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Andy Ngo Update: Ted Cruz Calls Out Portland Mayor For Ceding Control Of Streets To Antifa

Andy Ngo Update: Ted Cruz Calls Out Portland Mayor For Ceding Control Of Streets To Antifa

Cruz: “To federal law enforcement: investigate & bring legal action against a Mayor who has, for political reasons, ordered his police officers to let citizens be attacked by domestic terrorists.”

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1145418610615017472?

On Saturday, independent journalist and Quillette editor Andy Ngo was brutally attacked by an antifa-fascist mob in Portland, Oregon.  Since then, reaction has been mixed, with leftists actually expressing delight over Ngo being assaulted in broad daylight on a crowded city street and conservatives expressing outrage and demanding that people be held accountable.

There is new footage of Ngo being attacked, and it’s very difficult to watch.  These antifa-fascists are screeching and cheering and acting like pack-hunting wild animals. It’s terrifying just to watch; I can’t imagine what Ngo was thinking and feeling.

Ngo’s attorney posted an update last night on Ngo’s condition.

He also has a few choice words for those defending antifa-fascists.

As of this writing, Michelle Malkin’s GoFundMe for Ngo has so far raised over $115,000.  He’s going to need every penny to replace his stolen equipment and for his medical bills and future security needs.  If you can help and care to, please do so here.

Portland police were reportedly present but did not intervene to help Ngo or any of the other people assaulted by the antifa-fascists. They claim to have arrested three people in relation to the mob violence; eight people, including three police officers, were injured.

The Oregonian reports:

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city’s police force have come under criticism after an attack on a conservative writer at dueling protests on Saturday.

. . . . Police were lined up along the perimeter of the park before the attack, but no one intervened to break up the fight. Late Saturday, police reported that three people had been arrested, including one for assault, but it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the attack on Ngo.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is livid and is calling for legal action against Portland’s mayor who reportedly had ordered police not to protect victims of the antifa-fascist mob.

Meanwhile, Malkin and attendees of the Portland melee are attempting to identify the alleged perpetrators. Click over to read the whole thread with all of the antifa thugs pictured.

On the left, the response has been gruesome, loathsome, and vile.  In other words, perfectly predictable.

https://twitter.com/RealCraigChrist/status/1145094445785858049

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1145332705476956162

https://twitter.com/inthesedeserts/status/1145318494721982464

And from well-known parody/troll account:

In all fairness, the reaction from the left hasn’t been all in that vein.

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1145104063362674688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Mostly, though, leftie media types—when they refer to the horrifying assault at all—are blaming Ngo or just looking for an “angle.”

Dave Rubin and Kyle Morris nail it:

Addendum: Quillette has published an important piece “Antifa’s Brutal Assault on Andy Ngo Is a Wake-Up Call—for Authorities and Journalists Alike.” It’s worth reading.

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Comments

Remember blogger and book author Michael J. Totten? Kind of a centrist guy. He embedded and wrote great stuff from Iraq. MJT also visited Cuba and Vietnam and wrote a few scathing articles about totalitarianism / Hezbollah bullies in Beruit. He still writes for City Journal and lives in Portland. But he’s oddly quiet about these violent fascists roaming his city.

I think a bunch of journalists are scared witless by these neo 1920’s Spartacist League street fighters.

Andy Ngo is a very brave man. What he does takes courage. Meanwhile, former tough guys like MJT remain silent.

I have someone saying the federal government has NO place in this matter and that even if a local or state government ordered law enforcement to stand down, there is no federal recourse. Can someone confirm that? Weren’t Andy’s civil rights violated?

    Bruce Hayden in reply to Alexandra. | June 30, 2019 at 7:36 pm

    At a minimum, deprivation of civil rights, as well as the Klan laws.

    Milhouse in reply to Alexandra. | July 1, 2019 at 11:16 am

    The federal government may not have a role, unless there’s a statute they can use.

    It certainly seems like Ngo is being denied the equal protection of the laws (though actually proving it may take some work), but the 14th amendment doesn’t give the president authority to do anything about that. It gives that authority to Congress, so if there isn’t already a law Congress has made it would have to make a new one now, and the current House is not going to do that.

    As far as I know the existing civil rights statutes are limited to depriving someone of their civil rights on the grounds of race, sex, etc. Ngo isn’t being deprived on any those grounds, so those statutes wouldn’t apply. But there may be one or more whose wording is more general, and if so the feds should definitely use it.

    The other path is through the courts; if Ngo can establish on at least the preponderance of the evidence that Portland is depriving him of the equal protection of the laws, he could sue it and win either damages or a court order compelling the city to protect him.

    At least that’s how it seems to me.

    Milhouse in reply to Alexandra. | July 1, 2019 at 11:33 am

    What I wrote above was about going after the city. But if the perpetrators can be identified and found, I think the DOJ can prosecute them for because they attacked Ngo for exercising his constitutional rights, i.e. the freedom of speech. I don’t recall the exact language of the statute, but Lemrick Nelson was successfully prosecuted on the grounds that his reason for murdering my friend Yankel Rosenbaum was because he dared, as a Jew, to exercise his right to walk on a public sidewalk. His purpose was (according to the prosecution) to discourage all Jews from using the public sidewalks of NYC. It seems to me the same would apply to an assault intended to discourage people from writing the sort of things Ngo has been writing.

    Publius_2020 in reply to Alexandra. | July 2, 2019 at 1:45 am

    Federal law has no application here? Presumably someone born after 1999, with an Instagram-level knowledge of law.

    The entire purpose of federal civil rights laws is to create a federal remedy for state-level action or inaction that is designed to deprive people of civil rights. The civil remedy is 42 USC §1983. It is also a federal criminal offense for a state employee (including police) to deprive (or conspire with another to deprive) a person of any right protected by the Constitution. (18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242). There is a specific provision that makes it a crime for state or local police to do this. (34 U.S.C. § 12601).

      Milhouse in reply to Publius_2020. | July 2, 2019 at 7:44 pm

      Section 18.241 speaks of “injuring, oppressing, threatening, or intimidating” someone “in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws”. The police aren’t doing that, antifa is. The police are just not stopping it.

      Section 18.242 specifies “on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race”. So it’s out.

      Sections 42.1983 and 34.12601 though, might work, with some creative lawyering.

So when does local law & order decay to the point that we have a situation like JFK sending federal troops to Birmingham in 1963?

Personally, I’m going to have a good laugh when some of these “antifa” pussies mess with the wrong person and get shot dead.

    walls in reply to Paul. | June 30, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    That will call for a few glasses of wine to celebrate!

    PODKen in reply to Paul. | June 30, 2019 at 8:11 pm

    Well … I’m not gonna laugh … loss of life is tragic … but I’m surprised no one has been shot up to now.

      SDN in reply to PODKen. | June 30, 2019 at 8:18 pm

      Don’t be. Oregon in general and Portland in particular is a leftist bastion with 2A unfriendly gun laws.

        It’s not just the laws, but the prosecution thereof. If somebody were getting beaten to death on camera by ten thugs and managed to even pull out a gun, the prosecution would be all over the CC guy for brandishing, and the jury would convict.

          Edward in reply to georgfelis. | June 30, 2019 at 9:16 pm

          Only ten to one – nah, they don’t attack if they don’t have at least 50 to 100 backing them up (and to which crowd they can slink away to avoid the possibility of being identified).

          Michael Gilson in reply to georgfelis. | June 30, 2019 at 9:43 pm

          That actually happened, an independent journalist was being threatened by over twenty men and pulled a gun and without a shot being fired made them back off. Then he was arrested and charged with one count of assault for each person in the crowd threatening him, and was convicted. I believe he is appealing, but it is expensive and slow.

          Mike H. in reply to georgfelis. | July 1, 2019 at 1:02 am

          It happened in 2017.

          Anonamom in reply to georgfelis. | July 1, 2019 at 10:00 am

          Side note, but why in the h@ll did that guy go with a court trial? I would NEVER want to put that issue before a politically beholden judge in a bastion of leftism. His lawyer should be ashamed.

          Milhouse in reply to georgfelis. | July 1, 2019 at 11:20 am

          You think a Portland jury would be better?!

          Milhouse in reply to georgfelis. | July 1, 2019 at 11:22 am

          Mike H, read your own link: “Based upon the video of the confrontation (above), I’m inclined to agree with the prosecutor. I saw no justification for Strickland to draw his pistol and point it directly at protestors based on their actions. While the crowd may have been hostile and even menacing, they’d done nothing I saw that justified Strickland drawing and aiming his weapon in “self-defense” as he claimed.”

          Mike H. in reply to georgfelis. | July 1, 2019 at 3:20 pm

          Milhouse I read the article. The comment was about someone pulling a pistol to defend himself in Portland and then going to jail. I made no comment about the judge did I?

        Milhouse in reply to SDN. | July 1, 2019 at 3:37 pm

        Except that he didn’t pull it to defend himself, he pulled it to menace the lefties. That was what the trial was about. The court examined the evidence and rejected his claim that he was in reasonable fear of being seriously harmed. If he felt subjective fear, it wasn’t reasonable, and that is the criterion everywhere. You are not entitled to use a gun whenever you’re afraid; your fear must be both subjectively felt and objectively reasonable. It’s therefore invalid to cite this case as evidence of what would happen to someone legitimately defending themselves.

          Mike H. in reply to Milhouse. | July 1, 2019 at 5:20 pm

          Menacing on both sides Milhouse which side is aggrieved?

          Publius_2020 in reply to Milhouse. | July 2, 2019 at 1:52 am

          Yeah. It’s not as if a crowd like that would ever beat someone to the point of permanent injury, right? Oh. Wait.

          Loren in reply to Milhouse. | July 2, 2019 at 3:28 pm

          “You are not entitled to use a gun whenever you’re afraid; your fear must be both subjectively felt and objectively reasonable.” Unless you are a police officer. Then being afraid of your own shadow is often enough justification to empty your weapon. See: Orlando Castille or Erik Scott.

      Edward in reply to PODKen. | June 30, 2019 at 9:14 pm

      They infest Portland for a reason – those who don’t agree with these thugs are afraid to say anything. Don’t know what percentage of people in Portland have concealed carry permits/licenses, but I suspect it isn’t substantial. Not to mention these animals run in packs and the first person to shoot a few will likely not survive the other 100 or so. They won’t attack if they don’t have odds like that, they are typical cowards who will do nothing without the pack.

      First thing Oregon should do is pass “mask” laws like Southern states used when the decision was made to go after the Klan. Wear a mask to cover your face and be arrested on a felony charge (except perhaps in Portland where the Mayor and politicians protect these animals and would even if the state had such a law).

        Anacleto Mitraglia in reply to Edward. | July 1, 2019 at 5:29 am

        Well, they don’t expect a gun coming out. When the first is shot down, all the others will scatter away like cockroaches when you turn the light on.

      Milhouse in reply to PODKen. | July 1, 2019 at 11:18 am

      Loss of thug life is not tragic.

    Aitch748 in reply to Paul. | June 30, 2019 at 8:31 pm

    Frankly, now that the hatemongers on the Left have graduated to lacing their milkshakes with quick-drying cement (calcium oxide, with a pH high enough to burn skin), I’d feel justified in shooting anybody in a black mask who’s getting ready to throw a milkshake container in my general direction. Who knows what sort of nasty dangerous concoction is going to be used as the main ingredient in the next “milkshake”? They might as well be throwing Molotov cocktails at people.

      snopercod in reply to Aitch748. | July 1, 2019 at 7:52 am

      Calcium Oxide is quicklime, not “quick drying cement”. It can blind a person if it gets in their eyes.

    Broken necks don’t require bullets.

Ambassador Richard Grenell has been Tweeting his outrage about the attacks on his friend Andy Ngo a lot: https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1145252536783376384?s=20

Cruz for President!

This attack on Ngo was one of the clearest examples of lynch-mob behavior we’ve had in recent years.

Mayor is also the police chief I read. He says he’s proud of the criticism from Fox news but don’t be dissin’ his police boys. You know those little blue pussies, they’re told to stand down or be fired and lose their dental plan.
So they pussy out and save their dental plan.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to 4fun. | June 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm

    He deserves a beatdown. It would be poetic if some of the police dressed up, and posing as Antifa, mask and all, and beat him.

    pst314 in reply to 4fun. | June 30, 2019 at 9:28 pm

    Mayor Wheeler is Police Commissioner. Danielle Outlaw is Police Chief.

Visiting Portland is akin to visiting North Korea. Mao would be so jealous if he were alive today.

How is the DOJ not on this?

    Pretty clear that the west coast FBI/DOJ corruption-Democratic Party alliance goes up the entire coast and as deep as Utah. All corrupt and likely indirectly assisting via non-prosecution understandings. (Think Huber out of Utah).

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, unless their thug, dare I say Brownshirt, actions are nipped in the bud.

    Firewatch in reply to guinspen. | July 1, 2019 at 6:55 pm

    I talked to a local policeman former Marine today and the Portland police are just as popular with him as the Antifi pussies. I kinda got the feeling he would welcome the chance to do a little bodily harm to the Antifi. But then if they come to Texas it will be in the big cities run by dimmacrats. Bummer.

    Miles in reply to guinspen. | July 1, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    Anything even close comes to a neighborhood near me and the results will not be to antifa’s liking.
    The populace here have never tolerated ‘riot’ in the past and neither do we tolerate ‘gangs’ today. And most here own lots of guns.

    In fact, the Police will be told to either take care of the trash first or ‘stand down’ until called to clean up the pieces left laying in the street.

But how?

“These things must be done delllllicately.”

…Either that quick-dry cement aspect was true or it wasn’t. It isn’t difficult for a lab to tell the difference. If someone put out a false story, as I am seeing alleged, that isn’t going to help Andy Ngo at all.

I see where Cruz is coming from, but I do not see how he’s going to get there given the lack of police obligation to save you in any particular instance.

    rdmdawg in reply to JBourque. | July 1, 2019 at 12:11 pm

    If the police are standing around watching 5 brownshirts beat down a reporter, literally why do we have police at all?

      Same as always: to suppress rioting. Mayor/ Police Commissioner/ High Overlord Ted Wheeler says the police made an on-the-ground decision. If police tell a court, “We stood and watched because trying to ‘help’ him would have caused a riot,” what do you expect the court to do?

      Hence, drop the police angle, focus on Antifa. That is within the federal government’s power. Unless you can prove cooperation with Antifa rather than just sympathizing, a conspiracy to deny 1st amendment rights case won’t go far (against the police/ mayor/ high overlord).

    DaveGinOly in reply to JBourque. | July 1, 2019 at 9:49 pm

    A journalist who was with Andy spoke to Lars Larson today on his show on KVI. She said that she saw the “milkshakes” being made, and that whatever was in them was edible because some of the Antifa were drinking from them as the walked away with them. She commented that she could not say if some Antifa did or did not subsequently mix other substances in the shakes.

Antifa is the Left’s new KKK. Same support, same denial by the Left of Antifa’s/KKK’s bad behavior or support by the Left, same claim of their need to protect others from a mythical threat, same unbridled use of violence. Times change, but many other things such as violence from the Left/Democrats against a mythical and vastly overblown threat don’t.

    TX-rifraph in reply to Cleetus. | July 1, 2019 at 7:43 am

    And, just as in the days of the old KKK, Antifa (the New KKK) is protected by the Democrat Mayors and Governors.

    Same Democrat tactics as I saw decades ago.

      Occasional Thinker in reply to TX-rifraph. | July 1, 2019 at 8:57 am

      That is exactly what they are, the New KKK with the same political backing as the old KKK. I believe there are federal laws that were enacted to deal with the old KKK, it is time to dust them off and apply them to the Neo-KKK. Maybe the Portland mayor hopes to follow in Robert Byrd’s footsteps.

4th armored div | July 1, 2019 at 10:15 am

if we want this antifa behavior to stop –
THEY … MUST … BE … DOXXED.

light is the best disinfectant.

Portland OR, home of the kindergarten cops and the cowards from Broward County Florida.

Michael Gilson | July 1, 2019 at 5:55 pm

This link mentions another video that shows Strickland actually being assaulted, not merely threatened, that the judge in the case ordered sealed.

https://www.oregonfirearms.org/vendetta

blacksburger | July 1, 2019 at 6:10 pm

“First thing Oregon should do is pass “mask” laws like Southern states used when the decision was made to go after the Klan. Wear a mask to cover your face and be arrested on a felony charge…”

Every state in the union should have a law prohibiting the wearing of masks. There is no innocent reason for this.

    Agreed.

    There should be some sort of codicil for kiddos on Halloween (if we ever manage to rest that perfectly wonderful American tradition back from the lunatic left).

    Protesters, though, must be forced to show their face. If you can’t do what you want to do with your smiling face shining for the cameras, you are up to no good. I’m not into banning those horrible gloves they wear (I pack, and if that is their idea of packing . . . lol), but once the masks come off, you can bet the fiber/hard-knuckled gloves do, too. These are cowardly, over-grown children after all.

They can wear full face motorcycle helmets over a face mask, black neoprene suits, “assault” gloves in public in Portland. Wonder how that works walking into a bank in Portland?

Oregon Militia needs to Remove Mayor Ted Wheeler and all the cronies running Portland! I’d go as far as the Portland’s ‘Corrupt’ police need to go as well! I woudn’t shed a tear even if a few Antifa members were sent to the local landfill…

I’ve read a bunch of the comments at the Quillette article. What is dismaying is:

1) The leftists who justify their fascist behavior and who blame the victim.
2) The rightier types whose thoughts run to countering leftwing fascist mob violence with fascist mob violence. There seems to be some of that here, too.