lpetrich
Contributor
In Klamath Falls, Oregon, victory declared over antifa, which never showed up - "Towns from Washington state to Indiana have seen armed groups begin patrolling the streets after rumors spread on social media about an antifa invasion."
Ben Collins on Twitter: "New from @BrandyZadrozny + me: ..." / Twitter
But alsoAbout 200 protesters came to Sugarman’s Corner, the local hotspot in downtown Klamath Falls, Oregon, last Sunday night to protest the killing of George Floyd.
Like in many of the protests that have recently sprung up in cities across the United States, the group was made up of white, black and Latino people, members of the Native American Klamath Tribes, and the LGBTQ community; a diverse coalition in a county of 68,000 where 9 out of every ten residents are white, according to Census estimates. They held signs, many of which have become common during recent protests: "Black Lives Matter" and "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Just across the street, hundreds of their mostly white neighbors were there for decidedly different reasons. They leaned in front of local businesses The Daily Bagel and Rick's Smoke Shop wearing military fatigues and bulletproof vests, with blue bands tied around their arms. Most everyone seemed to be carrying something: flags, baseball bats, hammers and axes. But mostly, they carried guns.
They said they came with shotguns, rifles and pistols to protect their downtown businesses from outsiders. They had heard that antifa, paid by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, were being bused in from neighboring cities, hellbent on razing their idyllic town
Ben Collins on Twitter: "New from @BrandyZadrozny + me: ..." / Twitter
New from @BrandyZadrozny + me:
Armed residents in small towns all across America, warned by social media and local police, have been gathering to fight off "busloads of antifa," coming to loot their towns.
They never show up.
So what happens next?
"They came with shotguns, rifles and pistols to protect their businesses from outsiders.
They had heard that antifa, paid by billionaire philanthropist Geoge Soros, were being bused in from neighboring cities, hellbent on razing their idyllic town."
Some members of these small towns see the antifa panic for what it is.
In Curry County, Oregon, a local couple wrote an op-ed In the local paper, after 200 armed people showed up to fight antifa downtown:
They called it "taking on an imaginary enemy."
Rumors of marauding antifa buses have popped up on local social media all across the country this week.
Locals in Washington felled trees with chainsaws to block a bus, thinking it was antifa.
It was a multiracial couple heading home from a campsite.