The Witches was one mutual aid group that formed to give out water, food, and other supplies to rioters. Riot Ribs was a pop-up kitchen that cooked h… - Andy Ngo

In Portland, I made the decision to go to CHAZ. There’s a lot of reporting one can do from a distance away, but at some point, it requires being on the ground. But I was scared. Terrified, actually. Ever since I was beat by antifa in June 2019, one of the deliberating psychological consequences is anxiety in crowds. I had never suffered from enochlophobia, a fear of crowds, but everything changed after the attack… I hated giving antifa what they wanted—fear—but they’ve made it very clear they want to beat me again and this time finish the job.

As demonstrated with window breaking, it only takes a small group of people—even just one person—to set off a chain reaction. It makes sense that the overwhelming majority of those arrested at random are not aligned with antifa ideology. They don’t need to be in order to play a role in the riots. The smashing of businesses’ windows serves as an open invitation to opportunist looters and rioters to wreak havoc. That’s the genius of antifa’s riot strategy: they only have to light the match.

What amazed me most about the strategic choice of weapons—both purchased and homemade—was how innocuous they looked on camera and to bystanders… [B[lack bloc rioters froze [water bottles] to make them hard as rocks. Taking one to the head could lead to a serious brain injury or death. And intermixed with the plastic bottles were glass bottles and canned food. Other popular weapons were slingshots. Rioters stood hundreds of feet back and fired off marbles and metal ball bearings. On camera, they looked deceptively like children’s toys. And the umbrellas rioters used to shield themselves from cameras. On at least one confirmed occasion and likely more, rioters attached blades to the tips of the umbrellas so they could double as weapons.