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Memorial for Portland activist now includes graffiti on Democratic headquarters

Memorial for Portland activist now includes graffiti on Democratic headquarters

From Oregon Live


A memorial for a Portland activist killed outside the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters now includes graffiti across much of the front of the building, including a number of anarchist and anti-fascist symbols, after a vigil was held Sunday night.

Police said they had not received any complaints about the graffiti. The bureau had no updates on its investigation Monday morning.

Molly Woon, Democratic Party of Oregon deputy director, said any damage to the party’s Northeast Portland building is insignificant when compared to the death that proceeded it.

“Some of the graffiti messages are deeply troubling,” Woon told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “But any damage done is insignificant compared to what these mourners are going through. We’re trying to be sensitive to that. It’s a building. We can always repaint. We do want to get the timing right on that and not further upset folks… We certainly don’t support things that would incite further violence.”

Multiple sources told the Oregonian/OregonLive that 23-year-old Sean D. Kealiher was run down by an SUV just after midnight Saturday after leaving Cider Riot, a popular Portland cidery and left-wing watering hole.

He was hit outside of the Democratic Party of Oregon building on Ninth Avenue, where a bloodstain could still be seen Saturday afternoon. Friends brought him to a hospital, where he died.

Police arrived at the scene to find an abandoned SUV crashed into the building, with evidence of gunfire into the vehicle. Police have not released any information about the status, whereabouts or identity of the SUV’s driver.

Police also have released few details about the circumstances of Kealiher’s death. A medical examiner’s report shows Kealiher was killed by blunt-force trauma.

Homicide detectives are investigating.

Friends on Saturday set up a memorial for Kealiher, an anti-fascist activist who identified as an anarchist, placing candles and flowers around the spot where he was hit.

The memorial now includes messages of remembrance, in addition to iron front and anarchy symbols, among other scrawls.

The iron front symbol, which was first used by an anti-Nazi paramilitary organization in Germany in the 1930s, has been adopted by antifa activists.

Support for Kealiher also stretched across the country and overseas, with mourners responding to a call to “get in bloc” and light up the sky with flares in honor of the young activist.

Twitter users from cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and the Twin Cities posted photos of flare vigils. The call to action stretched as far as Europe, where people in Greece posted with the hashtag.

The case has set off a stream of wild rumors on social media, none of which have been confirmed.

Woon said the Democratic Party of Oregon doesn’t have video cameras outside its building, so it did not capture any of the events leading up to the crash.

The organization is letting staff work from home Monday if they don’t feel comfortable coming into the office.

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