Exclusive: Case of Portland Man Who Defended Himself Against Antifa Mob Heads to Supreme Court
For those who angrily wonder why someone doesn’t just defend themselves against Portland antifa rioters, I want you to pull up a chair because I’ve got a story to tell you. It’s a story still in search of a happy ending.
excerpt:
Strickland was [recording] the event as he usually did with all of his equipment – including his properly concealed pistol, a Glock, for which he had a concealed carry license.
A mob of Antifa members surrounded him, roughed him up, and then told him, “You need to get the f**k out of here!” Even though Strickland backed away from the thugs in the larger protest, he continued to shoot video. As he was leaving, the mob of masked antifa thugs ran toward Strickland and tried to surround him. This time he pulled his pistol to back them off. No shots were ever fired; Strickland’s finger never came close to the trigger. His gambit worked, however. They backed off and Strickland got away from the mob, eventually being arrested by the cops. He was released with a citation.
Charges against him grew from two misdemeanors to 21 counts, ten of which were felonies, within hours of Portland politicos getting an earful from one of Strickland’s favorite targets, an anti-Second Amendment group called “Ceasefire Oregon.” The politicos also seemed to take on faith the word of one of the conspirators who insisted Strickland must be a racist, even though he knew better.
His Portland attorneys, as well as the rest of the Portland legal establishment, were stunned when Strickland was found guilty on all counts. It was an easy self-defense case. There was video of it. But he now faced more than 50 years in prison.
The judge threw the book at him. He was forced to surrender his gun. He would not be allowed to practice his First Amendment right to cover the news for four years. That meant he had no job. Strickland spent 40 days in jail. The mob cheered.
In April, he lost his appeal in the Oregon Appeals Court. This week the Oregon State Supreme Court denied reconsideration of his case. It now heads to the U.S. Supreme Court where there’s absolutely no guarantee it will be considered.
Strickland’s attorney, Robert Barnes, relishes the next step. He predicted all along that the case of the Portland videographer would go to the Supreme Court. He is looking forward to getting out of Oregon’s activist courts. Strickland struck a note of humor about this next step for his case.
“I was hoping the issues would be rectified at the state level, but now that it’s out of the hands of Kate Brown’s lackeys, my odds of being treated fairly likely increase bigly.”
Or maybe he’ll get a pardon from President Trump. Doesn’t hurt to ask. And maybe then this story will get its happy ending.
https://pjmedia.com/columns/victoria-taft/2020/09/02/exclusive-case-of-portland-man-who-defended-himself-against-antifa-mob-heads-to-supreme-court-n876896
(do we need a SC precedent here establishing precedent to protect against political discrimination by Liberals against Conservatives in some way shape or form, to protect Constitutional Rights against activist judges/systems???)