Conservative gay journalist attacked covering Portland protest
Portland, Oregon is gaining a reputation as a flashpoint for violent encounters between far right and far left wing demonstrators and riot police. Last August, police issued an order to disperse then fired flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets into an anti-fascist (antifa) crowd protesting a right-wing Patriot Prayer free speech demonstration. After several people were injured, police claimed they responded to objects being thrown at them, though a review of videotapes of the clash did not show that provocation.
This past weekend, on Saturday, June 29, Portland police dealt with three demonstrations of left-wingers antifa (which the FBI labeled “domestic terrorists” in 2017) protesting right-wingers Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys (which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed an extremist white nationalist group), though what they were specifically demonstrating for and against is not clear. What is clear, however, as captured on video shot by The Oregonian‘s Jim Ryan, is a swarm of mask-wearing antifa activists surrounding conservative gay journalist Andy Ngo, editor at Quillette, punching him in the face and throwing milkshakes at him before and as he fled the scene.
Milkshakes are commonly used as a way of humiliating someone—much as a pie-in-the-face was used by gay activist Tom Higgins against anti-gay singer Anita Bryant in the 1970s. But in this case, Portland police tweeted, there were reports that the milkshakes contained quick-drying cement.
While Ngo is apparently well known in conservative media circles for covering antifa, The Oregonian describes him as “a right-leaning provocateur with online news and opinion outlet Quillette.”
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