Apparel Company Boots Patriot Prayer And Refuses To Continue Selling Their Merchandise

Teespring is the second company to drop Patriot Prayer in two weeks.

Joey Gibson enters a crowd of antifascist protesters on Aug. 4, 2018. (Justin Katigbak)

Online apparel and merchandise retailer Teespring has deleted all of the t-shirts and sweatshirts sold on its platform by far-right protest group Patriot Prayer.

The move comes in the wake of fundraising platform GivingFuel dropping a donation page for Patriot Prayer.

"We felt that the actions of Patriot Prayer fell outside of our terms of use," GivingFuel said in a statement. "Our goal is to empower organizations to positively impact the world and we make great software to help them do it. This was not a political decision."

Teespring deleted the merchandise on Nov. 12. A thread of messages shared with WW say Teespring deleted the items because Patriot Prayer violated the website's policies.

The company did not immediately return request for comment.

Asked for comment on the decision, Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson quoted a poem by Martin Niemoller, criticizing people who did not speak out against Nazi Germany.

The poem famously concludes that when the Nazis came for Niemoller, "there was no one left to speak for me." Gibson's point? People are failing to defend his unpopular speech.

"Ironically, [Niemoller] was someone that supported Hitler," Gibson said over text messages. "Until Hitler came after his community. The quote is so appropriate. If anyone supports taking my rights away then they should just wait until the elitists come after them."

Gibson's supporters and closest allies have marched next to him in shirts celebrating Chilean fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet, who executed his leftist political rivals by the thousand. Their t-shirts say "Pinochet did nothing wrong," and show a person falling from a helicopter on the back.

The decision by Teespring comes after Patriot Prayer supporters allegedly made violent threats against Muslim civil rights group CAIR-Oregon. Portland police are investigating the threats, The Oregonian reported.

"Teespring has shown great courage in standing up to Patriot Prayer by removing the far-right extremist group from its platform," says Zakir Khan, CAIR-Oregon spokesman. "Patriot Prayer does not deserve a platform anywhere. The impact of their repeated hateful and violent activities shows what happens when hate goes unchecked."

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