I spent a day undercover in Portland's 'Red House' autonomous zone

On Sunday, it was reported that the barricades which had blocked a residential neighborhood on North Mississippi Avenue in Portland, OR were slowly coming down after a week of armed occupation. Antifa militants struck a tentative deal with city officials regarding the "Red House," that a controversial family had lost, by their own actions, to foreclosure.

According to Oregon Live, activists put out a call on Twitter asking for people to return to Portland’s ‘Autonomous Zone’ and help clear the street, saying police had agreed not to force the family to leave while those negotiations were ongoing, as long as the street was cleared by Monday night.

This is a complete reversal from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler who called for police to use "…all lawful means" to clear the residence when it first formed. Mac Smiff, an activist and journalist who has been involved in the foreclosure protest, told Oregon Live that the tentative agreement was a "win" amid the months of protests. "This is a whole new level of progress and the impacts are going to reverberate around the nation," Smiff said. "This isn’t like what we’ve seen before. It’s a negotiation and a win, and that’s something we’re just not used to."

Just like their neighbors to the north in Seattle, Portland officials gave in to the demands of domestic terrorists and by doing so, only emboldened further lawless action. Make no mistake, despite how they are portrayed in the media, the armed occupants of a working-class neighborhood in North Portland were terrorists.

Having been a frequent "guest" at Seattle’s autonomous zone this summer, on Thursday, I decided to drive down to Portland to see their zone and compare.

The first thing I noticed as I parked my car a block away from the zone, was a group of neighbors and residents boarding up their windows. "Has it been that bad?" I asked. "No, it’s been worse," he responded.

I walked into what I assume was the main entrance. While taking pictures I noticed the anti-cop graffiti, literally calling for the death of officers, just like in the Seattle zone. However, these barriers looked like stolen material from the neighborhood and blocked almost every way in. I found an access point near a sidewalk. "Excuse me! Do you have any pictures of our faces on your phone?" I had taken one step inside the zone and already the white Antifa activists dressed in "black bloc" were confronting me. "No," I replied. "I don’t believe you. Please delete them off your phone!" the activist retorted. I fiddled with my phone, checking the weather, pretending to comply and continued walking thinking to myself, if you don’t want your faces public, don’t occupy public places. Ironically, my pics were just of the barriers.

"Let me see your phone to make sure you did it!" The man looked like he used to be the kid who wanted to be the president of his Dungeons and Dragons club yelled after me. I refused. "Give me your phone" he demanded. Again I refused and kept walking, knowing that the day before, Antifa activists in the zone had assaulted a TV crew who entered to cover the story. Though I had taken security precautions, I was there for a story, not to become the story.

Immediately a tall lanky white fellow who looked like he had burned out in college, fell into step behind me. "He’s a cop! I recognize him from the line!" I continued walking with Mr. Burn Out six inches behind me, who apparently, like all his comrades, did not care about social distancing. I tried to calm him down. "I’m not a cop or I would have to identify myself." I figured this would be a bad time to say I am a reporter and Andy Ngo is the Editor At Large of my outlet.

"You’re a F—ing cop. Don’t give me that bulls—! You guys always say that and lie." Mr. Burn Out kept screaming "He’s a cop!" over and over again while pointing at me, throwing off my focus during a lovely stroll through the zone.

I noticed tires and spike strips placed after the barricades along with stockpiled Molotov cocktails. These barriers were homemade, unlike the ones that the Seattle CHAZ had appropriated after the police left them behind. For all their effort, nine-year-old me could have built a better fort than this.

I kid, but I shouldn’t. The zone is in the middle of a residential street. Dozens of Portlandians are prisoners in their own homes. This is in the middle of a working-class neighborhood. Though there were businesses and apartments in the CHOP/CHAZ, the majority of it was focused within a large city park. After the initial stage of the occupation, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who had marched with the activists earlier this year,  vowed "There will be no autonomous zone in Portland."

Three days after Wheeler’s pledge to dismantle the zone, I did not see a single police officer anywhere nearby, and the zone remains. The militants attacked and chased away the police when they showed up.

As I continued walking, almost everyone I saw was white and many of them were armed and dressed in the "Black Bloc" Antifa uniform. There are tents and trash everywhere. Someone had a fire going in the middle of the street. I also noticed children, some who looked to be ten and younger emerging from the tents that are everywhere.

The Portland Zone is worse than Seattle’s in every single way. More weapons, more barriers and Antifa guards deny access to everyone who isn’t one of their own. Most of the time in CHOP/CHAZ, guards were there mostly for show and only harassed you or denied you entry if they recognized you as "trouble" or depending on the time of day when they wanted to show off. In Portland, the guards are constant. In Seattle, during the day it seemed more like a street fair you might get hepatitis from. At night is when most of the violence happened. Portland’s area feels like an around-the-clock war zone.

It took at least a week before the homeless moved in and trash began to pile up in the CHOP/CHAZ. In Portland, it was almost instantaneous. Thankfully, it did not yet have that same smell—or at least I could not tell through my mask.

My shadow got agitated anytime I reached for my phone, so I tried another approach. I asked for the exit, which he was kind enough to direct me to. I planned on walking away and attempting to gain access from another entry.

I was scheduled to be on TV that night about the zone and had articles to write, so as I walked, I spoke to the producer of the show about what I had seen. I noticed a guy, who looked like he was the president of the AV club in high school, following me with a cell camera on a tripod with BLM labels all over it. Having avoided the AV club guys in high school, I figured I could handle him and let him record my conversations and he would eventually tire and give up.

I walked the neighborhood and spoke to a resident "How bad is it?" I asked. "They are crazy" he answered. "It’s really bad." We spoke for a few minutes and I noticed Mr. AV Club was still following me, so I kept walking, but figured it was time to introduce myself. While on the phone with my editor, I did an abrupt about-face and Mr. AV Club was right behind me. So much for social distancing. My very slick maneuver can be seen on his video which I assume has been posted somewhere on Twitter.

My editor got to hear the following exchange "Can I help you?" Mr. AV Club responded "I’ve been following you for the last 10 minutes and filming. We don’t want cops here."

Under my mask, I smiled. "I’m not a cop. I am with a Canadian news agency." Mr. AV Club was not happy about this. "We held a press conference yesterday. Why didn’t you come then?"

I answered "Sorry, I didn’t get the memo and I live in Seattle. Today was the day I could come. Besides isn’t there a 1st amendment which protects the press?"

Apparently, Mr. AV Club doesn’t like the First Amendment. "We don’t want you here. Don’t come back." I continued walking away from the area knowing he would tire of me eventually. When he did, back I went, but every single access point had Antifa guards. I decided to talk to the neighbors who were still working on boarding up their windows.

One person who wanted to be anonymous told me that activists had been stockpiling weapons and Molotov cocktails in the Red House for weeks, that this was pre-planned, and that they had been using the explosives in the neighborhood. The neighbor also told me that they had lived and worked there for 48 years and knew every local but had never seen any of the activists before. "On the day they started all this, within 2 hours they had it set up. They started stealing fencing and whatever else they could find. When they put out the call for supplies and help, people started showing up to donate lumber. It was coordinated."

I asked how the neighbors were handling all of this. They told me of construction crews that had been there around the clock protecting their sites, but activists stole material out of another site down the street. That a nearby restaurant, one of the family members killed themselves and activists stole their benches.

I took off my journalist hat for a moment and told the neighbor that this only ended in Seattle when the militants vandalized the Mayor’s house, multiple people got shot and residents and businesses sued the city. The activists had already been to the Mayor’s house earlier in the year, and a mayor who allowed over 100 straight nights of rioting was unlikely to let a protest at his home sway him.

Now, just like Seattle, who’s mayor promised millions of dollars to be defunded from the police and allocated to the occupiers, Portland officials have negotiated with the armed occupiers a settlement, details of which are not yet known.

All for the family that Antifa placed on a pedestal. A family that claims they are sovereign and not subject to American laws. A family that mortgaged their home for to afford a lawyer for their son who ran a stop sign while travelling 45-60 mph with a suspended license and collided with another car which resulted in the death of a 74-year-old man.

A man whose license was revoked for life and then in 2007 was caught driving without a license and with cocaine. In 2010, he was arrested while driving a van with his brother and another passenger, who was a fugitive and was found in contempt of court 12 times.

A family that has been accused of animal abuse.

A family that claimed they had lost their home, had a fundraising campaign started that raised over $300,000 for them before it was revealed that they own another home close by. Meanwhile, the Red House, sold at foreclosure auction for $260,000. They only owed roughly $100k. The remaining net $160,000 profit minus fees allegedly went back to the family after a foreclosure sale.

Portland officials negotiated with domestic terrorists to help a family of grifters. The lack of political backbone will guarantee more rioting, more ‘autonomous zones’ more chaos and violence.