Another Charlottesville? Threats of Violence Loom Over Upcoming Portland 'Proud Boys', Patriot Prayer Rally

Joey Gibson, founder of Patriot Prayer

By Hatewatch Staff

Since early last year, the far-right groups Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have held more than a dozen rallies throughout the Pacific Northwest under the banner of “freedom” — and with talk of bringing weapons and declarations that “this is war,” members are threatening to make next weekend’s march the most combustible yet.

Update: Since this story was originally published last week, Patriot Movement AZ announced they were dropping out of the Portland and Berkeley rallies. Instead, they will be holding their own event in Tucson called “Refuse Alt-Left Fascism.” The status of the August 5 rally in Berkeley is uncertain after a rash of infighting and an announcement from Gavin McInnes that the Proud Boys 

“DISAVOW” the event. Berkeley rally organizer Amber Gwen Cummings still plans to hold the event, but has warned attendees it “is not gonna be someplace you're gonna be safe.” Joey Gibson condemned Cummings’ original decision to include the American Guard in the Berkeley rally, but will still attend.

Gibson also made explicit Patriot Prayer’s intention to attend the Portland rally fully armed. “We’ve always had guns at the rally,” he said. “Everyone should be carrying around guns at all times, especially people in our situation.”

These events have always been about exhibiting machismo, but — as political divisions in the country have grown — they’ve developed a more targeted purpose: far-right activists taking out their aggression on political opponents. As Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes once put it, “Fighting solves everything.”

Or, as their slogan goes, “Fuck around and find out.”

The glorification of violence was indisputable late last month, when the Proud Boys found a new hero on the streets of Portland. At a rally hosted by Patriot Prayer, 28-year-old Ethan Nordean — a burly member of the “Western chauvinist” group who goes by the moniker Rufio Panman in a reference to Stephen Spielberg’s Peter Pan film Hook — knocked out a black-clad counter-protester in a single swift punch.

A video of the hit went viral, landing Panman a chummy interview with McInnes and another with Alex Jones on Infowars. It even earned praise from those who normally mock the Proud Boys for their bizarre conventions: matching black-and-yellow polos, rules against masturbation and initiation rituals that include screaming the names of breakfast cereals while being beaten by fellow members. “I’m never makin fun of proudboys again,” Jesse Dunstan, co-host of the white supremacist podcast “The Daily Shoah,” tweeted in response to Nordean’s punch.

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Source: The Southern Poverty Law Center