For some reason or other, this man really doesn’t seem to fit the image of a white supremacist.
By Katie Shepherd
Williamette Week
One of the leading figures in the traveling far-right protest movement that has sparked bloody street melees up and down the West Coast was detained and criminally cited tonight in Portland.
Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, 21, perhaps the most recognizable person in the Portland area’s far-right activist circles, was issued a criminal citation for disorderly conduct in the second degree. His nose was bloodied and bruised in a fight with counterprotesters. Despite his cuts, he continued to participate in the protest until it dissolved around 6 pm, when Portland police detained and cited him.
Portland police made the decision not to arrest him on the misdemeanor charge because he needed to go to the hospital to get stitches from his injuries. Christopher Burley, a police spokesman, said the bureau is short on resources and couldn’t send an officer to accompany Toese through his hospital stay.
Toese, who is from Vancouver, Wash., has been a regular presence at alt-right events in Portland throughout the year. The huge Samoan man has regularly been at the center of physical altercations—including punching a man half his size in the face in downtown Portland in May.
