Gregory McKelvey, a Portland racial activist, says employers should give black employees time off after #Rittenhouse verdict. McKelvey was a rising star in Portland until it was revealed he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping & strangling underage girl
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/01/portland_activist_finds_himsel.html
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1460396370058166275
A years-old arrest has thrust a rising star in Portland activist circles into the middle of the #MeToo movement.
Portland's Resistance co-founder Gregory McKelvey was jailed six years ago on suspicion of strangling and kidnapping an ex-girlfriend while he was an 18-year-old student at Oregon State University, records show.
It appears the case eventually was dismissed, but police and court records have been expunged, so it's not clear how it was resolved.
A news article from the Corvallis newspaper shortly after the incident offers some details of the September 2011 arrest, but the story was removed last year from its website after McKelvey contacted the editor.
McKelvey declined repeated requests to talk about what happened. He released a statement Tuesday afternoon as The Oregonian/OregonLive prepared to publish an article, saying that he has "never in my life had a physical altercation with any woman."
Instead, McKelvey said he was trying to intervene in a fight.
"I am sorry. I am sorry that I have not addressed this in more public terms in the past," he said.
Fellow activists were aware of the allegations against McKelvey for more than a year, but questions intensified as the #MeToo movement exploded and cast a harsh light on men in politics, entertainment and media who have been accused of mistreating women in the past.