Joey Gibson’s Gamble

Joey Gibson is having his Freedom March tomorrow afternoon in Portland. It will likely be the biggest clash in the streets with Antifa since Charlottesville:

“Today was good in terms that we showed that there’s a political move right now to have the police stand down in order to impact free speech in some of these big cities,” Patriot Prayer’s leader Joey Gibson told KOIN. “Portland’s the last city on the West Coast that’s doing that, so we just have to keep hitting it — I don’t see what else to do other than that. We’ll make Portland so ugly in terms of how they allow these protesters to charge us when we have a permit.”

This weekend, Portland is bracing for round two. Gibson, who is running as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat from Washington, is planning to hold a “Freedom March” on Saturday at the city’s waterfront, the Portland Mercury reported.

It’s shaping up to be a possible tinderbox. Fringe-right media outlets like Alex Jones’s Infowars have promoted the event, and Gibson has reportedly promised that followers from across the country will attend, including members of the Proud Boys, a self-described “western chauvinist” group known for their distinct Fred Perry polo shirts. …”

Gibson has a track record of winning these battles with Antifa. He baited them into rioting in Berkeley last August which killed their momentum following the backlash to Charlottesville. Nancy Pelosi was forced to condemn them after the bad optics emerged of Antifa beating up children. Rufio Panman became a national hero after decking an Antifa thug in the riot in Portland last month.

As I understand it, the goal of the Freedom March is to go into Portland and test whether Mayor Ted Wheeler will issue another stand down order to the police. He is already in the news because the Portland Police allegedly refused to respond to 911 calls from ICE. No one knows whether the Portland Police will do their jobs and maintain law and order at this volatile event.

I’m just going to go on the record and say that this rally is a gamble. We’re all on edge waiting to see how this event in Portland is going to play out. If it goes wrong and someone gets seriously hurt, it is easy to see the Charlottesville 2.0 narrative already being set up. Even though Gibsonfest is going to be a purely civic nationalist event, there could be a major fallout from it that impacts everyone with another round of lawfare, deplatforming and demonization in the media. Alternatively, it is easy to see the Freedom March going well. There could be another viral Rufio knockout moment. There could be another Berkeley that galvanizes the Patriot movement. The best case scenario is that the Portland Police do their jobs, keep both sides separated and Gibson declares victory for forcing the issue.

Who knows though? How many of these rallies will it take to drive home the point that leftwing cities are issuing stand down orders to the police and allowing Antifa to engage in violence? Why hasn’t the Trump Justice Department already done something about it? Are we just going to have another one of these rallies that devolves into violence because Jeff Sessions is asleep?

We saw last year after Charlottesville how quick the GOP was to throw us under the bus. Ultimately, it is only the Justice Department which can intervene and force these cities to stop issuing stand down orders to the police. It doesn’t seem inclined to do anything about the problem though. In order to wake up Jeff Sessions, Joey Gibson is willing to take the risk of becoming another Based Stickman, which is to say loaded down with charges and mired in frivolous lawsuits.

I hope this goes well because I share Joey Gibson’s goal of ending these police stand down orders and allowing free speech and free assembly in leftwing strongholds. I also despise violent Antifa who are the scum of the earth. I just hope Joey isn’t walking into a trap.