April 16, 2024

Idavox

The Media Outlet of One People's Project

The Fash Hold Yet Another Rally in DC; Antifa Had Other Plans

June 25, 2017: Neo-Nazi Jeffrey Raphiel Clark, Jr., an associate of Richard Spencer, at the Lincoln Memorial rally.

When we first heard of the rally being put together in DC by today’s neo-Fascist crowd, we all knew they wanted to throwdown and create a spectacle. It didn’t happen. Even the Congressman they promoted stayed away.

WASHINGTON, DC – White Supremacists and neo-Fascists converged on DC on what has become a series of rallies in the nation’s capital, bringing hundreds of their number to two separate rallies at the Lincoln Memorial and the White House. Antifascists meanwhile, held their own rally at the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters in support for the 200 arrested during Inauguration Day protests. The day was particularly uneventful, despite the lead up to the event that suggested the neo-Fascists were trying to provoke antifa into a brawl in an area, putting tourists and their families and risk, as well as the public infighting that resulted in the split into two rallies.

Flyer announcing, among others, Rep. Clay Higgins being one of the speakers.

The rally at the Lincoln Memorial was the largest of the two Fascist rallies, bringing out Nathan Damingo and his group Identity Evropa, Mike “Enoch” Peinovich and National Policy Institute Executive Director Richard Spencer. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La), was advertised as one of the speakers, but before the event took place denied ever saying he never even received an invitation to speak and that they would never share a stage with White Supremacists. “We were made aware on Monday (June 19), we saw this graphic online,” Higgins spokesperson Andrew David told One People’s Project. “So we immediately reached out to the folks posting the graphic and we were able to trace it back to this one individual who wasn’t really sure how Congressman Higgins was supposedly a speaker. He said someone had told him that our office was interested, which was completely false. We never had contact with these people. We never confirmed, and Congressman Higgins has made it very clear.”

According to organizers, the rally split came when Spencer was added to the speakers’ list prompting conservative propagandist Jack Posobiec and others to break off to hold a Rally Against Political Violence. Posobiec and Spencer’s public falling out led the two to attack each other for their political stances, when they were of no issue beforehand,  Posobiec and Spencer even working together in a April 15 rally outside the White House. Since that time however, Posobiec began getting more attention from mainstream conservative media outlets such as Fox News, who has not expressed any reservations about his neo-Fascist activism and have spotlighted his activities such as he and his supporters crashing the production of Julius Cesear in New York City, which had seen controversy because of its depiction of Donald Trump as Cesear and despite how it has often depicted Cesear as the current president. Posobiec insisted to his Twitter followers that antifa was planning to disrupt and attack his rally even though there were no evidence of such plans. Posobiec even attempted to use the announcement of the antifa rally at the police station to bolster this claim, even though it noted that there will be no confrontation unless there was overt aggressive actions from his camp.

Ironically, despite the theme of Posobiec rally, this was the one attended by the Proud Boys who’s requirements to become a full-fledged member includes involving oneself in political violence, Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, a convicted felon who is facing charges of assault for his role in the brawls in Berkeley, CA and the 211 Bootboys, the crew that is currently under fire for attacking two persons as they exited a bar in New York City because one of them had an antifa sticker on their phone. Despite that being a gang attack, only 211 Bootboy associate, John Young was arrested and is currently facing trial on assault charges, his next court appearance to be on July 10. Austin Gillespie, a White Supremacist attorney who goes by the name “Augustus Invictus” also attended Posobiec’s rally.

The Antifa rally at the police station began at the same time as the other two rallies and spotlighted the concerns of police violence and brutality, especially after the events of the past week that saw the acquittals of police officers who murdered Philando Castile in Minneapolis and Sylville Smith in Milwaukee, a mistrial declared in the case of the University of Cincinnati police officer who murdered Samuel Dubose, and two more shootings, one fatal for a pregnant mother of three, and another a Black police officer who was running to the aid of other officers when he was shot in the arm. It was also to show support for the over 200 arrested during the Inauguration Day protests in the city and facing long prison terms. The neo-Fascist rallies were still acknowledged, with antifa pledging to be in Charlottesville, VA on July 8 and August 12, when White Supremacists plan to hold neo-Confederate rallies in an effort to prevent Confederate monuments in town from being taken down. Some conservative reporters such as vlogger Hunter Avellone and a person representing the right wing propaganda outlet Accuracy in Media were there to cover this rally, but were blocked by antifa.

Some neo-Fascists, despite protesting under the guise of defending free speech, are calling for disrupting an anti-Trump rally on July 2 in Philadelphia.