The family of a man stabbed on a Portland light-rail train last week wants organizers to cancel a right-wing rally planned for Sunday.
Janis Heater is the grandmother of Micah Fletcher, a college student who was stabbed in the throat a week ago in an attack that left two other men dead. In a statement Thursday, Heater says she’s speaking on behalf of the Fletcher family in asking the organizers to cancel their rally.
“We all very much fear for what could occur during these rallies," she said. "The city is in a very emotional state right now."
Heater says she is concerned more people could be hurt on Sunday. She also asks left-wing groups that are organizing counter-protests to cancel as well.
“I understand that people are very passionate for their causes and for their side, whatever it might be. But when people are so passionate, and so ramped up as they are right now, I just fear that there won’t be a good outcome,” she said.
Thousands of people have RSVP'd to the events on social media.
Joey Gibson, the organizer of a long-planned “Trump Free Speech Rally” in downtown Portland's Terry D. Schrunk Plaza, said on Wednesday he would not cancel the event. Gibson describes himself as an advocate of small government and spirituality who became interested in street organizing after attending the Republican National Convention last summer.
“Every single rally that I try to throw, every single rally that I try to organize, there are people who are constantly trying to get me to quit,” he said. “I’m going to go up there, I’m going to talk about God and the power of prayer. This is a great time, I believe, to talk about spiritual things.”
But Gibson said he knows that many people in Portland are concerned about his event. And he said he believed the suspect in the stabbings was intentionally trying to incite violence with statements he made during his arraignment this week. Witnesses say the man had been making anti-Muslim and other racist remarks toward two teenage girls, one wearing a hijab, just before the attacks.
On Wednesday, a day before Fletcher's grandmother spoke out, Gibson left the door open to reconsidering his decision the rally if victims' families made the request.
“I would strongly consider it,” he said. “So far, the people that have made the request have done it for political motivation.”
Mayor Ted Wheeler has spoken out against the timing of the rally and unsuccessfully tried to convince the federal government to revoke a permit for use of the plaza. Gibson said he met with Wheeler earlier this week and expects police and federal security officers to keep his attendees separate from left-wing counter protesters.
“We have our own private security that’s going to keep our people in check,” he said.
The suspect in the MAX killings, Jeremy Christian, attended a “free speech” rally Gibson organized last month in East Portland. He arrived carrying a bat, shouted racial epithets and gave a Nazi salute. Christian was asked to leave, according to multiple accounts. Gibson says that was his first and only contact with him.
As of Thursday, nearly 400 people said they plan to attend Gibson’s rally on a Facebook page for the event, and roughly 700 more have expressed interest.
On Facebook, he’s promoted the event as an opportunity for people to meet two nationally known white supremacist figures: Tim Gionet, who uses the name Baked Alaska online, and Kyle Chapman, known as “Based Stickman,” a reference to images of him hitting protesters in Berkeley with a stick that became an alt-right meme. In May, Gionet traveled to New Orleans to protest the removal of several statues commemorating the Confederacy.
A variety of left-wing groups are promoting their own events on Sunday. The largest of those, a mass gathering called “Portland Stands United Against Hate,” will take place in front of City Hall and adjacent to Gibson’s rally.
More than 1,100 people have have said they plan to attend that event, with 3,000 more expressing interest on Facebook.
The event is being organized by a coalition of over 50 community organizations, labor and faith groups.
“This will be a peaceful event to show, through our numbers and our voices, that the vast majority of Portland will not stand for racism and bigotry,” said Niko Judd, a spokeswoman for the coalition. “The event is one both in honor of the victims of Friday’s attacks. It’s also in solidarity with immigrant and refugee communities.”
Judd said the protest will not overlap with Gibson’s rally. She said groups that are participating have committed to ensure that their members remain peaceful.
“They must talk to their members to say that we are not here to provoke anyone or to confront physically," she said. "That is not our intention, and that is a clear, firm message.”
But at least two other, smaller left-wing groups are planning their own counter-protests and have not made a similar commitment to avoid confrontation.
Ashley Jackson is a spokeswoman for the group Portland Labor Against the Fascists, which is planning to gather in the same plaza as the Trump Free Speech Rally. Jackson said her group intended to “stop the fascists from turning Portland into a staging ground for even more violent racist anti-immigrant attacks.”
“We defend immigrants against the people who would victimize them. And we say all out on June 4,” she said.
The group Rose City Antifa did not respond to a request for an interview.
For her part, Micah Fletcher’s grandmother, Janis Heater, expressed doubt that even well-intentioned groups will be able to control the situation Sunday.
“You can tell people, 'Please be safe, please be respectful,' everything we teach in schools,” she said. “I just don’t know that can happen when you get so many factions."
Heater says she thanks the community for their thoughts, prayers, financial support and caring.
“We truly never expected this to be as widespread and as public as it has become,” she said. “We grieve for the families that didn’t come out as fortunate as we did. Truthfully, we loathe the person who did this. And we’re just trying to recover day by day.”
Following the publication of this story, organizers for Portland Stands United Against Hate to OPB about Sunday's scheduled rally. A portion of the statement is as follows:
"Let us be clear: the recent string of attacks are acts of terrorism. They seek to intimidate us into submission so that our message of solidarity cannot be heard. On this basis, and with deep respect to the families of all victims involved, the Portland Stands United Against Hate rally will proceed, as planned.
Canceling our event on Sunday would do nothing to address the larger social and political issues that have given rise to the radicalization of these far right forces. At a time when the news of tragedy after tragedy can make people feel helpless, it is absolutely critical that our message be heard."
Shirley Chan
/Micah Fletcher during a Don't Shoot PDX march, July 2, 2016.
Copyright 2017 Oregon Public Broadcasting
