'I Am 100% Antifa,' Suspect in Execution of Trump Supporter Admitted Online
As Portland, Oregon, enters its fourth month as a war zone, a recent casualty and the suspect who allegedly shot him speak to a broader conflict playing out there in real time.
Suspected killer Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, allegedly gunned down 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson during violent demonstrations in the city just after 9 p.m. Saturday, The Oregonian reported.
Friends remembered the victim as “a proud American and a proud Portlander” who joined supporters of President Donald Trump that day in a car caravan of members of Patriot Prayer, a faith-based pro-First and Second Amendment group.
The group has a history of facing off against the violent radicals in antifa, and before the caravan had even left the suburban mall where vehicles decked out in pro-Trump banners and American flags congregated before the rally, demonstrators on both sides clashed, according to NBC News.
The organization and police originally coordinated a route around the city, but a blocked on-ramp dumped the convoy into the downtown area and forced the caravan to split into smaller groups, which put the motorcade into the belly of the beast where Danielson was killed.
Prior to that night, Reinoehl, Danielson’s alleged assailant, was caught with a loaded weapon at another Black Lives Matter protest in Portland and fought with police officers, but charges were never pursued.
“Officers arrested a male at SW Broadway and Main St. who had a loaded firearm on his person,” the Portland Police Bureau tweeted after his arrest July 5.
“He fought with office[r]s during the arrest.”
Officers arrested a male at SW Broadway and Main St. who had a loaded firearm on his person. He fought with offices during the arrest. pic.twitter.com/RXgYHnB5ue
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) July 5, 2020
It was just weeks before that confrontation with police that Reinoehl published a diatribe laying out exactly what he was willing to do in the name of antifa.
Nightly riots continued to plague Portland back then — as they did nationwide — sparked off by the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd in police custody on May 25.
“Every Revolution needs people that are willing and ready to fight,” Reinoehl began in his June 16 Instagram post.
“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 where the fight starts,” he wrote.
“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,” Reinoehl continued.
“I am 100% ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! Even if some of them are too ignorant to realize what antifa truly stands for,” he said.
Reinoehl went on to claim that he didn’t “want violence” but that he wouldn’t “run from it either,” citing supposed police brutality against peaceful protesters as justification to respond in kind.
“We truly have an opportunity right now to fix everything,” he added. “But it will be a fight like no other! It will be a war and like all wars there will be casualties.”
“I was in the army and I hated it. I did not feel like fighting for them would ever be a good cause. Today’s protesters and antifa are my brothers in arms,” Reinoehl said.
“This is a Cause to fight for This truly is fighting for my country! I have children that need to live in a world run by Common Sense and human decency,” he said, likely referring to his 17-year-old son and 11-year old daughter.
His care and concern for his children didn’t seem to be a factor when he was caught street racing at over 100 mph with his son in June, or when he was caught with a handgun, pills and marijuana while his daughter was a passenger in his vehicle shortly before the June 16 post, according to another article in The Oregonian.
“And I will do anything to make sure that happens,” he continued in the Instagram post before warning that missing out on this opportunity to “change the course of humanity” would have them “lost for another hundred years.”
Ironically, the loosely organized movement antifa bills itself as being against fascism, although its tactics of shutting down and using violence against people with which it disagrees gives lie to that claim.
In fact, leftist demonstrators rejoiced at the news of Danielson’s death, and judging from the words Reinoehl used months before he allegedly killed Danielson, this is exactly in line with what he believed needed to happen to advance their cause.
The fallacy of Black Lives Matter and antifa engaging in “mostly peaceful protests” is exposed in every city street strewn with broken glass and burned-out businesses and evident in the number of police officers killed or injured.
These organizations are out for destruction and bloodshed — maybe not to the extent of unhinged folks like Reinoehl, but vandalism and violence are, after all, fruits of the same poisonous sociopathic tree.
There’s no telling whether the people who commit violent crimes were already primed to do so before the opportunity presented itself, or whether they have been pushed from word into deed by the current permissive climate for that sort of action.
Either way, a segment of the population has crossed the threshold into criminal behavior because politicians have been unwilling to stop their cities from descending into chaos.
Black Lives Matter and antifa are telling Americans exactly what they’re all about through violence, whether it is against property, police officers or other individuals.
State and city leaders need to take heed and restore law and order before their rhetoric is taken to its fatal conclusion again.
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