Portland Takes a Step Back With Ngo Verdict

This is literally why we can't have nice things

At the outset of this article, I want to make it crystal clear that I adore Portland. I grew up heading into the city for big events and misspent my youth at its clubs. I walked along the waterfront during the Rose Festival and admired the natural beauty of the city:

The Portland Waterfront

My fond Portland memories span nearly all aspects of my childhood and my early adulthood. In all that time, I never felt unsafe on the streets of Portland (self-induced spins aside). From the rivers and bridges to the…….unusual statues, there’s nowhere in the world like Portland.

I’ve had many drunken conversations with Mr. Elk. He’s a great listener!

That said, it’s no secret that recently Portland has been in a downward spiral caused by terrible leadership and politicization of nearly everything — including law enforcement.

During the “Summer of Love” in 2020, Portland was the scene of riots for over 100 straight days. Every night, Antifa rioters would gather and pepper police with rocks or bottles or fireworks or whatever else they could get their hands on. More than once, they attempted to burn people alive. They forced the mayor to move out of his condo.

It’s not an overstatement to say the city resembled a war zone, night after night.

Scenes like this are why I laugh at people who call 1/6 an ‘insurrection’ — and such scenes were common on the streets of Portland the entire summer. The results were obvious — even to Portland’s iconic elk. (Shocker, the elk’s return has been delayed until at least 2024 due to “bureaucratic delays”.)

The aftermath

And while rioting and property destruction have factored into Portland’s spiral, Oregon’s “public camping” law has also contributed heavily.

Well, it’s not a surprise this leads to an uptick in very public homelessness, as seen just outside Delta Park (a popular softball complex):

This is only one view of one park of the encampment, which runs for maybe a half-mile. (To get the full scope of the problem, click the picture to view the KGW story, which includes full video.)

For these reasons, and a few more, Portland has been the popular whipping boy for sane people across the country — a warning to Anytown, USA about the dangers of poor leadership. And while this status is well-deserved, I want to make it abundantly clear that when I rip on Portland, I do it because I remember how AWESOME it used to be. And when the city does something to attempt to reverse its slide, I’m rooting for it to recover.

That’s why the recent verdict in the Andy Ngo trial was so upsetting.

To provide a little background, Andy Ngo is a journalist who was covering the Portland riots on the ground as they were happening. Ngo uploaded videos of the chaos and was well-known to the protestors, who (as they do) attempted to run him out of town to get him to stop reporting. On a couple occasions, Ngo was physically attacked.

In this trial, Mr. Ngo was suing Elizabeth Richter and John Hacker for “assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” stemming from their role in the attacks. (Specifically, pointing Ngo out to the hostile crowd)

Richter and Hacker - originally posted by The Post Millennial

As the Portland Mercury mentions in its headline, the jury ruled against Mr. Ngo — finding the pair of defendants not liable in the case.

But — as you might expect — that’s not where the story stops. Not by a long shot.

What the Portland Mercury doesn’t mention is that the judge was concerned about Antifa members doxxing members of the jury in order to uncover their identities. Also missing from the story is that the defense attorney — conveniently retiring Michelle Burrows — told the jury that she "will remember each one of their faces" after earlier declaring “I am Antifa”.

Changes the narrative a little bit, don’t you think? Sure sounds like jury intimidation — in front of a jury that’s already fearful about their roles in the trial. This is extremely reminiscent of the Derek Chauvin trial, where the jury had a security escort to and from the courtroom. And everybody knew what would happen if Chauvin was found not guilty.

Who would be protesting, I wonder?

Think that Portland wasn’t ready to “start up” again if this trial didn’t go their way? Check out what happened to the car of the journalist covering the story, Katie Daviscourt:

Clearly Portland isn’t quite ready to return to civilization. It’s a shame.

It’s more than a little ironic this verdict comes down as Donald Trump stands indicted for ‘exploit[ing] the violence and chaos’ of January 6th. It’s almost as if there’s a “special” legal standard for those who stand against the ruling regime.

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