Andy Ngo

Antifa: The truth behind the mask

As protests for the killing of George Floyd and the unfair treatment of African Americans by the hands of police officers took place across the nation, a lot of attention has turned to Antifa, an anti-fascist group that has remerged. Just last week President Trump called the group a terrorist organization on Twitter saying, “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” During a press conference at the White House, the president went on to say, “Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This includes Antifa and others who are leading instigators of this violence.” Attorney General William Barr echoed Trump’s comments on Antifa and said the Department of Justice will treat violence from individuals associated with Antifa as domestic terrorism. “Such senseless acts of anarchy are not exercises of First Amendment rights. They are crimes designed to terrify fellow citizens and intimidate communities. There are groups that exploit the opportunity to engage in such crimes as looting. We have evidence that Antifa and other similar extremist groups have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity,” Barr said in a press conference. In December of 2019, Fox News spoke to Andy Ngo, a conservative journalist who was assaulted by Antifa multiple times, including on June 29, 2018, when members of the group punched him in the head and pelted him with milkshakes and other objects. “The city has had by this point, years of protests [that] turned into riots and they still have not learned from any of the mistakes of the past,” Ngo told Fox News. “They have not evolved and changed the policing tactics. Over and over its always what is now a mantra for them that they will not go in to intervene because it could incite the mob.” Fox News also spoke to Gabriel Nadales on Oct. 15, 2019. Nadales is a former Anfita member who told us there are a lot of different groups within Antifa itself. “You’ll find a lot of the members may do it for animal rights or for anti-capitalism, pro socialism. Personally, when I was in Antifa, a lot of the activism I did was for animal rights,” said Nadales. “But once they come together in the Black Bloc and behind the black mask, they kind of forget all that. They go for that common goal of silencing whatever their opposition at the moment is and oftentimes, we’ve seen them silence people simply for political disagreements.”

 

Journalist attacked by Antifa speaks out on group’s alleged extremism, radical ideology

Andy Ngo was one of the first journalists to report extensively on the alleged radical roots and motivations of the far-left, extremist group called Antifa — and for that, he was apparently targeted and beaten. “They hate me because I was writing unfavorably about them,” Ngo told correspondent Lara Logan in her multipart documentary series, “No Agenda with Lara Logan.” “Because I was writing honestly about what they were doing.” In November 2016, Ngo was a student journalist with the Portland State University newspaper and President Trump had just won the 2016 election. Portland exploded into days of violent and destructive protests. The first night of the riots alone caused more than $1 million in damage, according to Portland’s mayor. “People in the city could not accept that Donald Trump had won,” Ngo told Logan during an episode recorded prior to the death of George Floyd. “There was a certain faction that manifested that hatred through violence and destruction, so that was the first time I came face to face with what I now know is Antifa.” Destructive riots in Portland became a routine event, according to Ngo, who began documenting the group’s behavior. His videos showed that often-times Antifa members were the aggressors during protests, which was a reality that ran counter to the media’s portrayal of the group. In June 2019, Ngo became a victim of Antifa himself, as he reported on a demonstration organized by the “Proud Boys” and the “#HimToo Movement.” Antifa showed up to stage a counterprotest. Prior to the event, Ngo voiced his concern over a tweet sent by Rose City Antifa, which is recognized as the oldest Antifa group in the U.S., which identified him as a supposed right-wing sympathizer. During the demonstration, Ngo documented a group of Antifa members who appeared to be shadowing his movements. Then in an instant, he became the focus of a violent crowd. “I was in the middle of the crowd with my GoPro just recording it, and then all of a sudden somebody or something hit me very hard in the back of the head and knocked me forward,” he told Logan. “Punches just came from every direction. And they were striking me repeatedly in the eyes, the back of the head and the top,” he recalled. “I put up my arms at one point just to shield myself and to let them know that I am not a combatant. And then the crowd threw eggs and milkshakes at my face.” Ngo was severely beaten and his GoPro was stolen. As a result of his injuries, he was hospitalized for 30 hours, as doctors monitored a brain hemorrhage. He said he continues to receive physical, emotional and cognitive therapy as a result of the attack. Despite it all, Ngo told Logan that he will continue to report on Antifa because he believes that they represent a threat to American democracy. “They all want radical change, and they don’t really see how easy and quickly you could destroy what’s taken centuries to build up,” said Ngo, whose parents fled communist-controlled Vietnam in the 1970s. “My criticisms of these Antifa movements, these people who are advocating for what they believe is a utopia that can happen through revolution, they don’t realize what it took to get American or Western society to the way it is today, and it could be discarded in an instant,” he concluded. To watch all of “Lara Logan Has No Agenda,” and hear more from Ngo about the ideology of Antifa, click here.

Thanks to Andy for sharing his personal story about Antifa…