Violent clashes broke out Saturday afternoon in downtown Portland between right and left wing activists over a Christian prayer event.
Members of right-wing group Proud Boys and left wing Antifa demonstrators converged at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park for an event scheduled for noon in downtown Portland by Canadian Protestant Christian preacher Artur Pawlowski.
Pawlowski is known for his public opposition to abortions, homosexuality and most recently mask rules, calling police who enforce them 'Nazis' in a YouTube video posted ahead of Easter this year.
Around 50 people attended the event, and video shows the black-clad Antifa demonstrators armed with shields and umbrellas, disrupting it with smoke bombs and what appeared to be pepper spray, and knocking over the event's speaker system.
One of the demonstrators commandeering a microphone and can be heard saying, 'All Cops are B*******, in the name of Jesus,' over the speakers.
Violent Antifa protestors can be seen disrupting a prayer event at a park in Portland Saturday afternoon
Clad in black, they are seen shouting at attendees and aggressively walking up to them
The Antifa demonstrators periodically spray members at the prayer group with a yellowish/brown liquid
The demonstrators can be seen knocking over the prayer group's soundsystem
The Antifa members throw smoke bombs in the middle of the event as well
'Antifa had threatened to beat people up and do what they do — and then they showed up and did it,' an attendee at the event told the Portland Tribune.
'The police were not even far from there and they were laughing in their vehicles and doing their thing. It's probably hard to care as an officer in a place where they take away all your funding.'
Another woman on the scene told a videographer filming the event that the Antifa activists had been throwing flash bombs, sometimes in close proximity to children.
'We were about to have a worship event, and Antifa just rolled in like an angry mob, started throwing flash bombs at everybody, macing everybody, rotten eggs at everybody, black paint,' she said.
One Antifa member said on social media that the group had thrown some of the prayer group's speaker equipment in the nearby river.
After crashing the prayer group the Antifa (left) then clashed with Proud Boys members in the streets of downtown Portland
Armed with paintball guns the Proud Boy demonstrators continued their standoff with the Antifa members
The Proud Boys members then appear to move off, a local outlet said some of the group piled into a pickup truck and drove off
Police were nearby but did not intervene. There were no reported arrests from the incident
The member, Melissa Lewis, had announced on social media that her group would be there to disrupt the prayer event, 'Welcome to Portland,' she tweeted. 'You won't like it here, Pastor.'
Another said they had stolen the prayer group's food and water.
'Today anarchists in Portland expropriated sandwiches and water from the fascist hate preachers and gave them to the houseless,' the member wrote.
Despite the disruptions, the event lasted for about 90 minutes, the Portland Tribune reported, and after, members of Proud Boys gathered nearby in the park.
The two groups appear on video to have a standoff that turns into a shouting match, which then moves in the streets outside of the park, the Tribune reported.
Left wing activist bragged about disrupting the event on social media
The clashes surrounded a prayer event organized by Canadian firebrand pastor Artur Pawlowski
Further video of the confrontation shows the group of Proud Boys members moving down a nearby street armed with paintball guns, as one of the Antifa members sprays them with a brown/yellowish liquid.
Portland police can be seen sitting in their car nearby the confrontation, but do not intervene.
The Portland Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Eventually, the Tribune reported, the two sides separated, as the Proud boys members hopped into a pickup truck and drove away.
Commentators from different ends of the political spectrum online framed the event differently
There were no arrests on the scene, according to the outlet.
Conservative commentator Andy Ngo tweeted that Antifa had sought to, 'shut down a family Christian prayer & worship event on the waterfront.' Noting that police did not intervene.
Meanwhile Portland-based pastor Rev. Chuck Currie from the United Church of Christ, framed the prayer event as political.
'This was no "family Christian prayer event," he tweeted. 'It was a far-right political rally.'
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