Trump’s Militia Stabbed Three People in the Nation’s Capital.
Where were you?
The worst part about fighting for justice is the feeling that you’re screaming into a void.
This Sunday (11/29/20) marks six months since the new uprising for racial justice began in Washington DC — Six months that I’ve been in the streets, putting my body in harm’s way to take a stand for Black lives. For all exploited lives.
In that time, I have seen a lot. I’ve learned and grown, and I’ve become part of a real community. That community, united around police abolition and the desperate need to resist fascism, has endured so much for so little in return. Over the last six months, I’ve found that what hurts the most is not the rubber bullets. Or the tear gas. Or the fists and batons cracking against your backside.
It’s the banging your head against a brick wall, the constant falling on deaf ears, and the empty reward for endless sacrifice in the name of a future we may not be ready for.
White supremacists are winning. And it isn’t because “Antifa” is giving them a reason to. Fascism and white supremacy may have taken a lead because you, the broad strokes American people, have given them your blessing with your blind eyes. And now, my comrades — my friends — have directly paid with our blood for it.
Around 8:30 pm on November 14th, at the intersection of 10th & H Street in northwest DC (just a mile from the White House), the Proud Boys tried to start the new civil war.
I was there on the front-line. Just as I have been, collecting scar after scar, since day one.
Roughly two hundred rabid Trump cultists — screaming slurs, brandishing regressive masculinity like a hoard of Dylan Roofs grown up without the will to be savage by themselves — poured into the street from the Grand Hyatt Hotel. They charged a dwindling group of 60-70 anti-racist/anti-fascist protestors in black bloc.
The demonstrators scrambled to form a line of shields against the ambush. A solitary protestor was struck at random by the fascists leading the charge. More “poor” boys assaulted the lone demonstrator after the comrade successfully deflected the first two blows. Then the brawl erupted.
For nearly two minutes, a drunken mob of middle-aged ex-military neo-nazis, frenzied shrimp-dick twenty/thirty somethings, and good old fashioned klan-style rednecks attacked a group of mostly queer organizers struggling to juggle activism with college. The anti-racists/anti-fascists were greatly outnumbered and vastly unprepared.
After suffering several blows, regaining my vision, feeling blood gradually soak the fabric on my forehead— I remember the quiet disbelief, seeing that the enemy is actually as depraved as we feared.
Citizen militias hunting minorities with cops by their side is a description straight out of Nazi Germany.
The maskless cowards wouldn’t fight any of us one-on-one. Only three at a time, swinging sticks, throwing wild sucker punches chased by whatever drunken obscenity came into their minds. “Die Faggots” and “Fucking Commies” I remember clearly. But I couldn’t hear over the sound of beer bottles shattered on the skulls of my friends, and the desperate calls for street medics piercing the clamor and the night sky.
I stood my ground before four of them, barring their teeth and shouting with sticks, while a comrade was hurriedly lifted from the ground behind me. I remember thinking that the best I can do is to put my body in the way — to make myself an obstacle for whoever is more vulnerable. I grew up on the streets, so I can take a punch. But the majority of our protest community is far from what I’d call soldiers. While I dripped blood onto the concrete and struggled to stay focused through the blunt trauma and confusion, I did not feel fear for myself. But for those I knew I would not be able to protect.
For nearly two minutes, DC police (MPD) just watched the attack unfold. They had followed the dwindling march for hours and were less than a block away when the confrontation began. They watched the violence occur because it’s what they wished they could do all along.
When MPD’s bike line finally formed between the groups, I fell back to find a medic to clean my face. As they poured water over me, keeping an eye on the disrupted skirmish behind us, I found a hint of relief that suddenly gave way as my heart fell through the floor. A voice cried out from half-way down the block:
“Someone’s been stabbed!”
I stepped back immediately and gestured for the medic to leave me behind. I didn’t have to say anything. They took off down the street and I stumbled behind them, in retreat with the body of the group. Proud Boys and police pressed their advance while everyone tried to find help that wasn’t there. We were alone. Running through our streets from a hoard of brown-shirt invaders protected by a corrupt and complicit police force.
Citizen militias hunting minorities with cops by their side is a description straight out of Nazi Germany. By the end of the night, I learned that three members of the community which I personally vowed to keep safe were stabbed by Proud Boys. None of the armed attackers were arrested or charged, despite police watching the scene the whole time.
I write this now, wrestling to keep myself contained.
I’m straining to tone down my reflections to make them digestible so they can serve our larger goal. As always, I will try to be civil. But to the ‘decent Americans’, pacifist moderates, and incredulously doe-eyed preachers of “Unity”, this piece is for you.
After reading my description, watching the videos, and accepting that open political violence is still a modern American phenomenon, if your first thought sounds anything like, “well what did they do to deserve that?”, then congrats. You might be a white nationalist.
But luckily for you, I’ve got time today.
November 14th was the day ten thousand maskless Trump worshippers invaded the nation’s capital — the city of my birth and my home — to demonstrate their support for Donald’s coup. The Million MAGA March and “Stop the Steal” Rally brought fascists of all shapes, colors, and sizes to terrorize my city with Trumpian malfeasance for an entire weekend.
The day before saw handfuls of red caps attack Black Lives Matter Plaza’s memorial to Black lives and the fight for BIPOC liberation. The Trump-voters came to tear down hand-drawn artwork created and posted by ordinary people working together to honor human dignity. Then they flooded the streets the next morning with regurgitated lies about voter fraud and COVID-19.
From roughly 12-3pm at the US Supreme Court, hundreds of jacked-up porky MAGA fucks screamed and flailed like middle school boys at a tight crowd of black-clad counter-demonstrators. The activists stood strong behind banners and shields and gladly taunted them back.
“Get the fuck out of my city.” “Your president lost, you stupid bitch.” And “Have fun giving your mother COVID on Monday," were among my favorite lines. There were few physical altercations between fascists and protestors. But, from a distance, the Supreme Court looked like a scene from The Walking Dead — hoards of screaming bodies, mashed together, spreading disease, dying to rip apart a rag-tag community of shielded resistors.
As the MAGA march began to dissipate, the counter demonstrators closed ranks and took to the streets. The anti-fascists/anti-racists chanted loudly, side by side, bracing each other for the two-mile journey from the Supreme Court back to BLM Plaza.
Now ask yourself:
How might you feel after watching ten thousand potential COVID carriers, gathered from across the country at the height of the global pandemic, scream at you for hours because they think your readiness to stand for the people you have loved and lost is secretly a plot by George Soros? How would you feel when you see those people in your streets spouting lies, slurs, and “white pride” in support of the first legitimate coup attempt in America’s history?
If you had any courage at all, you would try to stop them. If you were honest and able bodied, you would mask up, put your boots on, stuff your pockets with hand sanitizer, and go tell those people that their lies and regressive ideologies do not belong in Chocolate City.
Of all the fucking places — not my Chocolate City.
Several physical altercations occurred as the demonstrators made their way to the White House. One of the “MAGAts” got himself knocked out. A certain right-wing Twitter propogandist lied about “antifa” starting the altercation, but the full video shows the truth.
Several other MAGAts got their hats and flags stolen. Sucks to suck, if you ask me. And a number of Trumper families, with regrettably indoctrinated kids, were verbally harassed by valid accusations of exactly what they are — Proponents of modern American xenophobia and white nationalism. Spreaders of deadly notions that “white is right”, science and progress are wrong, and that Donald fucking Trump is the face of the American people. Since something was so wrong with the face of Barack Obama.
Once the march returned to BLM plaza, the group found a wide and motley assortment of Trumpian bile. From rowdy “poor” boy types, to the Qanon idiots, to polo-wearing conservatives “just trying to have a (racist as fuck) conversation”, Black Lives Matter Plaza was filled with people that think putting a fist in the air means you’re a liberal insurgent and/or you deserve to get stabbed.
During this period, where the fascists and anti-fascists co-mingled in the street before the White House, the picture at the top of this article was taken. Fascists were dining on the patio of a restaurant, weathering insults as they brandished their Trump hats, when a righteous light-show erupted under the awning.
The MAGAts scurried away. No one was hurt. It was a good show.
Maybe next time, they’ll stay the fuck home. And that, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is the point. To never stop giving hell to racists and fascists. To make it abundantly clear that their ideas are wrong and responsible for the deaths of Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, and Indigenous human beings. To clarify that there are still people willing to fight for those embattled communities. Because otherwise this system would leave them desperately alone. Otherwise, their lives would fall into the frail and impotent hands of Joe Biden.
However — to finally answer the question — according to personal research, this firework is supposedly “what we did to deserve it.” Enrique Tarrio, the de-facto leader of the Proud Boys, said to his followers in the hours that followed, “DC antifa ends tonight”, after reports of fireworks thrown and MAGAt families embarrassed back into their hotel rooms.
Now — for the love of God — are you, the broad strokes American people, going to actually show up to stand on the right side of history this time?
But let’s be real.
The Proud Boys and every other MAGA fuck in the city that day came with the intention of stirring trouble. They brought guns, trucks, pepper spray, and megaphones to disrupt my home in the name of their disaffected and defeated leader. If no light-shows had occurred, the Proud Boys would have picked a fight and found someone to harm, just as they have in Portland and elsewhere for the last six-months.
Only this time, they knew they could catch us off guard. So they literally tried to murder us in the street.
As a member of DC’s radical activist community, I will tell you that nothing as cruel as organized attempted murder has ever crossed the lips of a BLM or antifa activist ever. If you’re concerned about fireworks thrown at bigoted white nationalists, then you may need to check your priorities. You wouldn’t disagree with Allied explosives hurled at fascists if you were on the ground in WWII.
And if you still think BLM+antifa is simply rabid and wild, then you just haven’t been paying attention. We are a community of mostly queer organizers struggling to juggle activism with college. We’re a collective of radical lovers, willing to fight and tell cops to fuck off because we still believe in the power of the people. We are providers for our community.
Last Thursday, Thanksgiving, a coalition of radical organizations in DC — many of whom are openly involved in protest work — fed upwards of 300 unhoused individuals throughout the nation’s capital. Organizing that project began only days after getting viscously attacked in the street. And it was accomplished without pay. With no corporate funding. Purely from a unifying belief in human dignity. That is how “antifa” spends its free time, and the Proud Boys want to fucking kill us for it.
And on December 12th, they will return to DC to try it again.
On December 12th, another “Stop the Steal” Rally is planned. And fascists are expected to return in equal or greater numbers, prepared to stage Donald Trump’s violent coup should he give the order.
Now — for the love of God — are you, the broad strokes American people, going to actually show up to stand on the right side of history this time?
Or nah?
If you claim you believe in justice, then you have to stand up. Not stand by. If you as a white person say or post a sign saying “Black Lives Matter”, that means you give time, presence, funds, or human support to Black lives. Fascists should have never been able to swarm advocates for justice in their own city. If well-meaning Joe Biden democrats had only lent us their presence, the violence would have been dramatically mitigated. Proud Boys will not stab people that have not been systematically criminalized. We need white average Joe’s to loudly wag their fingers at Nazis while the radicals handle the heavy lifting. So far, we feel we are the only citizens willing to truly fight for justice, and that is unacceptable.
If you believe that America is better than Donald Trump, then you have to show us you are better. It will never be enough to have voted for the lesser of two evils. Not when people are being actively hunted and dying. Just as they have been, for generations.
I understand the relief and applause for the promised return to American normalcy. But to those of us fighting on the ground for America’s future, Biden’s election wasn’t much cause for celebration. The proud-boy-4chan-“George Floyd was a criminal”-and-“Jesus hates commies” army is not standing down with the deflation of their leader. They’re becoming more frantic. More desperate. More invested in violently protecting their crumbling false realities.
And with that, to my ordinary Americans, the demand for your radical epiphany becomes clear. When you realize that being a good American in this season of change means you embody the resistance to racism and fascism, this society might start pressing toward peace and progress.
I will protect the streets that raised me with all that I have. I wouldn’t ask a random citizen to give that much. But I will demand that the decent Americans who say they support progress and Black lives to start taking their promises seriously. We are an embattled community. Not just Black folks and Brown folks, Queer folks and Trans. But the nationwide protest community which has bravely volunteered to fight back and that is now in need of your participation. We demand a tangible, visible commitment to justice. Not a performance of thoughtless hope and good will.
Reach out to local activist organizations. Step into the streets ready to stand as an ally. Give what you can to the people protecting their communities.
Don’t let us down again.
