It started as a white supremacist rally, the sort that was used to explain how the nation was being overtaken by Naxos bent on taking over Trump Nation. About two dozen showed.
A neo-Nazi rally outside of Atlanta on Saturday drew only a few participants and did not last very long.
It proved, yet again, that they are utterly insignificant. Better used as a source of humor and ridicule, if only people still had a sense of humor. So naturally, the unduly passionate in desperate need for a target of their outrage and zeal appeared to protest the handful of pathetic worms.
There was lots of anticipation in the small Georgia town of Newnan for what had been billed as the biggest gathering of neo-Nazis since Charlottesville last year that ended with one person dead. In the end, it was much ado about nothing as mere dozens of people showed up to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday and they were far outnumbered by hundreds of counterprotesters.
Who had nothing better to do on a Saturday, like wash their hair? Who had to be there so as not to be complicit in their failure to pop the pimples? The Antifa, the brown shirts of the left who are totally different than the brown shirts of the right.
The New York Times says there were 100 counterprotesters. HuffPo says there were 50. Slate puts the number at “hundreds,” apparently well above their capacity to count. All agree that the number of counterprotesters, of Antifa, dwarfed the number of Naxos who showed for the “biggest gathering” since Charlottesville.
The Antifa were there, protesting, for hours before the Naxos showed. It’s almost as if the sides switched and the protest wasn’t about the Naxos at all, but an opportunity for the Antifa to get out in the fresh air.
And because of the potential for violence when these two tribes clash, the third tribe, the police, showed up as well.
The New York Times says there were more than 700 police officers. HuffPo says there were about 400. Slate goes with the NYT number, but throws in that they were “eager to do something.” Oddly, they don’t seem particularly pleased with the unique circumstances under which public employees want to do their job, as opposed to any worker at the Department of Motor Vehicles anywhere.
But the lack of consequence of the Naxos doesn’t mean that there was no ready source of outrage for the Antifa. It was bad enough the massive police presence for what could have been a riot included police dressed in their riot gear, just in case they were ordered to storm the beach at Normandy.
The officers — who wore bulletproof vests and helmets, and carried semi-automatic rifles —…
By “semi-automatic rifles,” they mean “rifles.” But could they have been special rifles?
At one point, an officer pointed what seemed to be a modified AR-15 at the faces of counterprotesters…
To the unwitting, “seemed to be” carries a lot of weight among those for whom guns are scary to begin with, and don’t get outside very often.
Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote on Twitter that he witnessed “the most over-aggressive policing I’ve ever seen”…
Apparently, Mathias wasn’t anywhere near Ferguson. When one’s experience is singularly lacking, any experience can be “the most.”
But what was all this aggressive policing about? What was happening that caused the cops to make the Antifa and their pals in the media feel low self-esteem?
The lead officer in the arrests said the counterprotesters were breaking a state law regarding masks, likely referring to a seldom-enforced 1951 law originally aimed at combating hooded Ku Klux Klan members. Anti-fascist protesters ― many belonging to chapters of antifa groups, known for sometimes violently confronting white supremacists ― often wear masks to avoid being identified by both law enforcement and neo-Nazis.
Or as the HuffPo’s Mathias noted, “police tackled and arrested protesters ‘for wearing masks.'” It’s true that the anti-mask law was enacted to combat the Klan, though it’s disingenuous to characterize it as seldom-enforced. Like most laws, it’s enforced when it’s needed. Like all laws, it’s not just enforced against them, but you as well.
“The irony of enforcing masking laws to prosecute leftists is just incredible,” said Molly, a counterprotester from Charlottesville, Virginia, who traveled to Georgia to protest neo-Nazis. She asked that her last name not be published for fear of retribution. “Those are anti-Klan statutes.”
It’s only incredible to the incredulous. Does Molly LNU fear that the two dozen faux fighters will come after her because she’s special and they’re so very scary? But the police ordered the Antifa to remove their masks in compliance with the law, the elements of which bear no requirement that it only applies to the sort of people Molly hates.
Police officers arrived before the rally began and approached a group of about 50 anti-fascist protesters. They demanded the protesters remove their masks or face arrest.
The ones who refuse to remove their masks were treated unpleasantly.
…cornered the anti-fascist protesters, then grabbed those who were still masked, tossing them to the ground and handcuffing them.
As Molly emphasized, the police were so mean to the good guys and so nice to the bad guys.
“And to be roughing up anti-Nazi protesters while handling literal Nazis with kid gloves… it’s absurd,” added Molly, who said she saw one of her friends get arrested Saturday.
Then again, mean and nice is relative.
At 5 p.m. local time, less than an hour after the rally had started, police appeared to pull the plug on the sound system. An officer speaking into a megaphone issued a dispersal order, warning the neo-Nazis that they would be arrested if they didn’t leave the park. They left without incident.
But the image that captured the moment for the media was of an officer whose care for his “seemingly modified AR-15” was dangerously lacking.
Ten people were arrested by the end of the day, all of whom were members of the Antifa tribe, and there were no deaths, no injuries.
Despite the arrests there were no injuries and police declared the operation a success. “I’m so proud of the community,” Newnan police chief Douglas “Buster” Meadows said, declaring he was “very relieved” there had been no violence. At least by the protesters.
It’s hard to muster outrage and hysteria when the stakes are so pathetically low, but for the Antifa and the police, all they can do is try. For the Naxos, their only purpose was to justify having a Saturday in the sun to prove how virtuous it is to wear a mask, as if the handful of nobodies were props in the counterprotesters’ passion play.
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