ANTIFA riots, violence, and protests have been going on in Portland since May of 2020. One of the focal points has been Hatfield Federal Courthouse. In fact, last year, the Trump administration sent in federal agents to protect the Courthouse and put up fencing. These moves were heavily opposed by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and led to more ANTIFA rioting, although in all fairness, pretty much everything seems to lead to more ANTIFA rioting in Portland.
On March 8th, the fencing was taken down. The protesters responded by vandalizing the courthouse, setting fires, burning American flags, and storming a bank. Now, the fencing is going back up. According to the Washington Examiner, Authorities reinstated fencing on Sunday, just days after being removed.
This comes on the heels of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler defunding the police last year and just recently realizing that was a bad idea.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested $2 million in emergency funding for police following a continued spike in shootings & homicides. Last year, the city defunded millions from police & abolished the gun violence reduction team in response to BLM. https://t.co/GVs59VBMCD
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 12, 2021
Of course, it goes without saying that the real problem in Portland isn’t a courthouse. It’s not even the fact that they cut the police budget, although that is a symptom of the same disease. The issue is that the people in charge in Portland sympathize with ANTIFA to such an extent, that they refuse to make them obey the law. ANTIFA is allowed to break the law at will and even if they get caught, they’re rarely prosecuted. If Portland turned the police loose, aggressively arrested ANTIFA members that break the law, and prosecuted them, they could crush ANTIFA in a week. This is the “secret sauce” behind all of the lawbreaking and rioting we’ve seen since last year. It happened almost exclusively in liberal areas, where the people in charge enabled it.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know and you can follow him on Parler here.
