Mike Huckabee: Still No Justice for Portland Journalist Targeted by Antifa
When officials in Portland, Oregon, stood down and allowed antifa thugs to run riot, threatening and bullying law-abiding citizens, it was shocking and intolerable. But it wasn’t surprising, considering the mindset of far-left Portland politics.
Once such cases got to the courts, however, you’d think some wisdom would prevail. Sadly, that’s not the case.
PJ Media’s Victoria Taft has a detailed report on freelance journalist Mike Strickland, who has been covering the growth of antifa from a handful of nuts to the organized anarchist mob it is today.
Naturally, cowards who attack other people while wearing masks don’t like being covered by journalists, so they’ve engaged in a long campaign of threats and smears against him.
At a 2016 protest rally that Strickland was videoing, some Antifa thugs roughed him up and threatened him.
As he was backing away to leave, a mob of them ran toward him and tried to surround him. Strickland pulled out a pistol (for which he has a legal concealed-carry license) and warned them away.
He didn’t even touch the trigger: Just showing the weapon made the thugs back off (I told you they were cowards) and he left safely.
For exercising his Second Amendment right to protect his life and his First Amendment rights, Strickland was slammed with 21 charges by state prosecutors, 10 of them felonies.
He ended up serving 40 days in jail and five years’ probation, losing his Second Amendment rights, and being banned from covering antifa rallies, which is a blatant violation of his First Amendment rights.
After years of appeals, this week the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the lower court ruling.
It ruled that the violent anarchist group antifa is part of the “protest community” of Portland and Strickland should be banned from filming their public events because he’s “polarizing” to them. I assume “polarizing” means they don’t like him showing the world what they’re actually doing and saying.
You know, like a reporter.
There are many more details in the PJ Media story, as well as Strickland’s video of the encounter that started the whole thing.
His attorney has filed for the court to reconsider. It’s already sent a chilling message throughout the state that if you dare to protect yourself from violent leftist thugs, the court system will side with them and punish you.
So how high up the chain of justice do we have to go until we find a court that actually sides with justice? I would hope the state Supreme Court, but it’s not a high hope.
It’s infuriating that this ever even went to court, much less that the courts sided with the mob, but even more infuriating is the long delay for justice to be served.
In cases this egregious, it’s too bad there isn’t some mechanism for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their gavels, brandish them like weapons and force the Oregon judges to back off their assault on the Bill of Rights.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
