A self-professed member of the Proud Boys from Texas who traveled to Portland, Ore., to confront protesters there final yr was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in jail for capturing a person within the eye with a paintball gun, spraying folks within the face with bear mace and aiming a loaded handgun at a crowd, prosecutors stated.
The Texas man, Alan Swinney, 51, was a “white nationalist vigilante cowboy,” who went to Portland to interact in political violence throughout protests there in the summertime of 2020, prosecutors stated.
In social media posts, he made threats towards “the left” and “antifa,” prosecutors stated, and he tried to recruit folks to type a militia to combat in what he believed was a civil conflict.
Mr. Swinney, who appeared at a number of demonstrations within the Northwest, turned a “recognized entity” in Portland, as he instigated and dedicated violent acts underneath the banner of free speech and pro-police sentiments, prosecutors stated.
On two days — Aug. 15, 2020 and Aug. 22, 2020 — he led a small group of like-minded folks and engaged in a number of acts of violence throughout demonstrations stemming from the homicide of George Floyd, prosecutors stated.
Mr. Swinney prompted a critical eye harm by capturing a person within the face with a paintball gun, and he discharged bear mace on a number of events — spraying some folks immediately within the face — and aimed a loaded Ruger .357 magnum handgun at a crowd, prosecutors stated. He additionally shot folks with paintballs, prosecutors stated.
In October, after a six-day trial, a Multnomah County jury discovered Mr. Swinney responsible of 11 prison expenses, together with second-degree assault, fourth-degree assault and illegal use of a weapon with a firearm, prosecutors stated.
Mr. Swinney’s lawyer, Joseph Westover, didn’t instantly reply on Friday to cellphone and e-mail messages looking for remark.
In the course of the trial, Mr. Westover argued that Mr. Swinney had been defending himself towards “agitators” who have been harassing him and that he noticed himself as a “protector” who got here to Portland to face between demonstrators clad in black inflicting mayhem and “Again the Blue” protesters, The Oregonian reported.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors argued that letters, social media statements and testimony from Mr. Swinney confirmed that he had “no regret for his actions, no need to vary and each intention of participating in future acts of violence.”
“In the course of the trial, he rapidly labeled the entire folks that opposed him as terrorists, he expressed pleasure for people who have been damage, bragged about his actions, and strongly asserted that he would do it yet again if given the prospect,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors included within the memorandum a letter that Mr. Swinney had written to Derek Chauvin, the previous Minneapolis police officer who was sentenced in June to 22 and a half years in jail for murdering Mr. Floyd by kneeling on his neck for greater than 9 minutes as he pleaded for air.
“Our nation has too many George Floyds in it,” Mr. Swinney wrote. “It’s time to wash home.”
Prosecutors stated that Mr. Swinney had known as himself a “patriot” and that he was a self-professed member of the Proud Boys, the far-right group infamous for participating in brawls.
The group has come underneath scrutiny as federal brokers attempt to decide to what extent its leaders deliberate the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters quickly disrupted the certification of the presidential election outcomes.
In August, the group’s chief, Enrique Tarrio, was sentenced to 5 months in jail for possessing high-capacity rifle magazines just a few days earlier than the siege and for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in Washington, D.C., after a Trump rally descended into violence in December 2020.