Joey Gibson | |
|---|---|
 Gibson in 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 8, 1983 [1] Camas, Washington, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Central Washington University |
| Known for | Founder of Patriot Prayer |
Joseph Owan Gibson (born November 8, 1983) [1] is an American right-wing activist [2] and the founder of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which is active in Portland, Oregon and other cities within the Pacific Northwest. [3]
Gibson was born in Clark County, Washington to an Irish father and Japanese mother. [4] [5] He grew up in Camas, Washington [6] with two siblings in a Catholic household. [4] He played high school football at Camas High School and was a quarterback before he "got in trouble with the law." [3] After pleading guilty to a felony theft charge in 2002, Gibson was barred from owning a gun until 2015, when he petitioned Clark County to restore access. [7] He spent some time in jail and then was homeless living in Portland, Seattle, Mexico, and Hawaii. [3] He worked as a football coach at Skyridge Middle School and earned his GED. [3] Gibson went on to earn a degree in psychology from Central Washington University. [4]
In 2016, Gibson founded the far-right [8] group Patriot Prayer. [9] [5] Gibson was motivated to become an activist after he viewed TV coverage of a June 2, 2016, Trump rally in San Jose, California, where protests turned to brawling. [10] At his early rallies, Gibson was known to wear a "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt. [11]
In January 2018, Gibson along with members of Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, including Tusitala Toese, antagonized participants at the 2018 Women's March in Seattle. [12]
On February 25, 2018, Gibson announced that he would be running as a Republican in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in Washington, seeking to unseat incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell. [13] Gibson was defeated in the primary election, receiving 2.3% of the votes cast. [14] [15]
During a March 2018, campaign rally in Spokane Valley, Washington, Gibson expressed opposition to Antifa, which frequently protest at his events, and stated regarding white nationalists that "I would say the same thing to them that I would say to any black nationalist or Mexican nationalists [ sic ] group, we have to drop the identity of politics and focus on what is on the inside." [16] He has said freedom of speech is a central element to his platform. Gibson's views have been described as "a complicated muddle" by the Inlander and "basically Alex Jones meets Bernie Sanders" by The Stranger . [17] [18] The Proud Boys, another far-right group, [19] have also been present at several of Gibson's events. [20] [21]
In February 2019, Willamette Week reported that a Portland police lieutenant kept in close touch with Gibson, passing on to him intelligence about the anti-fascist movement in the city, and also advised him on how a Patriot Prayer member could avoid being arrested. [22] Portland's Independent Police Review investigated and cleared the officer because he was gathering information on the groups and trying to defuse potential clashes with his advice. [23]
On September 4, 2020 Facebook removed Gibson's page, along with the page for Patriot Prayer, as part of its "ongoing efforts to remove violent social militias from our platforms". [24] [25] The company's action followed escalating tensions related to protests in Portland, Oregon, [26] as the city continued to experience demonstrations related to the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Gibson appeared at a protest against COVID-19 lockdowns on December 21, 2020, in which he tried to force his way into the Oregon State Capitol during a special session of the Oregon legislature. [27] In September 2021, Gibson demonstrated with Tusitala "Tiny" Toese at an anti-mask protest at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Washington. [28] [29]
Gibson was one of six men accused of inciting a riot between Patriot Prayer and Antifa on May Day 2019 in Northeast Portland outside of the bar Cider Riot. [30] He was indicted for felony riot by the Multnomah County District Attorney on August 15, 2019. [31] Gibson pleaded not guilty to the charge. [30] In an appearance on the Lars Larson show, Gibson said he was being unfairly targeted and stated "I was on a sidewalk recording, no different than Andy Ngo." [32]
A Portland police detective said Gibson could be seen in a video taunting and threatening members of Antifa and later pushing a woman before she was hit with a baton and knocked unconscious by someone else. [30] During the brawl, the woman had her vertebrae broken. [33] [34] Cider Riot's owner sued Gibson and associates for $1 million for their actions. [35] On September 11, 2020, Gibson filed a federal lawsuit against Multnomah County's district attorney, alleging selective prosecution based on political beliefs. [30] A federal judge threw out his lawsuit in February 2021, partly because the court did not have jurisdiction due to the ongoing state court proceedings. [36]
In July 2022, the trial judge acquitted Gibson of felony riot charges and rebuked the district attorney's office for pursuing a trial on the evidence presented. [37] Based on the prosecution video of Gibson taunting Antifa protestors, the judge ruled that Gibson's activity amounted to speech, and Oregon law prohibited considering speech in deciding riot cases. [37] Gibson sued Portland and Multnomah County officials for malicious prosecution in June 2023, seeking $100 million. [38] The lawsuit was dismissed by a U.S. district judge in February 2024. [39]
In 2017 and 2018, Gibson considered himself to be a moderate libertarian. [40] [41] His organization has been described in the media as "alt-right". [42] [43] Gibson has denied that his group is alt-right, and has disavowed white supremacists [44] [45] [46] [47] who frequently appear at his events. [48] In 2017, the Anti-Defamation League described his views as appearing to be alt-lite. [49]
Gibson expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for non-criminal undocumented immigrants, decriminalization of marijuana, and same-sex marriage. [50] Gibson has advocated for the establishment of term limits for the U.S. Congress, for implementation of a national sales tax, and for abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. [17] He expressed opposition for what he describes as the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry on healthcare in the United States. [45]
The Oregon Republican Party is the state affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Oregon, headquartered in Salem. The party was established in the Oregon Territory in February 1857 as the "Free State Republican Party of Oregon" and held its first state convention on April 1, 1859, after Oregon achieved statehood.
Edward Tevis Wheeler is an American politician who has served as the mayor of Portland, Oregon since 2017. He was Oregon State Treasurer from 2010 to 2016.
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB), officially the Portland Bureau of Police, is the law enforcement agency of the city of Portland, the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. While oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City Commissioners, the mayor has historically been assigned to the Police Bureau as the police commissioner.
The Proud Boys is a North American far-right, neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence. The group's leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the federal government of the United States, including its constitutionally prescribed transfer of presidential power. It has been called a street gang and was designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand. The Proud Boys are opposed to left-wing and progressive groups and support Donald Trump, the former president of the United States and current President-elect of the United States. While Proud Boys leadership has denied being a white supremacist organization, the group and some of its members have been connected to white supremacist events, ideologies, and other white-power groups throughout its existence.
The 2017 Berkeley protests were a series of protests and clashes between organized groups that occurred in the city of Berkeley, California, in the vicinity of the University of California campus. Violence occurred predominantly between protesters opposed to then-President Donald Trump, including activists such as antifa groups and socialists; and pro-Trump groups such as Republicans, members of the alt-lite and alt-right, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists. The majority of the participants were peaceful.
Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Supporters of the movement aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Patriot Prayer is an American far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area. Since 2016, the group has organized several dozen pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies held in cities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Often met with large numbers of counter-protesters, attendees have repeatedly clashed with left-wing groups in the Portland area. Far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys, have attended the rallies organized by Patriot Prayer, as well as white nationalists, sparking controversy and violence.
Rose City Antifa (RCA) is an antifascist group founded in 2007 in Portland, Oregon. A leftist group, it is the oldest known active antifa group in the United States. While anti-fascist activism in the United States dates back to the 1980s, Rose City Antifa is the first to adopt the abbreviated moniker antifa. Since 2016, Rose City Antifa has been one of the nine chapters of the Torch Network coalition.
#HimToo is a social movement supporting male victims of sexual assault and false rape allegations. The reaction to the #MeToo movement started in October 2018 after a tweet from a mother about her son being afraid to date because of a climate of false rape allegations. It rose to greater prominence during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. The #HimToo movement was a response to the sexual assault allegations from the #MeToo movement.
Andy Cuong Ngo is an American right-wing social media influencer, who is known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is a journalist and editor-at-large for The Post Millennial, a Canadian conservative news website, and a regular guest on Fox News. Ngo has published columns in the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal and authored a best selling book on Antifa.
The End Domestic Terrorism rally, sometimes subtitled "Better Dead Than Red", was a far-right demonstration organized by the Proud Boys and held in Portland, Oregon on August 17, 2019. The event, the purpose of which was to promote the idea that the "antifa" anti-fascist movement should be classified as "domestic terrorism", received national attention. The rally drew more counter-demonstrators than participants, with at least one group urging its members in advance not to attend, and ended with the Proud Boys requesting a police escort to leave.
Cider Riot was an American cider producer with a cider house in the Kerns neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon, from 2016 until November 2019.
Starting in May 2020, protests following the murder of George Floyd were held in the city of Portland, Oregon, concurrent with protests in other cities in the United States and around the world. By July 2020, many of the protests, which had been held every day since May 28, drew more than 1,000 participants. Protests continued into August, September, and October 2020, often drawing hundreds.
On August 29, 2020, Aaron Danielson, an American supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was shot and killed by a far-left activist after participating in a caravan which drove through Portland, Oregon, displaying banners and signs supporting President Donald Trump, and clashing with participants in the local George Floyd protests.
Michael Schmidt is an American attorney and a progressive prosecutor. He has served as the Multnomah County District Attorney since August 2020. Originally set to begin his term on January 1, 2021, Governor Kate Brown appointed him to the job early, in August 2020, to replace Rod Underhill, who retired in July. Schmidt will be succeeded by Nathan Vasquez on January 1, 2025 at the end of his term after conceding loss in the primary election in May 2024.
James Buchal was chair of the Multnomah County, Oregon Republican Party. He won the Republican nomination for Oregon Attorney General in 2012 on a write-in campaign, but lost in the general election. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress in 2014. He has spoken strongly in favor of U.S. president Donald Trump. He has served as a lawyer for the far right group Patriot Prayer and against gun control walkouts at Portland Public Schools, has spoken on national television against Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, A statement Buchal made on a campaign website in 2014 has been rated "false" by PolitiFact.
Ethan Nordean, also known as Rufio Panman, is an American far-right political activist, convicted felon and a leader of the Proud Boys, an all-male neo-fascist organization that engages in political violence.
Since its foundation in 2016, members of the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization, have been involved in a number controversial and violent events. This list contains a number of those events, some of which have resulted in criminal charges being filed against participants.
Tusitala John Toese also known as Tiny, is a convicted felon. He is a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that engages in political violence in the United States. He was, and still is, a member of the Portland area far-right group Patriot Prayer, prior to joining the Proud Boys and has been convicted of multiple criminal charges for violence at rallies.
The "Nightmare Elk" was a metal sculpture of an elk, temporarily installed in Portland, Oregon.