Portland Cache of Sniper Rifles

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler set the liberal media’s hair aflame by proclaiming that Patriot Prayer countermoonbats brought a so-called “cache” of rifles to the roof of a parking garage prior to an August 4 protest.

Portland Mercury denounced the “right-wing provocateurs.” “Why didn’t the mayor know?” Willamette Week demanded. Characteristically, Newsweek outdoes the rest for breathless hysteria:

Members of the far-right group Patriot Prayer armed with sniper rifles had to be “redirected” from a rooftop ahead of a planned march in Portland, Oregon, police have revealed. …

Patriot Prayer, who deny allegations they are a hate group, have staged several rallies in Portland in recent months, each one breaking out into violence and being met with counterdemonstrations.

Making a point of stating that they deny they are a “hate group” is of course the media’s unsubtle way of calling them a hate group, even if the victims of their alleged hate are left unspecified.

Hate group snipers have taken over the rooftops of Portland! Hide the women and children!

A more responsible report from The Oregonian explains what really happened:

Police said they found four people on top of a parking garage at Southwest First Avenue and Jefferson Street on Aug. 4 with three rifles, all in cases.

Some cache.

They let the police inspect the rifles, none of which was loaded and only two of which were even assembled.

The men told police they planned to stay at the garage and “act as a quick extraction team” in case someone from their group was injured during the demonstration.

This is a concern because Patriot Prayer rallies are invariably set upon by Antifa goons spoiling for a fight — thus the violence that Newsweek implies is the fault of Patriot Prayer.

A sergeant instructed the men to store the rifles in a locked container in the back of one of their pickups and place any ammunition in a different part of the truck, and they complied. Police made no arrests.

No laws were broken and there was no imminent danger to the public, police said Tuesday.

Nonetheless, the cache of sniper rifles hysteria sparked by Wheeler and amplified by the media may help him impose new restrictions on the First Amendment rights of assembly and free speech:

Portland may put new restrictions on when and where protesters may demonstrate if the groups protesters belong to have a history of violence, Wheeler announced.

The ordinance, a draft copy of which was circulated by the mayor’s office, would also allow Wheeler to restrict protests if public safety “is being threatened or will be threatened” or if there is “a substantial likelihood of violence at the planned demonstrations.”

Given Wheeler’s history of refusing to maintain law and order when his fellow leftists run riot (see here and here), it is highly likely that the new restrictions would apply only to right-of-center groups like Patriot Prayer.

On tips from Pork_Soda.

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