Thread by @cjcmichel

NEW: For @POLITICOMag, I dove into what Portland portends—or doesn’t—for the future of political violence in the U.S. politico.com/news/magazine/…

Want to highlight a couple quotes from extremism researchers about Portland:

—"It’s hard to be optimistic in the near- or medium-term for Portland.”
—"People may have traveled to Portland to get some battle experience, so to speak."

On the killing of the far-right Patriot Prayer member last month: "Just like a foreign fighter would go to Syria or Ukraine—it’s the same experience. You’re on the ground, seeing the deterioration of civil order, and it reinforces your little wet dream of an apocalyptic outcome."

On Trump's apparent embrace of retribution killings:

"If ever there was a moment for the president of the U.S. to be saying, ‘Calm the fuck down everybody, the U.S. is fine...’ it’s now. But at a moment when the president should be saying that, he’s saying the precise opposite.”

—"I thought some of the recent [political] killings might cause some people to pause for a moment, take a breath. But that doesn’t seem to have happened.”
—"We’re in for a long six to eight months [in Portland], and maybe even longer than that."

politico.com/news/magazine/…

‘Leaked chat logs show Portland-area pro-Trump activists planning and training for violence, sourcing arms and ammunition and even suggesting political assassinations’ theguardian.com/world/2020/sep…

Parts of this piece on escalating tactics in Portland almost read like satire: nytimes.com/2020/09/21/us/…

‘But on this one topic, local protesters and police officers agree: It didn’t have to be this way. These now-regular brawls [in Portland] between right and left could have been avoided.’ opb.org/article/2020/0…