A ‘Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong’ T-Shirt Got Attention at Portland Far-Right Rally?

During the Saturday far-right rally by Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys also included one very bizarre (and troubling) piece of clothing worn by Proud Boy/Patriot Prayer member Tusitala “Tiny” Toese: a “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong” t-shirt.

Proud Boy ‘Tiny’, recently involved in several assaults, is at Portland Patriot Prayer rally wearing a “Pinochet did nothing wrong” shirt. Augusto Pinochet, the US-installed Chilean fascist dictator, ran a regime which killed at least 3,000 & tortured over 20,000 ppl#AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/LutQfE6nst

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) August 4, 2018

Backside of Tiny’s shirt. Reads, “Make communists afraid of rotary aircraft again.” Tiny says he doesn’t know what RWDS means. It stands for Right-Wing Death Squad. pic.twitter.com/Bzdv1hRitY

— Arun Gupta (@arunindy) August 4, 2018

Forgot to post this earlier: I asked Proud Boy/Patriot Prayer member Tusitala ‘Tiny’ Toese about his PINOCHET WAS RIGHT t-shirt.

“Didn’t Pinochet kill like 35,000 people?” I asked him.

“Aren’t they all communists?” he responded. #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/dzVcYIgHaV

— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 5, 2018

Patriot Prayer strongman Tiny’s shirt reads “Pinochet did nothing wrong.”#DefendPDX #AlloutPDX pic.twitter.com/wpfEfakO6I

— PDX Mike Bivins (@itsmikebivins) August 4, 2018

As you might expect, some on Twitter were calling out the bullshit:

The American right is idolizing Pinochet right now because too many people know who Hitler is.

— Adam (@leftkist) August 6, 2018

American right wingers who claim to be “patriots”, have developed a disturbing fascination with Augusto Pinochet because he oversaw the killing of thousands of Chileans. They conveniently ignore that he was also behind the first foreign terrorist attack perpetrated on US soil.

— Joao Da Silva? (@jmdasilva78) August 6, 2018

Ah, I remember when Pinochet was the darling of the American Right’s drooling sycophants, and throwing living human beings out of airplanes.

— Angie Grant (@AngelainaGrant) August 6, 2018

Growing up, we had a close family friend who fled Chile. Her brother had been “disappeared” by a right wing death squad — his only crime was being a college kid who questioned the government. So I’ll always take umbrage to “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong” t-shirts.

— Seth Morabito (@Twylo) August 5, 2018

Agreed. My dad’s friend and his family went through so much shit under Pinochet’s regime.
It’s why I have no fucking respect for anyone pulling the “free helicopter ride” ‘jokes’.

— ⒶFlagBurner? (@Jack_A_Ryan) August 6, 2018

Pinochet… the evil that died free… that murdered my mom’s friends and acquaintances and forced her to escape. may he rot in hell, and may the resistance axis of the world never have to deal with an amerikkkan backed “Pinochet” again, not in Venezuela, not in Cuba…

— ah mee tie (@sadcommieteen) August 6, 2018

Why do we even have to deal with this? BTW, if you need (or want) to see more, here is a video of the Pinochet guy.