Portland prosecutors rig trial against Antifa opponents
Protestors against Antifa in Portland are still facing several misdemeanor and felony charges for a May Day 2019 demonstration outside Cider Riot, a known Antifa bar. Ian Kramer has been incarcerated since August for assault, and Joey Gibson is facing riot charges. On March 9th, 2020, Ian Kramer, Joey Gibson, and Russell Shultz and their respective attorneys met with Judge Benjamin Souede and District Attorney Kalbaugh, to deliberate over these charges.
Joey Gibson was represented by attorneys James Buchal and Angus Lee, while Ian was represented by public defender Jason Steen. Russell Shultz was In Pro Per, forgoing a public defender.
Not that any of these attorneys mattered.
Gibson’s defense attorneys made a dozen motions to ensure a fair trial – compelling a witness list, a bill of particulars, change of venue away from Portland, jury demands – all were delayed or denied.
They asked about the riot charges against Gibson and Shultz: “What constitutes a riot when Joey didn’t assault anyone?” Their key question did not even evoke a response from the prosecution.
The state claiming that the witnesses are all masked and therefore can’t be identified, and so denied a motion for a witness list. However, video of the event clearly contradicts this. Not that that matters – judge Souede hadn’t even watched the video yet. Though never fear – he did promise to watch it, someday!
Souede also agreed to suppress the alleged victim’s medical records. These are already public, and show she wasn’t hurt. But it’s okay, the trial can now safely ignore them.
Cider Riot owner Abram Goldman-Armstrong destroyed all CCTV footage at Cider Riot from that day. That’s destroying evidence of all Antifa getting drunk and belligerent. In a normal trial, this would be considered Obstruction of Justice, and the case would be thrown out. None of that is being taken into consideration here.
Attorney James Buchal made a perfect argument for a change of venue. He mentioned East Portland congressman Earl Blumenauer posing with Goldman-Armstrong less than a week after the event, to “stand against the alt right”.
Or https://archive.is/5FHPq
Souede denied this request as well, using “Russell’s teapot fallacy”. “How do you know Portland is Antifa friendly? Have you gone and interviewed all Portlanders?” That a judge would contradict such an airtight argument with such a blatant fallacy shows his own political motivations in this case.
What do all these denials mean, when we put them together? That the entire trial is rigged to present the story that Heather Clark was standing all alone, minding her own business, when a Nazi named Ian Kramer came out of the blue and beat her unconscious. They are illegally suppressing any evidence that would contradict that narrative.
According to Ian’s public defender, the prosecution is further trying to implicate Ian by showing a couple of memes he tweeted to demonstrate some form of vicious intent. I find Antifa’s tweets to be far more damning of the justice system:
@LarsHenson1 – “Your friend the “consummate brawler” is probably re-evaluating his use of an asp to the back of Heather.” https://twitter.com/LarsHenson1/status/1211116029318844416
@cloudy_yah – “Ian was part of a group that initiated aggression at people who were peacefully drinking cider, hit an unarmed woman in the back (cowardly!) with a metal pole, and you admit he has a history of violence. He’s lucky he’s even offered a plea deal.” https://twitter.com/cloudy_yah/status/1211004186139082752
This narrative is blatantly false. Just a few seconds of video footage confirms this. It shows a heated situation (which the police allowed to escalate), and Heather Clark running after Joey and Ian, fists swinging. Anyone familiar with the case has watched it from multiple angles. Yet the presiding judge has denied watching it for the entire time Ian has been incarcerated.
All this put together shows the prosecution is sticking to charges that conform to the story of these tweets: Heather Clark was standing all alone, minding her own business, when Joey Gibson started a riot, and a Nazi named Ian Kramer came out of the blue and beat her unconscious. They are illegally suppressing any evidence that would contradict that narrative.
This means Portland’s justice system works closely with Antifa, and their priority is presenting Antifa’s story as the official story.
Of course, Antifa hide behind anonymity. Known Antifa journalists deny any association, despite being at the event to film and warn antifa. Nobody is Antifa, and yet everybody is Antifa. When they come out, either in public or on the internet, they’re anonymous. They all have plausible deniability. And yet, their public figures get wide acclaim in the media. The state protects them by refusing to call them out to testify at the scene of a crime. By suppressing anything that contradict the prosecution’s manufactured narrative, the state is free to strip a man of six years of freedom. The final irony? They’re getting Ian on “Measure 11”: a statute against weapons, which was supposed to bring Antifa to heel. Instead it’s being used against their adversaries.
If this type of scenario looks familiar, it should. It’s how the KKK operated in its heyday. Anonymous and indistinguishable when they terrorize the public. Deniable connections to the levers of power, and yet a consistent pass to terrorize the public. On the books, everything looks clean. Off the books it’s a reign of terror on the populace. Our Democrat leaders are back to their old tricks.
Ultimately, the real crime here is that Antifa have tagged Ian as their enemy. Ian’s only crime is finding himself on the wrong side of the fence. Portland’s justice system has rigged itself to indulge Antifa. Same goes for Joey, Russell, and ultimately any of the other disparate elements that try to stand up to Antifa. Antifa have the unwritten right to assault anyone they please. This case enforces it.
Portland no longer has a justice system. It has a machinery to hunt down the enemies of their paramilitary state. If you think this is confined to Portland, remember – they’re exporting this to other cities. This is a national problem, and nobody is safe.
Solutions at the federal level are also hard to come by. The federal justice department in Oregon is still Obama era holdovers. They view justice as activism, with the desired result coming before the fairness of the process. President Trump may be able to help, but he’s surrounded by people who keep pushing themselves into these positions. At this point, political pressure is all we have. We need to push for a reform of federal oversight of Oregon’s justice system. We need to do it at the party level and the national level.
As of this article, Ian Kramer continues to languish in jail while the state of Oregon lets hardened criminals loose – ostensibly because of Coronavirus. Even though this is Ian’s first alleged offense, he is still not being spared or given any affordable bail. Ian has plenty of other reasons for release: both a place to live and employment, he has his own health complications related to Coronavirus, and he has a mother on oxygen in a suburb of Seattle – a hotbed of elderly victims of the disease.
Unfortunately, we’re concerned that this is a truly political case. The prosecution wants to make an example out of Ian and will therefore keep him in under any circumstances. We are prepared for all this. Until he gets a fair hearing, Ian will sit like a sphinx in Inverness jail, letting the sands of time wash over him. And I’ll be here, tirelessly advocating for him.
Supporters of Joey Gibson are also welcome to contribute to his legal defense fund.
