http://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/10/01/nyt-opinion-piece-discovers-the-truth-about-black-bloc-anarchists/
Well, well, well ...
The New York Times has finally discovered the truth about “black bloc” anarchists wreaking havoc across the country:
Charles Gasparino ~ The Truth About Today’s Anarchists
http://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/opinion/anarchists-protests-black-lives-matter.html?smid=tw-share
The Truth About Today’s Anarchists
“Insurrectionary anarchists” have been protesting for racial justice all summer. Some Black leaders wish they would go home.
On the last Sunday in May, Jeremy Lee Quinn, a furloughed photographer in Santa Monica, Calif., was snapping photos of suburban moms kneeling at a Black Lives Matter protest when a friend alerted him to a more dramatic subject: looting at a shoe store about a mile away.
He arrived to find young people pouring out of the store, shoeboxes under their arms. But there was something odd about the scene. A group of men, dressed entirely in black, milled around nearby, like supervisors. One wore a creepy rubber Halloween mask.
The next day, Mr. Quinn took pictures of another store being looted. Again, he noticed something strange. A white man, clad in black, had broken the window with a crowbar, but walked away without taking a thing.
Mr. Quinn began studying footage of looting from around the country and saw the same black outfits and, in some cases, the same masks. He decided to go to a protest dressed like that himself, to figure out what was really going on. He expected to find white supremacists who wanted to help re-elect President Trump by stoking fear of Black people. What he discovered instead were true believers in “insurrectionary anarchism.”
To better understand them, Mr. Quinn, a 40-something theater student who worked at Univision until the pandemic, has spent the past four months marching with “black bloc” anarchists in half a dozen cities across the country, chronicling the experience on his website, Public Report.
He says he respects the idealistic goal of a hierarchy-free society that anarchists embrace, but grew increasingly uncomfortable with the tactics used by some anarchists, which he feared would set off a backlash that could help get President Trump re-elected. In Portland, Ore., he marched with people who shot fireworks at the federal court building. In Washington, he marched with protesters who harassed diners.
Mr. Quinn discovered a thorny truth about the mayhem that unfolded in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis. It wasn’t mayhem at all.
While talking heads on television routinely described it as a spontaneous eruption of anger at racial injustice, it was strategically planned, facilitated and advertised on social media by anarchists who believed that their actions advanced the cause of racial justice. In some cities, they were a fringe element, quickly expelled by peaceful organizers. But in Washington, Portland and Seattle they have attracted a “cultlike energy,” Mr. Quinn told me.
Don’t take just Mr. Quinn’s word for it. Take the word of the anarchists themselves, who lay out the strategy in Crimethinc, an anarchist publication: Black-clad figures break windows, set fires, vandalize police cars, then melt back into the crowd of peaceful protesters. When the police respond by brutalizing innocent demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and rough arrests, the public’s disdain for law enforcement grows. It’s Asymmetric Warfare 101. ...
And ...
It’s the Opinion section:
Gary Weiss ~ What a delicious irony. After four months of insanely biased "news" articles whitewashing the "peaceful protesters" terrorizing U.S. cities, @nytimes finally publishes a factual piece on these anarchist punks.
And labels it "opinion."
Dear journos: Note that this is spreading because *you* are minimizing the threat:
Jeremy McLellan ~ "The ability to continue to spread and to eventually bring more violence, including a violent insurgency, relies on the ability to hide in plain sight — to be confused with legitimate protests, and for media and the public to minimize the threat."
The lesson here is to stop listening to the talking heads on television:
“While talking heads on television routinely described it as a spontaneous eruption of anger at racial injustice, it was strategically planned, facilitated and advertised on social media by anarchists who believed that their actions advanced the cause of racial justice. In some cities, they were a fringe element, quickly expelled by peaceful organizers. But in Washington, Portland and Seattle they have attracted a ‘cultlike energy,’ Mr. Quinn told me.” ...
They’ve hijacked the movement? You. Don’t. Say. ...
They have no allies:
Alex McKeen ~ "That’s the thing about “insurrectionary anarchists.” They make fickle allies. If they help you get into power, they will try to oust you the following day, since power is what they are against."
More from the author of the piece:
Farah Stockman ~ My latest piece is about a photographer who's spent the last 4 months with "black bloc" anarchists in Denver, Portland, Seattle, Tulsa, Rochester and DC. He joined them to better understand who was setting fires/looting outside racial justice protests.
{Cont.}: He hung out in chatrooms with the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, who don’t accept anyone over 25. In Rochester, “black bloc” seemed a teenage fashion fad. In Tulsa, he saw BLM protesters + Trump supporters pray together.
{Cont.}: I got interested in his story because I’d investigated the looting/arson in Minneapolis that unfolded after George’s Floyd’s death. I felt sure that the destruction would distract from and derail the urgent demands for racial justice. But I was wrong, at least in the short term.
{Cont.}: The scale of the destruction drew more attention than a peaceful protest would have. Support for peaceful organizers and Black Lives Matter soared. Corporations opened their wallets. The more I looked into the anarchy, the more I understood the strategy behind it.
{Cont.}: But as the protests have gone on, the costs of these tactics have mounted. Black leaders working inside the system on practical measures to reduce police violence have been shouted down and criticized by anarchists want to abolish the police, not simply reform them.
{Cont.}: It made me wonder: Did "insurrectionary anarcharists" advance the cause of racial justice? Or had they hijacked it?
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