NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Portland ‘ground zero’ for protests between right, left-wing
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Hun-
dreds of far-right protest-
ers and anti-fascist count-
er-demonstrators swarmed
downtown Portland on Sat-
urday for a long-hyped rally
that attracted President Don-
ald Trump’s attention and
resulted in at least 13 arrests.
Police seized metal poles,
bear spray and other weapons
and closed bridges and streets
to try to keep the rival groups
apart. They were largely suc-
cessful. Six minor injuries
were reported.
“This was a dynamic
event with demonstrators
frequently moving from one
part of the city to another,”
Mayor Ted Wheeler said at
an evening news conference.
Leaders of the right-wing
groups vowed to return to
Portland, saying they would
keep coming back to the lib-
eral West Coast city so long
as the left-wing antifascist,
known as antifa, groups
remained active.
President Donald Trump
weighed in early Satur-
day, writing on Twitter that
“Portland is being watched
very closely... Hopefully the
Mayor will be able to prop-
erly do his job.”
He also wrote that “major
consideration is being given
to naming ANTIFA an
‘ORGANIZATION of TER-
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Members of the Proud Boys and other right-wing demonstrators march across the Hawthorne
Bridge during an “End Domestic Terrorism” rally in Portland on Saturday. The group includes or-
ganizer Joe Biggs, in green hat, and Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, holding megaphone.
ference Portland’s mayor said
Biggs was not welcome. “We
do not want him here in my
city. Period,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler tied the demon-
strations to “a rising white
nationalist movement” and a
growing sense of fear in the
country.
“We’re certainly seeing
that play out,” he said. “Port-
land being a very progressive
community is always going
to be at or near ground zero
of this battle.”
The events began late Sat-
urday morning. Flag-wav-
ROR.’” It wasn’t immedi-
ately clear what he meant by
that because there’s no mech-
anism for the United States
government to declare a
domestic organization a ter-
ror group.
Joe Biggs, the organizer of
the right-wing gathering, said
it was a success.
“Go look at President
Trump’s Twitter,” he told The
Oregonian/OregonLive. “He
talked about Portland, said
he’s watching antifa. That’s
all we wanted.”
At the evening news con-
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
ing members of the Proud
Boys, Three Percenters mili-
tia group and others gathered
downtown, some wearing
body armor and helmets like
the antifa protesters. Police
said they had seized the
weapons, including shields,
from multiple groups as they
assembled along the Wil-
lamette River, which runs
through the city.
More than two dozen
local, state and federal
law enforcement agencies,
including the FBI, were in the
city for the right-wing rally.
Partly sunny
Beautiful with
clouds and sun
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
Partly sunny;
breezy in the p.m.
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
94° 64°
85° 58°
80° 52°
85° 57°
86° 62°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
96° 67°
87° 59°
83° 52°
88° 61°
88° 64°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
70/60
92/57
93/60
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
95/67
Lewiston
80/59
96/68
Astoria
70/60
Pullman
Yakima 95/64
79/55
99/67
Portland
Hermiston
85/60
The Dalles 96/67
Salem
Corvallis
78/54
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
93/59
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
80/56
91/56
95/59
Ontario
100/63
Caldwell
Burns
90°
66°
87°
57°
106° (1967) 42° (1973)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
81/55
0.00"
0.05"
0.12"
4.61"
5.13"
6.04"
WINDS (in mph)
98/60
93/52
0.00"
0.10"
0.26"
9.71"
6.49"
8.21"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 91/54
81/58
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
94/64
92/64
88°
55°
87°
57°
109° (1897) 37° (1916)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
82/58
Aberdeen
91/63
91/66
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
81/61
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
93/61
Wed.
WSW 3-6
NNW 4-8
WSW 8-16
W 8-16
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
87/50
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:01 a.m.
7:55 p.m.
10:30 p.m.
10:57 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Aug 23
Aug 30
Sep 5
Sep 13
NATIONAL EXTREMES
warrant for felony rioting. He
was at a confrontation that
broke out on May 1 outside
a bar where antifa members
had gathered after a May Day
demonstration.
In a video he lives-
treamed on Facebook, Gib-
son accused the police of
playing politics by arresting
him but not the masked dem-
onstrators who beat up con-
servative blogger Andy Ngo
at a June 29 rally that drew
national attention.
A video of that attack went
viral and led the Proud Boys,
who have been designated a
hate group by the Southern
Poverty Law Center, to orga-
nize Saturday’s event.
Police continue to inves-
tigate several incidents from
clashes on May 1 and June
29 and are politically neutral,
Jones said.
Authorities had asked res-
idents not to call 911 Satur-
day unless it’s a life-threat-
ening emergency and to
stay away from the heart of
downtown.
Portland Police Chief
Danielle Outlaw said author-
ities tried to keep every-
one safe and allow people
to exercise their free speech
rights during the rallies.
“Today was a long and
arduous day,” Outlaw said
at the news conference.
“The disruptions were
held to a very small area of
downtown Portland.”
La Grande pastor launching DREAMS
program for middle school students
By DICK MASON
EO Media Group
Very warm with
plenty of sun
Portland Police said all of the
city’s 1,000 officers would be
on duty for the gathering that
was hyped on social media
and elsewhere for weeks.
As of early afternoon,
most of the right-wing
groups had left the area via
a downtown bridge. Police
used officers on bikes and
in riot gear to keep black-
clad, mask-wearing anti-fas-
cist protesters from following
them.
But hundreds of peo-
ple remained downtown and
on nearby streets, and there
were skirmishes through-
out the day. Police declared
a gathering of mostly left-
wing protesters near Pioneer
Courthouse Square a “civil
disturbance” and told people
to leave.
Police spokeswoman Lt.
Tina Jones at one point said
there were about 1,200 on the
streets, but that number fell
throughout the day.
The
self-described
anti-fascists had vowed to
confront the right-wing
rally, while leaders from the
far right urged their follow-
ers to turn out in large num-
bers to protest the arrests of
six members of right-wing
groups in the run-up to the
event.
Patriot Prayer’s Joey Gib-
son, who organized simi-
lar rallies in 2017 and 2018
that erupted in clashes, sur-
rendered Friday on an arrest
LA GRANDE — Father
Saji Thomas is returning
to his roots this week at La
Grande Middle School.
Thomas, who served as
an educator in India for a
decade before moving to
La Grande in 2015, is help-
ing to oversee the start of a
new three-year program for
LMS students designed to
help them develop greater
feelings of self-worth, learn
how to set goals, form val-
ues and much more.
The program is named
DREAMS, and got off to a
promising start last week.
A total of 23 children, all
weeks away from enter-
ing sixth grade, attended a
five-day kickoff camp for
DREAMS, which stands for
Desire, Readiness, Empow-
erment, Action, Mastery
and Success. The program
was brought to La Grande
by Thomas, pastor of Our
Lady of the Valley Catho-
lic Church. Thomas said he
wanted DREAMS started
in La Grande because he
saw how successful it has
been in other communities
in the United States and in
India.
Thomas is enjoying
the opportunity to again
work with children as an
educator.
“I like teaching children
and helping them grow,” he
said.
Thomas is not only advis-
ing students, but also giv-
ing them the opportunity to
instruct him. For example,
one student, Ella Ganung,
taught him a card game
during a break Thursday.
Thomas was a princi-
pal in India a total of 10
years before coming to La
Grande. His last five years
in India were spent as prin-
cipal of a large school for
students in kindergarten
through 12th grade in the
city of Bangalore.
He learned about the
DREAMS program through
one of its primary found-
ers, Father Lijo Thomas of
India, who is also a Catholic
priest. (Lijo and Saji are not
related.) Lijo Thomas devel-
oped the curriculum for the
program as part of the thesis
he wrote for a doctorate in
education degree he earned
from the University of Lou-
isiana at Monroe.
Lijo
Thomas
was
instrumental in bringing
DREAMS to La Grande,
Saji Thomas said, along
with people including Al
Adelsberger, a La Grande
businessman.
The
La
Grande School District,
which is not affiliated with
DREAMS, has also helped
by providing space for pro-
gram sessions.
Saji Thomas is one of the
12 mentors in the La Grande
DREAMS program. The
mentors are a mix of com-
munity members, Eastern
Oregon University students
and La Grande High School
seniors. After this week’s
five-day camp ends, the
mentors will meet with the
DREAMS students every
three months for a day to
advise them and see how
they are doing. The men-
tors will also meet with the
DREAMS students at five-
day camps in 2020 and 2021.
Sophia Madsen, one
of the mentors, is looking
forward to the follow-up
sessions.
“I’m excited about seeing
them grow and keeping up
with them,” she said.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 110° in Needles, Calif. Low 30° in Stanley, Idaho
BRIEFLY
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Entire OPT wolf pack in NE
Washington killed
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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SPOKANE — All members of a wolf
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killed.
The Washington Department of Fish
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four remaining members of the OPT wolf
pack on Ferry County had been killed.
The wolf pack had been responsible for
29 depredation incidents on cattle since
2018, the agency says.
Agency director Kelly Susewind autho-
rized the deaths on July 31.
Environmental groups opposed the kill-
ings, which they contend benefit only one
ranch operation in the Kettle River range.
The agency believes it has removed
all members of the OPT pack, although
another wolf was sighted in the area this
spring. It may be from another pack.
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Crews battle large blaze in
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The Statesman Journal reported the
fire was initially reported before 3 a.m.
Monday.
Fire officials stated that the blaze
engulfed a large number of wooden pal-
lets but crews had made good progress
and had the fire spread contained as of
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