Warning: Video Contains Graphic Violence
A New York Times article offered a detailed portrait retracing the steps of murder victim Aaron Danielson (aka Jay Bishop) at Saturday’s pro-Trump protest in Portland, prior to his shooting by a radical leftist thug.
True to form, the unabashedly biased Times insinuated, without evidence, that Danielson and his group were white supremacists and violent right-wing extremists, while giving a free pass to the rioters who murdered him in cold blood.
The Times engaged in victim-blaming, suggesting that Danielson was at fault for straying from the route of the Patriot Prayer group’s planned Trump 2020 Cruise Rally, daring to go into the heart of the city where violence has raged for three months with impunity.
“Patriot Prayer describes itself as a conservative Christian group but has attracted white supremacists and previously taken firearms to Portland protests that frequently became street brawls,” claimed the Times, although there is nothing to suggest that Danielson was wielding a weapon at the time of his murder.
Some evidence suggests that he was attempting to defend himself with over-the-counter pepper spray after rioters threatened him and appeared ready to mob him, including the armed assailant.
But the Times reported that Danielson’s companion, Zane Sparling, had a paintball gun and that the two brought knives, suggesting that they were, somehow, threatening their attackers.
One of several videos embedded in the article shows the members of the caravan passing by groups of protesters while using pepper spray and paintball against the onlookers, who hurled projectiles at them.
A leftist rioter appears to be armed with a large wooden board, and another carries what appears to be an improvised flame thrower, although the Times makes no note of that.
In a second video, the Times shows the rioters confronting the caravan an attempting to grab a Trump flag as a man who appears to be wearing the same outfit as the eventual shooter clutches at a vest pocket.
Police have since identified a suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, of Portland.
The shooting happens shortly thereafter, with the Times showing multiple videos. The shooter and another man first confront Danielson and call out, ““Hey, we got some right here. We got a couple right here.”
An accomplice of the shooter then appears to say, “He’s macing you. Pull it out.” (The Times here suggests the man says “He’s pulling it out.”)
The Times suggests that Danielson then sprays a pepper-spray like substance, although the visual and audio evidence do not clearly indicate that.
The article offers a statement from Pappas, who was featured in a Facebook interview with The WTF Files, saying that there was no prior confrontation with the assailants and they were unfamiliar.
But it closes with a statement of opinion from one of the protesters who live-streamed the shooting, which put the blame on law-enforcement for allowing the victims to exercise their free speech.
According to Justin Dunlap, “the Portland police should not have allowed the pro-Trump caravan to enter an area they knew would be occupied by opposing protesters,” wrote the Times.
