Scary times in Portland's queer and leftist scene

February 21, 2019 3:51 PM

On February 14th, local Portland, OR newspaper the Willamette Week reported that Lieutenant Jeff Niiya of the Portland Police Department had a friendly rapport with Joey Gibson, the leader of extremist right wing group and Proud Boys allies "Patriot Prayer", who are based out of Vancouver, WA, but are a constant presence in Portland due to the group's constant rallies, which have become a hive of violence between Patriot Prayer/Proud Boys and antifascist counter-protesters.

The texts paint a grim picture of Portland Police collusion with the far-right group, including asking Gibson if renowned right wing brawler Tusitala "Tiny" Toese had gotten his "court stuff" handled, and giving Gibson inside police information.

Quote:

On Dec. 8, 2017, Niiya asks Gibson if Toese had "his court stuff taken care of," referring to an active warrant for Toese's arrest. Niiya goes on to say officers ignored the warrant at a past protest and tells Gibson that he doesn't see a need to arrest Toese even if he has a warrant, unless Toese commits a new crime.

"Just make sure he doesn't do anything which may draw our attention," Niiya texted on Dec. 9. "If he still has the warrant in the system (I don't run you guys so I don't personally know) the officers could arrest him. I don't see a need to arrest on the warrant unless there is a reason."

After the reporting came out, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler called for an investigation of the police, while Portland Police Union president Daryl Turner has demanded an apology from Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, and the Portland Police Commanding Officer's Association is alleging that

"Mayor Wheeler, Commissioner Eudaly, and fellow Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty's comments expressing concern over the texts were discriminatory and retaliatory. That union alleged Wheeler had failed to understand "even basic police work" in his two years in office."

All of this comes after several months of right-wing protests and news, including the fact that at an August 4th, 2018 rally, Portland Police caught four members of Patriot Prayer with a cache of assault rifles at the top of a parking garage overlooking the site of the rally, and that the Portland Police department did not tell Mayor Wheeler details of the incident until October 15th. Previously mentioned Patriot Prayer member Tusitala "Tiny" Toese did not have a case prosecuted against him by the Multnomah County District Attorney, despite the fact that the Portland Police had built up a fairly solid case against him after he and another Patriot Prayer member assaulted a man on a public sidewalk.

More recently, in January of this year, Proud Boy and Patriot Prayer member Reggie Axtell threatened Mayor Ted Wheeler, saying "his days are fucking numbered". Patriot Prayer also held a rally filled with hate speech in front of the International Workers of the World union hall, and days afterward allegedly vandalized the same location.

To bookend the hectic news of late, as of a few days ago there has been a spate of assaults against LGBTQ Portlanders, but details are relatively slim. From what has been reported on social media there have been five attacks this week, all of them relatively late at night with the attackers coming from behind. The Portland queer community is on edge, with trust in the police much lower than usual after the recent reports of police collaboration with right wing extremists.

posted by gucci mane (51 comments total)

Wtf Portland?

Why are the cops there so out of touch?

Everyone seems to have issues with the cops, but how does Portland, with all its crunchiness, not have a handle on this. Really boggles the mind.
posted by Windopaene at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2019

but how does Portland, with all its crunchiness

Portland, depicted in recent years as a quirky progressive urban Eden ― especially in the TV show “Portlandia” ― has a long history of racism.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:00 PM on February 21, 2019 [53 favorites]

I forgot to add that in a couple of hours (today at 6 PM) there will be a "listening session" held at Maranatha Church in NE Portland. Link is to Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw's twitter post about it (posted yesterday).
posted by gucci mane at 4:02 PM on February 21, 2019

That crunchiness is the sound of civil liberties being ground under jackboots.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:03 PM on February 21, 2019 [14 favorites]

Yes, I know about the NW's racist history. Drive by the Jefferson Davis park every trip down to Portland, and shake my head...
posted by Windopaene at 4:04 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

basically oregon was one massive sundown town until relatively recently, and that's left a deep mark on the place.

well and also all cops are bastards. all of them, everywhere. every last one of them.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 4:04 PM on February 21, 2019 [35 favorites]

wait wait wait
Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw?!?
Chief Outlaw?

hey writers, a bit too on the nose, eh?
you're practically at George Lucas level naming now

seriously tho, wtf is with names in this timeline?
posted by kokaku at 4:11 PM on February 21, 2019 [17 favorites]

basically oregon was one massive sundown town until relatively recently, and that's left a deep mark on the place.

I feel embarrassed that I have never heard this term, "sundown town," thanks to this thread/comment I learned something new, new and sad. :-(
posted by Fizz at 4:11 PM on February 21, 2019 [10 favorites]

Chief Outlaw was one of the rare Portland police chiefs recruited from outside the system. At the time I was hopeful this would be a sign of change, but then there were things like going on right-wing talk radio and talking about busting heads following one of the racist idiot rallies.

Also let's not forget about the recent case where the city settled with an officer after he said some incredibly racist shit and lost his job for it, then threatened to sue the city.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:22 PM on February 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

Lieutenant Jeff Niiya of the Portland Police Department

Niiya seems to be the go-to guy for approaching protestors for intel gathering: What It’s Like to Betray Antifa to the Cops—and Get Caught

In June, Tan met Portland police Sgt. Jeff Niiya at a small protest. Niiya frequently patrols protests. They started chatting, and Niiya gave Tan his business card.

It took only a day for Tan to become an informant. Tan texted Niiya—and began sharing details of Antifa's marching routes during protests. For Tan, it made sense to work with police, to make sure Antifa medics weren't arrested, swept up in kettles or moved by officers. At the same time, Tan never told other protesters about the conversations with Niiya.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:31 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

but how does Portland, with all its crunchiness

To add to the previous link, Gizmodo has a great piece on Oregon's history of white supremacy:

I spoke over the phone with Walidah Imarisha, an educator and expert on black history in Oregon and she was quick to explain that the state is only really exceptional in that it bothered to proclaim its goals of white supremacy so openly.

“What’s useful about Oregon as a case study is that Oregon was bold enough to write it down,” Imarisha told me. “But the same ideology, policies, and practices that shaped Oregon shaped every state in the Union, as well as this nation as a whole.”

Today, while 13 percent of Americans are black, just 2 percent of Oregon’s population is black. This is not some accident of history. It’s a product of oppressive laws and everyday actions that deliberately excluded non-white people from a fair shot at living a life without additional obstacles being put in their way.

Life’s hard enough as it is. But life as a person of color in Oregon would prove to be like trying to play Oregon Trail in a roomful of Klansmen while the computer lab is on fire.

posted by Ouverture at 4:31 PM on February 21, 2019 [18 favorites]

Then there's the Portland cop who erected a shrine to at least one no-kidding Nazi war criminal, who if I recall correctly successfully had those events expunged from his official record and has been promoted to be in charge of a division of the department.
posted by XMLicious at 4:33 PM on February 21, 2019 [9 favorites]

So. Police unions...
posted by Windopaene at 4:38 PM on February 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

Why are the cops there so out of touch?

There?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:52 PM on February 21, 2019 [9 favorites]

When I lived in Portland, I used to do that "joke because otherwise you'll scream" thing by suggesting that the cops had a quota of killing one innocent black person every six months. Looks like they've expanded to targeting queer folk and anti-fascists as well. At least they aren't shooting them yet.
posted by Hactar at 4:59 PM on February 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

They should all be fired. Then criminally investigated.

By who? Spoiler: They'll all be found not guilty.
posted by IAmUnaware at 5:24 PM on February 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

Yes, police unions.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:18 PM on February 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

This reminds me of the situation in Philadelphia where a cop monitoring a protest was seen with Nazi tattoos, so the Philadelphia Police Department made a new policy that cops had to keep their tattoos covered.

You know, in case you were wondering where their loyalties lie.
posted by entropone at 6:28 PM on February 21, 2019 [19 favorites]

Friends of friends were attacked by Proud Boys over the weekend. Q Center on Mississippi is having a meeting this Sunday and they've explicitly mentioned there won't be police presence, which a) encourages some folk to attend due to police aversion but b) also means the same fucking Nazis are probably going to show up. We're all pretty on edge around here.
posted by curious nu at 6:40 PM on February 21, 2019 [19 favorites]

I’m sorry about your friends curious nu :( I was curious if the Q Center was going to start their Q Patrol back up.
posted by gucci mane at 6:49 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Alex Zielinski of the Portland Mercury has been live tweeting the listening session at Maranatha Church. Seems pretty tense there. I live down the street and am attending an event in the neighborhood and hoping nothing happens tonight.
posted by gucci mane at 7:14 PM on February 21, 2019

To be an cop in modern America is to be a fascist. There's no other way around it. The sooner that American liberals realize that the only thing that keeps police 'on their side' is a quickly drifting shared common interest of protecting capital is the sooner that we all realize they are not to be trusted. Let's hope that at a later date American police departments can be held accountable for that in whatever ways necessary.
posted by codacorolla at 7:36 PM on February 21, 2019 [13 favorites]

My ex-roommate was one of the people attacked. She's lucky to be alive. Hit from behind with a bat or plank of wood, possibly by multiple assailants, and left in the street. She's super traumatized and afraid to leave her house. Portland police's response is disgraceful. From the Mercury article:

While the woman reported the incident to police as an assault, PPB cast doubt on her story both in its press release and in the initial police report.

“I believe that it's possible that she was drunk, fell, hit the back of her head, and blacked out,” Officer Cuong Nguyen writes in the police report. “It's also possible that she was assaulted… There is no suspect information.”

There are also four reports in the last week of trans people getting drinks spiked at bars, which activists believe is related to the on-street attacks. At least one person had her drink in her hand when it happened.
posted by aw jeez at 9:12 PM on February 21, 2019 [19 favorites]

The number one group making me distrust police lately is usually police unions. It's like they're trying to lobby to be hated.
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:33 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

How else can cops have a persecution complex if people don't hate them?
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 10:22 PM on February 21, 2019

aw jeez - bars in the same neck of town? that i had not heard.

This all sucks so much.
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 10:22 PM on February 21, 2019

Yes. Drugging at White Owl, Tonic and Lovecraft.

Sidewalk attacks at 7th & Madison, 15th & Morrison (near Crush Bar), Grand & Stark (near Slow Bar) and 67th & Sandy.

Rumors of queerbashing in Kenton and at Local Lounge, but I couldn't find good info on those.

(If you're not from Portland, these bars all have regular queer clientele. Mostly in close radius.)
posted by aw jeez at 11:07 PM on February 21, 2019 [9 favorites]

Ah yes, Lieutenant Mark Kruger. Let me tell you about my activism.

My activism/leftism was set in stone on the day when Dick Cheney came to town to do a fundraiser. I was at the protests, along with many others. My friend was dressed up as Uncle Sam. Literally dressed up as the symbol of our nation. And do you know what Police Lieutenant Mark Kruger did, back in 2004?

He shot my friend in the face at 10 paces with a pepper cannister, breaking his nose.

A cop shooting Uncle Sam in the face at a political protest. That is what America is, forever and impermeably, to my mind. The American civilization is an abomination, birthed in genocide, defined by oppression, with racism and hatred as it's central tenets, and greed as the sole religion.

I counseled legal action, but I remember my friend's words to me: "I'm queer and I'm poly and I'm an anti-war activist. Exactly how much larger of a target do you want me to paint on my chest, LeRoi?".

I'm glad to see my old friend Cameron fighting the good fight with Q Center. He's a great man, and I'm really proud to see how he's developed in Portland.

I'm utterly despondent to know that there's drugging going on at Lovecraft, my old favorite bar. I miss my friends and I miss Portland with all my heart.

But during the brief days of my band, well, put it this way: the movie The Green Room feels like a documentary to me, about what would happen to a group like The Exploding Hearts or Fist Fite (or my desperate and miserable group) if they had taken a wrong backwoods booking. There's hate in them forests, in Hillsboro and Gresham and Wilsonville.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 11:25 PM on February 21, 2019 [26 favorites]

Lovecraft bartenders are furious and on high alert -- response of others is meh, from what I hear.
posted by aw jeez at 12:23 AM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

all cops are bastards. all of them, everywhere. every last one of them.

Why make such ridiculous statements ? All the cops I know are good people.. Or are you only talking about cops in the US ?
posted by Pendragon at 1:02 AM on February 22, 2019

Why make such ridiculous statements ?

Hey, so one of my friends was just assaulted from behind by this gang of neo-Nazis, which is actively supported by the police. Read the thread and read people's experiences. And maybe pipe down with calling it "ridiculous" to hate the gangs perpetrating this.
posted by entropone at 4:44 AM on February 22, 2019 [22 favorites]

Years ago, I read an article about a Romanian orphanage that was a complete or show. And they interviewed one of the guards away from the facility, and, when he was asked how he could work there, he said “it’s the only job I can get; if I quit, my children will go there.”

The most unjust system is made up of people. Some of those people will be eager participants, reveling in the worst aspects of the system, some will try to do good despite the system, some will just go dead inside and go along with whatever is easiest, and others will make other arrangements with the system. The fact that some of these are “decent people” doesn’t make the system less unjust, and even in the worst systems you can find people aware of their own complicity and degradation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, American police were notably awful, impelled by a corrupt system to do the worst bidding of Capital, crushing POCs, immigrants, Organizers, queers, and on and on. At the beginning of the 21st century, American police seem to be in much the same place, with the added benefit of greater access to military hardware. There are decent people in police forces around the country, but that doesn’t change the fact that the system overall is bigoted, dangerous, corrupt, and aimed squarely at our most vulnerable people. Many of whom are also “decent people.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:26 AM on February 22, 2019 [7 favorites]

Post edit window: the orphanage was a “horror show.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:43 AM on February 22, 2019

Oy, reading the link in the man of twists and turns' comment, that young person is, uh, very naive. She (they?) doesn't seem to realize that many people do activism outside of antifa, including folks who would have similar viewpoints as herself on worrying about a police state under Trump yet wanting to work with local police(??). And also apparently most of her friends are folks she just met within the past two years through activist groups? Kids, I don't agree with her political analysis there, but:

(a) There are lots of people doing politically engaged work from all sorts of different perspectives - find the activist group whose values you actually agree with and work with them. No one benefits - not you, not your fellow activists, not people in general who you're presumably trying to make things better for - if you go along with stuff you fundamentally disagree with just for popularity or whatever.

(b) Learn how to make and maintain friendships - actual friendships. Having moved around a lot growing up, I had to learn this skill. I find that many/most people seem to coast by when they are younger just assuming that "community" is the people around you and not actually putting any work or effort into it. Then get surprised and saddened when they leave school or move away or have other life changes in adulthood, and, I think it's generally described as "find it harder to make friends in adulthood". If that happens to you, chances are good that you weren't "making" friends before, either, just benefitting from pre-made social groupings. If you haven't reached that life stage yet, plan ahead and practice the skills of making friends and building community. It can be difficult to learn, it requires vulnerability, and it will often feel like you're putting out more time and effort than you get back because so few other people are doing the work. But it's one of the most important things you can do, both for yourself and for other people.
posted by eviemath at 6:47 AM on February 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Why make such ridiculous statements ? All the cops I know are good people.. Or are you only talking about cops in the US ?

Policing, as it is almost universally set up, protects capital, it protects men, and it protects ethnically-ascendant interests over the lives of everyone else. If you know someone who is a good cop, they might be a good person that happens to be a cop, but many people don't think you can have a good cop. Policing is an oppressive act and thus you can't be morally good while doing it (and many would feel you can't be a good person doing an evil job if you have a choice not to do it).

Some people think it can be reformed into something that truly serves humans over property, black lives over white interests, and women's bodies over men's desires, while others want to see the modern police dismantled as an institution.

It's not ridiculous to be critical of oppression.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 7:01 AM on February 22, 2019 [13 favorites]

>> all cops are bastards. all of them, everywhere. every last one of them.

> Why make such ridiculous statements ? All the cops I know are good people.. Or are you only talking about cops in the US ?

I make that ridiculous statement because that ridiculous statement is true.

That said, I understand that decent people can grow up in a community where police work is normalized, fall into police work at a young age and wind up thinking that there’s nothing else they can do — that once they become police, they’ll have to always be police. That’s why I think we need programs to help former cops and other former gang members learn useful trades like landscaping and carpentry, so that they can stop taking from their communities and finally start giving back. Once police and other gang members see people who have left the police and other gangs making livings for themselves as responsible citizens, that will empower them to themselves escape the life.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 7:19 AM on February 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

Tensions Flare at Portland Police Listening Session About Controversial Cop Texts
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:10 AM on February 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Man, I saw "A woman associated with the alt-right rushed the stage" and was just thinking "I bet it was Haley Adams", and looking at the tweets reveals, yep, that's the one.
posted by corb at 9:29 AM on February 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

I just listened to the interview Outlaw did with Lars Larson, and she is clearly a complete and total scumbag.
posted by Yowser at 9:31 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Respectfully, I would like to request that we all move past the derail about whether "all cops are bastards. all of them, everywhere. every last one of them" and get back to talking about what is happening in Portland. Thanks.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:50 PM on February 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

How are people staying safe? Is anyone organizing...Christ I don’t even know. Queer patrols? A buddy system? Queer designated driver ride sharing or whatever?
posted by schadenfrau at 3:17 PM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Safe Rides PDX is a 24/7 volunteer service, 503 455 7077, rides generally 9a-5p with less guaranteed service outside those hours.

I suspect there might be more organizing after the Sunday meeting? Be careful this weekend everybody.
posted by curious nu at 3:24 PM on February 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

There’s also Not Alone PDX 503-832-9780 that’s for reporting violence or if you need help walking to the bus or your car or escorting to/from events. I’d check out the Q Center as well, I think they’ll probably be hosting some community awareness event due to this, but I don’t have Facebook. When there was a spate of attacks on queer people years ago they had a volunteer patrol group called Q Patrol that went around to gay bars and made sure there was a presence late at night on the streets.
posted by gucci mane at 7:07 PM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Join me in making a donation to The Q Center.
posted by entropone at 7:19 AM on February 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

Fellow Portland queer MeFites: I just got word from my circles that we're up to 15 confirmed violent anti-queer attacks by white supremacists now. I'm heartsick and horrified about all this, so I'll keep this brief. My Hermitage near the Portland State University campus is open for queer & trans folks if you need a safer place to go. Email's in profile.
posted by velvet winter at 4:54 PM on February 23, 2019 [6 favorites]

Do you know where that's being reported, velvet winter?
posted by curious nu at 6:03 PM on February 23, 2019

curious nu: I don't think all the attacks have been reported publicly. I'm repeating what's been told to me by a source I trust who asked not to be named. But I'll poke around a bit and see if I can find out more. Here is a portion of the statement quoted verbatim from the trusted source:

"...we're up to 15 confirmed violent attacks on queers and trans folks in portland in the last 2 weeks, the proud boys/white nationalists are literally hunting us."
posted by velvet winter at 6:14 PM on February 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Lyft is offering $15 ride credits after 10pm tonight if you Instagram-DM them.
posted by curious nu at 9:51 PM on February 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Looks like that community town hall at the Q center is tonight. There won’t be any law enforcement present. It’s not clear to me if this is by design or if they simply won’t show up. Uber is also apparently offering safe transportation to that event.

I’m not in or anywhere near Portland, I’m just enraged by the silence and seeming satisfaction of the Portland PD (not to mention the gaslighting!), so I keep googling. It reminds me very much of how people reacted during the AIDS crisis, and I’m...idk, wishing you didn’t have to protect yourselves, but knowing that’s how things go. I’m thinking about you guys.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:19 AM on February 24, 2019 [3 favorites]

Video shows Portland officers made deal with far-right group leader
Footage obtained by the Guardian shows the officers had probable cause to arrest members of the Patriot Prayer group

Niiya, Gibson, and Toese again
posted by XMLicious at 6:26 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Sky News ~13min video piece covering Rose City Antifa and antifa-adjacent people, and showing confrontations at Patriot Prayer rallies, published around a year ago
posted by XMLicious at 6:42 PM on March 16, 2019