that occupied those blocks for several months, children and elderly included, unified in their desire for police reform. So, I have strong feelings about ideologically-motivated posts trying to describe what I experienced as wanton rioting and looting. You weren't there.

wrp 4y ago
"They" were there (where they lived) and I just related their direct experience as related to me. This is an serious question I have for someone who was part of the movement, do you genuinely feel no empathy for the people who felt trapped in their homes and were buying firearms to protect themselves from events your group incited?
- tadfisher 4y ago
  Do they live downtown next to the north Park Blocks? Because the area in question was four blocks centered on the Federal building and the county courthouse. Portland is a large city, and if you didn't pass by those blocks in question, you wouldn't have seen anything out of the ordinary. It was pretty surreal going there for the first time, because it was actually hard to find the protest without knowing where the Mark O. Hatfield building is located. I'm not minimizing the fear your relatives experienced. I do believe that the protest activity was selectively portrayed by the media deliberately to induce that fear, and to minimize the efforts of multiple community organizations working tirelessly to keep the protest civil, peaceful, and focused on communicating our desire for systemic reform. It's tragic and disgusting that the main legacy of that effort is the BLM/Antifa Boogeyman.