Well-known conservative columnist and author Rod Dreher reacts to shocking video which emerged on Monday showing masked Antifa members taking over an entire busy intersection and claiming the authority to direct traffic in an American city.

Notice that these thugs include white people using racist anti-white language to order drivers to do as they say. Is this America? Is this routine in Portland? Why are the Portland police not arresting these people? This video captures the faces of some of them. Arrest them. Jail them.

And yet the Portland resident and journalist, Andy Ngo, who first posted the now viral video says "This is the type of street anarchy that routinely happens where I live."

What's worse is that after a dozen or more of the anarchists usurped police authority and actually threatened drivers who didn't obey their dictates as they hesitantly pulled through the intersection, the real police have confirmed that they watched and did nothing.

This is the type of street anarchy that routinely happens where I live. Here is video from 6 Oct showing Antifa directing traffic in downtown & threatening people who don’t obey with violence. Mayor @tedwheeler, who really runs this town? pic.twitter.com/OgjZNByxat — Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 8, 2018

The footage further shows multiple instances of cars being hit with rods and fists for refusing to obey their commands. "I'll beat the shit out of you!" men standing in the middle of the road shout at passing cars.

"We don't need your KKK in Portland, Oregon!" - another shouted at a man for merely having North Carolina plates. Drivers are prevented from going left while Antifa members shout down justifiably angered drivers who are being forced to turn right.

One driver pauses in the intersection and appears to call the police on his cell phone, which further enrages the mob. The radical far-left group claimed to be protesting a recent police shooting in the city.

This insane. Best part -- the pasty white Antifa guy calling a white motorist "whitey." Nobody hates white people more than radical leftist white people. https://t.co/eHRuhCP7Sz — David French (@DavidAFrench) October 8, 2018

Starting at the 1:20 mark of the original video a police patrol unit can clearly be seen stationed at the end of the block, with a uniformed officer simply standing by to watch the mayhem and harassment of drivers unfold.

Indeed, one elderly man was nearly beaten by the mob as a separate video at what appears to be another intersection shows the mob chasing down the man for refusing to stop as he was presumably in fear for his life.

And here is video of an elderly man who didn’t heed their street orders — so they chased him down. #Portland pic.twitter.com/AeXvhUKijO — Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 8, 2018

The elderly citizen stops his car after making it through the initially blocked intersection, and after the group had pounded on his vehicle, after which a baton-wielding man threatens him.

Immediately after the senior citizen shuts his door the crowd starts wailing on his vehicle, with the baton holder smashing into the door. Clearly it appears the driver was only moments away from being savagely beaten.

Moments after the elderly man exited his car a man with a baton smashes the window out. (screengrab)

Local media claimed the elderly man had "plowed through protesters" — likely as a result of Antifa members phoning into police claiming it was they who were victims of being attacked by a car.

WATCH: A driver plowed through protesters in downtown Portland this afternoon. Police say they have not heard from either the driver or victim yet. https://t.co/OBeORYW7Rf pic.twitter.com/18wQ8hb0nH — KATU News (@KATUNews) October 7, 2018

Yet the mob can be clearly seen threatening passing cars with weapons while issuing threats.

On Monday night a local CBS News affiliate confirmed the elderly man filed a police report, citing over $3,000 in damages to his car. The man said the group had blocked him in and later began beating on his car:

The driver, who spoke with KOIN 6 News but did not want to go on-camera, said he got out of his car earlier and asked protesters to move. But, he said, they grabbed him. He got back into the car, which is when they began beating on his car and smashed his driver's side window.

But more revealing is the Portland Police statement, also issued Monday night, which confirms police refused to intervene in order to protect what the department is describing as the free speech of the Antifa members.

CBS KOIN 6 News reports the statement as follows:

PPB Sgt. Chris Burley said officers were monitoring the protest. Asked why police didn't step in when protesters went into the streets and affected traffic, Burley said the bureau "weighs the ability for people to gather to practice their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the impact it places on the rest of the Portland community. Throughout this event the police bureau was monitoring the crowd."

Is this what the police are now willing to protect and even facilitate in an American city?

Indeed, an elderly local resident's car was attacked and the senior citizen himself nearly beaten to death by a baton and stick-wielding masked mob as police merely "monitored" the situation.