Williamette Week
The latest far-right march in Portland quickly staked a claim as the most violent.
The gathering of alt-right and white nationalist groups in Tom McCall Waterfront Park today immediately descended into brawling with antifascist counter-protesters that left several men bleeding and soaked in pepper spray.
The crowd at today’s “Patriot Prayer” event was small—no more than 100 people on each side. It was a shadow of the events of June 4, when thousands of counter-protesters surrounded an alt-right “free speech” rally held in the wake of a double slaying by a white supremacist on a Portland MAX train. Since then, “Patriot Prayer” marches have had diminished attendance.
But these rallies, with their barely cloaked threats of racist violence, still have the power to disquiet the city and intimidate its citizens—especially when they kick off with a brawl.
