Right now there is a real battle underway in Portland, OR, every night.

The prelude is usually an actual demonstration where Portland’s battalions of leftists come out and flash phone lights

Portland crowd singing “hands up please don’t shoot me” tonight pic.twitter.com/G90EKJttL2

— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) July 24, 2020

After this group disperses, almost always without incident, the hard core soy radicals come out and the violence starts.

So far, the violence has been remarkably free of injuries. The only real injury among the rioters, as far as we know, was the guy who played javelin-catcher in the Tear Gas Olympics. Three federal agents have suffered eye injuries from the lasers used by the Antifa mob. There has been at least one concussion and some minor injuries. This is due to the discipline of the federal officers and the physical decrepitude and mental ineptitude of the rioters rather than to any lack of effort on the part of Antifa. They really just aren’t smart or dangerous.

What the Antifa and their fellow travelers are trying  to do, though, is build a narrative that the federal agents are the cause of the violence, that the protests are peaceful (think about the number of times you’ve heard the media use the phrase “peaceful protests”), and that federal agents are carrying out their role with extreme brutality.

In military parlance, this is what one calls the propaganda component of “intelligence preparation of the battlefield.” Here you see The New York Times perfectly parroting Antifa themes:

Well this is a lie. Antifa escalated the violence every single time by setting fires and throwing fireworks and even bringing buzzsaws to cut down the fence. When officers came out they blinded them with lasers and threw projectiles at them. pic.twitter.com/gFKEN7eemU

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 25, 2020

Next, they are trying to create martyrs to rally the cause. These people are keenly aware of the power of a personal narrative (think George Floyd). And while the federal agents have been careful not to give them one, that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to manufacture one. For instance, this clown, Mark Pettibone, tried to gussy himself up as some kind of innocent kidnapped by a repressive regime and has his story blared all over the nation, if not the world. Two salient facts come out of this: a) he wasn’t hurt, and b) he was released without charges in a very short period of time. Neither of those outcomes are the hallmarks of a totalitarian police state…like the one the Antifa ran in the CHAZ in Seattle.

This is another such effort. Here is an image being pushed by several large progressive Twitter accounts who have been supporting the insurrections in Seattle and Portland and vilifying any effort by federal authorities to bring order and the rule of law back to those Democrat sh**holes.

This is what American Fascism looks like. [Portland photo by @SmileItsNathan] pic.twitter.com/UEgLmB5WCs

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) July 24, 2020

Here is a frightened woman, undoubtedly a big chunk of the Wall of Moms, snatched away by masked, anonymous federal agents. She’s probably being made to shop in a Walmart somewhere in Nebraska and not allowed to communicate with her family.

Here is the image being used to whip up outrage and inciting people to dox federal officers and carry out attacks on them.

Trump’s America https://t.co/NgZjyTCjNP

— Amy Siskind 🏳️‍🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) July 24, 2020

The real story is much more banal.

This is video of the incident. This woman was part of a mob that breached the fenced perimeter about the federal courthouse in Portland and was snagged while trying to run away.

Federal authorities arrest screaming woman who was part of riot mob that rushed past the broken barrier toward the courthouse. She tries and fails to escape. #antifa #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/FhSvVoNnTD

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 23, 2020

She has been arrested and charged, she’s the second one:

Hailey Juliane Holden, 30, was charged by federal authorities on 23 July in relation to the antifa/BLM riot at the Portland federal courthouse. Video recorded at the scene shows a female screaming & trying to escape. She's been released on pre-trial. https://t.co/GuG3QZqjK4 pic.twitter.com/Xxk9MMPXa3

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 24, 2020

• What you are seeing develop is a coordinated propaganda campaign over multiple media outlets which is following these themes
• Protests are peaceful;
• Federal agents incite the violence;
• Federal agents are operating in a brutal and unconstitutional manner; and
• Protesters are all innocent.

Once can’t say with certitude that The New York Times is communicating with Antifa in Portland, though I bet they are, but what one can say is that the themes the Antifa in Portland are pushing are being picked up and magnified by traditional media. This is not a crime, but it should be.