05/03/2018
Above, Jacob Goodwin’s mother visits him jail. Her shirt says "Jacob Goodwin Is A Political Prisoner"
Tale of two cities: Charlottesville VA and Burns, TN — home of the heroic Montgomery Bell State Park Conference Center, defender of American liberties. Guess which side the Main Stream Media is on?
Jacob Scott Goodwin, 22, was just convicted of the “malicious wounding” of DeAndre Harris at the Democrat-mugged Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last August. The jury recommended the astonishing sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine — a verdict greeted with ecstatic ululations by the Main Stream Media. [White man convicted of beating black man at Charlottesville white nationalist rally, by Camila Domonoske, NPR, May 2, 2018]
DeAndre Harris, you may recall, was caught on video wielding a flashlight against a demonstrator. It was this action, following an attempt by one of Harris’ allies to seize an elderly demonstrator’s Confederate Battle Flag, that video proves sparked the entire brawl. Nonetheless, as in the case of demonstrators arrested during the Inauguration Day riots, judicial sabotage meant that Harris walked free.
In other words, there were absolutely no consequences for Harris’s violence — whereas Scott’s life has been essentially ended. This despite that fact that, according to an independent report from the city, local officials actively conspired to deliberately allow violence to create an excuse to shut down the Unite The Right rally.
There are still other cases to be decided (including that of James Fields, driver of the car that allegedly killed Heather Heyer), but the trend is already a grave threat to American liberties: Unite The Right attendees are being savagely treated by the judicial system, while Antifa vigilantes are being given leniency.
It is impossible not to see the political motivation in this; Right-wing dissidents are being slapped with “exemplary sentencing” pour encourager les autres; Antifa can run wild. This alliance between Leftist government and Leftist mobs is what the late Sam Francis called “Anarcho-Tyranny.”
One of the main arguments the prosecution used against Goodwin: he arrived “outfitted for battle” and must therefore have been itching for a fight. “He’s got large googles, boots,” said the city’s assistant commonwealth’s attorney Nina-Alice Antony. “He’s got a full body shield” [White man found guilty of assaulting black man at Charlottesville rally, by Karma Allen, ABC News, May 2, 2018].
But the reason many Unite The Right demonstrators arrived with helmets and shields: Antifa are known for tactics such as throwing hard projectiles, hitting people on the head with poles, and using stabbing weapons.
In other words, UTR demonstrators were assuming police would not protect them. This assumption was proven correct. Carrying a shield while attending a lawful demonstration is inherently less aggressive than showing up to disrupt it while carrying offensive weapons (for example, a flame thrower).
I am not saying Goodwin acted perfectly. I was at Charlottesville, but I was not present in the parking lot, nor was I on the jury. But it is simply a fact that Goodwin and other demonstrators were thrown into a violent melee because the city authorities did not do their job, and indeed, made things worse.
Were there no Antifa, there would have been no violence at all. Had the police separated the two groups, or carried out their obligation to clear the streets following the declaration of a “state of emergency,” there would have been no parking lot brawl, no citywide scrum, and Heather Heyer would still be alive.
This context is important when looking at the coverage of the most recent American Renaissance conference, which recently concluded triumphantly [AmRen 2018: The Fire Taking Hold, by Gregory Hood, AmRen, April 30, 2018]. While there was a robust law enforcement presence, it was hardly oppressive. Indeed, police allowed Antifa to defy regulations and protest while masked. However, police did ensure separation between protesters and attendees.
Significantly, MSM reporters were upset by this. The Huffington Post’s Christopher Mathias described the Tennessee police doing their job as “Police Guard White Nationalist Conference At Tennessee State Park From Protesters” — as if police should have simply stood aside. “The white nationalists, whose conference lasts through Sunday, stayed fortified in the hotel,” Mathias intoned. “A large contingent of police remained outside, standing guard.” [Huffington Post, April 29, 2018].
It’s almost like the “white nationalists” were staying “fortified in the hotel” because that’s where the conference was.
Mathias quotes Lacy MacAuley, described only as an “anti-fascist activist from Washington D.C.,” dutifully reprinting her narrative that the police are protecting “evil” and “looking at us as if we’re the problem.” He neglects to mention MacAuley has a long history with extremist groups and is facing felony charges from the “anti-fascist” protest against Richard Spencer’s Michigan State speech in March [8 arraigned on felony charges in wake of Richard Spencer protest, Michigan Live, March 7, 2018].
But then, why would he? As Mathias himself sees his journalistic role as doxing activists he doesn’t like, he’s not a journalist reporting on Antifa — he is Antifa [Exclusive: Florida Public School Teacher Has A White Nationalist Podcast, by Christopher Mathias, Jenna Amatulli, and Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post, March 6, 2018]
Similarly, Natalie Allison of the Tennessean did her best to pathologize American Renaissance, reprinting the now de rigueur smear that the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center calls AR as a “hate group” (just like VDARE.com!) and reverently chronicling the conference’s various Antifa assailants [Antifa, Anti-Racist Action among those protesting conference at Montgomery Bell Inn Saturday, April 27, 2018]. But while Allison detailed the various security measures authorities were planning, she never said why these things were necessary.
For example, last year there was a very small police presence at American Renaissance and Antifa were permitted to enter the building to “use the restrooms” and to harass guests through ground-floor windows. Not surprisingly, they immediately began provoking confrontations. This culminated in a fight between an attendee and an Antifa member and two arrests [Sell-Out Conference Shrugs Off Anti-Fa, American Renaissance, July 31, 2017].
Antifa fully intended an enhanced performance this year, explicitly threatening to “shut down” the conference and make it “the last AmRen” [Call to action: To RESIST and SHUTDOWN AmRen In Tennessee, ARA Nashville, April 18, 2018]. When law enforcement prevented this from happening, Nashville Anti-Racist Action (ARA) complained about being kept at “an agonizingly safe distance [Reportback: AmRen 2018, ARA Nashville, May 1, 2018].
Not surprisingly, with little opportunity for violence, relatively few Antifa showed up.
So AMREN attendees who wanted peacefully to discuss recent science about race were actually able to do so. This simply would not have occurred if Antifa were able to provoke confrontations and fights — fights which the MSM would have pinned on attendees regardless of the facts on the ground.
The Antifa no-show at American Renaissance shows the extreme Leftists are uninterested in expressing their opinion peacefully. They simply want violence. Unfortunately, judging from the frustrated tone of “reporters” like Christopher Mathias, at least some MSM activists share their aims.
The fact is that firm law enforcement, objective rules, and enforced separation between white advocates and Antifa make it very easy for both sides peacefully to express their views. CITE When this is done, white advocates win, because the truth and arguments are on our side and all we need is a fair hearing.
However, when the law enforcement does not do its job, a situation of Anarcho-tyranny develops in which Antifa are permitted to attack white advocates and white advocates are savagely penalized for defending themselves.
The decisive factor in explaining this treatment imbalance: The MSM’s bias in favor of Antifa.
For that reason, even those who don’t agree with American Renaissance have a vital stake in making sure law enforcement continues to defend dissidents’ right to free speech. It may start with American Renaissance, but it will extend to any group the MSM or Antifa don’t like. (Hello, NRA? Koch brothers?)
For all Americans, this ultimately comes down to one simple question. Does Antifa have the right to use physical force to prevent political speech that they disagree with — even when that speech is not an incitement to violence?
Increasingly, the Main Stream Media seems to be taking the position that yes, Antifa does have that right. Outlets and celebrities around the country gleefully celebrated the attack on Richard Spencer on President Trump’s inauguration day, who was sucker-punched while giving an interview to a reporter. (Needless to say, the D.C. police have made no arrests — although this occurred on camera).
Meanwhile, outlets such as The New York Times publish columns suggesting free speech exercised by the wrong people constitutes violence and can legitimately be banned.
And now, we have reporters angry that police won’t simply abandon their posts like they did in Charlottesville.
The late Christopher Hitchens, who would never be allowed to work for a mainstream publication today, declared of those who hold unorthodox views: “That person doesn’t just have a right to speak. That person’s right to speak must be given extra protection.”
Of course, no one who spoke at American Renaissance expressed anything other than common sense on race relations. But unfortunately, given systematic MSM gaslighting, speaking even obvious truths in today’s America is fraught with peril.
And as the headlines from Charlottesville tell us, in some areas of the country, America’s traditional rule of law is already lost.
Charlottesville Survivor is a white man who voted for Trump. The Left hates all white men who voted for Trump, whether they were in Charlottesville or not.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.