PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A person was assaulted and another arrested at a Recall Kate Brown rally in Happy Valley over the weekend.
The group had a booth set up along Highway 212 near Southeast 152nd Avenue.
Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputies were called out to the area around 2 p.m. on Saturday after an assault was reported. Authorities said a man not affiliated with the group began yelling at a woman working the booth. When another man, Harlan Wright, tried to intervene, investigators said the suspect attacked him.
After punching Wright and leaving him on the ground, the suspect, identified as Joshua Thompson of Damascus, walked away. Deputies found him not far from the booth and arrested him.
According to the sheriff’s office, Thompson told deputies “he confronted the group because, in his opinion, they should be working to recall Trump and not Gov. Brown.”
Wright spent the night at OHSU being treated for his injuries. On Sunday, he told KOIN 6 News that the attack was proof of what he called a “violent tone” underneath current activism in Portland’s streets.
“If we don’t agree exactly with them, if we don’t see exactly what they see, then we are haters or we are against them,” said Wright. He went on to say that he thinks the lack of condemnation from local politicians is wrong.
Thompson now faces assault and disorderly conduct charges.