The small town of Corbett is well known to bicycle riders in the Portland region. It’s bisected by the Historic Columbia River Highway, it’s a gateway to the Columbia River Gorge, and it sits at the base of Larch Mountain Road, one of most legendary climbs in the state. Corbett High School even serves as the base camp for the annual Larch Mountain Hillclimb Time Trial event.
But it also has a darker side: A locals-only vibe that has persisted for years.
We’ve reported on bicycle riders being verbally threatened for merely existing in the area and there have been multiple incidents of tacks being suspiciously left on the road. Back in May of this year when Covid-19 concerns were at a fever pitch, we shared how riders were mistakenly informed by an Oregon State Parks ranger that they could not ride on the Historic Highway near Corbett unless they lived in the area.
Now, as tensions over wildfires have mixed with conspiracy theories, disinformation on the web, and existing biases, armed civilians have set up roadblocks to deter people from using roads.
On Wednesday the Guardian reported that people were being stopped by armed vigilantes at several locations. Their article includes disturbing details about town meetings where these armed civilians were given permission by a Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office sergeant to guard the area from “suspicious” behavior. The meetings happened after the sheriff’s office reported that someone had set off fireworks that caused a brush fire in the area.
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Yesterday Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury demanded an immediate investigation into these claims saying, “I am deeply concerned about the reports that the words of some Multnomah County Sheriff’s staff were interpreted by some residents as support or encouragement for roadblocks and vigilante patrols. If that turns out to be true, it is categorically unacceptable.”
Also on Thursday the Sheriff’s Office cited three men involved in one of the illegal roadblocks. The citations for disorderly conduct followed an investigation of a roadblock at the Historic Highway and Larch Mountain Road (pictured).
With air quality improving quickly, people are likely to start riding in Corbett in the next few days. If you see anyone taking part in a roadblock or tracking road users in any way, Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese urges you to call 911.
“We have added extra patrol resources into rural areas,” Reese said in a video last week. “The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate this type of illegal activity.”
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Context is important. People lighting off fireworks in a small town with little resources is a problem.
https://www.koin.com/news/wildfires/fireworks-found-near-brush-fire-in-corbett/
yeah thanks Doug. I should have included that. I just added it to the story.
What makes you think the firework lighters don’t live near Corbett?
Also, why would Doug (Or anyone else) think that because someone lit fireworks, that that should make it ok for armed vigilantes to stop and harass whoever they want?
I don’t recall saying what they did was ok. So why would you, or anyone else, think I did? One thing is clear through your misguided statement, you were never at risk of seeing your home, animals, or even your loved ones caught up in a wildfire.
Really? Please walk us through your logical progression for how it’s “clear” that one’s comment means what you claim.
I don’t have time for you. Thanks.
Says the guy who has time to post on BikePortland.
I enjoy your comments. Usually well thought out and on point. How am I supposed to tell Jay that “One” is commenting from a place of privilege? Clearly, One doesn’t get what a firework can do in high fire warning. But like I said, Jay isn’t worth my time.
You just _did_ spend more time on me, genius. Thus you reveal that you’ve got nothing — as expected.
This feels like another case looking down their noses at those “rural folk”.
The original story didn’t include this aspect of this situation. I would assume you would like the whole story so you can understand all the parts of it. Without it the we suffer from an incomplete narrative. As far as who could’ve lit the firework, I don’t think it matters. What matter with that it was. As a result, the community that was close enough to feel the heat from the Eagle Creek fire reacted on what they perceived was a threat. Did they over react? Of course.
Verbally threatened? This summer I got buzzed, followed up by double birds from the passenger, as the driver veered toward a cyclist coming down.
Edit to add: this was a beige Corvette convertible with Oregon plates, so I could see all of this, and this was on LMR and I did not see them again so they may live there or know somebody who does.
I would not be surprised if crazies like this don’t start using the “defund the police” to justify actions like this more in the future. This is what we get when people divide us into left/right, urban/rural, mask/no mask. We need to curb extremism across the spectrum.
In any chaotic or frightening situation, someone’s going to provide “security”; it will either be a professionalized service like the police, backed by a justice system based on written laws and due process, or it will be private individuals with no training or accountability, doling out “justice” on the spot as they see fit.
Neither is perfect, but I know which I prefer.
Claiming “either/or” is naive. Rather, what exists is a gradient. For instance, a central issue of the times is the long trend of “professionalized” police _eroding_ due process via street killings and deaths in custody.
Yes, of course. There are also other options I didn’t mention, like “private security” charging for protection (with or without an implied threat), and competing “security groups” (i.e. random people walking around with guns) both of which started happening in the CHOP in Seattle.
Or a non-militarized alternative that is democratically accountable to residents and emphasizes non-violent crisis intervention, community outreach, and access to social services. The hyper-militarization of the police in the USA and other nations that do not value civil liberties is not associated with safety or a reduction in violence.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9181
Where in the USA do they have this “non-militarized alternative that is democratically accountable to residents and emphasizes non-violent crisis intervention, community outreach, and access to social services”? What jurisdiction(s)?
The USA is a PMIC-dominanted society so it’s no surprise that there only limited examples. However, the partial demilitarization of the police in Camden NJ and the CAHOOTs program in Eugene are examples of what this might look like in the USA.
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/the-abolition-movement
want to drive to Corbett with me?
Thank you for the offer, but I need to social distance and hyper-militarize my response to my annual democratically accountable illness. [cough]
Lolwut???
The cops are literally out there providing aid to the vigilante roadblocks. And this is not some isolated incident but rather part of an established pattern of collaboration between Portland area LEOs and various chud groups.
How does that fit into your framework of a professional police force upholding a justice system based on laws and due process? Because it looks to me like a force that exists to uphold white supremacy.
What do you think people will do when they continue to wait for long response times?
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/09/intruder-with-knife-boy-being-held-no-portland-police-response-for-1-hour-36-minutes.html
Maybe demand that the police do their job, what do you think? This propaganda that the Police here are just too busy with protesters is bunk and you know it….
I wouldn’t only say protests, but also the 49 that retired and the 9 that resigned since June is probably another indication that they are stretched thin.
You don’t think those police were responding to “market forces” and either taking on jobs that are a lot less stressful and pay more than being a Portland police officer, such as being a police officer in a no-protests jurisdiction, or leaving policing altogether and taking up a new career, do you?
I don’t know their reasoning. I do know that PPB actively recruits in Idaho because very few locals want the spotlight or attention that Portland has to offer.
Departments across the country are having difficulty filling openings.
Filling openings: because city councils and county commissions insist on mandates for so many cops for their community but pay the officers too little, police departments end up hiring too many individuals who have that dubious distinction of being “bad apples”. And very few cops, usually no more than 20%, actually live in the community they are sworn to protect – instead the rest live where they can afford to live and commute in.
Here in Greensboro NC, our 735-strong police department (for a city of 294,000) apparently recruits ex-servicemen and women currently enrolled in community colleges throughout the south, tuition paid for by the military – which probably goes a long way in explaining why police forces out here are so militarized – it’s not the equipment so much as the personnel who are used to using such equipment.
That is exactly what a cop told me the other day. This was while we were getting someone’s stolen car back to them.
Can you prove the cop wrong?
Gee. I wonder if a cop might have a vested interest in furthering this narrative…
That doesn’t make it untrue. The fact that the “narrative” is consistent with all known facts does at least lend it some credibility.
Gee, I wonder if someone is so biased they cannot consider alternatives to their binary narrative.
They told you they’ve been busy with protesters? It’s a lie. Not an outright lie. It’s a lie that they NEED to be busy with protesters.
Back to the article that was posted.
If a cop is working a case about a stolen car and a call comes in about a stranger with a knife that is holding a kid hostage then you drop what you’re doing and respond to that knife call. If you don’t then you should be fired.
The police were not kept particularly busy with the peaceful protests and marches. I took part in a number of them, and never rarely, if ever, saw a cop anywhere.
Maybe it’s ok with you if “protestors” set police stations on fire, but that would put you in a pretty small minority.
Wow – you have some superhero powers there, man!
Luckily, children being held hostage at knifepoint is a very rare event.
So it is very likely it was a slow night (it was still smokey) and the police had bandwidth to pursue this stuff. FWIW, it was about a stolen scooter – I had seen it stashed in the bed of the pickup truck, someone on NextDoor called it in as theirs, and I went and spoke to the cop when I saw him outside my house. I thanked him for following up on the scooter, and it was determined the truck was stolen – from a neighbor in the area.
As for whether or not they NEED to be busy with protesters, maybe not. Rioters, absolutely.
I’m sorry this does not really fit with the narrative that ACAB and do nothing – the one I encountered did do something positive for someone that night.
Closely related: You could follow your own link and find out not just what people “will do,” but what they actually did.
Nice bro!
Red Flag, please. Nobody who acts like that should have a gun.
So, does this mean that Larch Mountain is members (locals) only now?
Or that Forest Park is only for locals who live beside it, for hiking and dog walking only?
Makes me want to build a Mad Max style monster truck and roll right over them
That’s the violent attitude the entire world has come to expect from Portland leftists, based on the past 4 months of burn, loot, murder.
Naw. Reckless monster-trucking is a right-wing thing. https://jalopnik.com/antifa-finally-goes-too-far-by-causing-reportedly-drunk-1845091162
Guess you have to kill more than 4 people before they take away your license.
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/arrest-made-in-crash-that-killed-bend-woman/article_b0c3aeaf-227e-5b5f-8817-5eb85e020539.html
It’s just a matter of time before he kills again.
That is the right’s propaganda and narrative. Portland has been protesting and the Police have started the violence almost every single time. Also self-defense is not murder. Murder is what the Police did when they found the leftist shooter.
These people prey on the unarmed and weak, if they were met with the same force they would back down and run away, back to the rock they were living under before Trump made it okay to be openly bigoted.
“Police have started the violence almost every single time”
That’s the Left’s propaganda and narrative.
Depending on how far back you want to look. Police started the violence 400 years ago.
Let’s just stay focused on the current events 🙂
The majority of the clashes are between white rioters and white cops.
No, that is what I have witnessed via live feed again and again
Just to clarify, are you claiming that videos show the general pattern is that the police instigate violence before people start throwing objects at them?
Im sure there are some readers out there who can help me by explaining how this is different from the “Whose streets, Our streets!!!” attitude championed by Jonathan and many others on this site. Folks seemed thrilled when the vigilantes they liked and agreed with shut down roads and at times the Interstate night after night. Vigilantism is the same regardless of who does it and is equally appalling.
“Vigilantism is the same regardless of who does it and is equally appalling.”
It is most certainly not. You should consider the differences between
(1) protest, civil disobedience, dissent, and
(2) armed vigilantes.
The most obvious difference is the central presence of weapons in (2), but there are others. (1) is a political disagreement targeting institutions, what those protesting experience as injustice. In the case of armed folks setting up check points or road blocks, or occupying a wildlife refuge, they are arrogating to themselves functions we have, through the social contract, agreed to let the state handle, and in the process intimidating, threatening individuals they mistrust or have been led to believe they should mistrust.
The police in this country are not, by and large, accomplishing justice, even though they are exceedingly well funded, accorded immunity, etc. Protests against injustice are protected and enshrined in our country’s founding principles. Taking the law into your own hands with guns is not.
The refuge occupiers had a lot more in common with the courthouse protesters than they did with the people setting up roadblocks to prevent looting. They both claimed to be protesting injustice, whereas the roadblockers were assuming a pseudo law enforcement role.
Hello 9watts
What people think they are doing and what they are doing can be very different things. You mention the importance of protesting and I agree that it is an integral aspect of American life. The problem results when the end result of the protest is the protestors using the threat of violence to close areas down. I believe that when a mob surrounds a car the potential for violence is as great as someone holding a gun at a barricade and preventing passage. In both situations a person is violently prevented from traveling freely in their own country. Call it a political protest, call it a blockade, call it an occupation, the end result is the same. And that end result is ugly.
As to your final point, taking the law into the hands of the mob is as equally abhorrent as taking the law into ones own hand. The existence of guns does not create a unique situation to the possibility of violence.
Please link me to some examples of somebody’s car being surrounded by an angry mob that was not provoked by the driver. I realize my view may be narrow and there may be examples out there I’m not remembering.
Lol Johnny
Lol all you want, but apparently you’ve got nothing — as usual.
I have nothing for you. Please don’t be confused although I’m thinking that is a common theme.
Oh agreed: “I have nothing for you,” after a challenge, is pretty much your brand.
Hello Johnny Bye Carter
Not sure if this will help, but here’s an Andy Ngo (not my favorite person) video of a mob surrounding a motorist apparently minding her own business.
“You’re setting fires in the streets?” asks a black female driver tonight who is stopped by antifa rioters in north Portland. “Get out of my way!” She refuses to follow their orders. Video by
@BGOnTheScene
. #PortlandRiots
I apologize for not being able to provide an actual link, but my social media technical knowledge is not extensive. Perhaps you’ll be able to do a search and find it, it’s from 07SEP.
In regards to your other post, protestors are indeed stopping people from using streets, those people just happen to be in motor vehicles.
Again, what people think they are doing is often at odds with the end results. If the person next to me is gesticulating wildly and hits me hard in the nose, does it really matter if they meant to or not? They still hit me, intent at that point doesn’t really matter.
It seems you are very biased against motor vehicles as you describe them as “dangerous personal property” and claim it is a mere inconvenience if I can’t move it around as if all I do is drive around for fun. People use their vehicles (in this case motor vehicles) to care for people, pick up medication and move as they see fit. Obstruction is obstruction and a persons ability to use a certain mode of transportation should not effect the violence leveled at them.
Thanks. Here’s the link: https://twitter.com/mrandyngo/status/1302885299274436608
That driver provoked an angry mob. Please try again.
And perhaps I’m being too vague. Yes, protesters will surround your car. So what? They’re only angry at you if you provoke them.
I appreciate you finding the link and watching it. I am very curious how you saw her provoking the angry mob other than sitting in her car? I saw her engaging verbally with people who were deliberately preventing her freedom of movement, essentially restraining her. If that adult hadn’t intervened it seemed clear that rather than let her proceed on her way, violence would have broken out. In effect, regardless of what they professed, they were establishing a checkpoint. To bring it back to the article, how is that any different than the checkpoint set up at Corbett?
“provoked by the driver” can mean anything you want. For some protesters, that means “legally being on the road when we are having a tantrum”.
Also, are you justifying mob action against a motorist because some people *might* have been “provoked”? Because that is a dangerous path to do down. People nowhere near the car can declare they were provoked as use that as a reason for their mob action.
How dare those people behave just like my people do!
Protesters aren’t stopping PEOPLE from using the streets. They’re not asking for ID in order to let you go where you want. They just want you to let them exercise their right to protest their government oppression without threatening them with your car.
We don’t know if the roadblock crew was also only obstructing motor vehicles and would let people pass. They were threatening with their presence of weapons while making demands on people that were conditional on their permission to pass.
Even on the surface you’ve got one group that wants you to stop killing them and another that is mad at outsiders because one of the locals set their own yard on fire.
Suppressing your right to free movement is bad. Suppressing your privilege to to move your dangerous personal property around is an inconvenience.
Protesters aren’t stopping PEOPLE from using the streets. Protesters can protest on the sidewalks. Stopping cars is their schtick and isn’t necessary in the least.
Protesters have blocked I-5. Pedestrian travel in I-5 is prohibited.
Just google ANTIFA stops traffic. It’s not that difficult.
Protests stop traffic all the time. So what? Protesters do use the sidewalks. They use whatever they want, that’s the great thing about your right to protest. The pedestrian ban on I-5 does not cancel your constitutional right to protest where and how you want to.
How many civil rights movements have succeeded by annoying nobody?
Protest on every freeway every day until we get change! Inconvenienced? Go cry in the corner. People are getting killed, so I could care less about the ability to navigate their personal murder machine around the city.
“The pedestrian ban on I-5 does not cancel your constitutional right to protest where and how you want to.”
Uh yeah, it does. You don’t get to protest anywhere you want (see: permits).
You should try to march into the Oval Office, a military base or your friend’s living room and attempt that. There are DEFINITE limits on where you can pursue your Constitutional right to protest.
Do you really want me showing up in your living room, with 100 of my like-minded Independent friends who are tired of the violent protesting?
BTW, my personal murder machine has delivered meals to disabled veterans, picked up stranded cyclists and taken injured people to the ER (all strangers)…but to date has not “murdered” anyone. I guess I did not read the instructions correctly.
The protests have been occurring at night when no one except neighbors get to know about them.
Months ago, the anticop message drowned out the one calling for racial reform which has made people ambivalent to — or even against — a message that the public was solidly behind a few months ago.
For a tiny group to attempt to impose change on society by force and continue a path that has set things back rather than forward is a strange strategy for bringing about positive reform.
I pointed out in a previous article about a similar subject about how Critical Mass was harassed out of existence by the Portland Police. Certainly armed people blocking roads with vehicles should be dealt an even heavier hand.
How is a mistaken order from an Oregon State Park Ranger during the COVID hysteria in any way related to this story? It isn’t, and neither are 5 and 10 year old stories about harassment of cyclists and tacks in the road. Journalistic integrity – it’s a thing, you ought to try it.
There were no “vigilante” patrols or roadblocks. Vigilante usually implies actions meant to go after or harm others – see Death Wish 3 with Charles Bronson for examples. That was not the case here. The roadblocks were set up to keep looters and arsonists out of the area. You need to look at the context of the situation on the ground. You would do the same if fires were approaching your neighborhood, arsonists were being arrested around the state for setting fires in rural locations, looters were being arrested in areas affected by the fires and were targeting homes that were evacuated, law enforcement was too busy and could not protect your neighborhood. OR, perhaps y’all are sheep and would just let them loot your property. That’s an option – but be big enough to admit it.
The MCSO Sergeant was correct to tell the locals to watch over the area, if it is the case that law enforcement could not do it. His mistake was in failing to deputize those at the roadblocks and provide some signs, or a letter, or SOMETHING indicating the roadblock was approved by LE. Commissioner Kafoury and Sheriff Reese know that the locals protecting their rural property were doing the right thing, and they know that clueless city folk would not understand, so they are virtue-signaling that “those bad gun owners should not do that”, knowing this will find approval among their clueless constituents.
Red flag laws do not apply because no one was threatened. Red flag laws are for people who threaten others. I have read no reports of people being threatened.
A final thought for you to consider. How many guns do you think are in rural homes that are evacuated. Many folks can’t take all of them, particularly if they have no place to go other than a shelter – they will not let you in with your guns, so some are no doubt left behind. Do you REALLY want looting thugs stealing guns from homes? A typical gun safe will not stop someone for more than a few minutes. Think about THAT! Homes full of guns, and men at a roadblock preventing access to those homes by looters. I recommend you submit those men for a citizenship award medal to be given by Kafoury, Reese, and the Governor, along with their apologies to those who were trying to protect their neighborhood. Invite the Oregonian and have the ceremony photo top of the fold on page A1 of the Oregonian. 😉
So you’re saying guns are NOT freedom, but can be quite the opposite? That must be some little breakthrough for you and your self-esteem. Chapeau to your therapist.
“so you’re saying” = “what I am hearing”.
Well damn, we’re just about like two peas in a pod then.
Perhaps. I suspect I am in the middle and you are on the far-Left side of the pod.
Isn’t a matter of perspective? If you facing the pod, and DT or JD is facing the pod opposite of you (facing you with the pod in between you both), then wouldn’t his pea be in the far right of the pod, from his perspective?
Or is the pod hanging vertically?
It’s at an angle 🙂
“arsonists were being arrested around the state for setting fires in rural locations, looters were being arrested in areas affected by the fires and were targeting homes that were evacuated…”
Hm… I think that is quite a bit of exaggeration. The relevant question to ask I think is whether property crime during the second week of September in Western Oregon was up, down or the same compared to the week prior. My hunch is that it was not up, despite shrill claims to the contrary. Anyone have data we could look at?
People who own weapons, by-and-large, do a terrible job of securing them. A decent. secured to the floor gun safe, fire proof with a sturdy locking system keeps both your weapons and ammo secure. What does a bullet do when it is heated up? What harm can it do to a fire fighter trying to save your home?
How many guns are lying around rural homes. It’s scary to even think about. Combine that with the idiot mentality that thinks they should be armed, out on the highway and blocking the ‘city folk’ from coming to burn them out. It’s a scary world.
Like it or not, it’s a right.
I haven’t suggested that owning a firearm isn’t a right. I’m saying that owning a firearm is a responsibility.
The funny thing is, the US Constitution never actually says guns nor firearms, but “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Really, it could mean any kinds of weapons at all, everything from a flintlock musket to a sword to a nuclear weapon.
But I agree with the responsibility – with every right comes responsibility, be it bearing arms, free speech, “or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Yes it’s a scary world when I feel like my Mossberg 590 is about the best self defense I have because a vocal mob has the ear of the mayor and tells the police to basically go away.
Both are stories about people being denied their right to free movement.
This shows a pattern going back many years that folks in that rural area are hostile to those they consider outsiders.
Vigilante means taking law enforcement actions into your own hands without authority. It’s exactly what happened
Yes they were. And it was wrong of those locals to think that they meant create roadblocks and ID people so you don’t let any outsiders in. Watching over the area means watching, not obstructing the rights of others. You watch your house and the neighbor and you keep a log of people in case something happens and you have info to report to the real authorities.
I have been in their exact situation and I never wanted to form a vigilante group to stop people from driving down the road. It’s not legal. It’s not cool. That should not sound like a good idea to you. You better hope you don’t delay anybody that needed to get to their home in a hurry just because of your personal fears.
Sooo… you’re saying we need to take those guns away because they induce looting and are a public safety risk?
My dad had a gun. It was a .38. He didn’t have a gun safe. He didn’t know the serial number. It was stolen when his house was robbed. There was no fire or evacuation at the time.
He asked me to keep an eye out on the internet since I’m better at that than him. I said: Lol, no. You’re an idiot. Good luck. You’ll never see that gun again.
So, yes, I’d say that.
Oh I see you like to pick and choose who is obeying the law and who is breaking it. A little tip for you these people are breaking the law and that is why they were arrested.
I just got back from Klamath Falls. Can confirm ***insult deleted by moderator*** arsonists State wide. The SUVs where swarming in the Klamath Basin, but nobody was setting up road blocks. We have a special breed of sub-rural hobbiest snobbiest protecting their little patch of of the Sandy River for themselves. I think Kaufory acting likes she cares is ironic. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out….
Isn’t redneck kind of a classist insult – the kind people on this site tend to avoid using?
yes it is. thanks for flagging Middle of the Road Guy. I’ve moderated it out.
This is distressingly reminiscent of the armed teenagers who drove to Kenosha to “protect businesses” from protesters and ended up murdering someone in cold blood.
Closing comments on this post as of 6:15 pm on 9/21. Looks like the discussion has run its course. Thanks everyone.