The Antifa and Black Lives Matter crowd has been protesting and rioting in Portland, Oregon, non-stop for six weeks. A portion of the city is devastated to the tune of tens of millions of dollars in property damage and business loss. Leftist city officials are clueless and have not allowed the police to use the force necessary to end the destruction. A large number of the protesters are shrill white women. Following are two examples of black men who have spoken out. Neither of the men are political conservatives.
The first is Portland police officer JAKHARY JACKSON, a nine-year veteran who joined the force “to make the most of my life by helping others.” In an interview with a local television station, Jackson said, “I got to see folks that really do want change like the rest of us, that have been impacted by racism. And then I got to see those people get faded out by people who have no idea what racism is all about, that have never experienced racism, that don’t even know that the tactics they are using are the same tactics that were used against my people. And they don’t even know the history. They don’t know what they’re saying. As someone who graduated from PSU with a history degree, it’s actually frightening. It says something when you are at a Black Lives Matter protest, and you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd. And you have white people screaming at black officers, ‘You have the biggest nose I’ve ever seen.’ Once again, you have a privileged white person telling someone of color what to do with their life. And you don’t even know what I’ve dealt with, what these white officers you’re screaming at have dealt with. You see the officers, and they are truly trying to help save someone’s life, and then are called racist by people who have never seen anything like that, who have never had to put themselves out there like that. It’s really–It’s disgusting” (“Black Portland Police Office Shocked at Racist Things BLM Protestors Scream at Him,” The Federalist, July 17, 2020).
GABE JOHNSON, former Marine, lives in Portland and tried to confront the protesters with a U.S. flag and have a discussion with them. In an interview with PJ Media, Johnson said, “When I woke up in the morning, it was clear as day, almost like it was just planted in my head. This is what you’re going to do. Hopefully we can start a conversation. But I can tell you the experience was eye-opening. I did not believe what I used to call the rhetoric about antifa. I was thinking that maybe they’re just, you know, some punk kids or whatever it was, some righteous anger in there. I quickly found out that that’s not the case. They’re utilizing the same tactics that any other terrorist organization would. They’ve got spotters with cameras that will follow you around, and they’ve got their thugs. Those are the guys with the baseball bats. They have people that will intimidate you in Black Lives Matter attire. What is more patriotic than our flag? I wanted to have a conversation so that they would understand that what they’re doing is tearing the country apart and not bringing it back together, and hopefully by telling this community that we live in it’s time to start a conversation and it’s time to unite America. Because the Black Lives Matter movement has turned into something else. Antifa has attached itself to this movement now and it’s taken it over. It’s beyond me how they can sit there and say that they’re not causing damage or rioting. It’s a riot, and it’s real, and when you are on the front line and you’re looking back into that crowd, it is an angry mob that is built on doing as much destruction as possible” (“Black Portlander Changes His Mind,” PJ Media, July 24, 2020). Protesters stole Johnson’s flags and stomped them on the ground. When an older black man grabbed one of the flags and handed it back to Johnson, a protester punched the man in the face and ran away. Protesters called Johnson “a coon, Uncle Tom, and the n-word.”
(Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)