No, activists are not setting wildfires around PDX, tho my buddy is pretty sure 3 idiotic teenagers set a fire on Elk Island near his house 2 nights ago. We did have someone set fire to a gas line of a hotel; it didn't take but could have been cataclysmic archive.vn/pjaJM
I've read up a bit on the perpetrator, who is under arrest. He's had trouble with the law since at least 2012 (b & e; harassment); he's 36; his FB profile + photos do not fit any variation of the activist profile we've been seeing. Which could mean any number of things!
He could be a random hooligan, using the mayhem in the city as cover. Could be someone who locks onto any part of the movement in order to find a place to land/gain a sense of identity; I feel strongly this was the case with Michael Reinoehl (and will be writing more about that)
What I think will grow in tandem with the current movements (both nonviolent and violent) are individuals glomming on for the glow, people convincing themselves (or not) that this is the place to make a stand, to make a move. It's deeply troubling and can be contained by no one
Another reason to call things by their proper names. I've written before about the trouble we invite when the term "peaceful protest" becomes elastic, when people whip on ideological glasses and see property destruction as freedom of expression, change by any means necessary
I will be the kajillionth person to observe as much but, when small violences are excused and heralded, it's axiomatic step-up ones will be. Anyone who thinks blowing up a hotel, or burning people, cannot be reinterpreted as in the interest of justice has not read history
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