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Newsflash: Rioting can be detrimental to your health and job prospects.
Sadly, several left-wing extremists in the far-left city of Portland, Oregon had to learn this life lesson the hard way.
On Wednesday, Willamette Week, a far-left independent newspaper based out of Portland, ran a sympathetic profile about several such extremists.
According to the extremists, after they were arrested for participating in violent riots earlier this summer, non-establishment journalist Andy Ngo tweeted their mugshots to the world. But in doing so, Ngo inadvertently ruined their lives.
Take the case of Phillip Wenzel. After being arrested on the evening of Aug. 14th and charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, interfering with police, and committing disorderly conduct, Ngo informed the world about him.
“The next morning, Ngo posted his mug shot on his Twitter account, writing that Wenzel was ‘arrested at the violent #antifa protest.’ Ngo also posted a biography of Wenzel from the law firm where he works as a paralegal,” WW reported.
Phillip J. Wenzel was arrested at the violent #antifa protest in Portland. He was filmed assaulting police & trying to steal a baton from them. He’s charged w/felony assault & more. He’s a paralegal & has been released without bail. https://t.co/ei0PKpMJ6J https://t.co/8aqtbA6PF9 pic.twitter.com/7VduV1v5MR
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 15, 2020
Ngo added that Wenzel was released without bail and then suggested he might wind up having his charges dropped because of the city’s deadly, lax policies:
Resisting arrest and escape at riots are among the crimes not prosecuted in Multnomah County under the new DA. #PortlandRiots
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 15, 2020
Three days later, Wenzel was fired after his employer allegedly received over 50 “threatening or harassing communications,” according to WW, which seemed to imply without evidence that the threats were driven by Ngo’s reporting.
“Because you have chosen to engage in activism that has resulted in violence, physical injuries, and negative publicity for [the law firm], there is now a major distraction from the business we are doing, a threat to my ability to gain new business, and a threat to our employees’ safety,” Wenzel’s employer wrote in an email shared with the outlet.
In a statement to WW, Ngo said that he’d simply been doing his job as a journalist.
“If you feel that transparency and public right to know should be outweighed by arrestee rights to privacy, this is a complaint for the Legislature, not for journalists reporting in compliance with state and federal law,” he said.
“A better question would be, ‘Why do some journalists feel compelled to hide the identities of suspected criminals from the public?’ Another would be, ‘Whose interests does the suppression of criminal arrest data serve?'”
Next is the case of Ragina Gray, a black activist. After being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and interfering with an officer on Aug. 7th, Gray had her name blasted to the world by Ngo, according to WW:
Ragina Joy-Marie Gray, 30, is charged w/interfering w/an officer, resisting arrest & more. She was arrested at the violent antifa protest in Portland & quickly bailed out. Gray is frequently photographed w/kids at protests & rants about white terrorism. https://t.co/KNXaeww2fg pic.twitter.com/bjNJ1tlJ3P
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 7, 2020
Not included in WW’s report was the fact that Gray had her charges immediately dropped:
Update: Ragina Joy-Marie Gray, 30, was arrested & charged w/multiple criminal offenses at a violent BLM-antifa protest on 6–7 Aug. in Portland. This is the night the elderly women were attacked. All of Gray’s charges were dropped by the DA. #PortlandRiots https://t.co/KNXaeww2fg pic.twitter.com/mO7YLw6nQk
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 17, 2020
Twelve days after Gray’s arrest, an unidentified man allegedly “showed up on the doorstep of Gray’s mother’s eastside home,” according to WW.
“He was sweaty and nervous looking, and he asked for Ragina by name. He mentioned [Gray’s] son, and I noticed he had a gun in his hand,” Gray’s mother, Lucinda Fisher, said to the outlet.
She reportedly slammed the door on the man and called the police.
The implication by WW again was that Ngo was somehow to blame. Except when Ngo looked into the matter himself, he found NOTHING:
How did reporter @sophiegreenleaf verify the claim that an armed man showed up to Ragina Gray’s family home after her booking photo was published? The story says her mother, Lucinda Fisher, immediately called police.
But this is what @PortlandPolice just told me: pic.twitter.com/DYbRdtnNjT
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 16, 2020
And so in a humiliating update published Thursday, WW was forced to admit that local authorities “can find no record of a call from Fisher or an associated number and address on Aug. 19.”
Whoops.
Despite this admission, WW kept the rest of the story intact, including Gray’s claim that her 9- and 4-year-old children are fearful for her life …
“They’re scared that someone’s going to kill me. My first instinct is to say, ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’ But there’s a huge risk,” she told the outlet.
The last rioter highlighted by WW is April Epperson, a local public school teacher who was arrested (and then released without bail) on Aug. 24th:
These 2 were arrested at the #antifa riot in Portland. They were both quickly released without bail.
Matthew Seth Cleinman, 36, charged w/multiple criminal offenses. https://t.co/wvmpGsveiG
April Lynn Epperson, 36, charged w/multiple criminal offenses. https://t.co/DSs1BJej1w pic.twitter.com/qxqg8LOX70
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 24, 2020
Epperson told WW that her school began receiving threats after her arrest and wound up having to cancel one event. The implication again was that Ngo was to blame. In fact, WW even quoted a journalism professor from the University of Oregon who thinks Ngo’s journalism is somehow dangerous.
“[W]e have a pattern with this individual that his interest is in provoking violent reactions and doxxing. It’s a particular subset of conservative Twitter, and he knows that’s who he’s talking to,” he told the outlet.
But what doesn’t seem to have occurred to either the professor or anybody at WW — and much to the amusement of the public — is that maybe, just maybe the rioters’ behavior is what provoked the certainly contemptible harassment they and their employers have allegedly faced.
Either that or the fact that the extremist rioters were facing ZERO CONSEQUENCES for their behavior because of Portland’s Democrat prosecutors.
The lesson all the rioters failed to learn from the very deaths they were supposedly protesting:
Stupid decisions can destroy your life.
— @Ohmaar1 on Parler (@HDatawonk) September 17, 2020
Alternate Headline: “I’m facing the consequences of my actions, and I don’t like that kind of thing”
— Colin Matisse Krauss (@ckrauss7) September 17, 2020
Love it!!
“It’s so unfair that we have to be accountable for our actions! Couldn’t you arrest someone ELSE & have THEIR mug shot be a part of the public record???”
— JulesR on Parler/Schmoopie (@Jules541166z) September 17, 2020
Too bad their lives weren’t DESTROYED, as they’ve done to so many others’ lives and businesses.
— Zeke (@stevencomments) September 17, 2020
Awe. We can’t do bad things to people and expect zero consequences?
— Steve Hammond (@sdhammond) September 17, 2020
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