Salem Political Snark

Salem Police Department misleads about Proud Boys rally

I was already deeply irritated at the Salem Police Department, after learning that they stood by and did nothing on May 1 while armed members of the Proud Boys right-wing militia group forced people they didn't like to leave the public Riverfront Park, harassed journalists, and reportedly beat up someone who was taking a photo of them.

(See my previous post, "Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park.")

Now I've even more irritated at the Police Department after reading their attempt to make it seem like they did everything right and nothing wrong as the Proud Boys provided "security" at a gun rights rally that lacked a permit, so had no right to exclude either citizens or journalists from the rally area.

Here's the self-serving message from the Police Department that was released today. My comments and observations are interspersed in red. 

Good afternoon,

 

We understand that there is information circulating on social media that there was no police presence at Riverfront Park for the rally. That information is incorrect. The following is information we have updated to our FB timeline:

 

Several accounts of the police department response to the rally at Riverfront Park on Saturday, May 1, 2021 are circulating on social media.

 

More than several. And they're getting a lot of well-deserved attention. My humble little blog post has gotten about 7,000 page views so far. People are justifiably upset at the failure of the Salem Police Department to protect citizens from the Proud Boys.

 

Primary claims seem to be concerning the lack of police presence and allowing individuals to be assaulted or removed from the park by members of the Proud Boys group.

 

True. But you forgot another concern -- the fact, not a claim, that at least one journalist, and maybe more, was harassed by Proud Boys who told him that he couldn't report on the rally even though he had a perfect right to be there in a public park.

 

The rally was attended by approximately 150 to 200 people, including families with children. A stage was set for guest speakers and several tents were set up for the sharing of food and items.

 

Approximately 30 individuals dressed in Proud Boy attire were observed lawfully carrying pistols. No rifles were seen carried in the public space. No individuals counter-protesting were present.

 

Salem Police officers, some highly visible and others less visible, were present throughout the entire rally and actively monitored the event. Officers patrolled the area checking for violations of alcohol use in the park. No violations occurred.

 

I've read numerous Facebook comments from people who were at Riverfront Park and saw no visible police presence. So please provide photographs of uniformed Salem Police officers in the immediate vicinity of the rally -- the stage and auditorium-like seating. If you can't do that, I'll continue to believe the people who say no Salem police were present at the rally.

 

The dispatch center received only two calls for service at the park during the event and officers immediately responded to each.

 

This doesn't mean there weren't more incidents of Proud Boys trouble-making. For example, Les Margosian, one of those forced to leave the rally area by a group of Proud Boys, had no cell phone with him, so he wasn't able to make a call for service. And since he saw no Salem police around, Margosian couldn't go up to an officer and complain about how the Proud Boys were abusing him.

 

Dispatch also received two separate false reports. One caller reported intoxicated individuals terrorizing people near the carousel. The second caller reported Proud Boys group members with clubs, chains and knives attacking people in the middle of the park. Officers were in each area at the time of the calls and no such activities were occurring.

 

OK. So officers were in parts of the park away from the rally. My point remains: why weren't they at the center of Proud Boys harassment, the rally itself? Also, is the Salem Police Department denying the accuracy of a Reddit post by someone who says they were beaten by Proud Boys in the park, called the police, and was interviewed at their home by an officer who downplayed the beating?

 

We have also learned through social media commentary after-the-fact that two or three individuals may have been escorted out of the park by Proud Boys or their affiliates. We encourage anyone who experienced such actions to please contact the police department (503-588-6123, option 1) to file a police report.

 

"May" is an affront to the people who were forced out of the park by Proud Boys. There's a video of a man being escorted out of the park by a group of Proud Boys. Les Margosian, mentioned above, is a 78 year old man who was threatened by Proud Boys and forced to leave the rally area. Stop with the "may" and face reality, Salem Police Department.

 

We will investigate all reported incidents. Please remember, in any emergency circumstance where there is an immediate danger to person or property, call 9-1-1 when it is happening.

 

Lastly, the City of Salem did not issue a permit for the event due to pandemic restrictions. Parks, however, remain open for public use on a first-come first-served basis.

 

Untrue. Citizen activist Jim Scheppke has shown that a permit was required for the event up until the day before, when someone at the City of Salem changed the permit requirement date to begin at the end of May. So this was a conscious effort by city officials to accommodate the gun rights rally and Proud Boys by not requiring a permit for the gun rally.

 

Please remember, the City of Salem cannot stop constitutionally protected activities, nor can the Salem Police Department.

 

No one, or at least hardly anyone, was calling for this. So stop with the "please remember." The gun rally isn't the issue. Not requiring a permit for the rally is one issue. The bad behavior by Proud Boys with no evident police presence is the other issue.

 

We understand the concerns of those who read the social media commentary. We share those concerns because officers were in the area, and if those circumstances were occurring, any criminal behavior could have been addressed with immediacy.

 

To repeat, I'm not aware of a single report from anyone who was in Riverfront Park on May 1 that there were uniformed Salem Police officers in the immediate area of the gun rally. It appears that officers may have been elsewhere in the park, but not in the area where the Proud Boys were harassing people. So how could bad behavior be addressed if no officers were around to witness it?

 

For additional information about protests, rallies and assemblies in the city of Salem or for police response to such activities, visit https://bit.ly/protests-faqs.

 

Also, the Salem Reporter has a story out today, "Salem leaders say they're constrained by the Constitution when handling far-right events." 

As noted above, the headline is accurate, but the sentiment is a bunch of crap. People understand the Constitution. Free speech and carrying a gun isn't the issue here.

The issue is that a violent extremist group, the Proud Boys, were allowed to cause trouble at the gun rights rally with no attempt by the Salem Police Department to protect the rights of journalists, citizens watching the rally, and by one account, a person who took a photo of Proud Boys and was then beaten by them.

Here's an excerpt from the story.

Margosian, 78, sat down at the amphitheater to listen to the event’s speakers. He said 15 minutes later he was accosted by four men wearing Proud Boys attire, black shirts with a yellow “PB” on the chest and armed with handguns.

“They came and sat down next to me and said, ‘We’re going to escort you out of here. You cannot stay any longer,’” he said.

Margosian said he asked what would happen if he didn’t leave.

He recalled one of the men saying something to the effect of, “You can do it your way, or we can do it ours.”

Margosian took that to mean he would be assaulted if he didn’t leave.

He left the park feeling angry and “kind of a hopeless feeling.”

“Angry at City of Salem for allowing things to get to this point. Angry that people had kicked me out of my own city park,” he said.

As of Monday afternoon, Margosian said he hadn't pressed charges but planned to.

Margosian has said that the Proud Boy who told him he had to leave is the same man I featured in a screenshot of a video made by another person forced to leave the park by Proud Boys.

He should be pretty damn easy to find, since he wasn't wearing a face covering. Hopefully if Margosian does file a complaint, the Salem Police Department will locate this guy and hold him accountable for what he did.

Lastly, I found a quote from a Police Department spokesperson, Lt. Treven Upkes, in a Statesman Journal story, "Salem police respond to complaints of inaction at Riverfront Park Second Amendment rally," way off-base.

I want Police Chief Womack to confirm that it is department policy that telling people to leave a public park is perfectly fine. If this is true, that policy needs to change. Excerpt from the story:

Community members expressed concern the Police Department was showing favoritism by not having a heavy presence at the rally. 

Those concerns were further compounded by rumors that the Proud Boys' security teams were telling people to leave, escorting people out of the public park and had even assaulted someone for taking photos of the event. 

...Upkes also pointed to the nuance of whether escorting people out of the park was illegal. Simply telling someone to leave the public area — and even walking with them — isn't necessarily a crime. But pairing that order with the threat of violence, menacing or harassment is, he said. 

Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park

Today the Proud Boys, a violent right-wing militia group, provided "security" for a gun rights rally at Riverfront Park here in Salem.

The City of Salem allowed the rally to go on without a permit, as I reported a few days ago. So members of the public had just as much of a right to be at the park as the Proud Boys and other people attending the rally.

But as you'll see below, the Proud Boys forced people to leave the park if they objected to someone being there.

Meanwhile, apparently there was nobody from the Salem Police Department or the City of Salem on site to ensure that the rights of everybody were maintained. Instead, the Proud Boys were free to bully Salem residents.

This photo is a screenshot from a video by "Behind Enemy Lines," a guy who, I gather, used to be close to the Proud Boys. No more, since his video shows him being escorted from the public park by a group of Proud Boys who ordered him to leave for reasons that aren't entirely clear.

The same thing happened to other people. Here's a post on a private Facebook group that I belong to by someone I know and consider highly credible. 

Just took a stroll through our Riverfront Park which Republicans and other fascists had commandeered for their meeting. A large number of men, mostly with sidearms, in Proud Boys uniforms, mainly military belts and camouflage, and also American flags and Trump paraphernalia.

 

The most noticeable aspect, which was my main reason for checking this out, was that there was absolutely no Salem Police present. Not only in the Park itself but also on the periphery, along Front Street. Not a one.

 

As I ambled through the venue I was accosted by a woman who demanded to know why I had a mask on. Then she demanded that I not take photos, and then insisted that I tell her my name. Turns out she was one of the "organizers".

 

After that I sat in the amphitheater area and listened to speakers, mostly Republicans. The atmosphere of hatred and blind, ignorant fury was unbelievable.

 

I was going to stay until Representative Nearman gave his speech but before we got to that part of the program four heavily armed and uniformed Proud boys sat down next to me and said they were going to escort me out of there, saying the "organizers" didn't want me there.

 

I naturally complied and as we were walking out I asked the one who seemed to be their spokesman what would happen if I didn't agree to leave as told, would they forcibly evict me. He said we could do it either way it was up to me.

 

Most of us, quite understandably, don't want to stay up at night worrying about these characters but at least believe that they have a serious agenda that involves violence and attacks on our governmental institutions. And the police will not be on our side.

The man who wrote that post is quite old, late 70s or early 80s, I believe. I can completely understand why he left the area when four armed Proud Boys demanded that he do so. But he was sitting in a public park watching a rally put on by people who, again, had no more of a right to use the park than he did.

It's disgusting that the Salem Police Department and City officials allowed the Proud Boys to intimidate citizens with zero police officers or parks staff at the rally to make sure rules were followed.

Like, not kicking people out of the auditorium/stage area just because the rally organizers or Proud Boys didn't like their looks.

Here's another post from one of my Facebook friends. SPD stands for Salem Police Department. MCSO stands for Marion County Sheriff's Office.

So the proud boys came to Salem to intimidate the folks enjoying our beautiful Riverfront Park. The SPD nor MCSO offered any security services. Citizens enjoying the park, or were looking to see what was going on were escorted from a city park by the Proud Boys.

And here's some Twitter tweets about the rally. The first one is from a journalist. UPDATE: Tim Gruver, the journalist, wrote a story for The Center Square, "Far-right groups hold gun rally in Oregon park, threaten media." Here's how the story starts out:

A weekend gathering billed as a Second Amendment rally in Salem led to far-right groups tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol invasion taking control of a public park.

The Saturday event, promoted online as "May Day 2A Rally," saw 100 to 200 attendees at Salem's Riverfront Park in a show of support for their Second Amendment rights. The Proud Boys, a "western chauvinist" group who have violently clashed with members of the anti-fascist movement, provided "security" and co-sponsored the event. 

Some carried semi-automatic pistols or rifles and "closed" the public park to media, though they had no authority to do so. The armed attendees threatened reporters, forcing them to leave the immediate area and report from a distance. 

UPDATE: This Reddit post just came to my attention. 

Just got attacked by a group of the proud boys in the river front.

I was walking past the fisherman statue towards the carousel with one of the kids I support when we saw a group of them walking by, so we cut through the grass towards the front of the carousel. I snapped a picture to post to snapchat and they started following me, yelling "give me that phone fucker." They started getting closer so we started hurrying to the gates. I had to stop when I got separated from the kid I support. They started shoving me telling me that I needed to go. One grabbed a hold of me so I tried to stabilize myself and one of them held me while a couple others started swinging at me. It felt like four or five were there but it was more likely only two or three of them involved in the scuffle. They smacked me in the head a couple times and got my ribs and back before throwing me on the ground. They wouldn't let me go back to the kid I support while she was still in the park so I had to walk along the train tracks and she had to follow me on the opposite side of the fence. She was being followed by somebody wearing a ballistic vest and holding a pistol at their side. We ended up back together at the parking lot by the gilbert house and they stopped following her.

Please be safe you guys

(after someone asked if they called the police, this comment was added by the person attacked)

I did. Police came by the house I'm working at and asked me questions. Dude spent the entire time basically trying to ask whether or not I was agitating them. Officer said "It's not normal for them to do that unprovoked, but you're not the first person they've thrown out today." almost verbatim. I don't expect anything to come of it