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The city of Portland, Oregon has surfaced again and again in the news over the past couple of years due to civil unrest within the city limits. The conflict between citizens and police has led to riots and protests over heated social-justice issues, sparked most notably in late May 2020 over the death of George Floyd that led to mass protests around the U.S.
However, the Portland police are in the news this week for something that occurred behind closed doors two years before 2020. Discovered during an ongoing lawsuit filed against the city in 2020 by the group Don't Shoot Portland, an alt-Right meme titled Prayer of the Alt-Knight was used on the last slide of a 2018 PowerPoint. Last Friday, the city decided to make the presentation public on its website, available to be downloaded and viewed by anybody.
After being covered by publications like the Portland Mercury and Newsweek, the topic started to trend on Twitter, with users largely demonstrating visible disgust with the presentation's inclusion of the meme.
Here is the slide in question: pic.twitter.com/lDmhpq6vSX
— Tess Riski (@tessriski) January 14, 2022
For activists who've accused the @PortlandPolice of viewpoint discrimination, and of cozy relations with far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the fact that the bureau was training off the "Prayer of the Alt-Knight" could not be more on the nose.
— Tim Dickinson (@7im) January 18, 2022
Slide from a presentation by the Portland Police Bureau joked about beating protesters and leaving them "stitched and bandaged"https://t.co/Nh1UIF4ijW pic.twitter.com/UsVrVgva8X
— DivestSPD (@DivestSPD) January 16, 2022
In fact, multiple publications within their articles referenced the Know Your Meme database, citing an image uploaded to the Based Stickman entry in September 2017 by user Bassoe. Although this is the first online posting that many of these publications cited, the actual first post dates back to November 2011 on the police-centric internet forum Officer.com, titled "Woe unto the hippies." The image was uploaded again in December 2011 to another police internet forum called Blue Line within a thread titled "Awesome Pictures." The image, with a Photobucket watermark, was captioned, "Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f**k the prom queen."
The controversial image macro spread to other platforms going into the years following. For instance, in November 2016, it was used on 4chan's /b/ messageboard, paired with hateful remarks about Black Americans and ominously saying, "It's the circle of life."
But the idea that the Portland police emphasized the phrase "dirty hippies," as well as the notable line "for thou hast dreadlocks and white skin," within an orientation PowerPoint is almost too on-the-nose for the city's contentious track record. As the internal investigation presses onward, this moment of cursed, SMARTboard energy may add further fuel to protests in the future.
We know there is a problem with extreme religious views and police and military in the U.S. This meme from a Portland PD training manual speaks to that. https://t.co/CDQb6yzeap
— Zoe Sullivan (@zoesullnews) January 18, 2022
It's worth noting that Portland was a particular hotspot that summer for organized protests and subsequent riots. With its populace having a long history of being liberal-minded and championing social justice in general, it's no surprise that the alt-left group Antifa was prominent in Portland that summer, clashing with the alt-right group the Proud Boys, having former President Donald Trump designate them as a terrorist organization and also creating the infamous autonomous zone in late 2020 after the police killing of Aaron Danielson in August 2020.
Exclusive: The victim of last night's deadly shooting in downtown Portland is Aaron Danielson, who went by Jay. His family has been informed of his death.
Portland Police have not released details about their investigation and the shooter is at-large. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/4y8j9fSJ5K— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) August 30, 2020
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