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Two protest movements confronted each other in the Portland street on Friday, when a Black Lives Matter march interrupted a barbecue celebrating the acquittal of anti-government militant Ammon Bundy.
Tensions flared after Don't Shoot Portland protesters took an American flag from Bundy supporters—and burned it in the middle of Southwest 3rd Avenue.
Videos captured by Joe Riedl show the confrontation escalating soon after the flag burning.
Related: Ammon Bundy's attorney won the biggest case of his life. Then he was Tased in the courtroom.
"Thou shalt not steal!" yelled one Bundy supporter from Chapman Square. Another man in a wheelchair shouted racial epithets. (He is believed to be affiliated with the Bundy BBQ only by convenience.)
Protest organizer Glenn Waco fired back: "If you have a problem with burning crosses, why don't you talk to your friends at the KKK and all these white supremacist organizations, then?"
Another Don't Shoot Portland organizer defused the tensions by reminding both sides they had a common enemy: rich elites. "We're fighting the same battle," he said.
That statement received applause from both sides.
Don't Shoot Portland protesters—who were rallying for a write-in campaign to elect Teressa Raiford as Multnomah County Sheriff—then held a die-in, laying in the middle of Southwest 3rd Avenue.
Willamette Week