As a nod to the standards of white mainstream journalism, this story is reported in the language used to report crimes involving Black suspects, “officer-involved” shootings and protests against racial injustice.
Police are investigating a military veteran’s involvement in what appears to be a white-on-white shooting death of a gang member participating in a protest to support racism. Although the event was not sponsored by Donald Trump or the Republican Party, the pro-Trump flags waved by the participants at the deadly event make it an official Trump rally in the same way that legitimate news outlets blame Black Lives Matter for the backlash every time a window breaks near a protest against police brutality.
According to the Oregonian, “sources familiar with the case but not authorized to speak” are investigating 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl, who calls himself an antifascist, for his involvement in a gang-related shootout on Saturday night. During the incident in downtown Portland, Aaron Danielson, an activist with the right-wing terror group Patriot Prayer, died from a gunshot wound to the chest during a caravan sponsored by Donald Trump supporters. Grainy video of the incident appears to show a tall, thin white man running from the scene who was obviously fearing for his life after witnesses say Danielson allegedly sprayed bystanders with pepper spray or mace.
Patriot Prayer is a far-right white nationalist-adjacent organization founded in 2016 by gang leader Joey Gibson (whose criminal indictment for their involvement in a riot that left a woman unconscious with a broken spine means the group literally fits the definition of “gang”). The group sponsors events that seem to attract white nationalists from all over the country.
Although Reinoehl has a warrant out for his arrest for allegedly failing to appear in court, he hasn’t been convicted of a crime. Therefore, we shall instead call him a father with preexisting conditions who was exercising his Second Amendment right and adhering to Oregon’s marijuana laws when state police officers found weed, prescription pills and an unlicensed firearm in his car as he raced against his 17-year-old son at 111 mph as his 11-year-old daughter rode along. Not everyone can afford tickets to Six Flags.
“Shortly after that, Reinoehl began posting about the protests in Portland,” the Oregonian reports, adding:
On June 16, he wrote, “Every Revolution needs people that are willing and ready to fight. There are so many of us protesters that are just protesting without a clue of where that will lead. That’s just the beginning that’s that where the fight starts. If that’s as far as you can take it thank you for your participation but please stand aside and support the ones that are willing to fight. I am 100 % ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! ... We do not want violence but we will not run from it either! ... Today’s protesters and antifa are my brothers in arms.”
On the Bloomberg video posted July 27, Reinoehl said he had been shot and turns to the camera to show a bloody bandage on his right arm. He claimed he intervened in an earlier fight between a man with a gun and Black youths.
He said on the video that he’d been “working security and trying to keep protected” someone in the crowd when he got shot as he tried to wrestle a gun away from the man harassing the kids. He didn’t say where that it happened. The account couldn’t be immediately confirmed.
Reinoehl’s 36-year-old sister said she found out that her brother was involved and called Portland detectives to confirm it was him in the footage of the shooting. She confessed that Reinoehl has been estranged from the family for three years and describes him as “impulsive and irrational,” which is why he probably feared for his safety when right-winger Alex Klyzik organized a caravan of nearly 1,000 cars through Portland. The participants were urged to bring their guns in the parade that spurned “multiple fights” as the Republican rioters committed drive-by shootings with paintball guns, mace and pepper balls, according to NBC, CNN and multiple witnesses.
Law and order advocate Donald Trump praised the white-on-white crime committed by the GOP protesters who want more racism and dead Black people. (If every demonstration against racism, inequality and police violence is automatically reported, with no evidence whatsoever, as a “Black Lives Matter” protest, then this is a fair assessment.)
Some blamed the violence on Black Lives Matter, including one fan of the right-wing extremist organization.
It’s important to withhold judgment until all the facts come out but, if we want this to end, Caucasian Americans have to take responsibility for the white-on-white crime ravaging our cities. What about the violence in Kenosha? This starts with family values, and I partially blame the single-parent white families that don’t have role models for thugs like Kyle Rittenhouse and others who are causing this scourge of this inner-city crime. These protests are getting out of hand.
Or, here’s a thought:
Maybe we can just stop killing Black people.