Locals have organized against Black Lives Matter, leading to street fights, standoffs – The Register-Guard

Adam Duvernay|Register-Guard

Rarelocal episodes of violence and property destruction, videos of scenesout of Portland and asense the Black Lives Matter movement has been infiltrated by anarchists are driving some in Oregon to organizedandsometimes violent resistance.

In Eugene and Springfield, Black Lives Matter protesters now are more frequently met with opposition beyond the policepolice-supporting counterprotesters, often calling themselves patriots, who say their missionis keeping local neighborhoods safe.

Some have group affiliation. Some are just sympathetic to organized opposition to Black Lives Matter or other groups they perceive as threats. Some come to rallies and protests armed. Some come from out of town. Some are more than willing to fight protesters.

Many support President Trump and conspiracy theories about the federal government. Most see the Black Lives Matter movement as largely dangerous and misguided.

"The only thing that keeps the level of violence we're seeinginPortland from happening here is they simply do not have the numbers to do that here, and because we have been coming out, meeting them and facing them down. We're not going to allow it," said Tim Davis, a Springfield contractor affiliated with the group The American Patriots Society.

Groups like TAPS andWe the People of Lane County have attended or organizedlocal rallies and counterprotested Black Lives Matter events here and elsewhere as that movement gains longevity and daily scenes of clashes with police comefrom Portland.

"We're regular Americans that are coming together because we're afraid of what's going on against our country, against our businesses and against our families," Davis said.

But when belief meets fear, the potential for action rises, saidJoe Lowndes, a University of Oregon political science professor who's written extensively on right wingpolitics.

"The threat they describe is antifa as a terrorist organization and Black Lives Matter as a group that is only there to cause chaos," he said. "The dangeris they have created this imagined threat, and that authorizes the possibility of extreme violence in that moment."

Tyshawn Ford, a leader of local racial justice protest organization Black Unity, said his group rejects violence and destruction forits part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Though he said people of color may be righteous in using those protest tactics, he said he believes others merely are taking advantage of the movement for their own ends.

"They've been in quarantine. They just want something to do, to get that adrenaline from fighting the cops or breaking stuff," hesaid."That detracts from the movement 100%."

Despite what they say, Ford said he believes people like Davis actually know better.

"Counterprotesters ask us all the time if we're antifa. I think it's just an ignorant question," Ford said. "We don't go out covering our identities. We put on community events. We come out and show our faces. Anyone that's antifa is not going to do that."

There was a riot in Minneapolis after a white police officer there killed George Floyd, a Black man,during a May 25arrest by pressing his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Many protests remained peaceful, but downtown Minneapolis from May 27-29 was subjected to looting and property damage. Rioters burned down a police precinct.

The night of May 29,protesters in Eugene marched for the first time. The march itself was loud, went against traffic and set the tone for most protests that would follow hundreds of bodies chanting the names of people of color killed by police nationwide.

But at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Washington Street, the march stopped and some in the crowd set fires in the street with dumpsters,city property and signs torn from local local shops. An hour later, people brokein and looted nearby businesses.

Eugene police declared a riot.

Eugene police recently arrested 11 and are looking for more than 60 suspects.

Since May 29, there have been more daysthan not with some form of local activism, but no local protests, except for the night of July 25,included widespread property damage.

Those who support Black Lives Matter say marchers arefighting for racial justice.

"The movement is just going to get stronger from here. It may not be in the way of marches, but definitely our ability to capitalize on what's happening," Ford said.

In a small area of Portland over more than 60 days, however, authorities have declared a riot more than a dozen times. Images of clashes with police, tear gas cloudsand often violent arrests of the protesters there have been splashed daily across national news.

In Seattle, Austin, Oakland and elsewhere, similar scenes of violent clashes with police have played out over the summer. But across the country and Oregon, the vast majority of demonstrations are peaceful protests calling for police reform and racial justice.

How those protests and riots have been portrayed varies by outlet and viewership. But such images have played a role in promoting organization against Black Lives Matter.

Davis sees no distinction between the wider Black Lives Matter movement, powered largely by local leaders and lacking nationwide marching orders, and antifa, shorthand for a loose affiliation of far-left militant anti-fascists that resist right-wing demonstrations.

Trump has branded antifa a terroristgroup despite its inherently unorganized nature.

Ford says counterprotesters at their marches now are a frequent occurrence.

"Now it's like every protest ... " Ford said.

He believes the appearance of right-wing counterprotesters at Black Unity and other marches truly started with the July 25 protest outside the U.S. Courthouse in Eugene.

They showed up at the Black Lives Matter protest, some carrying firearms and the set of homemade plywood riot shields made up to look like protest signs that they have carried into multiple protests and rallies. The two sides squared off near the federal courthouse, exchanging competing chants and taunts.

Then ashot was fired intothe air. A Black Lives Matter protester threw water on a counterprotester who fired a Taser in response. There were fights. Two men pointed guns at each other. A motorcycle sped through the crowd. They spilled onto Mill Street.

Though the two sides eventually broke apart, Black Lives Matter protesters continued on to the Lane County Jail where police ordered them to disperse, which they then did.

But before the night was done, many people had vandalized parts of downtown, includingbreaking the windows of the Wells Fargo bank and tagging walls and city sidewalks with spray-painted graffiti. Though some protest leaders called for destructive behavior to end, Eugene police eventually declared a riot as the vandalism continued.

"That triggered the counterprotesters coming out more to'protect' their city," Ford said.

Five days later, Black Unity brought a protest to Springfield's Thurston neighborhood. Their march was a reaction to accusations of racism leveled by a Black resident against her neighbor, who hadhanged a Halloween decoration skeleton with a noose in his yard.

The noose, a terrifying image from America's history of racial lynchings, has been used in more recent times as a hate symbol. In Thurston, the skeleton's owner said his was just one of the many Halloween decorations he keeps up year round, not a racist icon.

He told The Register-Guard before the march that he'd been threatened over the noose.

"I'm a combat veteran with severe PTSD. I really don't feel good about having a crowd of people known for throwing things and setting things on fire," David Harbick said. "You could have just told me that you have a problem with this. I would have taken it down."

Ford said that while the hanged skeleton triggered theprotest in Thurston, Black Unity changed its route from passing Harbick's house once they learned more about the situation. But he said the group still felt an educational demonstration there was needed.

Harbick said he didn't ask anyone to help him, but some who saw the social media post calling for the protest reached out to support him. Many showed up to protect his house.

Davis was one of them, and so were others from TAPS and counterprotester groups.

Before that Black Unity march was done, fights had broken out on Thurston streets.

Davis was one of the locals who went to Salem last weekendto take part in a rally at the Capitol that devolved into group-on-group clashes. He spoke for the group Open Up Oregon, which wants to see an end to mask mandates and forced business shutdowns.

Davis said it was the BLM supporters who started the violence that day. Black Lives Matter protesters that day toldthe Salem Statesman Journal it happened otherwise.

Also at the Capitol protestwas Marcus Edwards, a speaker at the July 10 "All Lives Matter" rallyat the Springfield Public Library, who told the Salem Statesman-Journal:

"These criminals, theyre trying to attack the American way of life, and if you understand how these communists work, they use every form of either political or racial tension, and they use it to create division as a divide-and-conquer strategy so that we do not pull together as an American people and rise up against the corruption at our door.

At the Springfield All Lives Matter rally, Edwards spoke to a need for unity while also defaming the BLMsupporters playing the role of counterprotesters across the street.

At that rally, like most others, the groups largely kept separated and exchanged insults and slogans, though thescene did grow tense.

But whenEzekiel Rubottom, a counterprotester, marched through therally to disrupt it with an accordion, a handful of men attendingused U.S. flags to push him to the ground, mobbing himand smashinghis instrument in the process.

Rubottom then was arrested on a years-old warrant for missing a court date in Eugene. Springfield police on July 14 said an investigation was ongoing into the incident.

"I thought at most I wouldget booed out of there. The next thing I know I'm getting pushed," he said."Then I had a sign-shield pushed at me with screws coming out of it."

Accordion player attacked at 'All Lives Matter' rally in Springfield

At a July "All Lives Matter" in Springfield, Ezekiel Rubottom was attacked by rallygoers after he walked through the demonstration with an accordion.

An Aug. 16"pro-America rally and flag wave" hosted by "the Oregon patriots" in the same downtown space had a different tenor. Billed as family friendly, members of groups like TAPS and We the People Oregon held a peaceful cookout in front of the Springfield library.A similar flag wave event was held recently in Cottage Grove.

No one came to counterprotest the gatherings. There were no fights.

Lowndes, the UO right-wing researcher, said he attended a July 25 rally in Salem where protesters on opposing sides clashed in a brief skirmish. He described meeting people who see it as their jobs to defend the nation against threats he said are largely fictitious.

Though such people often are lumped in with white supremacists, Lowndes said what brings them together is less about race and more about perceived threats to their lives.

"There is a general right wing organizing itself not around white supremacy, but the Second Amendment, around the idea antifa is a terrorist organization, around the idea Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization and people wanting to defend the police," Lowndes said. "These protests potentially bring out more, different kinds of people."

We the People of Lane County started as a Facebook group created by Springfield resident Mark Miller. Some of its membership went to scenes such as those at the federal courthouse in Eugene and Thurston. Miller said they see themselves asguardians.

"Black Unity, or whatever flag you want to call it, went there to intimidate people and to threaten people. It was not about anything else," he said. "They come with this disguise of Black Lives Matter. But listen to these people and what comes out of their mouths."

Miller said he believes the Black Lives Matter movement is not the grassroots endeavor it's portrayed to be and is funded by nefarious sources. He said he believes antifa members are the ones primarily responsible for property destruction in Eugene.

And he believes members of groups like his have done the job of keeping the peace.

"By our presence, they've cleaned it up a little bit," Millersaid. "We will not tolerate, particularly in Springfield, criminal behavior."

A June Black Lives Matter protest in Klamath Falls drew hundreds ofcounterprotesters, many armed, bent onprotecting homes and businesses from riots. There were rumorsantifa was coming to the protest, but the antifa threat that night was unfounded.

On July 31, hundreds gathered outsideNew Hope Christian College in south Eugene to protectthe cross that once stood on Skinner Butte from a threat that never materialized.

Threats to tear down that "racist" symbol its history is otherwise were circulated on social media, possibly as a hoax. Neither antifa members nor other groupsshowed up.

Many who did go see antifa and BLM-aligned groupsas a threat demanding opposition.

"Much of the community has risen up spontaneously. We didn't call them, they called us and they showed up en masse," college President Wayne Cordeiro said at the time. "They are saying we are tired of this and we're not going to stand it anymore."

Lowndes said this kind of organization is happening in Oregon, but also nationwide.

Incidents in Eugene and Springfield such as these, in which the opposition to racial justice marches isn't police presence but other civilians, are infrequent but troubling, he said.

"My fear is we're going to see more of this," Lowndes said. "As the election gets closer, I think we're going to see things get more heated."

The July 29 Black Unity march in Thurston was designed to be peaceful and educational, but the night ended as one of the summer's most violent and confrontational.

Before the beginning of the march which at its midpoint saw a locally unprecedented brawl between protesters and cops there was a chance for dialogue.

Ford was one of the Black Unity members to cross the street out ofJesse Maine Memorial Park and talk with people who said they'd come to protect the neighborhood.

"We're here for people like you guys that think we're antifa and we're going to come through your neighborhood and bust your houses and bust your cars up, to show you that we are here to peacefully protest," Ford told them.

"Well, why do you guys let antifa come with you? Don't let antifa come with you," said a man who only would identify himself to The Register-Guard that day as Will.

"Black Unity has done multiple marches. We did one through Thurston where we did not break anything. We do not march with antifa.That's not our group," Ford told them.

Ford wasarrested later that evening in a violent skirmish with Springfield police.

Though that tense conversation ended with some moderately mollified because, as Will said, "we like what we're hearing so far, you're not here to destroy," any progress they made evaporated by night's end. After the fight with police,the sun went down and theBlack Unity marchers were confrontedbycounterprotesters at the park.

Groups face off after Thurston protest march

Groups of counterprotesters confronted Black Unity demonstrators in Springfield's Thurston neighborhood after a march last month.

The protesters were trying to leave, but the last leg of their march included taunts, threats and their own chants"whose streets?" "our streets" thrown back at them. In front of the park, groups squared off face to face, and there were sporadic fights.

"We're supposed to fight them! That's why we're here," shouted one man who was angry with hisfriends' chastisementsafter he fought with a Black Unity protester.

The Civil Liberties Defense Center has been deploying legal observers at protests in Eugene and Springfield to witness police conduct and behavior, already having filed two lawsuits against Eugene police during the protest season. Executive DirectorLauren Reganwas on the ground performing that role in Thurston during the Black Unity march.

She said CLDS will file another lawsuit against Springfield police concerning "blatant collusion" between certain officers and "knownand obvious white supremacists."

A Springfield police spokesman said those allegations are baseless.

"The suggestion that SPD has 'colluded' with counterprotesters, specifically during the Thurston protest, is not supported by evidence. There are several occasions where our officers turned away counterprotesters who were asking to 'assist'officers with crowd control," Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. David Grice said in an email.

Springfield police arrested one counterprotester for assault that night.

Miller said he and others lined up behindpolice barricades where Black Unity marchers fought with police. He said they were there to support police in case of violence.

"We didn't have to do anything but stand there," Miller said.

Miller said We the People of Lane County also tried to stop the Thurston protest before it happened by starting a rumor on its own Facebook page, knowing it was being monitored,that Proud Boys and federal officers would be joining the counterprotest.

Regan said she's been a legal observer for more than 20 years, but that never before in the local community has she felt afraid for her safety while doing her job.

"I'm constantly looking around for, basically, violence, fascists and racists that are pulling out guns, pulling out machetes, pulling out wasp spray and aiming it at innocent human beings," Regan said. "When you have to use a thick neck and a gun in order to try and scare your adversaryor scare someone who disagrees with you, that is a sign you recognize your position is incredibly weak and you're on the wrong side of history."

Thurston residents had mixed reactions to the night's protests and fights.

Some were displeased Black Lives Matter protesters came at all, and more still that some of the protesters after the fight with police shouted obscenities and threats at peoplethey perceived as a foe. Some were happy to see self-appointed defenders come to Thurston in an attempt to balance the scales and protect property from harm.

Others just found both to be a nuisance. Some were frightened. Some felt put in the difficult position of having to comfort their childrenor explain the violence and profanity.

Charlie Vermilyea lives on the street where most of the protester vs. counterprotester collisions occurred that night. She described a night of fear, suspecting neither Black Unity nor TAPS nor anyone else who came from outside Thurston was there for peace.

"It's a nice, quiet, peaceful neighborhood. Most of those people weren't from our neighborhood,"Vermilyea said. "They were looking for trouble."