CHAZ, the sequel? Portland demonstrators establish new autonomous zone
Seattle-area radio host Jason Rantz updates the situation on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
Don’t be shocked that Antifa activists and other criminal agitators created an autonomous zone around a foreclosed home in North Portland.
After months of placating and enabling violent radicals, local officials created this problem. Now they’ll have a very hard time ending it. But if they take too long, it may inspire vigilantes to take matters into their own hands or spark other autonomous zones around the country.
Similar to Seattle’s "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ), the Red House occupation scales about two and a half blocks. Dozens of criminal activists set up homemade booby traps, including homemade spike strips, to keep police vehicles out.
There are stockpiles of weapons, according to Portland Police, as well as strategically placed piles of rocks around the interior and exterior for activists to use as weapons should police make another attempt at entry. There are armed guards, a stocked kitchen serving two free meals a day, and a nearby coffee shop supportive of the movement providing free coffee.
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Like CHAZ in its infancy, the Red House is already being lionized and romanticized by folks in and out of the Pacific Northwest. Failed Netflix comedian Chelsea Handler is raising money for the cause.
NBC News THINK contributor Shane Burley is singing the occupation’s praises. But CHAZ ended with murders, an attempted rape, arson, and near-daily assaults and vandalism. How will Portland’s version of CHAZ end?
The “autonomous zone” came about after a protracted battle around a foreclosed home previously owned by the Kinney family. They are black and indigenous, which immediately caught the attention of primarily white progressive activists eager to play literal White Knights. Externally, activists claim this is a fight over gentrification. That’s not quite what this is about.
The Kinneys say they paid their mortgage on time but were caught up in a confusing, predatory loan scheme to take their home. The property was purchased by Urban Housing Development LLC back in 2018, but the family remained in the house according to the New York Post. The family filed lawsuits in state and federal court to keep the home, but they lost each time.
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A court issued an order to evict in February. It was served in September after the family’s failed motion for an emergency stay that would have allowed them to stay. But family members stayed anyway, with some protesters camping out to support them. Over the course of three months, there were problems. At least 81 calls were made to police from the community, complaining of shots fired, fights, theft, trespassing and more.
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Finally, police went in this week to remove the occupants: two of the homeowner’s sons and one non-relative hiding in a crawl space were arrested. But when word got out of the eviction, activists arrived to protest and assault police with rocks and paint-filled balloons -- a common tactic of Portland Antifa. Fearing an escalation, the police retreated.
In their retreat, however, the autonomous zone was created. Activists descended around the Red House, grew in numbers and erected barriers. This was their land and they were staying. Apparently autonomous zones don’t violate Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s coronavirus mandates.
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It was the logical next step in this saga of Portland activism. How did we get here? Almost by design.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler spent the summer placating radical Antifa mobs, rather than sending a message that riots and attempts to hurt or even kill law enforcement was not acceptable. Instead of condemning the violence, Wheeler blamed President Donald Trump and federal law enforcement for stoking the violence, even though it had occurred right after the killing of George Floyd. Federal agents only arrived to protect a federal building after the violence intensified, and local officials did little to nothing to stop it.
At the same time, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced he wouldn’t charge the majority of protest-related arrests. He argued that he believes the rioters’ anger is justified so it would get a pass. By October, he had declined to prosecute 70% of the arrests made, which include allegations of riot, burglary and illegal use of a weapon.
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When there is little consequence for this kind of behavior, you simply enable more of it. Antifa and other agitators are driven by deeply held beliefs. They believe they’re literally fighting fascists; they’re heroes, in their own minds, fighting a just and moral cause.
That makes them especially dangerous. Allowing them to do as they wish is a recipe for disaster.
In the case of the Red House, it’s even got a bizarre twist echoing the sentiments of the fringe Moorish Sovereign Citizens, a radical group that claims our laws don’t apply to them.
They recently made headlines for demanding homeowners in the waterfront community of Edmonds, Wash. leave their property. The activists claimed they’re the real owners of the land.
When the Kinney family was communicating with their lender, they made an audacious claim. According to court documents reviewed by Oregon Public Broadcasting, the homeowner’s son William Nietzche wrote letters to the loan servicer and “made arguments grounded in his claim to be a sovereign citizen and rejecting the authority of the United States government.” Echoing that sentiment at a press conference on Tuesday, the other family son, Michael Kinney, vowed to “reclaim the land.”
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Are these the kinds of activists Portland leaders should feel comfortable with granting extra time to organize and gain momentum?
Every day that passes without police intervention, is another day that increases the likelihood of injury. Untrained vigilantes may get involved, upset with the culture of lawlessness. It happened with deadly consequences in Kenosha, Wisc. It also may inspire similar autonomous zones in and out of the area. After CHAZ in Seattle, autonomous zones popped up in Denver, Nashville, and New York but police, for the most part, were quick to quash them.
Rather than deal with the criminals, drawing a clear line between lawful assembly and illegal rioting, feckless Mayor Wheeler and a permissive, and in some cases downright supportive City Council, previously stood back and let the environment of lawlessness fester.
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Now, these activists think they can get away with anything. And, to be fair, they’re right to think that in Portland.
It’s time for the city to take swift action and correct course before it’s too late.
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