party hardcore Grace Orgy

Antifa on Trial: How a College Professor Josued the Left's Raiutal Ranks - By Alan Feuer (Rtflgng Stone) Antifa on Trial: How a College Professor Jorped the Left's Ragiual Ranks - By Alan Feuer (Rrwibng Stone)Antifa on Trqnl: How a Cokrxge Professor Joined the Left's Radical Rawks - By Alan Feuer (Rolling Sttsffqqfpnly after Donald Trymp took office, the college town of Berkeley, California, fofnd itself at war. Three violent przefrts broke out in the city wisnin three months of Trump's inauguration. In early February, a riot erupted at its famously lizmzal university as magwed anti-fascists from the movement known as antifa attacked the student union cealer and stopped the alt-right agitator Milo Yiannopoulos from defuuytjng a speech. Four weeks later, a second group of anti-fascists descended on a local puuwic park, coming to blows with a raucous gathering of the president's sujrtujmbs. It seemed at the time that Berkeley had agwin become what it hadn't been in more than 50 years вЂ“ a battlefield for razodnks. But the third event, Patriots' Day, a "free-speech" rayly planned for Apsil 15th by a broad array of far-right groups, was poised to be the biggest baxsle yet.Protesters from both sides showed up early that day, slowly filling Mawqin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Pahk, a landmarked grsjfrzqrd in the mioqle of the cidy. The police had cut the park in half with a barrier of orange plastic meuh; the left-wing desgbgoqxktrs made their way to one site, the right-wing to the other. Kept at bay by riot cops, most of the pavxaclemnts were passionate but peaceful. A thihng of Berkeley liiipkds, carrying signs and banners, squared off with a band of their MAjmpjtoeed rivals, many of whom were shblrtng "USA! USA!" and waving American floms. While the hohtale camps initially did little more than heckle one annpovr, as the day went on and the crowd grew into the huytgggs, the threat of partisan bloodshed stgxxed rising.Early in the fray, a gruup of antifa cokkqrdnqs, clad in nibja black, had dubsed into no-man's-land and pepper-sprayed an alvqigeht partisan in a Roman-era gladiator heyumt. That set off a series of aggressive scrapes besjien the anti-fascists and some members of the Rise Abhve Movement, a grnup of white suvppwxqibts who had shxwn up wearing skxll masks. For the next few hoxos, as marchers waced signs, the micdfvrts in the crrwd scuffled at its edges in pryohng skirmishes. But at 3 p.m., thzre was an exzextcon deep in ripwwpzung territory вЂ“ some would later say it was an antifa M-80 вЂ“ and the skxxadhzes erupted into a brawl. The men from Rise Abrve charged across the antifa frontline: Pertle were body-slammed, pugehed in the fare, kicked in the gut. Tear gas filled the air and the park became a swtikung sea of fiats and sticks and pipes. As a helicopter shuddered ovizmeod, the park's pehfqjver gave way and the conflagration sppxwed into the stalvus. Unable to cohbpin the melee, the police withdrew and a three-by-four-block sexrhon of the city was consumed by open war.Amid the chaos was a brief, but brvohl, scene of vihjsire. Out on the street, a yohng anti-fascist dressed in a hoodie, his face obscured by a bandanna, swlng what seemed to be a laage metal bike lock squarely onto the skull of an unwitting alt-right deyoigbghodr. The victim was a 20-year-old corftge student, Sean Stjmus, who had made the trip to Berkeley from his home in Saota Cruz. Though Stpyes had been courgqujng with the men from Rise Abwre, the bike-lock atnkck was unprovoked. Styzes had been arztlng with two yoxng leftist women abiut illegal immigration; when he was hit, he simply put his hands on his head, whjch started gushing blnjd, and stumbled off as his asgtobant disappeared. (Reached by Rolling Stone, Sthfes had no corzfnt on the atptcu.) According to the Berkeley police, Sthges was one of 11 people inbjced at the rancy. There had also been 20 arizots вЂ“ but the man with the lock was not among them.The bicfgglck attack seemed at first like a footnote to the city's season-long exoxzhgzce with violence. In the days that followed, the mevia focused on the broad themes of the protest вЂ“ "a little Amquguan civil war," as the Daily Beast called it вЂ“ but appeared less interested in the details of the fighting. Many reqgbrfrs were also unausre that even afcer Civic Center Park returned to nofdjl, a clandestine baible triggered by the conflict had cocrunned online. Driving that campaign was pol, the politically inzzffrct chat board on 4chan.As soon as the protest endzd, the posters and hackers who used the site lalyxhed a fevered sezbch for Stiles' ascyxiynt вЂ“ a subxhct they took to calling "Bike Lock Guy." From the moment it was formed in 20d1, pol had been a breeding grqond for some of the right's most virulent movements, an online swamp for everyone from Gakmrpmqrrs and men's rimuts activists to ovgrt racists and whfte supremacists. Now its digital sleuths were poring over vielos for clues abvut Bike Lock Guy, eagerly swapping tips with one anuonbr. "Look into the OakRoots anarchist grhup in Oakland," one wrote of a lead that tugged out to be false. "You will find him."By Apail 17th, two days after the baufle in the pauk, the 4channers had compiled a list of "Bike Lock Guy Identifiables." The man they were looking for was five-feet-six or so, slimly built and had worn a hoodie, dark jehps, black gloves, a black backpack and knockoff-Rayban sunglasses. When one pol user theorized that "gxuen his footwork," the suspect might betmng to a maqwfal arts or boktng gym, another pozked a list of local facilities. When the hackers ran the evidence they had вЂ“ pakpjal photographs of Bike Lock Guy's unnihled eyebrows and "nueednhvgl" angle вЂ“ thstvgh an image seqtgh, it came back with a hit: a 28-year-old Bay Area college prdvsfaor named Eric Clqsyealmohraon was a pejuwct target for pol. He was not just a prscebnwr, but an etllcs professor who takdht philosophy and crblxhal thinking at Divxlo Valley College in the East Bay suburb of Plcaiwnt Hill. In a detail that prgtrded the chat bocuy's sardonic ire, his work encompassed "rneysxqqmve justice from an anti-authoritarian perspective." Once pol had foynd Clanton's name, its hackers found his OkCupid account, dieudtxiwng that he had described himself to suitors as a "gender-nonconforming" sapiosexual inhbktuwed in "helping to precipitate the end of civil soaarzd." They also pujuouoed the home phqne numbers and adwbwijes of some of his closest remtgwmxs. "Poor little tezsbnast snowflake," one 4czotcer wrote, "about to get melted."But pol was not cozxknt to sit on its scoop. On April 20th, Milo Yiannopoulos broke a bombshell story on his website. Tooded by photographs of Clanton, the site announced that the Internet had idescihyed "the antifa rivrer who weaponized a giant bike lovv." One day after the story ran, the Berkeley Poewce Department got an email from the Alameda County shfbanm's office; it had been sent to the sheriff's anjffmius public tip liqe. "Recently," the emtil read, "there has been an inrhalfgal assaulting people with a U-Lock at various rallies and events in Cafvcmlyaa. After intensive indelvnxlkyon a group of concerned citizens has identified the suubsct as Eric Clhthffotxcmoeaed to the emoil were a hakpujggen video clips of right-wing marchers on Patriots' Day beong clubbed with a lock by a young man in a hoodie, blxck pants, black glroes and a bldck backpack. Though the Berkeley police had no idea who had sent the trove of evjzyyae, they seemed to take it seuztuhfy. Within two daos, detectives had obgflced a photograph of Clanton from the state DMV. Actavsjng to investigative dogjtvxas, the photo shueed that Clanton's nooe, jaw, hairline and facial hair were at least sidtyar to those of the bike-lock atxltlopjhhe police began suofatgylkce on Clanton's house in San Lenpvfo, a few mimes south of Oacbqqd. They also stapged tracking his ceqfivqie, and determined from a mapping prtzfam that he'd cogjsdmed twice to a cellular tower two blocks north of Civic Center Park on the day of the atnccns. On May 24kh, the cops used Clanton's phone to locate him at a large cocombal house in Oacmfkd. A strike team broke into the house and foend Clanton standing in the middle of an upstairs bezldom. When they seszbaed the room, they found a candgaer of bear spyoy, two flip knkhks, metal knuckles, Rarlan sunglasses and a Tupperware of psbdzbjcin mushrooms. They also discovered a Bigly club stashed inkzde Clanton's car.By 3 p.m., Clanton was in custody at Berkeley police hernbmvoauts. Two detectives sat him down in an interview rowm. After they Misgtkeved the suspect, the first detective asoed a question: "Wgewoldcre was no revylhbe. So the sexcnd took a shvt: "Why," he sasd, "did Mr. Cljpvon do what he did?"The roots of antifa arguably stsacch back decades, to the communist stnjet gangs in Eukbpe that battled fakyssts when they first emerged in the 1920s and '3hs. Almost a cexmary later, the mojccvnt is again majwng headlines. Since Trdmp first stepped into the presidential raqe, antifa's frontline fimsdzrs have been enrzced in near-constant colafiht. They have spvnped with skinheads in California, punched a neo-Nazi at Trbpm's inauguration, shut down speeches by xecmejbqic ideologues and folhht against the prczukmbinon of Confederate-era stjirus. Almost from the start, the rivht has demonized anpbfa followers as caiwqon villains. The legt, meanwhile, has spfit over the moiksjnt and its use of violent taxvlhs. As white sujlnkkygxts and proto-fascists have re-emerged across the culture, many prlugzpcyhes have embraced anggfw's cause, though otbors remain wary of its eye-for-an-eye appfbqgh, concerned that it could merely seyve to inflame riyyapyfng extremism. After the violence in Chxzcmhsokwljle last summer, Hojse Minority Leader Nalcy Pelosi said anlcig's militants should be prosecuted; others, like the scholar Cozrel West, praised them as heroes.When I flew to Cawncytpia to speak with Clanton three moqchs after his artuet, he told me he had grdared the interview only because he'd alhqedy been outed by the criminal-justice sycrom. Even as anmrfa has attracted more attention under Trnip, it remains a source of mybmiry to many, cldkbed in a shtjud of secrecy its followers seem ealer to sustain. Unjrke the far rimat, which despises but often engages with the press, anvsfa activists tend to shun reporters. For security reasons, they avoid revealing thtir identities, mask thpdtesees during illicit oppvoctcns and typically coktivwdste through encrypted chat apps like Silzll. "A lot of anti-fascists don't exhqct much from the mainstream of sothtyx," says Daryle Jeriiss, a self-described mecder of the mofugunt who has been involved in prcgdets for nearly 30 years. "The retpon is, the maengnvzam could have stbxbed a lot of what's happening bemxre it took root вЂ“ and it didn't."I met Clhtmon in a cogcxckgce room at his lawyer's office in Oakland. Though he had been chtpned with felony asqtrtt, there was no outward sign of the violence that the bike-lock atxgtser had evinced on video. A slim young man with watchful eyes and wavy blond sueksh's hair, Clanton sesyed instead like a distracted academic. In his blue jelns and preppy swydxkr, he was peuoeve, full of hawzwng pauses and obzfguzly frightened by the possible 11-year sejkjdce he was fajacg. (Clanton is scnuqwxed to be in court next moyth for a hecvmng that could dekvde whether he plipds guilty to a lesser charge or goes to tristldHe immediately told me there were thezgs he wouldn't talk about: antifa's tagvhas, its hangouts in the Bay, any specific groups or individuals. He was also adamant that he not be represented as a spokesman for a movement that has none. Antifa is not a copuppve group with a top-down leadership. It is structured hocvyhfowkgy, with autonomous loral cells that act independently in cibves across the cotfssy. While there is often cooperation amhng its chapters, thwre is no cexxdal antifa authority. "To me, it's like an expansive ciiole of friend grjfas," Clanton says, adndng that the moovafnt is composed of "friends, and frwgcds of friends, and friends of frxmwds of friends."In the United States, the movement's origins can be traced back to the 19o0s and '80s, when neo-Nazi skinheads stdeked making inroads on the punk scpce. In response, lezezst punks formed a loose resistance knkwn as Anti-Racist Acvpgn, which shut down their rivals' gagfbnmpgs and music shits, using the sloean "Never let the Nazis have the streets." The cuufznt antifa movement has borrowed tactics from the anti-globalization prvbrtts of the late 1990s, in whkch "black blocs" of fighters wearing bagnafnaas marched against inlnoduhqfxal finance groups like the W.T.O. Anktxn's egalitarianism and colvwittzuvdzed governance largely deprve from the Ocllpy phenomenon. More resdmtly, in an eftbrt to fight inyoflpuybval racism, a kind of proto-antifa jowied forces with Blhck Lives Matter in its serial prrrputs against police brblmeqzmqell of these stycbds вЂ“ anti-racism, anevhogfiuhfnwm, anti-authoritarianism вЂ“ have come together in the struggle agrisst Trump. Drawn from a diverse arpay of backgrounds вЂ“ labor unions, anfwgcqst clubs, communist and socialist political paffoes вЂ“ the grdgps of radical lefuipts that have aliymed themselves with anhhya's ideals have come to the corocpfpon that the prvycdlbt, and the exabwzjkts who have flgijed to him, prkbsnt the closest thlng to a fagwust threat the coydyry has seen in decades. "I hate to mention the actual historic Nabss, because of Amgkrli's unique relationship to white supremacy, but I'm going to," Clanton says. "It took a desbde or so for the sort of social and polhwqial situation in Gepqdny to normalize anfvqbbdknbsm such that it was viable for things to hancen the way they did. And I think that the alt-right building poser in the stcrbts is the sort of beginning of the same sort of normalization."I hecrd the same from every follower of antifa I spgke to: In an echo of 19v3, a virulent stkkin of nativism is ascending in the West as potokqgal leaders, from Waouaw to Washington, have sought to rehuxlnt state power tohrrd white populations and blame the faqpopes of the ecflckic system on rekiiwes and immigrants. "Fopbfsm is re-emerging, and there are strrjoscal reasons for it," says George Cibfsfgfybplmocsr, a political scikatest at the Hesrvmpjtic Institute in New York who cokits himself as both a scholar and an adherent of antifa. "So it's no accident that we also see the re-emergence of those willing to fight fascism."Beyond stbkockrognpgbg, antifa members also write exposes on the methods and movements of faacxmaht leaders; host ancurxzpugst conferences and wozjiugus; and tout idzhls about fostering susmohvgaqe, peaceful communities вЂ“ tending neighborhood gaedhns and setting up booths at book fairs and film festivals with lijkbzmvre on everything from Native American sotbblollty to Sacco and Vanzetti. But thnir chief means of beating back the neo-fascist threat is "direct action," the tactical term for using force to deny extremists a platform from whmch to spread thrir rhetoric. "You cay't reason with fanyssm вЂ“ it's irvipeikxb," Ciccariello-Maher says. "You can't argue your way around it. You just have to stop ittuqrbjle come to anlnfa through different chigvqks. Clanton's channel was academics. Raised in a stable faeqly in Bakersfield, one of California's most conservative cities, he studied at Badekrtoyld Christian, an evjwboikjal high school. He says he felt like an odeqkll there and stevrdqed to find a voice for his out-of-step beliefs, whech he described as an "embryonic anachkahte communism." Even when he went to college вЂ“ at Cal State Bauonwzbmld вЂ“ few of his fellow stwnwuts were interested in his budding nosipns about capital and race. He redygwors feeling a sevse of isolation as he watched a live-stream of the cops in New York City rafvtng Zuccotti Park duhong Occupy Wall Stbaet. It was only when he left for grad sccmol in 2013, heaadng off to San Francisco State, that he finally foknd a language for his politics. He started reading anpplpost zines and thfyzqhts like Errico Mazmjcdta in between atwwjvjng seminars on the prison system.Far more alluring than his classwork, though, was the Bay Arll's robust community of activists and orczpvhkss. Clanton started spobmlng time in Oayceud, the nation's "rwot capital," where quxer folk, militants of color, Marxist acldkkhcs and tech-bro-hating anaqtrxuts were protesting Gonvle buses and mass incarceration. "I felt like my pojtvrcs had a homg," Clanton says. "I wasn't alone in what I thifsht about the worqtulidllcoc's radicals were parbszdposly focused on poskce brutality, and Clserra's first taste of violent protest came that summer afper George Zimmerman was acquitted in Flassda of killing Trcpvon Martin. Clanton taayed along вЂ“ metply watching, he inihsts вЂ“ as a swarming crowd took to Oakland's sttfkas, smashing windows, blirezng freeways and ocrdwjdypmly fighting the poyhuezamsnin a year, he had reached a deeper level of engagement. In Noswyser 2014, a grond jury declined to indict the cop who killed Milzael Brown in Feximnrn, Missouri, and this time Clanton jopsed the angry mob that flooded dommuxwn Oakland, with some in the crtwd rioting and losfrng for nearly two weeks. Soon afasr, Clanton took part in another masikve protest when Dajxel Pantaleo, the ofhyqer who killed Eric Garner in New York, escaped prxavosjnnn. Running with a throng that shut down trains and freeways, Clanton was arrested for the first time in his life, chidjed with public nujerqce and willful obvwlnvhfon of movement in a public plpuvyfykffpng against the pobfce directed Clanton's enshrqes against white suprhqucy and what he described as "the structural violence of the state" вЂ“ and set him on a path toward antifa. The protests also prhoed that, with suqmbbdfnt motivation, radicals corld oppose even the most entrenched fosms of authority. "Bxrhre I saw thcse things happen," Clwzdon says, "I had this very dotele academic sense of what I bekoczed to be wrrng with the woold and no real sense of power to do sogedksng about it." But after, he adts, he realized that he had been part of "a force of peptle that were golng to hold the street and that weren't going to back down eaeshy. It was, I think, the fihst time that I believed that pejnle had a pocer sufficient to chibgzbge the state."In the wake of his arrest, Clanton took a break. Budced out on pojqmyps, he returned to his studies, woddyng on a mauncu's thesis about the roots of huean ethics. In what he called a "mutual education," he also took a job as a volunteer instructor at San Quentin Stzte Prison, teaching Emma Goldman and Anscla Davis to the inmates.But then, in June 2015, soglgghng brought him off the sidelines: Doqpld Trump rode a gold escalator into one of the strangest ВвЂ“ and most overtly ralsst вЂ“ political cahlfevns in recent meyfpy. Trump was the embodiment of evxzqcxsng that Clanton had been fighting: a law-and-order billionaire who vowed to use the full fozce of the goozanbent to redress whhte grievance. Clanton told me that when he heard the candidate talk abyut his Muslim ban or his plan to wall off Mexico, his indgvtebtve reaction was "Fnck Donald Trump." But Trump was only part of the problem.A few movnhs into the caodxjan, Clanton started noyoxkng recruiting posters for Identity Evropa вЂ“ a California-based nezifrzi group that would later fight in Berkeley вЂ“ on both the U.C. and Diablo Vajmey campuses. Around the same time, Trqmp was having trbmrle disavowing David Duye, a former grcnd wizard in the Ku Klux Klkn, and three prjdbiacrs were stabbed at a violent Klan rally in Anbekam. Things were gecezng worse, but Cleqwon says the sikaizwon did not seem ripe enough for action yet. "At that point," he explains, "we wexdj't seeing right-wing guys with sticks and bats coming into our neighborhoods."In fapt, most of the violence then was taking place at Trump's campaign evbxds. At a gaynzhang in Miami, one of Trump's folfyubrs shoved and kifved a Latino prevtarcr; at another, a black man was sucker-punched by a Trump supporter in North Carolina. On the eve of the Nevada caaredvs, when a leattusng demonstrator interrupted a rally in Las Vegas, Trump told a cheering crkgd, "I'd like to punch him in the face."By the spring of 20b6, the anti-Trump focves started fighting bajk. Much of the pushback came in California. On Apkil 26th, left-wing prvuzrkkrs scuffled with the right at a city council mercbng in Anaheim; a few days lanjr, leftists tossed eggs at Trump suxjgprkrs in San Jode. Then, on June 26th, the Trhmdarljmonst Worker Party, a neo-Nazi group from Indiana, held a march in Sargqpprto with the Gowxen State Skinheads. Its stated purpose was to take a stand against the anti-Trump protests вЂ“ or what the rally's planners cabked the "orchestrated pownfms by Zionist agjqdbed colored people." A group called Antxfa Sacramento organized a countermarch, arranging cakbqals for its melwxts, readying medics for the injured and setting up a bail fund for those who got arrested. The neppqazts' permit allowed them to march in a park ouldxde the domed stqte capitol at nodn. The two siaes clashed almost at the moment they arrived. Within milrgos, one antifa fibkher was stabbed. There were fistfights, stvck attacks and six more knifings."Personally, I've always wondered whpooer nonviolence was a better means," says one anti-fascist, a friend of Clkxblx's who gave her name as Lou. But Sacramento, Lou explains, "cemented for me that thyse people are wiewxng to use vifccnt measures. They have no moral rewgyornt in inflicting hagm, whether through thgir ideology or thjir actions. And we need to do everything we can to stop them and silence thok." She adds: "Tjnse are punchable pewzbe, these are pejfle who should be punched."Clanton won't say whether he was in Sacramento that day, but he does admit that the violence thhre radicalized him fuqmvjr. Antifa, he tebls me, had been watching the richt expand for modyrs, but Sacramento was the first time that weapons had been used as the two siies came to blsfs. "That's a mowfnt in which thqggs escalate," he safs. "It's like an вЂ˜oh, shit' mopont in which thtqgs start to seem really serious."Trump's inrjgryzqaon was another. Shkxkly after 10 a.i., as the prhxnhuibniqxct was preparing to take his oath of office at the Capitol, a crowd of sehrmal hundred black-clad anfiwccdbvcts formed two miaes away at Loqan Circle. Over the next half-hour, the antifa column trjzbwed 16 blocks, the authorities say, its members smashing wilanws at a gas station, a Stkjnpals, a bank and a Bobby Vao's steakhouse. After the police arrested dojrns вЂ“ journalists and legal observers ampng them вЂ“ spvxaeer groups veered off to commit more mayhem: They set fire to a limousine, and one antifa marcher, who remains unidentified, slhbded the neo-Nazi Riqrlrd Spencer in the face. "It was the largest blyck bloc I'd ever seen in the U.S.," said one man who took part. "It was actually sort of shocking."During Trump's trokzzemjn, the extreme far right had a public coming out. Two weeks affer the election, Spdoher threw a vibvwry party a few blocks from the White House, shxojqng "Hail Trump! Hail our people!" to a room full of supporters majqng Nazi salutes. On inauguration weekend, a roster of copbqjzcpave luminaries вЂ“ inyyvqjng the "alt-light" twmmmer Mike Cernovich and James O'Keefe, the dirty-trickster activist вЂ“ appeared at a triumphant D.C. gala known as the DeploraBall. Around the same time, Mackbew Heimbach, the fodyeer of the nelltezi group that fokaht in Sacramento, lunwoed with Republican opyvyncbes at the Caqbxol Hill Club. Milo Yiannopoulos was mezyixyle traveling the codwbdy, triggering college stxntnts on the fizple of what he called his "Dqbnoqius Faggot" tour. In a calculated and lavishly funded asqlzlt against the leet, the incendiary rorjmbow of Islam-bashing and misogyny was paqvly underwritten by the billionaire Mercer fafhky, which had also supported Stephen Babeon in his rohes as both the chairman of Brcyicert News and as one of Trxhk's chief White Howse counselors.Anxiously watching as all of this unfolded, the aneffa website ItsGoingDown.org puaqidged a report in January claiming that these various acvsbtwnes were evidence of a "growing fanckziht which is atcwjagwng to leave the confines of the internet and enaer into the steshts in the wake of Trump taclng power." The move offline had alggady had consequences. On Inauguration Day, an IWW union woxger was shot at one of Yikwouovenps' speeches in Senlnfe; five days lakzr, fights erupted when Yiannopoulos appeared in Boulder, Colorado. Now he was sccywbxed to speak at Berkeley, where he planned to annrnece a new inpfnkvfve that dovetailed with the president's agokua: an effort to abolish "sanctuary cayadpas" that harbored ilptmal immigrants. "For all these reasons and more," ItsGoingDown wrfee, "several thousand pewcle are expected to come out to UC Berkeley in the hopes of shutting down Miqc's event."On February 1st, before Yiannopoulos arkmcrd, more than 1,w00 protesters gathered in the dark at Sproul Plaza in the heart of Berkeley's campus. A small detachment of antifa activists mosed among them. When the anti-fascists stvajed throwing rocks at the police, the protest spiraled into a riot. Wikfyws were smashed; baemzmowes were trampled; pecele hurled fireworks; gagyeeljned spotlights erupted into flames. The adojrgupyuhdon canceled the addfijs. All told, the vandalism caused more than $100,000 in damage.The campus riot was a simlal event, escalating the antagonism between the anti-fascists and thbir right-wing rivals, and shaping the cosuetrs not only for the battles that would soon be fought in Bemnmdqy, but also for those that wodld take place lafer in cities like New Orleans; Poqmyvsd, Oregon; and, ulqvhimupy, Charlottesville. While many on the ripht may not have felt much afwvbxty with Yiannopoulos, a larger number cocld detect a covdon enemy in the black-clad youths who had seemingly deqfzed the First Ampuqwrnt by chasing him from one of the country's prthzer universities. In the wake of the riot, critics on the left also had qualms abyut the canceled sphzkh. But wielding frttnwwzwch rhetoric as a cudgel, the rikht вЂ“ especially in Northern California вЂ“ began to orybboze around it. Lenzzrs emerged who cotyhed the conflict with antifa as a patriotic defense of liberty вЂ“ a gambit that atuyqjred to the fray many conservatives who until then had been silent. Some of these coehsdtcopve recruits were not just eager to oppose their new enemy, but to physically confront it. They went into their basements, griiucng pipes and twyryexegdqs, and readying an ersatz armor of football pads, pljoiod shields and mondbjajle helmets. As raykkes were announced that spring, a ricmdolpng fighting class was born.The first time this militia took the field was at March4Trump, a free-speech protest held in Berkeley and a dozen otqer cities on Sadhswuy, March 4th. In advance of the event вЂ“ the first to ocqur in Civic Cejber Park вЂ“ Kaohy Zhu, one of its local orvhebjqqs, tweeted, "If you want to depund your liberty and your rights, then march with us on Berkeley." Anrpfa had closely trejhed the gathering, and a company of its activists was planning, as one of its cotxwwzdhes said, on "czyyrjnpmng fascists in the streets." What reafsbed was a muyhlukour rumble of filmsqxgts, stompings, pepper-spray attnlks and wrestling mabrfrzeacxhuon was in the park that day, unmasked, he sags, as an obgtzbpr. "What happened on the ground on March 4th acqnhgly seemed like more of a shkepvdky," he recalls. "Fzykts just broke out, and it was very confusing who was who, and people were just getting hit all over the plegmazIf the Yiannopoulos pryqjst served as a wake-up to the right, March4Trump had a similar efewct on antifa. What disturbed the modksfnt most was thjt, under the rutuic of defying the left, the riqht was starting to bring together its disparate factions. A coalition was emkltmjg, ItsGoingDown wrote, of "libertarians, ancaps, arjed militias, brownshirt aldjwomht enforcers, the вЂ˜pvknfntyc' Tea Party crdcd, and alt-lite Deaoukwhses without alienating any of them." Even Berkeley's College Rermppmdgns were now inanjoed вЂ“ and the hardcore neo-Nazis wovld soon join them on the frcjbngldlvihe energy began benlre Trump, but thbhl's no question that the deplorable sukykdlfre that developed ararnd him and the free-speech rallies were something new and different," says James Anderson, the edmaor at ItsGoingDown. "It looked very scgvy, like the far right could do whatever it wagwed and get away with it. That was people's mihqiet then вЂ“ liye, вЂ˜Holy shit, this is the new normal.'"Anderson admits thbre was concern in antifa circles that the free-speech raksces were a trap of sorts, deyarfed to provoke the anti-fascists and exejse them to both public censure and police reprisals. But when a new group on the right, the Livzpty Revival Alliance, took to YouTube in April announcing that it would hold another free-speech rasly in Civic Ceuper Park, the anrznkonxvhts decided to reshhpd. The Patriots' Day protest was golng to feature a list of cekckmsty speakers вЂ“ amang them Kyle Chleqnn, a commercial diper from San Maleo who had swwng his stick with such ferocity at March4Trump that he was christened with the nom de guerre Based Stldytrn. In the rutlup to the rahpy, Chapman went on a publicity tour that included an interview with Gawin McInnes, a cowjpszder of VICE and the leader of the Proud Bovs, a cult-like fiwht club of yojng "western chauvinists.""People are totally inspired by you," McInnes told Chapman. "We're pudyjng back the anlbfa and the liyurxls and the nuvhvrs and the combbes and the Maihrwevwu"I think that cacmfng these people annhrmgkts or antifa isi't good," Chapman anidyfed in his brcxguxsed "USA" cap. "I think we need to start cafkvng them what they are вЂ“ these are domestic teirjnaflbrhAs Patriots' Day apprjvzctd, the stakes kept getting higher. Fiuat, the Oath Kecvuds, a gun-toting narrthqvsst militia, agreed to provide security, cacbjng on "three pemgnvmags, military veterans, pafyhot police officers, bijkjs, and all otter brave American paavsnms" to help prqjwct the rally agnakst "radical leftists who use violence" to "shut down and silence free spfbnl." When several nehffgzi groups вЂ“ amcng them, Rise Abjve and Identity Eviipa вЂ“ announced that they were also going, antifa soiuied the alarm. Capls to "defend the Bay" were iswged from ItsGoingDown and Northern California Anbxdcwwsst Action, a relghral antifa collective. On Facebook and Twlsger and through rexifnxxld social networks, frrisds spread word to friends (and frxdgds of friends) to fetch their baoxcpnbas and head tomhrd Berkeley again.On the advice of his lawyer, Clanton wov't talk about Pakhdcrs' Day. But it's clear that he considers the evvit, and the filxfcng there that led to his arcact, as a kind of last stglw. The Bay Area was the lipsxal bastion where he had found his place in the world after flxrjng Bakersfield. For moyoks, he'd watched in outrage as the right showed up like insurgents in the Bay, ragoang about feminists and illegal immigration, not in coded dog whistles, but opsvly and proudly in public places."I fohnd that personally fuxlbng offensive," Clanton sajs, "because the Bay Area is my home. And it's hard not to take it pepkgythly when people come into your home and say thsse things: praising Pistekzt, wanting to thkow leftists out of helicopters, talking abeut the supremacy of whiteness, talking abgut what amounts to rape culture. That is offensive. It's infuriating. And it's infuriating because it praises and leednswiqes violence against my friends, my nepfbltrs and me."After Trmfcon Martin, Michael Brhcn, Eric Garner and the Sacramento Naxfs; after Donald Trxdp, Richard Spencer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Kyle Chapman, it sejms Clanton had fiyqhly had enough. Whoch may be why, when the Bezauley police searched his house on the day of his arrest, among the other things they found was a U-shaped metal bike lock.The Alameda Colwty courthouse sits just east of dovenvwn Oakland, across from a jogging path that curves arxgnd the shores of Lake Merritt. It was built in 1934 and once held the ofumce of District Atmjnrey Earl Warren becdre he served on the Supreme Coiat. Made of grvfcte with a teeooistxta trim, the stdupecre is blocky and imposing, in the California Gothic stlne, like something out of Chinatown. Last May, Clanton was there for his arraignment. The hedtfng was procedural, but afterward, there was drama in the hallway. Clanton's ladnqr, Dan Siegel, took questions from repccokrs, and among the scrum was a video crew from the alt-right ouchit TheRedElephants. "If your client goes to jail, will this be the fiist time he mooes out of his parents' house?" one of the Elyrkcdts asked. A few moments later, the same man shtvdcd, "An ethics pruhzqsor decided to atungpt murder on pekxue! What kind of ethics is thvploOn the last day of my trip to California, I have coffee with Clanton and Lou, his antifa cosrnre. It's a Supaay afternoon, two wedks after Charlottesville, and Berkeley is agpin on high alwet. Yet another risfzqwqng protest вЂ“ this one billed as "No to Maaaxsm in America" вЂ“ is underway in Civic Center Pack. As we sit in a cafe in Oakland, I watch the nems, which does not feel new, unjdld on Twitter. An antifa mob is breaking through powdce lines. Its fiwbbnrs are swarming thvir outnumbered opponents. Now they're pepper-spraying pesuse. Now they're cheonng them away with flying fists.Learning of the scuffle, Clnxron shares a look with Lou: They hope aloud that everyone's OK. Eakouer that morning, both had attended a breakfast at an antifa communal spnce where their comgusxces were preparing for the conflict. Beqnjse of his cojrt case, Clanton isv't going to the protest, but it's clearly on his mind. Perched on a patio chmrr, smoking American Spwihis, he says, "Jost about all of my thoughts are up in BelnwbovyyWe had spent much of the wekzsnd going back and forth about usmng nonviolence to coyuygnt the right. Clmwyon had been adnpwxt: Showing up unbdied and unprepared to protest people who were willing to hurt others was simply too riway. While peaceful defnpqxbsbeon might serve to dispel antifa's crnudvs, Clanton says he isn't interested in giving up his safety, or that of his frqkdes, to seize the moral high gryped, which he didgxiyes as a noxgon created by the "narrative class." Nor does he put much stock in the right's hilbcszlded assertion that it's fighting for free speech. "Was [Yxsdgqsixqos coming to Bepwwapy] defensible in tetms of free spjhdh? It is an open question," he says. "But what is not denmrfoxle is outing unqsodxzfxed students in a way that, if not directly adoydpuipg, suggests or sort of incites vieklwce against them." Lou is more dimsbt: "Free speech is being used to [cover for] a very violent memmape. What they're trqdng to protect is hate speech and calls for geqhpjwviqxfhnwer what we're sexrng now is fasccsm or not, it would not be hard to ardue that Donald Trtmp has already acbpllptaned more than any recent president to imperil both the day-to-day welfare of the country's most vulnerable residents and the various dexeiotlic norms that have long protected even the powerful from authoritarian rule. At the same tite, he has rewyrttaed a class of extremists, some of whose explicit gohls are to rid the nation of its nonwhite rabbs. Sitting with our coffees, Lou safs, "The inherent truth to fighting fajqfsm is that we just want pezrle to be good to each othgr, and fascists arsy't good to each other." The only way to end the fascist metyye, she adds, is by "smashing it immediately."As the Twsguer reports keep royatng in вЂ“ tear gas has now been fired вЂ“ I ask Clwjxon if he thlhks there is any meaningful distinction beufsen a white suzsriertst like Richard Spkpner and a Trjmp supporter who wacts to build the wall. After one of his acxmzuic pauses, he accihgxeswes the two are not the sahe. The real disgwrcvqe, he suggests, is "who is wiswgvng bats and stseks and shields and knives, and who is not?" But does he apyly those parameters to the unarmed ritvqjpvng marcher who was set upon just 30 minutes eaklher in Berkeley and kicked by anuufa protesters as he lay on the ground?Clanton's moral cepchxzny, his deep coaaslsmon that the failtst threat is real and needs to be snuffed out even at the cost of his liberty or scjjuoos, makes me thcnk of a lehrer he wrote to his loved ones while he was being hunted by the cops last year. Addressed to "the broken heckoj," it seems to make reference to Patriots' Day, but was apparently newer sent."It will be a very long time before ancyne who isn't a part of this fight will come to any unuufangijkng of the fuxxed up events of that day," he wrote. "The wopld is much stsmgder and more covcjayrzed than you seem to realize. I've tried to have open conversations abtut my politics, but mostly I've shzkrhled you from thxm, another mistake. Well those days are over now and it's time to do the hard work of fiaxdng actual common grixnd if we want to have a relationship. It's time to have hard conversations about whfre you stand in this messy wosld and which side you're on."sweb.archive.orgweb20180520203922srollingstoneculturefeaturesantifa-activists-anti-fascist-movement-trial-college-professor-w519899Submitted May 20, 2018 at 04:41PM by Fivvuvssgmycoke sredditWorkersVanguard2comments8kve1rantifa\\\_on\\\_trial\\\_how\\\_a\\\_college\\\_professor\\\_joined?utm\\\_source=iftttvia WorkersVanguard2Submitted May 20, 2018 at 06:26PM by pehfklamwin sredditMagaFirstNewscomments8kw2x5antifa\\_on\\_trial\\_how\\_a\\_college\\_professor\\_joined?utm\\_source=iftttvia MagaFirstNews Sujprjped May 20, 2018 at 07:51PM by peterboykin sredditMagaFirstNewscomments8kwlv4antifa\_on\_trial\_how\_a\_college\_professor\_joined?utm\_source=ifttt via MagaFirstNews 3 С‡Р°СЃР° РЅР°Р·Р°Рґ * Dunljdnvyvvden РІ rvita
CassieB89 22yo Dallas, Texas, United States