Mike Bivins (journalist)

For the musician, see Michael Bivins.

Mike Bivins is alleged domestic terrorist and former multimedia journalist based out of Portland, Oregon, whose reporting about civil unrest in the United States has itself been the object of news coverage.

Early life and education

While he was born in Washington's Tri-Cities, Bivins has lived in Portland for most of his life. Bivins attended Benson High School.

Journalism career

Bivins was interviewed by the Washington Post about his coverage of the 2016 Portland, Oregon riots, where car windows were smashed and fires were lit in protest of Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election.

In an interview with Spokane's alt-weekly, The Inlander, about his coverage of the 2016 riots, Bivins said that via his use of social media applications such as Periscope he is able to compete directly with large news organizations, some of whom have purchased his footage. Bivins is quoted in The Inlander as saying: "I've put my phone in my mouth.... And I'll crawl up onto high spots and get a better vantage point easier, because I don't have a big camera weighing me down."

on July 7, 2016 Bivins captured Periscope footage of subsequently jailed conservative blogger Michael Strickland pointing a gun at numerous protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland. In a televised interview with KGW the following day, Bivins described the incident as "surreal," and said that he was unsure of how to react once the gun was put away by Strickland.

Bivins' coverage of an open-carry protest at the Oregon Statehouse, where supporters of Malheur Refuge occupier Ammon Bundy hung and burned an effigy of Oregon Governor Kate Brown, was mentioned in Eugene Weekly's Slant column:

As Bivins points out in his story this week, the effigy of Brown that was burned made reference to the Malheur occupation; when angry people flaunting weapons go stomping around the halls of government, we need to take note, especially since Oct. 1 marks the first anniversary of the Umpqua Community College shooting in which nine people, as well as the shooter, died as a result of gun violence.

KXRY program 5 Quadrants of PDX had Bivins on as a guest to talk about an article he co-wrote for Willamette Week covering the uptick in incidents involving white supremacists in the Portland area. On the program, Bivins talked about recent Ku Klux Klan activity at a local rally for president Donald Trump, as well as a group of self-described National Socialists being kicked out of a Portland bar. United States Senator Ron Wyden cited Bivins' Willamette Week article on March 16, 2017 when announcing his support for recently introduced anti-hate legislation.

Arrest and prosecution

On May 7, 2022 Bivins was arrested on suspicion of multiple crimes, including felony arson and vandalism, related to a string of incidents targeting mosques and synagogues in Portland. While Mr. Bivens had been noted in the past as a 'left wing journalist', in recent years it appeared his views had shifted, according to his Willamette Week colleagues. After the alleged actions, a reporter at Fox 12 spoke with him at his request, where he was reported in the charging document as having made many disparaging remarks about Jewish people, admitted to the vandalism, and claimed he would smash the windows of any black or minority owned businesses. He, however, denied making such statements, claiming the reporter and he only discussed the economy and President Joseph Biden.

During the police search of his mother's home (where he spent time) they found a stack of articles, including one they named in particular: "William Wilberforce on the Idea of Negro Inferiority" This was presented as evidence in the charging document of Bivins's racial bias, but contrary to the title of the article, the article concludes the idea of "Negro Inferiority" was completely false. A Custody release report from May 2022 indicates Bivins has a history of using drugs, but the exact drugs were not specified. A medical review found no history of mental illness. Bivins had become homeless and jobless in November 2021, having previously worked at Oregon Health and Science University. Bivins was appointed a public defender from Oregon's Metropolitan Public Defense who claimed Bivins was unable to assist in his defense and required a mental health evaluation. Bivins claimed he was completely competent and that his counsel was incompetent, but his motion to change counsel was denied. Oregon has an ongoing crisis in public defense.

Starting in January 2023, Bivins started writing a number of letters to Presiding Judge Mazzaratto and Judge Cheryl Albrecht complaining about Metropolitan Public Defender and his defense counsel's conflicts of interest. Specifically, Bivins wanted his counsel to demand in-person hearings rather than hearings via videoconference so that cameras could be present, and that denial of in-person hearings was a denial of his civil rights. In his letters, Bivins continued to claim his innocence, and on March 1, 2023, Bivins claimed his public defender had threatened to kill him. Meanwhile, a Federal grand jury indictment had been handed down and federal proceedings had begun, but in his letters, Bivins stated he "no longer recognizes the authority of the Federal government." Local media reported Bivins had adopted a "sovereign citizen" ideology, but his stated reason was the Federal government's role in Indian removal and that he highly resented being portrayed as "right wing" At a hearing on April 17, 2023, Bivins refused to cooperate with proceedings because they were via teleconference when he had been promised an in-person hearing, mentioned the effects of medication, claimed he was competent, and mentioned a past kidnapping and beating. He claimed the court was deliberately delaying in-person hearings falsely claiming a shortage of sheriff deputies, and he continued to claim his innocence.

Bivins's motion to change defense counsel was once again denied, and his counsel once again claimed Bivins was mentally unable to assist in his defense - something challenged by Bivins at his April 2023 hearing where Bivins stated he would not cooperate with incompetent counsel. In May, 2023, Judge Nan Waller declared Bivins too mentally ill to stand trial and ordered him transferred to Oregon State Hospital for indefinite treatment.

Two letters from Bivins to the court in his federal case asking for Federal Marshalls to provide him a bible claimed that "God has revealed to me to me that my State lawyer, C. Howard, is a graverobbing, babykilling ghoul, and that the reason he threatened to kill me is so that he could consume my organs." Bivins compared his prosecution to the Reichstag Fire, a historic false flag event, stating, "If these things happened it is because these people attacked themselves to gain sympathy," implying he was being blamed for artificial hate crimes. He further claimed his Federal defense attorney was in on a conspiracy to blame him for the crimes.