July 19, 2020

Trump's Storm Troopers were no match for the power of a lone naked woman facing off against them. They fired pepper balls at her feet but she just stood there and stared right through them. After 10 minutes they fled.

Source: Oregon Live

It was 1:45 a.m. Dave Killen, a photographer for The Oregonian/OregonLive, was nearing the end of his shift covering the nightly protests in Portland.

In the five hours he had been out, Killen and a group of protesters had been pushed by police northward on Third Avenue, he said, to its intersection with Taylor Street. Officers stood across the intersection, facing the group of protesters.

Then, a naked woman appeared. She walked out to the intersection in front of where police were standing. Killen said she was wearing only a face mask and a stocking cap while she was facing the police.

She paced the area near the crosswalk. She laid down, kicking up her feet. She did ballet poses.

“Everyone seemed surprised and kind of astounded,” Killen said.

Photos from Killen and independent journalist Donovan Farley went viral on social media. The woman hasn’t been identified, but she’s been dubbed by some as “Naked Athena.”

The officers shot pepper balls at her feet. Another protester ran out in front of her with a homemade shield, Killen added, but she sidestepped him and his shield.

“She definitely did not seem to invite him to do that,” Killen said.

The whole time, he said, he didn’t hear her say a word.

About 10 minutes after she arrived, the officers left. The woman left soon after without any additional fanfare.

“She was incredibly vulnerable,” Killen said. “It would have been incredibly painful to be shot with any of those munitions with no clothes on.”

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon