Portland Protesters Add Armed Guard and Weapon Stockpile to Autonomous Zone

In the world of American protests, the latest tactic du jour is the establishment of an “autonomous zone” within a well-populated urban area.

We first witnessed such antics during the racial rioting of 2020, most often in liberal cities in the Pacific Northwest.  Most famously, Seattle protesters declared a six-black section of downtown the “CHAZ”, or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.  After being accused of attempted secession, the name was changed to “CHOP”, with the second half of the abbreviation standing for “occupied protest”.

Now, a new autonomous zone has sprung up in Portland, and local leaders are warning that these protesters are heavily armed.

A group of protesters barricaded in Portland, Ore., in and around what’s known as the “Red House” seemed to be setting up for a long fight, a guest told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night.

A group of Antifa activists recently set up an “autonomous zone” in a two-block radius around a house in north Portland that was lost to foreclosure after a two-year battle, guest Jason Rantz, a Seattle radio show host, told Carlson during an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“The family is Black and indigenous and so the primarily White Antifa residents believe that this is an example of gentrification,” Rantz said.

”There’s no actual evidence that this is gentrification,” Rantz continued, “however there is a lot of evidence that there’s been a lot of crime going on as the folks refuse to leave. Cops [Tuesday] tried to remove them from the home, finally removed them from the home, except they came under assault, the officers, from a lot of people who set up camp there. As they were treated, it ended up giving a lot of room to the Antifa protesters to set up a camp.

Here’s where it gets wild…

“And right now they are barricaded. They’ve got a stockpile of weapons. They’ve got armed guards. They’ve got a kitchen ready,” Rantz said, “so they’re there for the long haul as the Portland police department are trying to figure out what exactly they’re going to do.

“But [police] are amplifying the urgency of the messaging, saying, ‘You guys have to leave peacefully, we’re not going to put up with this.’ So we could potentially see action from the police within the next 24 hours.”

Portland’s Mayor, who drew quite a bit of criticism for his handling of similar protests over the spring and summer, has authorized his police force to deal with the “Red House” group however they see fit.