Portland, OR: Another Violent Attack By White Supremacist Days Before Racist Rally

Tuesday afternoon, in downtown Portland, OR, a man* was violently attacked by a white supremacist. The story originally broke on social media with a photo of the hospitalized man, appearing to be in serious condition with visible bruising. The man was kept in ICU until Wednesday. His injuries included multiple broken/fractured bones from face to ribs to hands, bruised/punctured lung, and suspected spinal damage. Today, he is conscious, out of ICU, in stable condition at OHSU, and able to speak.

In our interview, he described coming across a man shouting racist and classist slurs at some houseless people of color, near Union Station. When he intervened, asking the man to stop and leave them alone, the man viciously attacked him with a 2 inch thick, 3 foot long, steel pole. The attacker fled the scene and has not yet been arrested. Attacker is about 5’10” with brown, short hair, and was last seen June 27 wearing a bluish polo shirt and blue jeans.

This attack comes just days before June 30th, when over 100 white supremacists are preparing for another rally and march organized by Joey Gibson of American Freedom Warriors and Patriot Prayer. Joey Gibson regularly invites far Right extremists to Portland, OR and Seattle, WA for rallies, marches, and protests. Spikes in violence from white supremacists seem to frequently coincide with Gibson’s events. High profile, racially motivated attacks and murders on Trimet occurred May 26 and June 2 just days before Gibson’s widely publicized June 4 rally downtown. The attacker had previously attended Joey Gibson’s events.

There was a gay bashing downtown just after Gibson’s June 18 protest of the Pride Parade and the Trans march. June 19, the gay man was severely beaten by 4 men and nearly drowned (he resorted to faking his death in order to survive). Two suspected hate crimes, including a severe bashing and a hit-and-run occurred near the Montavilla area, just hours after Gibson’s march along 82nd on April 29 (the march ended conspicuously in the same location that local white supremacists had dumped the body of a man they had tortured and skinned alive with a belt sander in 2012). Just last weekend, Good In The Hood received serious threats of violence.

Violence has also been known to occur at Gibson’s events. A member of his group was shown, in widely circulated videos online, attacking a person from Portland’s Trans March when Gibson’s group protested the Pride NW Festival in Portland on June 18. In another online video, a gang from Gibson’s “Anti-Sharia” March is seen attacking counter-demonstrators in Seattle on June 10.

Joey Gibson’s next rally and march is planned to be held June 30 at the Salmon Street Fountains near the Blues Festival from 6-8pm. Local anti-racist organization, Rose City Antifa, has publicly called for a counter-presence from 4-8pm in the same location and a call-in campaign to speak with Joey Gibson’s employer: Summa North.

*The victim in this recent case has requested anonymity to protect him from further endangerment.