Parade Canceled Following Violent Threat in Email

Tuesday, organizers of Portland's annual Avenue of Roses parade announced the parade, originally scheduled for today, would be canceled in response to a menacing email they received from protesters.

The organizers originally intended to continue with the event with additional support from the Portland Police Department but when notified by the police that they could not offer more security, they canceled the event due to the possibility of "the type of riots which happen in downtown Portland."

Select Photos from the 2016 Parade

The Perpetrators?

Two protesting groups were cited in the email sent to the parade organizers: Oregon Students Empowered and Direct Action Alliance, both groups self-proclaim to be fighting "fascism" and "neo-Nazism".

The photograph used by Oregon Students Empowered in their now-cancelled Facebook event page "Shut down fascism! No Nazis in Portland".

Oregon Students Empowered

The Oregon Students Empowered (OSE), a political activism group comprised of college students throughout the state, openly threatened to disrupt the event in the event the participants they labeled as Nazis were not barred from participation.

The mission statement listed on the OSE Facebook group is "We are an organization of students in Oregon fighting against fascism and injustice in our state and country" and the mission statement listed on the protest's event page, titled "Shut down fascism! No Nazis in Portland", is as follows:

"3%ers and Nazis are planned on infiltrating the Avenue of roses Parade a couple days after the counter event was made a letter was sent to the organizers of the parade saying remove these fascists who directly harm POC, immigrants and the LGBT community from marching or we will come into the parade and shut them out and the organizers canceled the event and blamed it on "threats of violence", we are sad that he organizer shut down the parade for everyone rather than kicking out the fascists.

Now, Patriot prayer a "organization" that views Nazism as patriotism has created a event called "march for free speech 82nd ave" which sounds just a like the alt right "free speech rally" where Nazis from all over the country came together and spewed hate speech and gave Nazi salutes.
We will not let Nazis and fascists march in Portland, we will defend our city!
We expect anyone against fascism and Nazism to show up and shut it down!"

The photograph used by Direct Action Alliance in the official Facebook event page.

Direct Action Alliance

The second cited protesting group, the Direct Action Alliance, has also threatened to disrupt the event under the pretenses of the rise of fascism and Nazism. According to their Facebook page, the "DAA organized in response to the rise of fascism in America. We are an alliance of the minority to form the majority. You are not alone, not now, not ever."

The event page for their protest, titled "Defend Portland from Fascists at the Avenue of Roses parade" also reads like an Orwellian thought police brigade. The details they listed for the event are as follows:

"Fascists plan to march through the streets of Portland in the Avenue of Roses Parade on 82nd.

The fascists know that we'll keep shutting their marches down, they are now planning to march within other parades to protect their message of hate and white supremacy - it WON'T work.
Nazis will not march through Portland unopposed.

The group we're disrupting is #67.
It is registered to the Multnomah County Republicans, but these infiltrators are the same folks from Lake Oswego, Salem, Vancouver, and even Berkeley. These are the folks that attacked a woman at PDX, they harassed Latinx parishioners with slurs and threats at a local church, they spew hate, threaten and curse young women at women's health clinics. They seek to intimidate and harass our Latinx, Muslim and LGBTQ+ neighbors and friends. Their Trump flags, their red MAGA hats and their hate group badges are all intended to normalize support for an orange man who bragged about sexually harassing women and who is waging a war of hate, racism and prejudice against our Muslim, Latinx, Black and Native neighbors.

They will attempt to march from the Eastport Plaza to Yamhill, but Nazis will not freely march through our city.

This event is not in opposition to The Avenue of Roses Parade or the Multnomah Republicans, it is against the fascists who intend to march through our neighborhoods and intimidate our marginalized communities"

Various ANTIFA rioting in the streets, causing fires.

The "Anti-Fascists" Miss the Irony Again

These self-proclaimed "anti-fascists" miss the hypocrisy in their own behavior yet again. In an attempt to suppress what they believe to be fascism and nazism, the anti-fascist groups of America have frequently adopted fascist tactics in order to achieve their end goal. They deny others their Constitutionally-protected right to free speech and to peacefully assemble to further their political views.

Before Hitler's rise to power in Germany, after which he could use the absolute power of the German state to achieve this end. he organized militia groups who roamed the streets using violence and threats of violence to silence communist and democratic opposition. These groups were coined "Brownshirts", modeled after Mussolini's "Blackshirts", organized for the same purpose.

Now the anti-fascists have adopted the same model, threatening any group with a political ideology or belief system that differs from them and/or opposes them. To put it succinctly, I believe a Winston Churchill quote is in order: