Harger: Portland protesters’ practices are alienating their own allies
Oct 1, 2025, 9:33 AM | Updated: 3:52 pm
I really don’t think Portland needs federal troops.
But let’s also stop pretending the small subset of violent protesters out there night after night are somehow the good guys. They’re not.
I’ve watched them up close in Seattle. They show up with recording equipment, even a smartphone, and they swarm you with umbrellas blocking your lens.
Multiple people, coordinated, aggressive. They grab your equipment, scream you’re “platforming fascism.” For what? Recording on a public street. They make sure you know you’re outnumbered. That you should leave. That documenting what they do won’t be tolerated.
The Pacific Northwest brings all types of journalists to these confrontations. Mainstream TV, radio, newspapers, and even reporters who are provocateurs and people trying to build an online brand. Antifa attacks them all.
But here’s what I’ve noticed. They claim to fight fascism. Watch who they target. Conservative journalists get swarmed. Women get cornered. Look at what they do to Brandi Kruse and Katie Daviscourt. Smaller people get shoved. Older reporters have 20-somethings screaming in their faces.
They know exactly who to surround. Who to intimidate. For people claiming to fight bullies, they sure act like them.
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What about the local residents of Portland?
And then there are the neighbors. The people who actually live there. Most of them likely agree with the protesters’ politics. This is Portland, after all.
But tear gas drifts through their windows. Pepper spray burns their eyes while they’re trying to watch TV. Lasers and strobe lights flash into bedrooms. Kids can’t sleep. Parents wake up exhausted the next day.
Low-income residents, the elderly, and those with no means to relocate elsewhere. They’re trapped in nightly chaos they didn’t sign up for.
“You’re worse than ICE,” one resident told protesters.
Think about that. People who oppose ICE, who support immigrant rights, who should be your natural allies, are begging you to stop. Not because they disagree with the cause. Because they need to sleep. Because their kids have school. Because they have jobs in the morning.
Now, free speech doesn’t have a bedtime, I get that. But here’s reality: Nobody lying awake at 3 a.m. listening to your drums and air horns is thinking, “They’ve converted me.” You’re not building a movement. You’re building resentment.
Night after night. A hundred days and counting. The neighborhood has become their stage, and everyone living there is a captive audience who never bought a ticket.
Portland doesn’t need federal troops. Local police said they can handle this. Good. Handle it. Show us. Because right now, it looks like they are afraid to enforce even a noise ordinance because of the politics. Cracking down on demonstrators who are violent and intimidating doesn’t somehow mean you are in favor of President Trump’s immigration policies.
I will say again: protect speech. Stop violence. Let journalists work. Even the reporters with views you don’t like. Let the neighbors sleep at night.
That’s not too much to ask. It’s what we used to call … normal.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
