Patriot Prayer is an American far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area.

[18] Gibson was motivated to become an activist after he viewed TV coverage of a June 2, 2016, Trump rally in San Jose, California, where protests turned to brawling.

[28][29][30][31] The San Jose Mercury News described Patriot Prayer as a right-wing group whose events "attracted white supremacists and ended up in violent confrontations among demonstrators on both sides.

[37][38] In August 2017, David Neiwert, writing for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), described Patriot Prayer as "trolling" the Pacific Northwest with the intention of provoking a response from antifa.

[41] In 2018, authorities were prompted to investigate after Patriot Prayer called the Council on American–Islamic Relations a "Muslim extremist organization" and made online threats against the group.

[49] In October 2019, Gibson advised followers to send him donations through the Church of Faith and Freedom, an organization that officials who oversee charities and non-profits found no record of in the states it claimed to be active: California, Oregon, and Washington.

[54] Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boy indicted on federal charges for his involvement in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, began attending Patriot Prayer rallies in 2017.

[63][65] Following the cancellation of a Rose Festival event due to threats of violence, allegedly from anti-fascists, against expected rally participants the Multnomah County Republican Party,[66] Gibson organized a "March for Free Speech" to occur on April 29, 2017.

The mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, had requested that federal authorities revoke the permit, saying he was concerned over increasing tensions in the city due to the stabbings.

[74] The Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union's legal director, Mat Dos Santos, said it was unconstitutional of Wheeler to attempt to prevent the demonstration based on the political and personal viewpoints of those who organized the event.

[76] On June 15, 2017, Patriot Prayer members held a rally at Evergreen State College[77] shortly after the university became the focus of a national controversy over how academic institutions handled issues of race.

[97] Police Chief Bill Scott and Board of Supervisors President London Breed wrote a letter to express their outrage over the National Park Service's decision to allow the rally.

In rapid response, the city of San Francisco built fences around the park and closed it to the public to prevent violence, which prompted Gibson to also cancel that event.

[102][35] Time reported that many feared a repeat of the deadly clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters that had occurred at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville earlier that month.

[103] The counter-demonstrations across the San Francisco Bay Area went ahead peacefully with most participants opting to hold a large dance party instead of a violent confrontation.

The demonstration continued in a march to People's Park, where the speakers included Kyle "Stickman" Chapman, a self-described American nationalist,[113] who claimed there was "a war on whites" and a "battle for Berkeley".

[54] Led by Tusitala Toese, the Proud Boys were seen wearing shirts that targeted feminists as "parasites of the patriarchy" while both groups shouted misogynistic slurs at the women attending the event.

[125] When Nordean appeared on the July 17 edition of InfoWars' The Alex Jones Show, the video played continuously in the background [128] while he promoted the next Portland march scheduled for August 4 stating "if you want to get involved, there is no better time than now.

On August 4, 2018, the "Gibson for Senate Freedom March", which included members of the Proud Boys, was held in Portland along Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

[7][134] Portland police later reported they had encountered Patriot Prayer members with loaded firearms on the roof of a parking garage overlooking the August 4 protest site.

The right-wing supporters, some armed and in tactical gear, were met with a counter-protest from Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity, Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party.

The "demasking" announcement followed an altercation when Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys members attempted to invade a chapter meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America.

[142][12][143] A police detective described video of Gibson, "taunting" and threatening members of antifa and later "physically pushing" a woman before she was hit with a baton and knocked unconscious by someone else.

[149][136] Another man with ties to Patriot Prayer, Ian Kramer, pleaded guilty in May 2021 to one count each of riot, second-degree assault, and unlawful use of a weapon for beating a woman with a baton and breaking her vertebra.

[150][151] Gibson and another member were acquitted of felony riot charges in July 2022, and the judge rebuked the district attorney's office for pursuing a trial on the evidence presented.

[13] In January 2020, Gibson appeared at a gun rights rally held on Martin Luther King Jr. day in Richmond, VA.[152] On August 29, 2020, Aaron Danielson, a Patriot Prayer supporter, was shot and killed after participating in a pro-Trump "caravan" during the ongoing George Floyd Protests in Portland.

[157] At a December 2020 rally at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem organized by Patriot Prayer, protesters used chemical agents against troopers, and some entered the building unlawfully, resulting in several arrests.

[159] In February 2019, Willamette Week reported that Portland police lieutenant Jeff Niiya kept in close touch with Gibson and provided him with intelligence about the anti-fascist movement in the city.

Five days after the rally, Toese and Proud Boys member Donovan Flippo, allegedly attacked a man in Portland, an incident for which a grand jury indicted for them.

[159] Portland's Independent Police Review investigated Niiya and cleared him in September 2019, determining that he was gathering information on the groups and trying to defuse potential clashes with his advice.