 | This article needs to be updated.(September 2021) |
| Nightmare Elk | |
|---|---|
 The statue in August 2020 | |
 | |
| Year | 2020 |
| Medium | Metal sculpture |
| Location | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| 45°30′57″N122°40′39″W / 45.5157°N 122.6775°W | |
The "Nightmare Elk" was a metal sculpture of an elk, temporarily installed in Portland, Oregon.
The statue which became known as the "nightmare elk" was crafted in metal by an unknown artist. [1] Andrew D. Jankowski and Safiyah Maurice of Oregon ArtsWatch said the sculpture had "a Louise Bourgeois death metal aesthetic". [2]
The makeshift sculpture was erected in downtown Portland by demonstrators in July 2020, during the George Floyd protests. The statue replaced the Thompson Elk Fountain , a 1900 bronze sculpture and fountain by Roland Hinton Perry which became a target of graffiti and fires during the protests. [1]
On the morning of October 10, 2020, a crew led by Patriot Prayer supporter Chandler Pappas removed the statue at approximately 9am. Pappas approved and began planning the removal a few days prior. There was little resistance from others during the act; only one man who had been sleeping nearby shouted and watched as the group of 8–10 people easily lifted the sculpture, which was not anchored. [1]
Following the statue's removal, Patriot Prayer posted two messages to Twitter. The first had a photograph of supporters posing with the elk in a trailer bed and said, "He is registered to vote and will now be voting for Trump". [1] Some of the group members were shown flashing the OK gesture, in reference to the debunked belief that it was a symbol of white nationalism. The second Twitter post showed a voter registration sheet for "elk Nightmare" and said, "The evil elk is now registered to vote". Pappas insisted the voter registration was not actually submitted for election purposes. He said Patriot Prayer was "having fun" and called the statue removal "a little push back to antifa". [1]
Believing antifa supporters erected the sculpture after setting fire to the Thompson Elk, Pappas said, "There can't be a double standard. We toed the line. That elk is just trash so all I really did was clean up trash." [1] He also said the makeshift elk was removed "as a political statement" and the hand gestures were meant "to antagonize" people "who don't know any better". Pappas said the message was directed at Kate Brown and Ted Wheeler, the governor of Oregon and mayor of Portland, respectively, as well as other city officials. [1] According to The Oregonian 's Maxine Bernstein, "Social media lit up with fans and critics of the elk escapade." PDX Frontline Alerts, a Twitter account used to provide updates on the protests, called the statue a "memorial for Black victims of police violence" and accused Patriot Prayer of "bragging" about the removal. Pappas told The Oregonian, "That's not the last you'll see of the elk." [1]
The metal elk statue was replaced with another sculpture of an elk made of branches, duct tape, and wood pallets. [3]
In November 2020, the "nightmare elk" appeared at a rally in support of Donald Trump in Salem, Oregon. [4]
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.
Shemanski Fountain, also known as Rebecca at the Well, is an outdoor fountain with a bronze sculpture, located in the South Park Blocks of downtown Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The sandstone fountain was designed in 1925, completed in 1926, and named after Joseph Shemanski, a Polish immigrant and businessman who gave it to the city. Carl L. Linde designed the trefoil, which features a statue designed by Oliver L. Barrett. The sculpture, which was added to the fountain in 1928, depicts the biblical personage Rebecca. Shemanski Fountain includes two drinking platforms with three basins each, with one platform intended for use by dogs.
Thompson Elk Fountain, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, the Thompson Elk, or simply Elk, was a historic fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain with its statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It was owned by the City of Portland.
The Promised Land is a bronze sculpture by David Manuel that was formerly installed in Chapman Square, in Portland, Oregon. The sculpture, erected in 1993, depicts a pioneer family at the end of their journey. It was removed from public display in 2020 in response to vandalism and racial justice concerns during the George Floyd protests.
A bronze sculpture of American pioneer, newspaper editor and historian Harvey W. Scott (1838–1910) by Gutzon Borglum, sometimes called Harvey Scott or Harvey W. Scott, was installed on Mount Tabor in Portland, Oregon, United States, until being toppled in October 2020.
Patriot Prayer is a US 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.
The Trump Free Speech Rally was a demonstration organized by Patriot Prayer on June 4, 2017, in Portland, Oregon, in support of President Donald Trump. Several hundred participants gathered, along with a larger group of counter-protesters who organized the Portland Stands United Against Hate Rally outside City Hall. Police worked to keep the groups separate and closed neighboring Chapman Square where anti-fascist demonstrators had gathered. Officers clashed with this particular group of demonstrators, and fourteen people were arrested. Many weapons were confiscated, but there were no reported injuries.
Joseph Owan Gibson is an American right-wing activist and the founder of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which is active in Portland, Oregon and other cities within the Pacific Northwest.
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.
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.
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 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.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in Portland, Oregon, United States, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Oregon Arts Watch contextualized the artistic works, stating that a "whitewashed pre-COVID lens" on American life, which obscured systemic racism, had been "cracked", and describing artists' response to racial violence being brought into the public eye was a "marathon, not a sprint".
The Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage, often abbreviated as the Day of Rage, was a protest held in Portland, Oregon on October 11, 2020. The demonstration was declared a riot by the Portland Police Bureau and saw the toppling of two statues in the South Park Blocks as well as vandalism to the Oregon Historical Society and other local businesses.
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.
A 4 foot bust of York, the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was installed in Portland, Oregon's Mount Tabor Park, in the United States, from February to July 2021. The artist stayed anonymous at first, but after the bust was removed he revealed himself as Todd McGrain. McGrain was a student of Darrell Millner, Portland State University professor of history and Black Studies. The bust appeared on February 20, replacing the statue of Harvey W. Scott, which had been toppled on October 20, 2020. McGrain did not seek city permission to install the bust, which McGrain expected to be temporary; on June 11 the city announced that it would remove the bust.
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.
