Antifa Rioter Tries to Weasel Out of Andy NGO Lawsuit. This Judge Isn’t Having it
On June 29, 2019, Portland antifa rioters physically assaulted Andy Ngo, editor-at-large at The Post Millennial, who was reporting on the riot at the time. After police apparently failed to investigate the assault, Ngo took matters into his own hands in June, filing a lawsuit against Rose City Antifa and members of the mob who allegedly beat up Ngo. Benjamin Bolen, the antifa rioter whom Ngo blamed for one of the assaults, attempted to weasel out of the lawsuit via an Anti-SLAPP motion. Multnomah County Judge Kathleen Dailey rightly refused this move.
[What is Anti-SLAPP?
Short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, SLAPPs have become an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings.
Anti-SLAPP laws are meant to provide a remedy to SLAPP suits. Anti-SLAPP laws are intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate people who are exercising their First Amendment rights. In terms of reporting, news organizations and individual journalists can use anti-SLAPP statutes to protect themselves from the financial threat of a groundless defamation case brought by a subject of an enterprise or investigative story.]
