Antifa Members Assault Journalist Known for Exposing Group's Violence

Unidentified Rose City Antifa members beat up Andy Ngo, a Portland-based journalist, on June 29, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. (Moriah Ratner/Getty Images)

Members of the Antifa extremist group in Portland violently assaulted Andy Ngo, an independent journalist who's known for documenting the group's violence, on June 29.

A video recorded at the scene by a reporter for The Oregonian newspaper shows an Antifa member punching Ngo in the face. A pack of Antifa members then gangs up on Ngo, kicking and hurling cups of a white liquid at him as he walks away.

A Getty photographer also captured images of the attack, including photos in which Ngo is seen shielding himself as a masked Antifa member winds up for a punch.

In a video filmed after the attack, Ngo, bleeding and slightly disoriented, tells the audience that the Antifa attackers stole his camera.

"I just got beat up by the crowd—no police at all—in the middle of the street and they stole my GoPro," Ngo said. "They punched me several times in my face and head. I'm bleeding."

As police and paramedics arrived, Ngo told the first responders that he had reported assaults from Antifa twice earlier in the day.

Portland Police reported that some of the "milkshakes" thrown at the rally were actually quick-drying cement. It's unclear if Ngo was hit by one of the cement cups.

Ngo, a Vietnamese American, has regularly documented violent attacks carried out by members of Antifa. His profile on Twitter, prior to the attack, stated that he is "hated by Antifa."

While Antifa stands for "anti-fascist," the group rarely, if ever, confronts actual fascists. Composed of communists, socialists, and other hard-left radicals, the group instead labels anyone who doesn't align with their ideologies a "fascist" to justify its use of violence. After the election of President Donald Trump, the group has frequently used the "fascist" label to attack Trump supporters.

This mode of operation traces back to the roots of the "antifascist" movement in Germany, where the group was used by the Soviet communists to foment a revolution. The German antifascist movement likewise indiscriminately labeled its enemies fascists as an excuse for violence. The 2016 annual report by Germany’s domestic intelligence service notes that from the viewpoint of the “left-wing extremist,” the label of “fascism” as pushed by Antifa often does not refer to actual fascism, but is merely a label assigned to “capitalism.”

Quillette magazine, Ngo's employer, wrote in an editorial, "They attacked him for the simple reason that he has challenged their ideological propaganda—an Antifa tactic that any true fascist would recognize and applaud."

According to Quillette, Ngo suffered a brain hemorrhage, forcing him to spend the night at a hospital. The attack resulted in an outpouring of support for Ngo, including a fundraising campaign to cover the cost of his security and medical needs.

The day before the attack, Ngo wrote on Twitter that he was worried about being attacked at the rally because Antifa had singled him out by name in their event description online.

"I am nervous about tomorrow’s Portland Antifa rally. They’re promising 'physical confrontation' & have singled me out to be assaulted. I went on Tucker Carlson last year to explain why I think they’re doing this: They’re seeking meaning through violence," Ngo wrote.