Vancouver Proud Boy gets prison for Portland rally riot

A Vancouver member of the far-right Proud Boys group was sentenced Friday to nearly eight years in prison for charges in connection with an August 2021 rally in Portland that ended in violence.

In March, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge found Tusitala “Tiny” Toese guilty of two counts each of second-degree assault, third-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree criminal mischief and riot.

Toese was extradited from Clark County in March 2022 to face those charges.

Toese was a leader of the Aug. 22, 2021, Proud Boys event in east Portland that culminated in a furious exchange of pepper spray, projectiles and paint balls between the far-right group and anti-fascists near an abandoned Kmart, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.

The district attorney’s office said Toese gave commands to his group to chase after fleeing counterprotesters and incited his group to shoot paintballs at them and assault them.

Toese used a baseball bat to break out the windows of a man’s car carrying water that Toese claimed belonged to antifa.

Later, one of Toese’s group members beat the man as he hid in his car, court records state.

The prosecutor told the judge Toese has a history of violence and said, “Toese was filled with hatred toward antifa and played upon the passions of the Proud Boys to incite them to violence,” the news release states.