An Alleged Pro-facist* Group Supporter Killed in Portland

Okay, I wasn’t there, and I don’t know any more than the rest of you about the event, but somebody—apparently one of the goons President Trump sent to Portland to make trouble—found it last night. The “victim” has been identified as one Jay Bishop, allegedly a supporter of the pro-fascist* Patriot Prayer group in Vancouver, Washington—a suburb of Portland, just across the Columbia River, for those ignorant of the local geography, a category that I imagine encompasses most of the population of the world. Somebody shot Bishop dead downtown near Third and Alder around nine p.m. Although murky videos relating to the event have surfaced, none of them show what led up to the shooting, which I assume was done in “self-defense” since that seems to be all the rage these days. Various unreliable narrators are confidently identifying the killer (on the basis of a “neck tattoo” and general body shape) as an anti-fascist demonstrator, but I’m going to wait for something resembling evidence before going along with them. Or at least an official statement, if no actual evidence is available.

Our conservative pro-police mayor is now getting the shaft from both sides; the left has never liked him, and the right is blaming him for the constitutionally-protected protests that have been going on nightly now for months. If Wheeler had the power (and the support of the people of Portland) he would put an end to them immediately, but lacking either power or support his hands are tied. I haven’t looked at any polls, but based on “the word on the street” I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s replaced by somebody less conservative than he is in the next election.

But anyway, here in Southwest Portland all of this might as well be happening on the moon. When Trump removed his personal goon-squads from the city all real violence died down, and if it weren’t for this goddamn election-year stunt things would have been quiet last night in downtown Portland. But when squads of rioters show up pepper-spraying people and screaming racial epithets at them, stuff is bound to happen. I don’t know if this event had anything to do with that Trump-sent violence, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The Dopey Don has been bad news from the beginning.

*On this site the term “pro-fascist” is used to designate opponents of various anti-fascist groups, to avoid the cumbersome expression “anti-anti-fascist”