A rally held in Portland, Oregon last August by the far-right group Patriot Prayer turned violent after Portland Police Bureau began cracking down on counter-protesters with flash grenades and pepper spray. Newly released communication logs from that day show that while the PPB were aware of a much greater threat posed by “patriot” camp - which included many armed demonstrators, some with criminal charges and violent histories - they still chose to target the counter-protesters, leaving many injured.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a long history of focusing on left-wing activists and politicians, often to the exclusion of groups of actual concern. This pattern continues to this day, as recently documented by Property of the People. The FBI’s file on Ramparts magazine shows how this attitude reflected in internal communications - unable to take to Twitter, agents were forced to scribble right-wing talking points in copies of the magazine.