An anti-capitalist, anti-fascist group led by three teenagers is the main organizer behind violent protests in Portland, Oregon, over the past seven weeks that have resulted in millions of dollars in damage to the city, according to a new report.
The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front was launched on Twitter in 2018 by several teenagers, including at least one high school student. The account describes itself to its 21,000 followers as a “decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives dedicated to direct action toward liberation.” The group wants to achieve a political revolution and has attempted it by destroying monuments and storefronts in the city, starting fires in the streets, and spraying graffiti on government buildings as it continues nightly riots.
“We are a bunch of teenagers armed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and yerba mate — we can take a 5 a.m. raid and be back on our feet a few hours later,” the group wrote on June 18. “We’ll be back again and again until every prison is reduced to ashes and every wall to rubble.”
Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler on Sunday night called for peace and an end to the destruction after a protester and federal agent were hurt over the weekend, but he has not revealed the organization’s role behind the nightly riots.
“Portland is an autonomous zone, bitch,” PNYLF wrote on Twitter Monday morning. “Blaming the people lighting fires for the feds’ violence is f—ing absurd, and yelling at them to step forward and identify themselves is literal policing. C’mon, its been 46 long nights, we know better than this.”
The group’s leaders remain anonymous, and its Twitter page urges community members to join them in the streets while also commenting in real time about what is unfolding. Portland police Deputy Chief Chris Davis told reporters last week that officers are facing an “unprecedented” stretch of protests, continuing long after peaceful protests and riots in dozens of other cities faded in the days and weeks following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Last month, protesters unsuccessfully attempted to overtake the city block where Wheeler’s apartment is located in an effort to create a Portland version of Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone.
Federal law enforcement from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals Service were sent to assist Portland police several weeks ago, but the violence worsened over Independence Day weekend and again this past weekend. A federal agent standing outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse downtown was hit in the head and on the shoulder by a hammer that a protester threw Friday night. On Saturday night, a federal employee used nonlethal munitions on the crowd and seriously injured one man.
Millions in damages have been reported, according to the Seattle Times. Three weeks ago, rioters torched a dumpster and pushed it into a building that held a police station and minority-owned businesses. Two young men were later arrested. Tony Hopson, president of an organization that helps young people overcome poverty, told the Seattle Times that these riots were doing more harm than help to the black community.
“I know whoever was behind this thinks they were doing it — or perhaps are trying to have us think they were doing it — in the names of Black Lives Matter,” said Hopson, president of Self Enhancement. “We know that it was just the opposite. Not only was it not about Black Lives Matter. It was against Black Lives Matter.”
