I've been dealing with feelings like yours ever a white supremacist murdered two and nearly killed a third person for protecting two girls, one black and one Muslim, when he menaced them on a
public transit train. It happened in 2017. Since then, right wing fascists have made regular pilgrimages to our fine city to fuck with us. They aren't welcome here. Hundreds of them fly in from all over the country or drive here from neighboring states and we have our own home grown ones who come here too. They come here to march in our streets, carry nazi flags, wear kkk regalia and to project right supremacist power. We've met them every time. To block their marches and counter-demonstrate to show the Portland is not theirs. We show up in the thousands.
The cops protect those guys. Imagine the scene. These guys train and work out. They wear armor. They carry weapons and shields. They even tried to set up a sniper's nest on an upper floor of a parking garage but that was too much even for the cops. They were told to disperse but allowed to keep the guns. We are 5 times their number. We could turn them into a greasy spot if we wanted to. Our crowd are not fighters. We don't carry clubs or wear armor. We have milkshakes. We have clowns. We have people in wheelchairs. The few who do engage the fascists are skinny boys and girls wearing fashionable black clothes. We also have a brass band. It's a spectacle on our side. An angry mob on the other. In-between, the cops face us, with their backs to the fascists.
If we engaged their violence with the same, it would be falling into Trump's, the cops and the right wing's trap. They would have an excuse to escalate police and military presence. So, instead, we block them, we stop them and when they begin to throw punches at the brave antifa in the front lines, it gives our mayor the excuse to pull the permit for their demonstration. Within hours, the streets are cleared. The fascists go home dissatisfied.
It's enough for now. This summer is going to get nasty but I'm actually optimistic that we've figured out a way to get through it without the kind of losses that those fascists want to inflict. We get to the next election and maybe we take power away from the right. If we don't, then we hang on until we do.