Vandals Hit Black Churches During Weekend Pro-Trump Rallies

[Cordel One]

You know how some people get all upset when antifascists damage things? Well, not too long ago we saw another incident in which some Trump supporters did that same sorta thing. And the general response? *cue crickets*
Anyways, Washington, DC recently saw a wave of hate crimes when an enormous Trump rally came to town.
From the article (AP)

Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests.

Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at the Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan A.M.E. Church as potential hate crimes, which one religious leader likened to a cross burning.

“This weekend, we saw forces of hate seeking to use destruction and intimidation to tear us apart,” District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday. “We will not let that happen.”

A video posted on Twitter showed a group of men appearing to take down a BLM sign at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church as others in the crowd shout, “Whose streets? Our streets.” Another video showed people pouring an accelerant on a BLM banner and setting it ablaze in the street as others cheered and cursed antifa. Someone walks up about a minute later and uses a fire extinguisher to put out the flames.

“It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames,” the Rev. Dr. Ianther M. Mills, the senior pastor at Asbury church said in a statement Sunday. “For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings. Seeing this act on video made me both indignant and determined to fight the evil that has reared its ugly head.”

“We will move forward, undaunted in our assurance that Black Lives Matter and we are obligated to continue to shout that truth without ceasing,” she added.

Leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization decried the attacks on the churches, partly faulting police for allowing white supremacists to “run rampant.”

April Goggans, a lead organizer for Black Lives Matter’s D.C. chapter, accused Bowser of “sitting silent and comfortable in your home as Trump send his goons in to brutalize your citizens.” She said the mayor’s statement was meaningless without action.

A spokesperson for D.C. police said Sunday that it was taking the offenses seriously and actively investigating.

The incidents came following weekend rallies in support of Trump’s baseless claims that he won a second term, which led to dozens of arrests, several stabbings and injuries to police officers.

Police in the District of Columbia said they arrested nearly 30 people for a variety of offenses, from assault to weapons possession and resisting arrests and rioting. The violence broke out after sundown Saturday.

Four men were stabbed around 10 p.m. after a fight downtown, police said. At least one suspect, 29 year-old Phillip Johnson of Washington, was arrested on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. A police report obtained by The Associated Press said at least one of the victims identified Johnson as the person who stabbed him.
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Eight police officers were also injured during the demonstrations, officials said.

The earlier rallies of mostly unmasked Trump loyalists were intended as a show of force just two days before the Electoral College meets to formally elect Democrat Joe Biden as the 46th president. Trump, whose term will end Jan. 20, refuses to concede, while clinging to unfounded claims of fraud that have been rejected by state and federal courts, and Friday by the Supreme Court.

A pro-Trump demonstration last month, which drew 10,000 to 15,000 people to the capital, also ended late on a Saturday evening with scattered clashes between Trump’s allies and local activists near Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House.

On Saturday, police took more steps to keep the two sides apart, closing a wide swath of downtown to traffic and sealing off Black Lives Matter Plaza.

But while Saturday’s rallies, including one on Freedom Plaza downtown, were smaller than on Nov. 14, they drew a larger contingent of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group known to incite street violence. Some wore bulletproof vests as they marched through town.

The group saw its profile raised after Trump in September famously told them to “stand back and stand by.”

After the rallies ended, downtown Washington quickly devolved into crowds of hundreds of Proud Boys and combined forces of antifa and local Black activists — both sides seeking a confrontation in an area flooded with police officers. As dusk fell, they faced off on opposite sides of a street, with multiple lines of city police and federal Park Police, some in riot gear, keeping them separated.

I personally see this as somewhat blatant hypocrisy. Here we have an example of Trump supporters and Proud Boys doing exactly what many of them got upset about, only for this to be widely ignored. What we're seeing here are attempts to scare minorities in retaliation for being members of demographics that voted for the centrist candidate over the fat-right one. Mobilizing out of anger during a pandemic after having lost to a centrist is not a reasonable thing to do. In fact, it bears a worrying resemblance to the widespread intimidation tactics that the Ku Klux Klan once used (this is why antifascist groups often fight back, btw). Hopefully all the injured parties can recover safely and without medical debt, especially during these troubled times.

All that being said, the last paragraph is only my own personal reaction that I do not want to pretend is some sort of fact. It's subject to my own biases, so if you have an objection to it by all means go ahead. definitely not passive-aggressive lol

[The Reformed American Republic]

Why am I not surprised?

[Romextly]

It is unjustified yes. Is it horrible yes. Does it have a good reason? no. It has a lot of racism. But the response to violence is not violence

[Rusozak]

"Law and Order" Trumpism, folks.

[Salus Maior]

Unwarranted and barbaric violence.

[Loben III]

It is unjustified yes. Is it horrible yes. Does it have a good reason? no. It has a lot of racism. But the response to violence is not violence

well violence has been casually accepted over the summer so no big surprise this happened.

[Romextly]

It is unjustified yes. Is it horrible yes. Does it have a good reason? no. It has a lot of racism. But the response to violence is not violence

well violence has been casually accepted over the summer so no big surprise this happened.

That's true

[Nakena]

For a moment I thought literally "Vandals joined the fight in the US wtf?".

I mean imagine. Vandals are coming. Just because, its, uhm 2020.

[The Reformed American Republic]

(this is why antifascist groups often fight back, btw).

Probably not. I think the thrill of fighting is a bigger motivator, for both groups. What we need is law enforcement to be dispatched. After all, they're trying to overturn a rightful and legal election.

Regardless, I think we're heading for a civil war.

[Romextly]

(this is why antifascist groups often fight back, btw).

Probably not. I think the thrill of fighting is a bigger motivator, for both groups. What we need is law enforcement to be dispatched. After all, they're trying to overturn a rightful and legal election.

Regardless, I think we're heading for a civil war.

Civil war is too exagerated

[Cordel One]

It is unjustified yes. Is it horrible yes. Does it have a good reason? no. It has a lot of racism. But the response to violence is not violence

well violence has been casually accepted over the summer so no big surprise this happened.

Casually accepted? People were freaking out about "violent antifa" all summer.

[Atheris]

(this is why antifascist groups often fight back, btw).

Probably not. I think the thrill of fighting is a bigger motivator, for both groups. What we need is law enforcement to be dispatched. After all, they're trying to overturn a rightful and legal election.

This.

Regardless, I think we're heading for a civil war.

Not this.

[Romextly]

well violence has been casually accepted over the summer so no big surprise this happened.

Casually accepted? People were freaking out about "violent antifa" all summer.

exactly. That has been fuel for the right

[Nakena]

The title is misleading and unnecessarily discrimminatory towards Vandals. I am triggered.

#NotAllVandals
#MakeGeisericGreatAgain

[Loben III]

well violence has been casually accepted over the summer so no big surprise this happened.

Casually accepted? People were freaking out about "violent antifa" all summer.

and yet no big blow back for them, why should you expect any for the proud boys.

[Cordel One]

Casually accepted? People were freaking out about "violent antifa" all summer.

exactly. That has been fuel for the right

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

[Loben III]

exactly. That has been fuel for the right

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

almost as if people have a low level of bias that impacts their subconcious?

[Cordel One]

Casually accepted? People were freaking out about "violent antifa" all summer.

and yet no big blow back for them, why should you expect any for the proud boys.

People were being shot and gassed in the streets, Loben.

[Romextly]

exactly. That has been fuel for the right

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

Okay. Where are you going with this?

[Kowani]

Other things those vandals over the weekend did:

stabbings, beatings, launching fireworks and mortars at people and police

[The Reformed American Republic]

exactly. That has been fuel for the right

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

It's time for law enforcement to put some people in cuffs.

[Loben III]

and yet no big blow back for them, why should you expect any for the proud boys.

People were being shot and gassed in the streets, Loben.

ah yes, Lafayette square massacre, truly a dark period in American history.

[Cordel One]

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

Okay. Where are you going with this?

My point is that some people are being big hypocrites right now.

[Loben III]

Other things those vandals over the weekend did:

stabbings, beatings, launching fireworks and mortars at people and police

why are you concerned when they attacked the police?

[Rusozak]

And yet I hear almost nothing on the far-right acts of violence from these same people.

Okay. Where are you going with this?

The point that the people that have been screaming about law and order and violent rioters all summer long are now going full yeehaw and doing the same things they were condemning just months ago, if not worse?