Black Marine who carried U.S. flag was followed home by Antifa

FPI / July 24, 2020

A black Marine Corps veteran, who lives one block away from the federal courthouse in Portland that is being besieged by rioters, said Antifa thugs followed him home after he marched into the chaos while displaying his American flag, a report said.

"For more than 50 nights, Gabriel Johnson, 48, a retired Marine, has been kept awake by the sounds of rioting and explosions taking place outside his window in Portland," Fox News reported on Thursday. "After two months of living in fear, at 3 a.m. Sunday he had had enough."

Johnson said: "At that point I [had] counted 82 explosions and just thought, you know, somebody has to do something."

When he entered the chaotic scene while holding his American flag, Johnson said he knew his actions would be more than a little divisive to the leftist mob. But the retired Marine said he was not prepared for the reaction he received.

“I was being called the N-word by Black people. People were chasing me around with baseball bats,” Johnson told Fox News.

“Antifa has infiltrated Black Lives Matter,” Johnson said as he described a woman dressed in Black Lives Matter gear who showed him threatening footage of protesters following him back to his home, and letting him know they were keeping tabs on him. According to Johnson, the woman was also holding an Antifa pen and was communicating with others via walkie-talkie.

“These people have nothing to do with Black lives. Our Black community leaders need to stand up and lead because what's happening is they're letting a group of terrorists that don't represent me use me, and that's not right,” said Johnson.

Johnson said a 65-year-old Black veteran had stepped in to attempt to stop the burning of Johnson’s flag, only to be beaten by members of the mob.

“He said, 'there's no way you're gonna burn this flag.’ That was followed up by Black Lives Matter, Black men, running after this man, punching him in his face, grabbing the flag and throwing it over the fence,” Johnson told Fox News.

“I look at everything from a patriot's point of view. I've spent a lot of time fighting for our country. And so my belief in and my patriotism for this country is unmeasured … I fought for this country and this is not what I fought for,” said Johnson.

The lifelong Portland resident blames the destruction of his city on the inaction of local leadership.

"The lack of police response, city response, response from our mayor has just given free rein to holy hell to take place at that 11 o’clock hour to 3 in the morning.”

As for the federal officers who have been sent by the Trump administration into Portland over the past week to end the violence, Johnson doesn't oppose the extra assistance.

“In absence of the local police what do we expect?” he said. "If we as a city aren't going to police ourselves, then we should expect someone to come in and police for us.”

Free Press International