Five Resources for Debunking the Good Protester/Bad Protester Fallacy
By Agency With every wave of mass protests comes the need for anarchists and other critical thinkers to debunk the notion that some forms of protest are good and others are bad. Most often we find ourselves pointing out that property destruction and self-defense against state violence are often wrongly characterized as violence in the […]
Crimethinc: Anarchist Resistance to the Trump Inauguration: Understanding the Events of January 20, 2017
Two years have passed since the demonstrations against Donald Trump’s inauguration. Thanks to an epic legal struggle, all the charges have been resolved or dropped. Now we can discuss what there is to learn from the events of January 20 and the ensuing court cases. This article focuses on the march that took place on […]
The Guardian, “Berkeley police under fire for publishing anti-fascist activists’ names and photos”
Berkeley police have arrested more than a dozen anti-fascist activists and posted their names and photos on Twitter, raising concerns that the department was encouraging harassment and abuse. Law enforcement’s unusual decision to immediately publicize the personal information and faces of arrested leftwing demonstrators on social media has sparked intense backlash. Critics have accused police […]
Crosscut, “Anarchist sues Seattle police for breaking agreement”
In late 2015, Brendan Dunn was pulled over by a New York State trooper for driving with expired registration. The officer handed him a ticket. Then he asked whether Dunn had ever lived in Washington State. He had. But Dunn wondered what relevance his prior residence had to the traffic stop. His Oldsmobile had New […]
The St. Louis American, “Why put up barricades before the Stockley verdict?”
Ferguson protests were joined at times by local anarchists and out-of-town arsonists affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party, who taught local youth how to make Molotov cocktails. More recent protests of President Trump, such as the one Sunday in Berkeley, were joined by groups of masked anti-fascists (Antifas) who acted aggressively. Continue Reading
WAMU 88.5 (DC), “After Charlottesville, D.C. Police Say They’re Ready To Keep Protests Peaceful”
MPD still faces criticism for how it handles some protests, though. Activists involved in Inauguration Day demonstrations say the department responded in a heavy-handed manner to a small group of anarchists that destroyed property. City officials have defended MPD’s actions that day, saying officers were merely trying to stop violence and protect the thousands of […]
Reuters, “Atlanta Gym Owner Defends ‘No Cops’ Rule After Death Threats”
Chambers, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and describes himself politically as “somewhere between an eco-anarchist and a Marxist-Leninist,” said he would not call the police in any circumstances. He also disapproved of U.S. military interventions abroad. Continue Reading
The City Paper (DC/MD), “The kind of police violence Trump encouraged in Long Island speech marked his inauguration, according to ACLU suit”
Police have argued that the protesters were part of a “black bloc” conspiracy to destroy property. But neither of the people hit by the grenade were wearing black. The only person in black, to the left of the screen, is wearing a black tracksuit with white stripes and a red hat, looking more like a […]
Al Jazeera, “US authorities handle white supremacists with kid gloves while branding Antifa protesters ‘domestic terrorists'”
On June 12, 2017, New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (OHSP) added a new name to its list of “domestic terrorist” threats: Antifa. The report characterises “Antifa” as a group of “anarchist extremists” who “focus on issues involving racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism, as well as other perceived injustices,” a half-baked definition, while technically accurate, is […]
WSOC (Charlotte, NC), “Charlotte could scratch extraordinary event ordinance”
The ordinance was created to combat anarchists at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Continue Reading