The extensive riots and violence happening in Portland today might soon happen in other cities across the country if the government does not act fast enough, conservative journalist Andy Ngo said.
Ngo made the claim while testifying in front of the United States Senate during a hearing conducted by the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution regarding the violence committed by the militant far-Left group Antifa in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
“What we have witnessed are almost daily violent protests and riots led by Antifa. Even when they aren’t starting fires, using explosives, and trying to maim officers, they leave threatening messages like decapitated pig heads outside the courthouse,” Ngo, the editor-at-large of the conservative digital news site Post Millennial, said.
Ngo, who has found himself in the crosshairs of the militant organization multiple times, refuted claims by mainstream media that the group does not exist, stressing during the hearing that the group is not a “myth.”
“Antifa is not a myth. I have been reporting on its activities since 2016. Its threats to me and my family have proven all too real. As any good journalist knows, the most important stories are often those that are not being told. This story is not being told,” Ngo said.
Ngo, during the hearing, noted that because the American public has little to no knowledge about the group’s existence, he has decided to make it his beat. This, Ngo said, made him a target, noting that the group would use violence and intimidation to frighten him into silence.
“They almost succeeded last year when they surrounded me in the middle of downtown Portland. I was beaten so badly that I was hospitalized with a [brain hemorrhage],” Ngo said, referring to an incident wherein he was attacked by the group, which, at that time, was counter-protesting a march held by the Proud Boys, a violent far-Right organization with noted White supremacist leanings.
According to Ngo, who noted that he still suffers from the aftereffects of his beating, nobody has been made accountable for the incident – something he chalks up to mainstream media’s constant downplaying of the group’s extremism.
“Unfortunately, too many in the media have chosen to ignore or downplay this extremism masquerading as demands for racial justice,” Ngo said, adding that the violence he experienced in Portland was organized by the Youth Liberation Front, or YLF, an organization said to have links to Antifa.
This group, Ngo said, has fronts across the country and use social media platforms such as Twitter, to organize and “openly advocate for violent uprisings.” (Related: The FBI has opened over 300 investigations on Antifa domestic terrorism.)
Antifa’s most dangerous ability, Ngo said, is its talent at making violence look “innocuous,” noting that the group – and its fronts – would use harmless-looking objects such as water balloons and umbrellas to inflict damage on their targets.
“Projectiles that look like water balloons can be filled with chemicals, small slingshots can be used to project rocks, glass, and ball bearings into police lines, umbrella tips can be fastened with discrete pocket knives, and powerful, handheld lasers can cause serious damage to the eyes,” he said, adding that the group is especially dangerous when in large numbers as it enables them to carry out “organized criminality” against their targets with relative ease.
Cruz blasts Democrats for “constantly denying” Antifa’s existence
Senator Ted Cruz, the chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, meanwhile, blasted the Democrats taking part in the hearing for not explicitly condemning the violence brought about by Antifa in several key American cities.
Cruz, during the hearing, repeatedly challenged Senator Mazie Hirono – the panel’s ranking minority member and a Democrat – to reject violence specifically by Antifa during the hearing.
The latter, however, refused to do so, noting that their party rejects violence committed by “groups of any stripe.”
Cruz, in response, noted that Hirono’s silence on the matter will be taken as the position of the Democratic Party, adding that none of the Democrats in the session has apologized for uttering slurs against federal law enforcement officers.
“She declined to speak, so that is the position of the Democratic Party. I would note also that of the seven Democratic senators who spoke, not one of them apologized for or denounced multiple Democrats calling law enforcement officers stormtroopers and Gestapo,” Senator Cruz said, referring to several earlier incidents in which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn equated federal troops to both the despotic armies from the science fiction franchise Star Wars and German dictator Adolf Hitler’s secret police, respectively.
https://twitter.com/speakerpelosi/status/1284294427654197248
The two Democrats made the statements following news of President Donald Trump’s plan to send more federal agents to cities known to still be reeling from the effects not just of riots and protests, but also, the recent uptick in crimes.
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