Reigniting a Violent Protest Wave How the Backlash to the Black Lives Matter Movement and COVID-19 Restrictions Accelerated Radicalisation in a Far-right Extremist/antifascist Protest Wave in Portland, Oregon
Published In
Coronavirus, Crisis and Culture: Protests, Policing and Mediation During the 2020 Pandemic
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2023
Subjects
Protest movements -- Social aspects, Police -- Social aspects, COVID-19 Pandemic -- Social aspects, Social justice
Abstract
Starting in 2017, far-right extremists repeatedly clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators in Portland, Oregon. These protests often turned violent. By the end of 2019, this violent protest wave was waning due to successful organizing efforts by anti-fascists to broaden their movement without renouncing militancy (Serbulo, 2020). During the summer of 2019, the seasonal far-right/anti-fascist protest wave failed to materialize. Instead, Portland experienced more than one hundred consecutive days of Black Lives Matter protests that drew a federal police response. Far-right extremists seized upon the backlash to the racial justice movement and to Covid-19 restrictions, and on August 22, 2020, they held a hastily announced rally on the steps of the Portland Police headquarters that spiraled into the most violent far-right/anti-fascist clash of the entire four year protest wave. Just a few weeks later, far-right activists again descended upon the city. By the end of that night, a far-right protester was shot and killed by a Black Lives Matter activist and self-described anti-fascist. Within a few days this activist was murdered by police. How did a violent protest wave that had seemingly run its course resurface? Why did the violence, which had be kept in check, suddenly spike? What role did coronavirus and the emergence of a militant racial justice movement and the subsequent backlash to it play in escalating that violence and reigniting this protest wave? How did the police response to these movements impact the levels of violence? How did the mechanisms of radicalization and de- radicalization operate in this more complex movement environment?
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© Rowman & Littlefield
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40911
Citation Details
Serbulo, L. (2023). Reigniting a violent protest wave how the backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 restrictions accelerated radicalisation in a far-right extremist/antifascist protest wave in Portland, Oregon. In S. Price & B. Harbisher (eds.), Coronavirus, crisis and culture: Protests, policing and mediation during the 2020 pandemic. (pp.63-84). Rowman & Littlefield.