And both days, Portland police were nowhere to be seen.
Antifa showed up in force Saturday, with their masks, shields and weapons, and attacked the noon worship service (pictured above) held at Waterfront Park despite the service providing its own security guards.
“When I looked to my right, I saw a formation of black bloc just walking right on us. They caught us off guard,” Jamee Anatello, a Portland resident, told American Family Radio. “That's when they started immediately throwing things like eggs, rocks, feces.”
The Saturday prayer event featured Artur Pawloski, the outspoken Canadian pastor who famously confronted authorities when his church violated Calgary’s pandemic-related restrictions. It also featured a few volunteer security guards who were outnumbered by Antifa.
According to The Portland Tribune newspaper, Antifa confronted the church gathering before it had even assembled in the public park. A crowd of approximately 50 people listened to speakers, the newspaper said, and Antifa members eventually tossed smoke grenades at the crowd and took the group's public address system.
The newspaper story bizarrely described the Antifa group as “left-wing anti-fascists, often dubbed antifa,” as if the well-organized Portland group, PDX, doesn’t exist with its own website and its own Twitter page.
According to Anatello, the violent Antifa members deserve to be called “vile human beings” after they threw flashbang grenades at the crowd that included her children, one of them an 8-month-old. A family friend reacted quickly, she said, by blocking a projectile that exploded near the child.
"And her arm took the impact of a projectile,” Anatello recalled, “and left welts, bruises on her hands, legs, and feet.”
Then came Sunday in Portland, where well-known worship leader Sean Feucht and his “Let us Worship” ministry ministered to hundreds at Waterfront Park --- and came prepared to do keep everyone safe.
According to The Post Millennial, which reported on the Sunday service, Antifa militants surrounded the worship service but trained observers, who were watching from a nearby bridge, ordered their fellow comrades to not attack. That is because Antifa realized it was outnumbered not only by the crowd but was facing trained security members whose presence had been announced by Feucht (pictured below) before the worship service began.
“If you mess with them or our First Amendment right to worship God,” the worship leader warned in an Instagram photo, “you'll meet the ministry of laying on of hands.”
It is unclear if Antifa saw Feucht’s photo of the men, described as ex-military and ex-police, but one of the observed warned on social media that the “fascists are out in large [profanity] numbers and they will got directly to you.”
“Though Antifa is surrounding us on both sides working to intimidate, God is setting people free!!” Feucht said in a social media post during the worship service.
But the “anti-fascist” mob was not done with the gathered believers: After wisely staying away during the well-attended worship service, Antifa chased down and attacked the attendees as they departed, with some of the security members attempting to fight back.
Videos of the violent Sunday night confrontation can be seen here and here.
Missing in the videos: Portland police officers, with the exception of an officer in his cruiser while witnessing two groups fight with bear spray and a paintball gun.
Editor's Note: American Family Radio is a division of the American Family Association, the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.
