(COLO.) — An investigation is underway after a 6-year-old girl was fatally injured on a ride at an amusement park in Colorado, officials said.
The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. local time Sunday at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, located atop Iron Mountain in Glenwood Springs, about 60 miles west of Vail.
The child was fatally injured while riding on the Haunted Mine Drop ride — which plunges riders 110 feet down a pitch-black tunnel in seconds — the Garfield County Coroner’s Office said.
Employees of the amusement park administered first aid until paramedics arrived and determined the child was dead, the coroner’s office said in a statement.
The name of the child, who was visiting with her family from Colorado Springs, has not been released pending notification of additional family members.
An autopsy is scheduled for this week, said the coroner’s office, which is investigating the death along with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office.
In the wake of the fatality, the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park was scheduled to be closed Monday and Tuesday.
“Out of respect and concern for all parties involved, we will not have further comment until all details have been confirmed,” the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park said in a statement on its Facebook page Saturday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.”
An incident has occurred on the Haunted Mine Drop ride that resulted in a fatality. An investigation is in progress. Out of respect for all involved, we have no further comment until details have been confirmed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.
A message on the amusement park’s website informs visitors of the fatality, park closures and contact information for refunds.
“An investigation is ongoing,” the message says. “We are deeply saddened and ask that you please keep the family of the deceased in your thoughts and prayers.”
The Haunted Mine Drop, seen here, opened in 2017 and is the “world’s first drop ride to go underground,” according to the amusement park. It was named one of USA Today’s Most Anticipated Theme Park Rides of 2017 and the Best New Theme Park Attraction by USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
Riders must be a minimum height of 46 inches tall — almost 4 feet — and sign a waiver to ride the Haunted Mine Drop, according to the amusement park’s website. There are no age restrictions noted.
The section on the ride has since been removed from the amusement park’s website.
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is billed as the only mountaintop theme park in America.
Other “thrill rides” at the park include the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster, the highest-elevation, full-sized roller coaster in America, at 7,160 feet above sea level, according to the amusement park; the Giant Canyon Swing, located at the edge of a cliff 1,300 feet above the Colorado River; and the Soaring Eagle Zip Ride, which pulls riders 600 feet up the mountain.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement Monday on the new near-total abortion ban in Texas saying violence against people seeking reproductive care or clinics offering care will not be tolerated.
“The department will provide support from federal law enforcement when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is under attack,” the statement read. “We will not tolerate violence against those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services, physical obstruction or property damage in violation of the FACE Act.”
The Texas law bans physicians from providing abortions “if the physician detects a fetal heartbeat,” which would include embryonic cardiac activity that can be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
This law is different from past abortion legislation in that it allows private citizens to bring civil suits against people who aid or abet an abortion. Although it was allowed to go into effect, the law is being legally challenged.
Many people who are pregnant don’t know they’re pregnant by week six. Most abortions performed in the U.S. occur after the six-week mark, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Justice is still in the process of evaluating how it can challenge the law, Garland’s statement said, and the attorney general has pledged his support of reproductive health care.
“While the Justice Department urgently explores all options to challenge Texas SB8 in order to protect the constitutional rights of women and other persons, including access to an abortion, we will continue to protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services pursuant to our criminal and civil enforcement of the FACE Act,” the statement read.
The FACE Act, invoked by Garland in the statement, “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
It also bans property damage to facilities providing reproductive health services.
The department has been in touch with U.S. Attorney’s Offices and FBI field offices in Texas to ensure the enforcement of these protections, Garland said.
(NEW YORK) — As many children and teens return to a new school year after Labor Day, educators and advocates are sounding the alarm on the challenges faced by Black and Hispanic students.
Those students were left behind during the pandemic, according to a Department of Education report released this summer, that showed the COVID-19 pandemic worsened disparities in access and opportunities for students of color in public schools.
“The pandemic has exacerbated preexisting inequities,” said Shavar Jeffries, president of advocacy group Education Reform Now. “Our school districts need to implement evidence-based interventions to address any learning loss that our students experience.”
The pandemic turned the world upside down and students, educators and administrators had to adapt to a changing world. Some students began virtual schooling, which highlighted gaps in internet and technology access.
According to the 2020 Census data, about 1 in 10 Black and Latinx homes lacked consistent computer access, compared to only 6.7% of white households — meaning children had a harder time accessing online classroom materials, homework or virtual classes themselves.
The data also showed that Black households were twice as likely as white households to report inconsistent internet access, and Latinx households were one-and-a-half times more likely than white households.
For others, schooling wasn’t the only hurdle amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, the virus hit close to home.
Many students were faced with sick or dying family members, friends and neighbors. Hispanics are about two times more likely to catch COVID-19, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Black children made up 20% of those who lost a parent to COVID-19 prior to February 2021, despite only making up 14% of all children in the U.S, according to JAMA Pediatrics.
Black and Latinx adults were at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, and were more likely to be hospitalized or die from the virus, according to the CDC. Adding to these horrific outcomes, social isolation forced many to face new mental health struggles.
“This has been such a disruptive event that has touched a lot of families personally, and children, they take all of this in,” said Amalia Chamorro, the director of the Latino civil rights organization UnidosUS’s Education Policy Project.
“It’s going to be important for school systems to provide wraparound supports to not only help students get back on track with unfinished learning but also to provide assistance and support along the way,” Chamorro added.
Education advocates are hoping teachers and school administrators turn these statistics into learning opportunities for supporting students of color. She said accelerating students forward, instead of focusing on remediation, can help students who’ve fallen behind during the pandemic.
“You start with the current grades competency … then you could pinpoint where students are struggling and provide that support,” Chamorro said.
Culturally competent outreach services, tutoring and counseling can help turn the tide on disparities in education, she added. Chamorro also said that offering Spanish-language resources to Latino and Hispanic families so they can address needs at home and help students outside of the walls of school can make a big difference.
Chamorro also recommended reaching out to local community organizations that can help students find safe spaces to talk about mental health, schooling and mentorship from people who understand their cultural background.
However, Marc Morial, President and CEO of the civil rights group National Urban League, said that teachers are the experts in the classroom and that local and federal governments should be listening to them about what their students need to succeed.
“People have to understand the interdependency of the issue, and the necessity of ensuring that we close these resource gaps in education,” Morial said. “These young people have borne the most difficult brunt of the pandemic and have to be given extra support. And I think the smart thing to do is to say to teachers: ‘What do you need? We have resources, how should we deploy them?'”
(NEW YORK) — When COVID-19 reached the U.S. and government restrictions set in — closing indoor dining in much of the country — millions of restaurant workers found themselves without jobs. But now, as restaurants are reopening and people are once again going out to eat, owners are facing a different challenge: Their workers haven’t returned.
“The thing I remember most about those early months and weeks was the word ‘grief,'” said Sava Farah, owner of The Pulpo Group, which operates three restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “We had to lay off over 200 employees that we called family.”
At the time, no one knew how long restaurants would be forced to supplant their revenue with to-go orders and outdoor dining. For many, that was never going to cut it.
The National Restaurant Association estimates that in the first six months of the pandemic, nearly one in six restaurants — almost 100,000 businesses — shut down.
Depleted industry
Things began to look up in December 2020, as the federal government gave authorization to the first two COVID-19 vaccines. Shortly after, cases began declining, restrictions started to be lifted and restaurants were once again able to open their doors for indoor dining.
But even though the customers returned, many workers did not.
“If you look at who is working in restaurants in 2019 versus today, there’s about a million people who have disappeared,” said Micheline Maynard, Washington Post columnist and author of the soon-to-be-released book “Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman’s Built A Corner Deli Into a Global Food Community.”
The labor shortage is having wide-ranging effects on the industry. Many restaurants are having to cut hours, sometimes opening only for dinner service rather than all-day service. Some are even cutting entire days of service.
The reasons behind the labor shortage have become political.
Republicans argue that money offered as part of enhanced unemployment packages passed by Congress has taken away the incentive for people to return to work.
Those enhanced unemployment benefits won’t be around forever, though. The Biden administration is ending federal enhanced unemployment benefits on Labor Day, and prior to that, more than half of U.S. states had already ended unemployment boosts.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue that it’s not a matter of paying people too much to stay home, it’s a matter of paying people too little to work.
“You get a very low wage,” said Maynard about many restaurant jobs. “As much as $5 less than the minimum wage, and then your tips are supposed to bump you up to minimum or above.”
But even restaurants that offer higher wages are having issues finding workers.
An industry in need of a reset
Micheline Maynard and Sava Farah say the real problem lies within the industry itself.
The hospitality industry is already high-stress and physically taxing, and now the pandemic has brought new challenges, including an increased risk of exposure to COVID-19.
“Servers are tasked with reminding people that they have to have a mask on,” Maynard said.
Those who return to restaurant work are also having to work harder due to staffing shortages. But because they’re missing that extra set of hands, service becomes slower and tables don’t turn over as quickly.
“And the person who hears the complaints about that is the server,” said Maynard. “It’s hard on the staff, it’s hard on the owners, they’re stressed all the time [and] people are leaving.”
Sava Farah said well before the pandemic the stress of the restaurant industry was already leading to a “burnout culture” — one that often came along with drugs and alcohol use.
Now, with the added problem of the staffing shortages, she thinks it’s time for a reset in the industry — even if that means some doors have to close.
“I don’t think that’s a very bad thing. I know at least one of my restaurants is closed,” said Farah. “There’s just way too much competition in the marketplace currently and it causes all the restaurants around to have to lower their prices. And when you lower your prices, you lower your pay rates, you lower your profit margins, you lower the caliber of the restaurant.”
Micheline Maynard said it might also be time for legislators to get involved, especially if more federal money ends up going to restaurants.
“Basically Congress, and then the Obama and Bush administrations said there are going to be some strings attached,” Maynard said, recalling the auto bailouts during the Great Recession that ushered in industry reforms. “Restaurants need that same kind of examination.”
(HAMMOND, La.) — Hurricane Ida ravaged Louisiana and much of the East Coast, killing at least 59 people across eight states and leaving thousands without power — and often without a hot meal.
That’s where Operation BBQ Relief comes in. The nonprofit, which serves barbecue meals to those in need after national disasters, says it has deployed to 80 natural disasters since 2011 to feed families and first responders.
“I do this time and time again,” said Jeremy Bruce, Operation BBQ Relief’s Head of IT, who arrived in Louisiana this week. “You know, ‘From the frying pan into the fire,’ as they say, and literally because it’s hot, it’s hard. But when you see the impact that you make, it makes all those sacrifices worth it.”
The volunteer group arrived in Hammond, Louisiana, on Aug. 30 to serve hot meals to the community impacted by Ida.
“We’re trying to get meals out into the community as fast as possible. We got in on Monday afternoon. We rolled in fired up the generator and started putting sausage links on the smoker,” Stan Hays, CEO and co-founder of Operation BBQ Relief told Good Morning America.
Hurricane Ida was the fourth-fastest intensifying hurricane on record and left some areas with up to 15 inches of rain. Local Louisiana officials warned it could take weeks before the power is fully restored.
“Our community has been completely devastated,” Kaite McCaleb of Hammond, Louisiana, told ABC News. “We’ve lost homes. We’ve lost cars. My car flooded and a tree fell on my house.”
With power lines down, most stores and restaurants remain closed, making food resources difficult to come by. The free meals were a resource McCaleb said she was grateful to find.
“It makes us feel like we’re not alone and we’re cared for like, people care about Louisiana,” she said. “They gave us a warm meal when there was no other way we can get one, so we’re very thankful.”
So far the group says it has given out thousands of meals in Hammond.
“It’s a barbecue meal. I mean, it’s pulled pork, it’s a vegetable, it’s a roll. In the big scheme of things, that’s really not anything. But on that day, when you’re the lowest of low, and somebody just hands you a hot meal, it just totally changes your day and makes you kind of want to go on and continue,” volunteer David Keith said.
The devastation hits home for Keith and other staff and volunteers.
“Our house was basically underwater from (Hurricane) Sandy. We lost everything. Before Sandy I had never thought about volunteering,” he said.
After that experience, he knows “firsthand what that hot meal means.”
“It really makes you realize what’s important in life when you see people who lost everything and their whole day is brightened up by that one hot meal,” Keith said.
(POLK COUNTY, Fla.) — A former Marine sharpshooter dressed in full body armor and wielding an automatic weapon allegedly went on an early-morning shooting “rampage” in Polk County, Florida, on Sunday, killing four strangers, including a mother and her baby, and wounding an 11-year-old girl before giving up, authorities said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the suspect allegedly told investigators the victims “begged for their lives, and I killed him anyway.”
He was arrested on four counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted first degree murder, seven counts of attempted first degree murder on a law enforcement officer, shooting into an occupied dwelling, two counts of armed burglary with battery, arson and cruelty to an animal, according to the probable cause affidavit released by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. He is now at Polk County Jail.
The shooting unfolded before dawn at two adjacent homes on the same property near Lakeland, Florida, about 35 miles east of Tampa. A sheriff’s lieutenant two miles away heard the volley of automatic gunfire, responded to the scene and radioed for backup, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference.
Judd said that nine hours earlier, deputies received a 911 call from the same home and that a woman reported a strange man parked near her residence who allegedly told her he was there because “God sent me here to speak with one of your daughters,” Amber, to prevent her from committing suicide. Judd said the woman and another witness told the suspect there was no one by that name who lived at the residence and told him to leave or they were going to call the police.
The sheriff said deputies responded to the 911 call within six minutes, but the man was nowhere to be found.
The sheriff said the same man, who he identified as Bryan James Riley, 33, of Brandon, Florida, returned to the home around 4:30 a.m. Sunday and allegedly unleashed a barrage of fatal gunfire.
“We find zero connection between our shooter, our murderer and our victims,” Judd said.
The sheriff said that when deputies first approached the home where the shooting occurred, they saw a truck on fire and a path leading from the road to the house illuminated by glow sticks.
“At that moment in time, as we approached, we saw an individual totally outfitted in body armor and looked as if he was ready to engage us all in an active shooter situation,” said Judd, adding that deputies initially did not see the man holding a gun.
He said the suspect immediately retreated into the house and deputies heard another volley of automatic gunfire that was followed by a woman screaming and a baby crying.
Judd said a sheriff’s lieutenant initially tried to enter the front door, but it was barricaded. When the lieutenant went to the back of the house, a gunfight erupted.
“The suspect shot at our lieutenant. Our lieutenant returned fire and backed out of the house,” Judd said.
He said three deputies in front of the house were pinned down by gunfire directed at them and that other officers returned fire, giving the trapped deputies time to get out of harm’s way.
“I can tell you there were at least dozens if not hundreds of rounds fired this morning between our suspect and our deputies who were directing fire back at him,” Judd said.
No law enforcement officers were injured in the incident, Judd said.
He said that when the shooting subsided, Riley, who was shot once in the shootout, walked out of the home with his hands up and surrendered.
Judd said that after the suspect was arrested, deputies and Lakeland police officers heard sounds coming from inside the house and shouted out orders for people to come out. He said deputies briefly entered the home and found an 11-year-old girl shot at least seven times but still conscious.
“She looks our deputies in the eyes and said, ‘There’s three more dead people in the house,'” Judd said.
He said deputies removed the girl from the home and she was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, where she was undergoing surgery Sunday morning and is expected to survive.
Fearing the residence was booby-trapped, a robot was sent into the house to search for explosives, he said. Deputies then entered the home and discovered three people fatally shot, a man and a mother cradling an infant in her arms.
Deputies found the fourth victim, a woman who was fatally shot in a nearby house on the same property.
Judd identified one of the victims as Justice Gleason, 40. He said the other victims were a 33-year-old white female, her 3-month-old baby and the infant’s 62-year-old grandmother.
The sheriff said the suspect also shot and killed the family dog, “Diogi,” who was named after a Polk County Sheriff’s Office K-9 that was fatally shot along with his handler, Deputy Sheriff Vernon Matthew Williams, in 2006.
Judd said a preliminary investigation, which he cautioned is subject to change, indicates the suspect drove to the Lakeland area from his home near Tampa and has no connection to the people he allegedly killed and hurt.
“At this early point in the investigation, we don’t know how he ended up there or why he ended up there,” Judd said. “But he showed up twice in nine hours.”
After being taken into custody, Riley allegedly told deputies that he is a “survivalist” and that he had been using methamphetamine.
“This guy admitted to us that he was taking those drugs before he went on this active shooter rampage,” Judd said.
He said that when Lakeland police officers took the suspect to a hospital to be treated, a scuffle broke out and the suspect allegedly tried to grab one officer’s gun.
“They had to fight with him again in the Lakeland emergency room,” Judd said. “Once we got him tied down, they gave him medication to render him unable to fight any longer and they could continue to treat him.”
When questioned by investigators, Riley allegedly confessed to everything.
“The suspect denied knowing the victims and when asked for a motive for shooting the infant, the suspect replied, ‘…because I’m a sick guy. I want to confess ti all of it and be sent to jail,'” the affidavit states. “The suspect also admitted to setting fire to a pick-up truck at the incident location for the purpose of creating an exit strategy.”
Judd said investigators digging into Riley’s background learned he was trained as a Marine sharpshooter and was honorably discharged after serving tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He said Riley was working as a bodyguard for an executive protection company.
Judd said Riley’s fiancé told investigators he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and that he allegedly claimed he had been getting instructions from God to do certain things. According to the probable cause affidavit, she also said Riley told her, prior to the shooting, that God was telling him to go save a woman named Amber’s life.
Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV and John Marvin Murdaugh speak with ABC News for an interview that aired on “Good Morning America” on June 17, 2021. – (ABC News)
(VARNVILLE, S.C.) — More than two months after his wife and son were murdered, a prominent South Carolina attorney was shot on the side of the road Saturday, police and family representatives said.
Alex Murdaugh, 53, called 911 Saturday afternoon to report being shot near Varnville, South Carolina, in Hampton County, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Murdaugh said he was changing a tire when a car passed him, turned around and then someone in the car shot him, a family spokesperson told ABC News.
Murdaugh was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, for treatment of a superficial gunshot wound to the head, according to SLED. He was in stable condition at the hospital Sunday afternoon, the family spokesperson said.
On June 7, Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret “Maggie” Branstetter Murdaugh, 52, and his son, Paul Terry Murdaugh, 22, were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds near the family’s hunting lodge on their property in Colleton County, South Carolina. No arrests have been made in connection with their killings.
“The Murdaugh family has suffered through more than any one family could ever imagine. We expect Alex to recover and ask for your privacy while he recovers,” the Murdaugh family spokesperson said in a statement shared with ABC News.
The family has been a fixture in the South Carolina legal community for over 80 years. Three generations of Murdaughs have served as the elected solicitor in the 14th Judicial Circuit.
Murdaugh works at the Hampton-based law firm that was established by his grandfather 100 years ago and serves as a volunteer prosecutor.
SLED is leading the investigations into Saturday’s incident and the June murders. The agency said it has spent the entire weekend collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses and following up on leads into Murdaugh’s shooting.
His Mercedes SUV was impounded, according to SLED. As of Sunday evening, no arrests have been made.
Margaret and Paul Murdaugh’s murders have devastated the family hard and left them seeking answers.
“It’s just hard to imagine somebody can be so sick as to do this, intentionally kill people like that,” Randy Murdaugh, Alex’s brother, told ABC News in June.
Paul Murdaugh was a student at the University of South Carolina and awaiting trial on a charge of boating under the influence causing death in a 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, whose body was found a week later. The Murdaugh family told ABC News that Paul received threats from strangers, but they were never believed to be “credible.”
SLED is asking anyone with information about Saturday’s shooting to contact Crimestoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 643,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 61.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news was developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 05, 6:51 pm
Nearly 350 children currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas
Nearly 350 children are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas, state data shows.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services’ online COVID-19 dashboard, which was last updated on Sunday afternoon, there are 345 pediatric patients in hospitals across the Lone Star State. That number was up from 282 on Thursday afternoon.
The data also shows there are 73 staffed pediatric intensive care unit beds available in all of Texas.
Since the new school year began in Texas last month, some 52,000 students have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the data.
Sep 05, 5:09 pm
Moderna booster shots delayed by at least one week: Fauci
Booster shots for the Moderna vaccine will have to wait at least one week after the president’s Sept. 20 target because of the delay in submitting data, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.
Fauci told CNN that Pfizer was able to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration about their mRNA vaccine booster shot earlier, and “it’s been examined and ready to go.” Moderna is behind in submitting its data causing the delay.
“What you might see is rather than the simultaneous rolling out of the booster program of both those products you may have be sequential by about a week or two,” he said. “I don’t think that is a major issue there, but we would have liked to have seen it happen all together simultaneously.”
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks.
But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind and the Biden administration is now focused on a “diplomatic mission” to help them leave.
When President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House on Aug. 18, he said he was committed to keeping the U.S. military in Afghanistan as long as needed. “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” he said.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 06, 4:53 am
Taliban claims victory over Panjshir, last pocket of resistance
The Taliban claimed victory Monday over Afghan opposition forces in Panjshir province, the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan and the only province that the Taliban had not seized last month.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement saying Panjshir was under full control of Taliban fighters.
“We tried our best to solve the problem through negotiations, and they rejected talks and then we had to send our forces to fight,” Mujahid later told a press conference in Kabul on Monday.
The Taliban posted photos and videos on social media apparently showing fighters standing at the gate of the Panjshir provincial governor’s office and raising the group’s flag in the provincial capital.
A spokesperson for the resistance group, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), took to Twitter to deny that Panjshir had fallen.
“Taliban’s claim of occupying Panjshir is false,” the spokesperson tweeted. “The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight. We assure the ppl of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban & their partners will continue until justice & freedom prevails.”
Sep 05, 6:31 pm
Some US citizens unable to fly out of Afghanistan due to Taliban interference
The Taliban is blocking efforts to get U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan on flights, according to a non-governmental organization arranging travel for some passengers.
Marina LeGree, the CEO of Ascend, told ABC News that the Taliban has prevented 600 people from leaving Mazar-e-Sharif by charter plane for six days.
The NGO is helping 100 of those passengers, none of whom are American, to try to fly out. LeGree said she is aware of 19 U.S. citizens who are trying to leave but Ascend is not overseeing their departure.
“Ascend, an organization dedicated to empowering young women through athletics, has members trying to leave Afghanistan,” LeGree told ABC News in a statement Sunday. “We call on the Taliban to honor their commitments and allow these charters to depart immediately.”
The affected passengers are either staying at the airport or at nearby hotels, according to LeGree.
The U.S. Department of State did not confirm whether there are Americans on those flights, but said it “will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — The Aug. 22 clash between far-right groups and counter-protesters in Portland was the latest in a series of violent confrontations that have rocked the city over the last year.
While last month’s incident was not as destructive as the riots that took place last summer, it highlights how the city, with its reputation as a liberal bastion amid the state’s early history of white supremacy, has become a proxy in the culture wars, researchers said.
City officials said in an October 2020 statement that in recent months, alt-right groups amassed in Portland in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and measures intended to combat COVID-19.
“Portland’s leadership in racial justice reform and community demands for change have made the city a target for right-wing politicians and white supremacist groups, who use Portland as a rhetorical tool for division,” the statement said.
Portland Police instead say that instead of a rise in right-wing extremism, there has been an increase in violent disputes that take place in public.
Randy Blazak, the chair of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crimes, a non-profit that works with community groups and local, state, and federal governmental agencies to combat hate groups and their activities, told ABC News that the recent conflicts have been decades in the making as groups like the Proud Boys, which were at the Aug. 22 incident, are using their feuds with the far left to fuel their cause around the country.
“Portland being the largest metropolis in the Northwest, is where these ideologies collide,” he told ABC News.
Blazak and other experts who have researched far-right activity noted this problem has been decades in the making due to the growing presence of the far-right groups and changing demographics along the West Coast.
The experts noted that it will be difficult to combat that buildup, especially as people from outside the city join in on the rallies, but there have been proven solutions that can mitigate the damage to the city and residents.
Far right ties to city stretch back for decades
Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, who has been monitoring the far-right activity in Portland, told ABC News that Oregon has been attractive to white nationalists due to its origin as a state that excluded Blacks and minorities.
Although the state’s founders prohibited slavery in 1843, it enacted laws that prohibited Black settlers a year later. The 14th Amendment nullified the exclusion laws in 1868, however, they remained part of the state constitution until 1926.
Miller noted that the Ku Klux Klan had a strong presence in Oregon during the early 20th century using the state’s history as a rallying message.
“The region itself has long played a prominent role in the imagination of white power activists, who see it as the ideal place to create a white ethnostate,” she said.
In the ’80s, Oregon, and Portland, in particular, saw a jump in neo-Nazi and skinhead groups, Miller said. In 1988, three skinheads murdered Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant in Portland, which resulted in both an increase in far-right groups and more action by leaders and law enforcement to curb the violence, according to Miller.
Blazak said anti-skinhead groups also began forming during the ‘90s and physically engaging with their opponents. The city would be dubbed “skinhead city” because of these clashes, according to Blazak, who’s been living in Portland since 1995.
As law enforcement cracked down on both groups and the number of public fights decreased, Portland saw a jump in new residents, many of whom were minorities and younger groups, as well as a more progressive environment, according to Blazak.
“It’s this strange intersection of the history of Portland,” he said, “There is this bubble where newer residents think it’s been this liberal oasis and there is the long history of white supremacy that’s bumping up against it.”
Recent increase in activity and violent counter protests
A mix of new factors, including an active social media scene that helped to get either side’s message to a bigger audience has reignited the public feud in Portland, according to Blazak.
“We’re seeing a modern version of skinhead city with Proud Boys verses ANTIFA,” he said.
Miller said far-right groups, especially the Proud Boys, have been mobilizing since the beginning of the Trump administration, spurred on by the former president’s rhetoric as well as other far-right growth throughout the world.
West Coast cities like Berkeley, Seattle and Portland saw the biggest far-right rallies outside of Charlottesville and they only grew in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May 2020, according to Miller.
Miller said that the far right is now using social media to their advantage to bolster their presence with a calculated scheme.
The cycle begins with them holding a rally or crashing a public event hosted by the far left, instigating the other side’s members into a public fight and sharing it online with a message about how the far-left is hurting the city, according to Miller.
“Their main goal was to create a conflict with anti-fascists, get it on film and then put it on social media as propaganda,” she said.
“I think within the left there has been a snowballing effect,” Miller added. “These groups like the Proud Boys create violence and that goes for a need for retaliation.”
Blazak said Portland’s situation was exacerbated by the number of far-right groups that had been operating in the Portland suburbs. Since those rallies have begun, Blazak said there have been reports of Proud Boys members from outside the state joining in.
“There is this false narrative that Portland is burning down by ANTIFA and the city is being run by communists. That brings the far-right wingers to Portland and that’s for photo ops,” he said.
Since the protests and clashes begin last year, Proud Boys members and figureheads have claimed the anti-fascist groups in Portland needed to be protested and fought.
Blazak said that despite what some reports might say, the majority of people who took part during last year’s George Floyd protests were not part of any violent far-left group.
Indeed, representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland said last August that there was no evidence that the protesters that were arrested during the demonstrations had links to ANTIFA or other violent anti-fascist groups.
City’s latest response questioned
Portland Mayor Tim Wheeler and the Portland Police have come under fire for their responses to the far-right’s growth and rallies, particularly the Aug. 22 incident.
The rally turned into a riot with people throwing items at each other, damaging vehicles and buildings and shooting paintball pellets, according to police. More officers were called in and had to use mace and smoke to disperse the crowds. No one was seriously hurt, according to the police.
Police said on Wednesday they have identified six people involved with the violence and are on the lookout for more suspects who were involved in the incident.
Two days before the incident Wheeler held a Zoom news conference where he was joined by the civil rights groups and other community organizers and urged those who attended the event to, “Choose love.”
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, who was also part of the news conference, said that officers would be in attendance but not keep the warring crowds separated.
“People can and should keep themselves apart and choose to avoid violent physical confrontations,” Lovell said during the news conference.
Representatives for Wheeler’s office didn’t immediately respond to messages left by ABC News asking for comment.
The mayor has repeatedly condemned both the far-right and the far-left groups and the public fights that have been going on for over a year.
“Hate and hate groups have no place in our city. Violence has no place in our city. Bigotry has no place in our city. We will not tolerate acts of violence, destruction, prejudice or intimidation,” he said during the Aug. 20 news conference.
Miller said that the Portland Police have traditionally taken a laissez-faire approach to the far-right rallies, but this old tactic is feeding right into the group’s goals.
“Not only does that place communities in danger, but it also acts as a signal to the far right that their actions are essentially sanctioned by law enforcement,” she argued.
In a statement to ABC News, Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen defended the department’s actions that day, saying officers have to “respond in an impartial manner, irrespective of political perspective, while respecting constitutional rights for all participants.”
“Unfortunately, over the past three years or so we’ve seen these events where two or more opposing sides arrive specifically to confront each other, and some engage in violence with one another,” he said in a statement. “That adds additional complexity, as we often get criticized for responding too much or too little, or responding in a way that is seen as favoring one side or another.”
Blazak said the police could have done a better job at separating the groups but acknowledged that the Portland Police Department’s resources are limited. In June, the department’s crowd control unit resigned after one of its officers was indicted for assaulting a protester, who had no ties to any radical group, last year.
Solutions
Even with the limited city resources, Blazak and other experts say there are strategies that law enforcement and organizers can implement to curb the violence between the far-right and the far-left.
The Department of Justice and other police forces in the country have implemented a system where far-right protesters and their opponents are separated by “a football field length” during the planned event, Blazak said.
“It’s to keep the groups separate, so there isn’t direct contact. Therefore, those media images aren’t created. Everyone gets free speech, but they don’t have the right to street violence,” he said.
Miller also said that keeping the groups as far apart as possible is the best solution and added that city officials and law enforcement need to be on the lookout for violent members who are known to attend rallies.
Miller also said that there needs to be a stronger effort to stop counter-protesters and anti-fascist groups from playing into the far-right group’s hands.
She noted that in several cities groups have protested the Proud Boys and other far-right groups with planned peaceful demonstrations, often with singing, where they ignore any instigation.
‘They usually have a bigger crowd,” Miller said. “Not only does it drown out the far right, but it also strengthens community ties.”
Ultimately, the experts said the community, police and other stakeholders will have to address the long-standing problem of Oregon’s far-right and white supremacist organizations and their recruitments to their cause.
“A lot of this work has to be done at a community level. Prevention work has to be done at the community level with people who are at most risk of being radicalized,” Miller said.
