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Even among right-wing protesters who aimed to upset people, Jeremy Joseph Christian was disturbing.

He arrived at an April 29 "free speech" march in Southeast Portland wearing a Revolutionary War flag as a cape. He carried a baseball bat. He threw Nazi salutes and shouted racial slurs in a Burger King parking lot. Twice, left-wing demonstrators grew so infuriated with his antics that Portland police officers formed a barrier to shield him.

The "alt-right" marchers even debated what to do about him. Some of them, leather-clad bikers, told him to shut up and tried to kick him out of the rally. Others seemed fine with him expressing himself: Unpopular speech was the point of the event.

On May 26, nearly a month later, Christian's hateful words allegedly turned into action.

He stands accused of murdering two men and wounding another who intervened as he harassed two teenage girls with an anti-Muslim screed on a Portland MAX train. Multiple witness accounts say he cut the throats of three men who confronted him.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has since asked for federal assistance to keep right-wing agitators from holding events scheduled in Portland. The leaders of local and national extremist groups known as the "alt-right" spent the weekend frantically trying to distance themselves from Christian, even as they refused to cancel a June 4 rally set for Terry Schrunk Plaza downtown.

Wheeler says Portland is still too raw and angry to fully process the events of last week. But it's already clear that in the days to come, this city will want answers to some uncomfortable questions about Christian.

What turned a low-level stickup man into a monster? Should his actions reflect on the people who marched alongside him? What responsibility do they bear for the way Christian developed his hateful behavior?

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley speaks at the May 27 vigil. (Emily Joan Greene)

At a May 27 memorial for the men killed in the MAX stabbing, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) described Christian's alleged actions as the logical end point of vicious rhetoric on the far right. "A message of hate leads to violence," he said, "and violence leads to tragedy."

Christian, 35, who previously lived with his parents in the Piedmont neighborhood of North Portland, spent most of his adult life either behind bars or under post-conviction supervision, the result of state felony convictions for robbing a convenience store in 2002 and a federal gun conviction in 2011. He was released from federal custody May 14, 2014. He told booking authorities May 27 he's now homeless and without any income.

His parents and four siblings could not be reached for comment. Several people who knew him described him as disturbed, but he told booking authorities he'd never been diagnosed with a mental health issue.

His Facebook page was full of racist rants, and a simple introduction. "I'm an ex-con," he wrote. "I like comix, cannabis and metalin any combination."

His forearm was covered in Nordic rune tattoos, and the "Misanthropic Nihilist" philosophy he outlined online suggests he was among those radical white supremacists who call themselves "Odinists"they celebrate pagan Norse gods as part of their race hatred.

Jeremy Christian at a free speech rally in Portland last month. (Joe Riedl)

Christian's social-media posts also make clear he saw himself as the street-level enforcer for a neo-Nazi movement larger than himself.

"Brown shirts are rank and file," he wrote on Facebook on Jan. 23. "Nihilist Criminals like me facilitate and run the show if we are talking about recreating the third Reich. You need unhindered and unhinged thugs for dirty work. A Good thing we have the largest collection of them in the entire world!!!"

An affidavit of probable cause says that minutes after he was arrested for the May 26 killings, Christian was recorded in a squad car describing his standoff with one of the men who confronted him.

"I told him, 'You ain't gonna heal, punk,'" Christian allegedly said. "And he still wants to put his hands on me. Stupid motherfucker. That's what liberalism gets you.

"I hope they all die," Christian continued. "I'm gonna say that on the stand. I'm a patriot, and I hope everyone I stabbed died."

The question of whether Christian was a product of political fringe groups, or merely a disturbed man who was attracted to extremist rhetoric, is more than a matter of assessing blame. It may determine how much leeway such movements are given in future.

Christian distinguished himself among the disparate attendees of events organized by the alt-right, a collection of online agitators, militia groups and white supremacists who for months have engaged in street confrontations with antifascist groups, or antifa.

Joey Gibson, a Vancouver, Wash., organizer of the April 29 Portland march and other alt-right events, has since May 26 repeatedly attempted to distance his movement from Christian.

"Jeremy Christian has nothing to do with us," Gibson tells WW. "He showed up [to our march] with violent intentions. We asked him to leave several times. We did what we could. You can't make too much sense of a lot of things he said."

On May 29, Mayor Wheeler announced he would try to block further activity by those groups, asking the federal government to revoke permits for the June 4 "free speech" rally Gibson wants to hold in Terry Schrunk Plaza.

"Our city is in mourning, our community's anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation," Wheeler said in a statement. "I am calling on every elected leader in Oregon, every legal agency, every level of law enforcement to stand with me in preventing another tragedy."

Mayor Ted Wheeler at the May 27 vigil. (Emily Joan Greene)

Civil liberties groups blasted Wheeler's actions as a violation of the First Amendment. Other activists celebrated a crackdown on a right-wing movement they described as racists emboldened by the election of President Donald Trump.

Gibson says despite Wheeler's concerns, his associates still plan to gather in Portland on June 4.

"Unfortunately, there's going to be hundreds of people in that park, no matter what," he tells WW. "There's going to be a huge police presence. Violence will not be tolerated on either side. Do our march. Go home."

Randy Blazak, chairman of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime, says the city should err on the side of allowing people to gather, including extremists.

"It's better to see them in the daylight than suppress them into the shadows," Blazak says. "I'd rather them march in the streets so we can take their pictures, and when they get on the bus with us, we know who they are."

A May 27 vigil to honor the victims of the Portland MAX stabbings. (Emily Joan Greene)

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Who Radicalized Jeremy Christian? Alt-Right Extremists Rush to Distance Themselves From MAX Slaying Suspect - Willamette Week

Once a neighborhood activist in Brooklyn, Linda Sarsour has become an internationally-recognized progressive. (Arun Venugopal )

The nation's culture warriors are battling in the streets of New York this graduation season.

Muslimactivist Linda Sarsour delivered the commencement address at CUNY Thursday. In the speech, she urged Americans to fight against hate.

"What does it mean when we say were social justice activists and organizers committed to justice and equality for all people? It means we made a decision that we would never be bystanders," she said.

The speech triggered protests from the same conservatives who have faced calls to cancel their own speeches.

Anti-Islam provocateur MiloYiannopoulos, who was been banned from Twitter and hada planned speech at the University of California at Berkeley descend into violence, spoke at an anti-Sarsour protest last week. In his remarks, he said she, in fact, should be allowed to speak at CUNY.

"Dont ban her, but hold her to account," Yiannopoulos said after making a bigoted joke about paying Sarsour in goats. "Make her debate. Make her defend her hateful and odious positions."

WNYC's Arun Venugopal and Matt Katz examine the robust debate over free speech on college campuses.

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A Brooklyn Woman at the Center of the Nation's Culture Wars - WNYC

Posted on: May 31, 2017; Updated on: May 31, 2017 By Melinda Waldrop, melwal@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3685

Tim Wise describes his mom as a warrior, and thanks to a fellowship established at the University of South Carolina's College of Social Work in honor of her family, her strength continues to inspire others.

Yancey Kemp Wise did many things ahead of her time a trait she came by honestly from her mother, Dorothea Crouch Kemp, who got a college degree from Carolina before most women did such things. Yancey Wise blazed trails of her own as she spoke openly, honestly and often about the depression and bipolar disorder she battled for most of her adult life.

She also fought back against mental illness by earning a masters degree in social work from Carolinain 1981, putting that degree to use as a family therapist and an advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship helps students pursue careers through theCollege of Social Work.

Its hard for anyone who doesnt suffer from mental illness to understand or appreciate, says Tim Wise, a Carolina graduate who also received his law degree from the university. Most people would just hope to get up in the morning, not necessarily go back to school and get a master's of social work.

Yancey Wise, who died in 2014, created the Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship to honor her mother and to help students in the College of Social Work pursue their own passions.

She definitely was a very hard-working, strong person, says David Wise, Tims brother. It was always a passion of hers to try to help others.

One student benefiting from Yancey Wises generosity is Edikan Ndon, a native of Nigeria who is pursuing a masters degree after realizing that her original career path she graduated from Lander University in 2012 with a degree in exercise physiology was not her calling. After an unsatisfying occupational therapy internship, Ndon got a job as a financial case manager at a hospital, helping patients understand treatment costs.

I found that I liked the patient interaction, she says.

Around the same time, Ndon had an eye-opening conversation at her church with a Nigerian missionary helping citizens deal with ongoing political unrest in her native country.

I asked her, What does Nigeria really need right now? She told me that Nigeria needed a lot of counselors, because a lot of families were being displaced, Ndon says. At that point, it kind of clicked for me.

Most people would just hope to get up in the morning, not necessarily go back to school and get a master's of social work.

Tim Wise

To help defray graduate school costs, Ndon applied for the Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship, which enabled her to take part-time classes while also working. When she graduates in three years, she plans to return to Nigeria to help establish the needed infrastructure to build a widespread network of social support.

I knew I wanted to eventually go back. I just didnt know in what capacity I could help, Ndon says.

Its not something I can tackle on my own. Part of what Im going to take away from social work is also the importance of mobilizing other people.

The work is there. We just need more people.

Ndons ambition seems like one Yancey Wise would approve.

She had a passion for eliminating the stigma of mental illness and improving treatment, Tim Wise says. The fellowship is a great legacy for her leave.

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Topics: Students, Alumni, Scholarships, Careers, College of Social Work

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Lending a hand - UofSC Blog (press release) (blog)

Two men complete strangers were killed and one injured on a train in Portland after they came to the aid of two young women when another passenger began ranting and raving and shouting anti-Muslim hate speech.

I am saddened that these men lost their lives and at the same time I am inspired by their bravery.

I will be the first to admit that racially motived hate crimes, stoked by the venomous rants of politicians on the campaign trail, have me rethinking this whole forgiveness thing.

When then-candidate Donald Trump stood that the podium and said, I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters my first thought was the Bible verse that reads, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18).

As president, Trump seems no less prideful. He seems impervious to the biblical outcome of pride. Wheres his fall from grace?

As much as ones pride is an indicator of pending destruction, in politics, its the pride of ones supporters, donors and endorsers that also sustains him and one thing seems certain; if the pride of the base doesnt disappear there will be no fall.

I think maybe weve been looking at this politically driven racism thing all wrong. As anti-racism activist Tim Wise stated, Instead of asking what its like to be black what we should be asking is what is it like to be white.

Racism is not as much a driver of the divisive rhetoric we hear today, as much as pride. The kind of pride that makes it easy to speak the worst of someone of another race and to separate yourself from others.

Now, Im OK with separation. Fruits and vegetables are happy in the produce aisle, separated from fish and shrimp. Its unfair segregation that bothers me.

Equality or equal quality is what makes separation work at least in the grocery store. But to address segregation we need equity. All pride aside, simply put, equality means everyone is treating the same.

Equity means not treating anyone differently. We desperately need to talk about equity.

Richard Cuff, Jacksonville

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Friday's Lead Letter: Pride goes before the fall - Florida Times-Union

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Ann Coulter, one of President Donald Trumps biggest boosters, blasted MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Friday for thinking that Trump is so stupid that he would fall for the lefts and the medias President Bannon taunt.

Scarborough must think @realDonaldTrump is really stupid to fall for this President Bannon taunt, Coultertweeted.

On Friday morning, Scarborough maniacally repeated President Bannon at least seven times on his show, hoping Trump was so stupid and insecure that he would not see through Scarboroughs blatant stunt to marginalize chief strategist Stephen Bannon:

President Bannon is on the wrong side of the majority. President Bannon may be right when President Bannon is looking at President Bannons primary base, but when President Bannon is looking at the overall scope of American voters President Bannons not even reading the polls right for today. Again, a small subset of the population that President Bannons obsessed with

After Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord on Thursday, the media and the left predictably went apoplectic. And like they have done whenever Trump has tried to keep his campaign promises, the media and left-wing activists tried to vilify President Steve Bannon.

The Sierra Club sent out what now seems like a bat signal to the left, tweeting Congratulations, President Bannon. The media and the left soon followed. And Scarborough then took it to another level on Friday.

As Breitbart Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak wrote, the President Bannon meme is one that gained traction on the left, several weeks ago, in what seemed to be a deliberate effort to tweak President Trump, and provoke him to sideline Bannon.

After Timeran its The Great Manipulator cover and Saturday Night Live depicted Bannon as the White House puppet master, numerous mainstream media outlets implied that Trump had lessened Bannons influence in the White House because Trumpdid not like how Bannon was being portrayed in the press. Mainstream media reporters even declared that the globalists and Democrats and New Yorkers like Gary Cohn, Trumps top economic adviser, and Dina Powell, Trumps deputy national security adviser, were ascending in Trumps White House.

Scarborough, like Cohn and Powell, want to be adored by their fellow global elites in the so-called Party of Davos. And they believe they will only get more stature among the card-carrying members of the Party of Davos if they persuade Trump to adopt globalist measures. Trump, though, got elected to fight the globalists. Working-class voters, particularly those in the Rust Belt, elected Trump because he promised to combat the bipartisan elite in Washington whose first instincts always seem to be to sell out Trumps working-class voters (who, by the way, lionize and respect Trump more than the global elites ever will) in favor of America-last policies the global elite and the smart-sounding intelligentsia prefer.

As Coulter knows, those in Washingtons permanent political class and their globalist allies would not mind saying Adios, America! and pass a massive bipartisan comprehensive amnesty bill, for instance.

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Ann Coulter: Scarborough Thinks 'Really Stupid' Trump Will Fall for 'President Bannon' Taunt - Breitbart News