I debunk a few allegations from Wikipedia's description of Patriot Prayer. Patriot Prayer was founded in 2016[2] by Joey Gibson.[17] Gibson says he became an activist after seeing a brawl start between supporters of the Trump presidency and counter protesters.[18] Patriot Prayer is a far-right group,[19] part of the Right wing of American politics.[20] The derisive term 'far-right' is used here without evidence. Let's see if any is provided later. It has held rallies in areas known for their liberal politics.[21][22] It has also been described as anti-government.[23][24][25][26] The San Jose Mercury News describes Patriot Prayer as a "right-wing group ... [whose] events ... have attracted white supremacists and ended up in violent confrontations among demonstrators on both sides".[2] In 2017, This will be the crux of allegations that Patriot Prayer is 'far right' - that it attracts white supremacists. Gibson described himself as Conservative libertarian.[27] According to BBC News, Patriot Prayer have been connected to the alt-right as well as other far-right groups.[21] 'Connected' is a rather vague term whose use demonizes but not demonstrates. Gibson denies this, saying the group is neither white nationalist nor alt-right and that they support "freedom, love and peace".[28] The group's stated aim is support of the First Amendment, free speech and to "liberate the conservatives on the West Coast".[18] Reasons for not taking Gibson at his word? Read on. The Seattle Times and The Washington Post have described Patriot Prayer as a "pro-Trump group".[29][30] According to The Weekly Standard, "In the early days, his [Gibson's] rallies had overtly pro-Trump themes. These days, mentions of Trump have mostly been scrubbed from his own rhetoric, as he knows even invoking the name can be alienating."[31] Here's the meat of the issue; .pro-Trump = 'far right". Patriot Prayer has made allegations against the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) calling the group a "Muslim extremist organization". Its supporters have made threats online against CAIR, prompting an investigation by authorities.[32][33][34] CAIR has been linked to extremist groups by the FBI multiple times. Look it up. Patriot Prayer has a history of harassing and assaulting Abolish ICE and other leftist activists.[35][36][37] That may be true. How much is harassing (probably legal) vs. assaulting (probably not legal) is unknown by this writer. David Neiwert, writing for the Southern Poverty Law Center blog Hatewatch, described Patriot Prayer as "trolling" the Pacific Northwest with the intention of provoking a response from far-left antifascists.[38] Neiwert noted that Gibson denounced white supremacists and neo-Nazis during an August 13 rally in Seattle the day after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, and described that Gibson explained in subsequent interviews that he aims to "actively exclude" white supremacist groups.[38] During the August 13 rally in Seattle such groups had no obvious presence; Let's believe Gibson for the moment, that he wants to exclude white supremacist groups.. however, a week earlier at another rally in Portland, Oregon, which was led by Gibson, members of Identity Evropa were in attendance.[39][40] The SPLC describes them as "violent extremists" on their website.[41][42] Far right violent extremists, whom Gibson had denounced, attended a Patriot Prayer event. There was probably nothing to be done on the ground to stop their attending. That doesn't make Patriot Prayer far right violent extremists. End of article analysis. I think that's enough said about Patriot Prayer. Sadly, the far left supporting media have become mostly a propaganda machine. .
This is just another example of how the far-left liberals, media and otherwise , like to describe anyone who is patriotic and loves their country. Being patriotic is now also known as being far-right, and if you are so far right as to also support the president of the United States, then you are Deplorable as well, along with any other derogative, violent, or offensive name they can come up with . As a Green, @Dwight Ward , you have not really been subjected to this kind of name-calling by the liberal media, and probably even assumed that it was true when you heard it used in the news. Just about any group, religious or otherwise that supports President Trump and making America great again, is automatically now a far right violent extremist, by media definition. The Patriot Prayer person who was murdered was not in any kind of conflict with anyone. When you watch the videos of him being shot and killed, he was just walking, and had no idea that someone was going to shoot him. A friend who was with him said that they shot at him as well, but missed him, or they would have both been murdered.
Donald Trump looks more reasonable to me as time goes on. As someone who was hoping for a Bernie Sanders win that fact is scary to me. I posted this,about Patriot Prayer in part, to illustrate how we are becoming trapped by terminology. Increasingly our.words don't mean anything. Patriot Prayer is a right-wing group but are they far-right? Most Democrats are on the liberal side but are they Marxists? Reasonable people's understanding is being left in the dust as extremists from the far left prevail and the media misleads us daily.
How I love a great debunking in the morning! And I heartily agree that the MSM is just a gigantic liberal propaganda machine, which is an unspeakable tragedy. I have no knowledge of the Patriot Prayer organization but that name certainly instills a deep-seated fear of the "far right." Those praying patriots are troublemakers for sure.
I've heavily edited this for space. Pay attention to the parts I've bolded. . Facebook Removes Accounts of Patriot Prayer Leader Joey Gibson Facebook took down the accounts of the conservative Patriot Prayer group as well as Joey Gibson, the group’s leader, and several supporters. [ My comment. At least this writer refers to Patriot Prayer as merely conservative and not far-right or white supremacist. ] "They were removed as part of our ongoing efforts to remove Violent Social Militias from our platform,” Sally Aldous, a Facebook spokesperson, told The Epoch Times via email. [ My comment. See how Violent Social Militias is capitalized. That makes it an official problem. ] In a statement on Parler, Gibson said: “Antifa groups murdered my friend while he was walking home, and instead of the multibillion dollar company (FACEBOOK) banning Portland antifa pages they ban Patriot Prayer, Joey Gibson, and several other grandmas that are admins.” Antifa member Michael Reinoehl was named a suspect in the Aug. 29 killing of Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron Danielson before being fatally shot by law enforcement officers trying to apprehend him last week. Gibson’s lawyer, Angus Lee, told The Oregonian that Facebook’s decision showed a “very serious demonstration of the unchecked power of electronic oligarchs to control information.” "Obviously, Mr. Gibson is very upset right now and feels as though there is an effort to silence him,” Lee added. Aldous pointed to Facebook removing groups, pages, and ads related to Antifa as part of a mass action taken last month. At the time, the company said it was taking action against “accounts tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon,” a movement that advances a number of claims, including that members of the world’s social, economic, and political elites have engaged in child sex trafficking, abuse, and cannibalism. Some of the accounts “may identify as Antifa,” the company stated. Gibson and others linked to Patriot Prayer took part in a pro-President Donald Trump rally the day that Danielson was shot dead. According to police officials, the event had concluded before the shooting. Danielson was a Portland resident, Gibson said last week, explaining why he was still in the city when he was shot. Gibson denounced smears of his friend, saying people calling him a racist or other negative terms didn’t know him. “The only thing that they can ever do to Jay is call him a racist because he lived an amazing life. So they can’t talk about specific examples of who he was and what he did, quotes of him saying hateful things because there is nothing. They can’t show him being violent because he wasn’t violent. They can’t show anything on him, except just claim that he’s some sort of white supremacist,” Gibson said. Patriot Prayer has engaged in violent clashes with Antifa and other groups in the past, primarily in Portland. Gibson was one of six people charged with inciting a riot on May 1, 2019, between his group and Antifa. Video footage showed him pushing a woman with Antifa, police said in an affidavit (pdf). He has pleaded not guilty. Two men entered pleas and were sentenced. Christopher Ryan Ponte, 38, pleaded no contest to felony riot and was sentenced to 10 days in jail, three years of probation, and banned from protests. Ponte, who police said was associated with Patriot Prayer, started a group called Oregon Cop Block that seeks to film police officers while they do their jobs. Later in 2019, Ponte was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to court records. Matthew Demetrius Cooper, 24, another man linked to Patriot Prayer, pleaded guilty to felony riot and was given three years probation and banned from protests. During the mayhem, a Patriot Prayer member, Ian Kramer, knocked an Antifa-linked woman unconscious, according to an affidavit. Gibson’s lawyer previously accused the Mulntomah District Attorney’s Office of selective prosecution because the office didn’t dismiss the riot charge following its announcement last month that prosecutors would presumptively decline to pursue charges against people arrested for certain crimes during protests. “We got the policy that day and said, ‘whoa, if he can do this for them, he’s got to do this for everybody,'” attorney James Buchal told The Oregonian. Brad Kaulbaugh, a deputy district attorney, responded by saying the new policy is not retroactive. Gibson said during an appearance on “Fox News @ Night” last week that he stopped organizing events in Portland “because there are so many people showing up who are hateful, causing problems.” Asked what Patriot Prayer’s mission is, he said: “The last few years what we’ve been doing is going around in areas outside of Portland, trying to help people who are victims to government overreach, like CPS and the lockdowns, Second Amendment.” .
No matter how the prayer group was started, it is entirely possible that it has been infiltrated with people whose intention is to make the group appear radical or violent. It is also possible that the news media is just painting them as violent. This seems to be what has been happening for a while now. Look at the McCloskeys, as an example. They were in their own house when the rioters came by. The McCloskeys are a senior couple, and they first called for police help, and were told that no police were available to help them, and they then went outside with unloaded weapons (one which didn’t even work) and tried to scare the rioters away. The end result of that was the news media making the McCloskeys appear to be threatening a “mostly peaceful” mob of rioters while the mob was merely marching through the area and past their home, and it is the McCluskeys who were charged with a crime. So, now we have a member of the prayer group walking on the street with his friend, unarmed, and they were attacked (ambushed , really) and Danielson was shot and killed by a man wanted violent criminal activity by the police. This picture shows the prayer group members walking quietly down the street, and what is apparently the murderer waiting to ambush them and shoot as they walk past where he is hidden.