When problems arise in our communities, in our homes, among our families, there are certain types of people who are typically charged with handling those issues and making them right. And most generally, they are not elderly grandmothers. But in the hellhole that Portland, Oregon has become, that’s apparently all who’s left of the good and honorable people.
As you well know, Portland has been the home of nightly riots, protests, and lootings that began after the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Thursday night was the 70th consecutive night of such violence and mayhem.
As you can well imagine, not everyone is pleased with the constant chaos and violence that the city has learned to nearly set their clocks by. However, it seems the only people willing to do much of anything about it are the elderly.
Enter 77-year-old Cobey and 73-year-old Penny. For both of their safety, their last names have been redacted.
The two live in the neighborhood around the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct, which is where the brunt of Thursday night’s mobs seemed centered around. And they, like most, are tired of it all, the noise, the fires, the property destruction, and the constant disrespect.
Cobey told KGW-TV that she just couldn’t stand by and watch anymore. She had to do something. So when she noticed the mobs surrounding the precinct and her neighborhood, she took a stand.
She said, “I just got heated under the collar and said, ‘Hey, this is not OK. This is my neighborhood; you’re not helping my black friends. It’s not OK to destroy property. You can say what you have to say but be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
But her words didn’t sway the crowd, which was later identified to be Antifa-related, not in the least. In fact, if it did anything, it only angered them more.
Almost immediately after her brave speech, several from the mob threw paint on her and the boarded-up wall of the precinct behind her. They tore down caution tape around the building and threw this on Cobey, as well.
As you can see and hear from the numerous videos posted, they yelled obscenities, telling her, “This isn’t your world anymore. You ruined it for us.” One woman, cowardly demanded from the numbers of the crowd, “Put your mask on, b–! Put your mask on!”
Yes, because at this point, while raging within a crowd of violent mobsters, catching COVID-19 is the most dangerous thing…
Meanwhile, and separately, Penny was in a very similar boat, merely trying to put out a fire that “peaceful protesters’ had set nearby.
Penny had made her way to the scene with her walker and Black Lives Matter sign, but not to protest. Instead, she knew what was going to take place and came prepared with a fire extinguisher. When a fire was started, she was there to put it out.
But moments later, after Penny had walked a few steps away, rioters lit it again. And this time when Penny approached, leaning on her walker the whole way, a couple of rioters got in the way and began to bully her.
According to what Penny told KGW, “There was a young woman and a man and they wouldn’t let me by. While I was arguing with the young woman, the man grabbed (the fire extinguisher) and ran away. I thought, ‘Shoot, I have no fire extinguisher.”
Penny was also splashed with paint, though not as severely as Cobey, and hurtful words and obscenities were thrown her direction.
Maybe it’s the small-town life I was raised in and the biblical teachings to respect your elders, but I cannot, not in a million years, imagine being treated this way at their age. These women are both in their seventies, both with grey or white hair – one even has a walker. They plain-as-day didn’t pose any threat either to the mob’s physical presence or even what they were protesting.
And yet these people, if we can even call them that, as they act without a heart, thought nothing of treating the women like they would the cops they are out protesting. No, not everyone in the crowd threw things and said nasty phrases. But neither did they do anything about it.
Instead, they stood by and watched as women incapable of causing harm and, in fact, trying to prevent it, were bullied and harassed.
How despicable.
