One of the many white nationalists who attempted to shut down the SOEquity protest last Saturday.
ROGUE RIVER, Ore. -- A group of peaceful protestors were met with local white nationalists last Saturday in Rogue River -- and despite threats of violence from the latter, the protesters walked away with some victories.
Originally, the Southern Oregon Coalition for Racial Equity (SOEquity) had planned a march from Rogue River’s city hall to Palmerton Park, followed by a family-friendly barbecue. You Are Enough, the event’s name, was meant to be a place where people could talk about their experiences with racism. SOEquity vice president Dominique Toyer said neither actions didn’t require permits and were protected by the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble.
“The City of Rogue River reached out to SOEquity requesting that we apply for permits for this event regardless,” a SOEquity press release stated. “As our primary goal is education and we have no desire to provoke conflict, we agreed to fill out the permits and pay the corresponding fees. Despite this good faith effort, the City of Rogue River denied our park reservation request and parade permit stating that the Palmerton Park Pavilion had already been reserved and that they did not have the manpower to allow for us to march in the streets. They requested that we stay on the sidewalks and added that we were still welcome to gather in another area of Palmerton Park. We agreed to abide by these requests.”
It turned out a group calling themselves the “Rogue River Patriots” had filed for permits to use the park pavilion. On Aug. 20, Chas Elliot of the patriot group made the necessary payments and deposits and signed for the permit. He refused to speak with The Rogue Free Press.
The Rogue River Patriots had a Facebook page up but it has now been taken down. On it, member William Yoakum posted, “Is there a bag limit and size limit BLM.” The group’s administrator Jinny Neiswanger said, “People who don’t belong squeeze in . . . . They get removed just as quickly.”
For all of Neiswanger's rants about "outsiders" coming to Rogue River and causing problems -- Yoakum is from California. It's not known if he was removed from the group, since Neiswanger refused to answer simple questions or provide evidence for her outlandish claims of "terrorist activity."
Another screenshot from the group read:
RR POLICE DEPARTMENT: REQUESTED WE “HANG BACK” AND FOLLOW THEIR LEAD. DO NOT PROVOKE PROTESTORS – THEY’LL BE WATCHING FOR PROVOCATIONS FROM THE PROTESTORS AND ACTING ON OUR BEHALF
Neiswanger denied any sort of collusion and said, “We did not have contact with our police. These were notes copied from another group from another area. Our PD asked us to keep it peaceful.”
Neiswanger said she didn’t know which group the notes were copied from.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet,” RRPD Chief Curtis Whipple said. “Nothing like that happened.”
After some head-butting with the Rogue River city leaders, SOEquity reached out to the Evans Valley Community Center. There was an agreement for SOEquity to hold their cookout at the community center -- however, that deal was called off, due to threats received by the EVCC.
“I just wanted ‘You Are Enough’ to be a cookout and a community gathering,” Toyer said. “There were a lot of lies and misconceptions out there about us. And, we were there because some people asked for our help. I just wanted to have some good food, share stories from biracial kids and enjoy music.
“That’s all we wanted.”
Instead, local social media exploded into a toxic waste of threats, wild claims of rioting and looting and calls from so-called “patriots,” i.e., white nationalists, to “defend the city."
Despite being shut out from both the park and the EVCC, Toyer and the rest of SOEquity were determined to do something.
“We decided to have a protest,” Toyer said. “No matter what, our voices would be heard.”
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Amanda Rose, along with her doula partner Jen Hook, worked in the Rogue River area for over three years. She had been following the story about the planned “You Are Enough” event and decided to attend the rally.
“I wanted to be there and show my support,” she said.
Rose said she arrived around 9:45 a.m. Saturday. People were gathering on both sides -- the ones with guns made her nervous.
The sight of Confederate battle flags and other racist symbols didn't help, either.
“I knew there would be some armed counter protesters. I’ve dealt with them at other rallies,” she said. “It just seemed different, a different energy from these people.”
Rose soon found herself standing by an older woman, who was a counter protester. Rose smiled and asked how the woman was doing.
“How much are you getting paid to be here?” the woman asked. A common myth among the alt-right is that protesters are paid by George Soros, the alt-right’s bogeyman.
Rose smiled but didn’t say a thing.
“I figured it’d be a crazy day,” she said.
More than an hour after arriving, Rose found herself assaulted by a counter protester as she was standing between Clarence Carr, a fellow protester, and a crowd of angry white nationalists. She was given a case number from Whipple and watched on as he didn’t ask her alleged assailant to leave.
As of press time Thursday, Whipple hasn’t returned her husband’s calls about the supposed investigation. He did, however, have enough time for a TV interview and talk about how well his department was prepared for the protest.
Taking a lone assault suspect, however, was still apparently problematic. A Grants Pass police officer would later tell Rose that arresting suspects could have "caused issues" for law enforcement.
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The SOEquity protesters and the white nationalists were in a heated exchange of words as the day went on.
None of the SOEquity protesters were armed -- the same couldn’t be said for the white nationalists across the street.
Many of the counter protesters were armed with pistols, assault rifles and shotguns. Some even had tactical vests and body armor. Rose claimed there was another group of armed militants standing apart from the main group of white nationalists.
“One of them said they were there to ‘keep the peace,” she said. “There was one thing that struck me as being odd: They kept making fun of the counter protesters in front of the community center. It seemed like they weren’t impressed by (the counter protesters).”
While the SOEquity protesters were unarmed, someone armed with a rifle did join them for a brief time. A young man wearing a black cowboy hat and hooded sweatshirt, he called himself “Sam.” Armed with a semi auto rifle, one of the protesters said “Sam” was there because “he didn’t like cops.”
“He just came over and talked with some folks. His rifle made some of the older protesters nervous but he was friendly enough. Didn't stay long,” a protester said. “He struck me as more just a kid who wanted to see what the commotion was or have an excuse to open carry than particularly ideologically motivated.”
Emily Mann, a SOEquity member and social media manager, reported that there were several instances of white nationalists rushing across the street and challenging protesters.
“Cops and our own deescalation teams would jump in and send them back to the main group,” she said. “We kept our people from engaging -- from the very beginning, we meant to be peaceful and we kept it that way.”
Not so much with the white nationalists.
As Toyer and others tried to speak, revving motorcycle engines would drown them out.
Mann said the racial slurs were “horrible.”
The slurs can be heard on several video feeds from the protests:
“Get the fuck out of our town, n---ers!”
“Go back to fucking Africa!”
“Black Lives Splatter!”
Neiswanger claimed there is a video of a SOEquity protester making threats. When asked to produce the video, she couldn’t and said “it’s on the Internet.”
To date, no such video has appeared.
A number of counter protesters waved signs with white supremacist and anti-Semitic messages. Steven Essig, a protester who was videoing on livestream, walked over to the other side.
“It was pretty easy,” he said. “I had my mask on and kept my head down. What I saw was disturbing.”
Essig’s footage shows a counter protester flashing two signs -- Whites built the West #whitelivesmatter and 78% of American slave owners were ethnic Jews -- and others around him cheered and clapped.
“They were fine with the signs, their messages,” he said. “No one told him to stop or to go away. I was horrified. Disgusted.”
However, not all Rogue River residents were rude and violent to the SOEquity protesters.
Toyer said that she and her group met with a number of residents who were “very happy” SOEquity was there.
“We talked, they asked us questions, we laughed and sang ‘This Land is Your Land,’” she said. “I even told them jokes and stories about my dad. They asked us to come back and some even gave us donations. It was a truly important, uplifting moment for us. Yes. We’ll be coming back.”
Sometime after 2 p.m., police had both the SOEquity people and the white nationalists leave. Videos have been posted of a touring bus being escorted out of Rogue River by both sheriff’s deputies and Medford Police Dept. officers -- followed by civilian bikers.
SOEquity’s president, Kayla Marie Wade, put this post on their Facebook page:
“. . . . We held a nonviolent protest in front of Rogue River City Hall after countless, organized efforts to suppress and silence a family-friendly barbecue for people of color were successful. When we arrived at City Hall, the opposite side of the street was already lined with a group of people who were angry and showed it.
“They were yelling obscenities, holding signs with white supremacist messages, revving their motorcycle engines in a direct attempt to drown out our message of equality and acceptance. We stood our ground and reminded OUR community that we were not there to fight. We were not there to engage with the hate being thrown at us. It was difficult. Because we are angry too. We’re just not allowed to show it.
For four hours, I watched multiple members of this so-called “patriot” group walk across the street to try to start a physical altercation. They yelled direct threats of violence to me and my fellow Black leaders when we spoke. I cried multiple times. At one point I just folded over and screamed at the sidewalk in frustration. But, I never screamed at them.
“I am proud that our supporters were able to maintain a semblance of peace. After the event, one of the Grants Pass police officers who was on duty due to the threat of violence against our group came up and thanked me, saying it was clear who the instigators were today. I hope the rest of the officers, who seemed a lot more indifferent to the clear messages of hate being spewed at our group, felt the same way.
A lot of good came out of yesterday’s event. We received an outpour of positive messages online and monetary donations that will allow for us to better serve our community as we move forward. Many Rogue River residents came up to personally thank me for organizing the event, saying they are glad a stand against hate was finally being made in their town. At the end of the event, a woman of color who lives in Rogue River stayed to introduce herself to me. She was thankful we took the time to help residents who look like her feel a little less alone. That final moment made it all worth it to me.”
However, on Sunday morning, the EVCC was reportedly vandalized -- and more upheaval followed.
To be continued.
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