I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — Portland, Oregon is awful. We can at least say that about the leadership that doesn’t seem to care what happens to the citizens that aren’t rioting, looting, loitering and generally causing mayhem against said citizens. Well, one of the leaders of a right-wing group isn’t having anymore of it. This is what happens when you have local district attorneys and local judges who are nothing more than left-wing activists.
Attorneys for Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson and “affiliate” Russell Schultz filed an official complaint in federal court on Friday against Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt and Deputy District Attorney Brad Kalbaugh for what they claim is “selective prosecution” used in pending riot charges against them.
According to the lawsuit, here’s part of what Gibson and Schultz are claiming:
2. Defendants [Schmidt, Kalbaugh and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office] are engaged in a bad faith, selective, and retaliatory prosecuting of Plaintiffs because Plaintiffs have publicly expressed opinions with which Defendants disagree. Specifically, Plaintiffs protested against Antifa and the local government’s failure to hold Antifa accountable for criminal conduct. As a result of Plaintiffs protest activity, they are currently being prosecuted for Riot by Defendants.
3. While Defendants willingly allow a group known as Antifa to engage in mass criminal conduct to the detriment of the City of Portland, and intimidate the public and public officials, Defendants continue to prosecute Plaintiffs for violation of the riot statute, ORS 166.015, when (1) there is no evidence of any violation of the statute by Plaintiffs, (2) Defendants have admitted before the Multnomah County Circuit Court that Mr. Gibson did not engage in any conduct even amount to assault, (3) Defendants have enacted a formal policy of presumptive dismissal of riot charges arising out of protest activity but have selectively refused to apply that formal written policy to Plaintiff’s criminal charges, and (4) Defendants have provided no constitutionally permissible basis for the selective prosecution of Plaintiffs in violation of Defendants' own written policy.
The lawsuit comes a month after it was reported that Schmidt and his office were going to drop “most charges against Portland protesters.” Out of the 550 cases brought before Schmidt’s office, only 47 felony cases will reportedly be prosecuted.
“This policy acknowledges that the factors that lead to the commission of criminal activity during a protest are incredibly complex. The protesters are angry, yes," Schmidt said, in August, according to Willamette Week. "This frustration can escalate to levels that violate the law. Some of those violations are impermissible by any standard, resulting in physical violence, injury and worse. Others represent the instinctive reactions of people who have been gassed repeatedly, who have been struck with kinetic projectile weapons.”
Gibson and Schultz are expected in court on October 26 to face the charges against them.
For the Multnomah County DA’s office, could this simply be another case of ‘rules for thee, but not for me?’
H/T: New York Post