According to new reports, police have now arrested at least three people who were involved in a violent altercation between a Freedom Rally event and armed members of left-wing radical terrorist group Antifa just outside the Oregon state capitol located in the city of Salem. They won’t be in jail long though.
The Daily Wire reports that Salem police announced the arrests on Sunday after the violent clash between the two factions. A press release from the police stated that the two opposing groups met near the capitol building after “heavily armed” counter-protesters touting Antifa ensignia tried to disrupt the “Freedom Rally” of the right-wing individuals.
Notice how Antif, a group that shows up to disrupt is referred to as counter protestors and the group with a pre announced “Freedom Rally” is called a right-wing group.
“Authorities arrested 34-year-old Andrew Alan Foy, 33-year-old Nathan McFarland, and 18-year-old Anthony Villaneda in connection with the violence. Police charged them with violations including trespass, disorderly conduct, and unlawful pointing of a laser,” the report said.
“The police described the events leading up to the clash as well as rioters armed with “firearms, bats, skateboards, umbrellas, shields and gas masks” that threatened protesters and damaged vehicles with rocks, paint-filled balloons, and other objects,” the report continued.
“The first event billed as the Freedom Rally appeared on social media streams in February. A second event appeared soon after, named Fascist Free 503, indicating a counter response to the Freedom Rally. Social media posts connected to the group indicated their intention to prevent the Freedom Rally caravan from meeting at the state capitol,” the police described in their statement.
Sounds like a civil rights violation.
“Shortly before noon, approximately 100 individuals wearing black clothing and ballistic vests and carrying firearms, bats, skateboards, umbrellas, shields and gas masks arrived on the capitol mall grounds. Some individuals from the group carried Youth Liberation Front flags, a group known to espouse leftwing ideologies. The group congregated along Court Street in front of the capitol building,” the statement added.
“Soon after their arrival, the Salem Police department began to receive reports that individuals from the Court Street group were targeting vehicles driving by. The victims reported their vehicles were damaged by paint filled balloons, rocks and other hard objects being thrown at them as they passed. One vehicle sustained significant damage after a large tree limb was thrown through the front window into the vehicle’s passenger seat. Patrol officers responded and took several reports to initiate criminal investigations,” the department wrote.
It appears that is all that law enforcement does in Oregon these days is take reports.
As the protest was happening, members of the Salem Police Department directed folks away from the capitol, warning them that heavily armed protesters had swarmed the area.
https://twitter.com/SalemPoliceDept/status/1376285608088231936
Zane Sparling, a reporter who works for the Portland Tribune, posted up footage of the violence on Twitter. In one of his videos, you can see a truck window getting smashed up by a rock as the vehicle, touting a Blue Lives Matter and Gadsden flags, drives by a group of Antifa members, many of them in black and masked up.
https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1376298761173929986
Local law enforcement eventually declared the whole thing an unlawful assembly around the Oregon state capitol and managed to block off additional Freedom Rally caravan members from getting onto the block while they cleared the area.
Calling off the rally because troublemakers from Antifa showed up played right into the hands Antifa. Their goal was to shut down the Freedom Rally. Mission accomplished.
But this can’t really be Antifa responsible for all of this, right? After all, like the president said, Antifa is just an “idea” right?
"*" indicates required fields
