Oregon, My Oregon - Pays for Rioters Housing

Vicky Taft at PJ Media, 'This Is Where They House the Rioters!' City of Portland Houses Some Antifa Rioters Destroying the City

Portland is wittingly or unwittingly housing some of the very same destructive rioters who have been tearing apart the city since May 28.

Let me repeat. The taxpayers are paying for their own demise and it’s all under the auspices of the city.

One month before the riots started, ostensibly to allow grieving over the death of George Floyd – remember him? – the City of Portland opened three homeless tent cities, one of which is the “Harbor of Hope.”

The camp is situated close to the Willamette River, just a simple, short walk over the Hawthorn Bridge to downtown Portland, where it spills out onto riot central.

A YouTuber, who goes by the name “Never Alone With Christ,” discovered that some of the same people agitating, rioting, and causing damage downtown live just across the river in the city-sponsored camp with city-provided amenities:

And for all that it's squalid, it ain't cheap:

The city provides tents, sleeping bags, and privacy fencing around the 20-plus-unit tent city, which sits on open parking lots.

The cost for housing antifa and others is staggering. OPB reports that the start-up costs were nearly a million dollars with an ongoing $250,000 per month to support Harbor of Hope and another shelter.

I'll let you do the math. And you're supposed to be upset that President Trump is threatening to withhold federal dollars from cities that don't deal with rioters?

Trump threatens to withdraw federal funds, possibly including health, education, and safety net dollars Americans are relying on to get through this pandemic and economic crisis.

— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) September 3, 2020

Meanwhile Oregon has effectively gutted the right to self defense against rioters: Exclusive: Case of Portland Man Who Defended Himself Against Antifa Mob Heads to Supreme Court (Hat tip to Ted).

I reported in PJ Media in April of this year about Strickland losing his case at the Oregon Appeals Court.

Strickland was [recording] the event as he usually did with all of his equipment – including his properly concealed pistol, a Glock, for which he had a concealed carry license.

A mob of Antifa members surrounded him, roughed him up, and then told him, “You need to get the f**k out of here!” Even though Strickland backed away from the thugs in the larger protest, he continued to shoot video. As he was leaving, the mob of masked antifa thugs ran toward Strickland and tried to surround him. This time he pulled his pistol to back them off. No shots were ever fired; Strickland’s finger never came close to the trigger. His gambit worked, however. They backed off and Strickland got away from the mob, eventually being arrested by the cops. He was released with a citation.

Charges against him grew from two misdemeanors to 21 counts, ten of which were felonies, within hours of Portland politicos getting an earful from one of Strickland’s favorite targets, an anti-Second Amendment group called “Ceasefire Oregon.” The politicos also seemed to take on faith the word of one of the conspirators who insisted Strickland must be a racist, even though he knew better.

The treatment of Strickland was Kafka-esque. The Portland star chamber.
. . .
His attorneys thought it was a self-defense case, but it was really a First Amendment case with Second Amendment components. The team forsook a jury trial when it was discovered that most of the people questioned in voir dire were anti-gun. There was even a person in the jury pool who belonged to the same group holding the protest where Strickland was assaulted. Welcome to Portland justice. The team went with a bench trial, which meant that a Portland trial judge would decide Strickland’s guilt or innocence.

His Portland attorneys, as well as the rest of the Portland legal establishment, were stunned when Strickland was found guilty on all counts. It was an easy self-defense case. There was video of it. But he now faced more than 50 years in prison.

In the social intersectional pecking order we’re all supposed to measure life by now, Strickland, a white male, didn’t make into the Left’s politically correct Venn diagram. He was on the outs.

It’s easy to see now in light of the months of rioting, with so much attention focused on Portland, that somebody should have done something about the riotous mob by now. The sad story you see on the nightly news features a police force that isn’t allowed to enforce the law, flaccid leadership at city hall, self-righteous elected leaders, and a district attorney who tells the cops that even if they arrest these rioters, he’ll just let them out.

Strickland got the worst of it all. He got no benefit of the doubt. People in high places lied about him in the media. The judge threw the book at him. He was forced to surrender his gun. He would not be allowed to practice his First Amendment right to cover the news for four years. That meant he had no job. Strickland spent 40 days in jail. The mob cheered.

In April, he lost his appeal in the Oregon Appeals Court. This week the Oregon State Supreme Court denied reconsideration of his case. It now heads to the U.S. Supreme Court where there’s absolutely no guarantee it will be considered.

And I'll leave you with this gem via Althouse, Dancing in the streets.

Graphic: Another angle of the person being set on fire by a Molotov cocktail thrown by antifa militants in SE Portland. Rioters try to help but don’t do much. Cops are the ones who rush in & put out the flames. Video by @BGOnTheScene. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/9gNFo73Lyc

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 6, 2020

From the comments, 30 Fiery Antifa Dance Party Remixes! Staring DJ Soyarm & White Dance Moves.