Above photo: Proud Boy Alan Swinney fires paintballs at antifascist counter-protesters this summer. Jonathan Levinson.
NOTE: It says something about the times in which we live that the police arresting a far right protestor is news. What we have seen so much of is police colluding with the far right even when they go so far as to shoot and kill people as happened in Kenosha, WI. And even though the Department of Homeland Security and FBI know that white far right people are the greatest terror risk in the United States, the majority of arrests are of people of color and leftist activists.
Unicorn Riot gives more background to the person arrested, Alan Swinney, and the tactics being used by the right to organize protests, instigate a response and claim self defense. This is important to understand in order to plan our tactics.
When we were protecting the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, we experienced the same tactics by the violent pro-coup fascists who surrounded the embassy and tried to terrorize us. They would provoke us with threats, insults, arguing and assaults. It was clear that law enforcement was working with them. We worked to not engage or respond but to hold our space, which was our reason for being there in the first place. We can’t allow ourselves to be drawn into their tactics. We must focus on our purpose and do what we need to do to protect ourselves and achieve our goals. – MF
Portland Police have arrested a far-right protester and member of the Proud Boys who pointed a gun at antifascist protesters on Aug. 22 in downtown Portland.
Alan James Swinney, 50, is being held in the Multnomah County Jail on multiple assault charges, pointing a firearm at another, unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of tear gas, stun gun or mace.
Photographs and video from the Aug. 22 rally outside the Multnomah County Justice Center depict Swinney pointing a revolver at a crowd of counterprotesters. Many far-right protesters at the event used weapons such as paintball guns and baseball bats to assault opposing protesters, though there was no police intervention that day due to staffing shortages, police have said. (NOTE: The police use a tactic of staying out of spaces where the right wing are operating in order to allow the right to be violent without being held accountable for it.)
Swinney had originally claimed police had cleared him of any wrongdoing related to the violent street brawl that took place at that protest.
Jail records show police booked Swinney the morning after President Trump told the Proud Boys — a designated hate group that regularly engages in street violence — to “stand by” after he was asked to denounce white supremacists and violent extremists at Tuesday night’s presidential debate.