Antifa Comes for National Policy Institute in Washington, DC

Just over 100 photos and videos of the weekend that Dick Spencer began to learn what being a public Nazi means! We have been working on this for a long time! Props go to all that came out!

For five years, Richard Spencer and his National Policy Institute (NPI) has been holding conference in the Washington, DC area largely unopposed because many did not realize that despite their benign name they were actually a White Supremacist organization that was attempting to recruit within the mainstream political circles. While there was scant opposition to the conferences as they took place, it wasn’t until this election season and the Donald Trump campaign giving some credibility to their efforts that many started to take notice. This weekend, as NPI brought their conference to the Ronald Reagan Building just blocks away from the White House, hundreds came out over the course of two days to oppose and in many ways confront those who came to attend the event.

This is the fourth NPI conference that has been held at the Reagan Building, chosen because it is a government-owned facility and thereby harder for the venue to be closed to them as has happened to other White Supremacist conferences held in area hotels. The last one was held on March 5 in conjunction with the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), using that event to attract and recruit like-minded young persons attending, and it was met by fifty protesters opposing them as it was held.

When the NPI Fall Conference was announced, opposition immediately began mounting, particularly after it was announced that a pre-conference event was to take place the night before with MTV reality show star Tila Tequila slated to appear. The location of the event was kept secret until just prior to the event to avoid the venue from shutting their doors to it, but immediately after it was learned that it was being held at the Hamilton, a trendy night spot just blocks away from the Reagan Building, calls became flooding in alerting the establishment of the type of event that was to take place there, and within hours, the Hamilton tweeted to Smash Racism DC, the main organizers of the protest, that they canceled their contract with NPI. Friday evening, protesters were outside the new Trump hotel at the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Ave. having a dance party until it was learned that NPI moved their event to Maggiano’s in Chevy Chase, Md.

According to DC Direct Action News, anti-fascist protesters stormed the restaurant and made it up the stairs to the second floor where NPI was meeting before they were blocked, although a few got in by elevator. At some point, a foul smelling liquid was thrown on Richard Spencer, forcing the White Supremacist to discard his shirt and spend the rest of the evening only wearing his suit vest. Eventually after a few loud exchanges between activists and attendees the protesters withdrew back out into the street and just outside the restaurant to continue their protests, with restaurant patrons applauding and cheering them as they left.

Peter Brimelow, the editor of the White Supremacist website VDARE, left the Maggiano’s event early and after protesters followed him asked a police officer to hail him a cab so he can return to the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, DC where he was staying. The Willard was where NPI held their “alt-right” press conference in August after their original location, the National Press Club shut their doors to them at the last minute, citing safety concerns. Later after many of the protesters and attendees had left, Spencer, still clad in only his pants and suit vest, and Nathan Damingo of Idenitity Evropa exchanged barbs with activists that remained outside the restaurant. Maggiano’s later publicly apologized for hosting the event and donated the money paid for the room to the Anti-Defamation League.

Things only intensified during the actual conference on Saturday as approximately 300 persons came out to oppose NPI and their event. It was to date the largest action against the organization, many of the protesters motivated by concerns of the overtures President-elect Trump has made to such groups and individuals. One of the attendees, Margot Darby briefly confronted One People’s Project Executive Director Daryle Lamont Jenkins, calling him “boy” as he videotaped her entering the Reagan Building. Darby writes regularly for the neo-Fascist blog Counter Currents under the name “Margot Metroland” and is a part of a project called the New York Forum which are a series of neo-Fascist conferences that are organized in New York City by Counter Currents.

The biggest confrontation however, came when Emily Youcis and a person whose nametag read “Ian” were covering the protests for the White Supremacist podcast Red Ice, who was also covering the NPI conference. After saying that they were there to cover “the battle” – despite any physical confrontations happening up to that point – Youcis and Ian went into the crowd and began asking them questions like “Do you hate White people?” Some protesters however, recognized both of them from the event from the evening prior at Maggiano’s hurling insults at protesters. Eventually, things became physical after Youcis was sprayed with an unknown substance and Ian tackled a protester only to be pummeled by several others before being rescued by police. Ian suffered a bloody gash in his head, and Youcis eventually had to literally run from the area into the Reagan Building while antifa chanted “Run Nazi, Run!” No one was arrested.

Youcis, a cartoonist and musician who also works as a pistachio vendor during Phillies games at Citizens’ Bank Park in Philadelphia, not only covered the Democratic National Convention for Red Ice, but also has video of herself harassing Black pastors on Election Day. That video has been shared by Alex Jones’ Infowars as well as the far right Gateway Pundit.

The conference itself was attended not only by members of other hate groups such as Identity Evropa, but also individuals such as Chuck C. Johnson of GotNews.com, who once filed suit in court to obtain the nonexistant juvenile criminal record of Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO in 2014, and Tila Tequila, who did in fact attend the Maggiano’s event and posed in one picture giving the Nazi salute with other attendees, some who say they were Jewish. Speakers included Peter Brimelow, American Renaissance editor Jared Taylor and Spencer himself who targeted Jews in particular and declared America solely for White People . At a press conference held safely inside away from protesters, there was a call made to Donald Trump to put a moratorium on all non-white immigration for the next 50 years, as well as a call for an all-white ethnostate.

There was no public announcement for the next NPI conference, but the organization prefers to hold its winter event during CPAC which will take place February 22-25 2017. The NPI conference was one of three White Supremacist events that took place over the weekend, the others being a rally held by the neo-Nazi group All Lives Matter in Austin, Texas, and a pro-Trump rally in Melbourne, Australia held by the White Supremacist United Patriots Front. Both saw opposition with greater numbers than the participants.