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There’s a famous cen­turies-old para­ble by Aesop about a farmer who finds a snake freez­ing in the snow. Over­come with com­pas­sion, the farmer picks up the ser­pent and folds it under his clothes next to his chest to keep it warm. Once the snake has been revived, it bites the farmer, who, just before dying, express­es his shock that his gen­eros­i­ty has been answered by such betrayal.

The snake responds by remind­ing the farmer, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”

The Port­land Gen­er­al Defense Com­mit­tee is learn­ing a hard les­son in pick­ing up snakes after real­iz­ing that the tens of thou­sands of dol­lars they’d been shuck­ing out to help vio­lent pro­test­ers get out of jail was being pock­et­ed by the very crim­i­nals they were try­ing to help.