Spokane has had about 30 COVID-19 deaths, so a memorial was put together at the city hall, a Christian memorial with a collection of crosses. I’m not so keen on that — do the non-Christians not count? — but OK, it’s harmless and generous and acknowledges the people who died, even if it is a bit presumptuous. I wouldn’t be upset about it at all.
Then someone trashed it. We know who, because they took credit for it. It was the Proud Boys who were quite proud to demolish a memorial, and who have been upset with anyone who tries to protect themselves from the virus.
In another video posted on Facebook, Proud Boys members and other protesters are seen mocking and harassing Robinson as he stands in front of the memorial. He repeatedly asks them to step away and respect his social distance.
The video includes profanity.
“This is what Proud Boys do,” Robinson is heard saying in the video.
One of the Proud Boys members, who identifies himself as “Milkshake,” said he came to the protest from western Washington. He and other protesters repeatedly tell Robinson in the video to remove his mask.
Oh, yeah, personal liberty for us, but not for you!
Also at the demonstration: far-right Christian fanatic and Spokane representative Matt Shea. We had a lot of unkind stereotypes about the inhabitants of the eastern side of the state when I was growing up, and Shea personifies all of them, cranked up to 11.
You know the most annoying thing for me about alt right assholes like the Proud Boys is? They seem to have this sort of “Freedom of speech for me but not for thee” attitude. The do these horrible things and invoke the First Amendment, but somehow the rest of us telling them to GTFO of our cities and towns violates their rights. If I want to call one of them a shitty human being on a public forum, that’s my right. If I want to refuse service to someone wearing a MAGA hat, that’s also my right. If Twitter or Facebook want’s to ban someone for spreading dangerous conspiracy theories or vile hate speech, that’s their right too.
These people need to shut down by every legal means possible. De-platforming is a legitimate technique. I see nothing wrong with posting these guys pictures all over town and advising people to refuse service to them. Sure it’s a shitty thing to do but these are shitty people. The Proud Boys and others like them need to be shut down.
@1:
That’s the general right-wing belief on how the First Amendment works- “freedom of speech” exists to stifle all dissenting opinions and spout whatever hateful, harmful falsehoods they want without ever being held accountable.
While accusing everyone who disagrees with them of having an echo chamber.
They want to be right-wing death squads, they just haven’t worked themselves up to it, yet. The thing I don’t quite see is what they want – they are anti-government, anti-authority, anti-police but I bet they don’t agree about what they’re pro-. Once they kill all the brown people and cops they’ll fall to shooting eachother. The obvious thing is to get them to skip the interim steps and just get them to shoot eachother right away.
You hoped and are probably wrong.
A young antifa activist was killed in Portland not too long ago.
There were a whole lot of witnesses.
The murder weapon, a 2 1/2 ton SUV was recovered at the scene.
The Portland police with huge amounts of evidence, somehow never caught the murderer.
I’m sure the amount of time they spent on this case was far less than deciding where to go to lunch the next day.
News on Matt Shea: He won’t seek re-election. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/in-filing-deadline-surprise-controversial-state-rep-matt-shea-wont-seek-reelection/
Proud Boys are a straight-up fascist brownshirt street gang, not unlike the real Brownshirts, only not as organized. To understand who and what Proud Boys are, David Neiwert’s reporting is essential. They live to beat the crap out of anyone whom they perceive as “antifascists” or “antifa” and will do their damnedest to provoke them into throwing the first punch or making the first move, in order to give them a pretext to bash heads. https://thebaffler.com/latest/freedom-to-bash-heads-niewert
stochastic terrorism
@ 5
Yup, count on the willfully “balanced” news media to dub a man who openly associates with fascists and drafted a battleplan for creating a genocidal Christian state as just “controversial.”
That fellow in that picture at the Michigan state capital screaming between the cops, whose name I want mention again, is said to be a member of or a former member of the Proud Boys.
They are definitely not anti-authority, unless they deem the authority to be opposed to their authoritarianism. Nor are they really anti-cop. Cops in some places would have an affinity with these guys. If they start attacking cops then they would be at war with potential, if not actual, allies who have even more social permission to use lethal force.
Forget about waiting for them to shoot each other. Just shoot them before they shoot you.
They come across as some very weird mutation of the Klan.
Do they regard people who die from disease as untermenschen since they destroyed the memorial?
Here, “Proud” apparently means “needy and insecure”.
(The parallel with incels is obvious to me)
Here is the blood curdling FREEDOM battlecry:
https://youtu.be/RAhbH19TvPc
Versus public health of the snowflakes. Us.
Hey I’m not anti-2nd amendment and yet don’t plan on owning a gun, but is there a “stand your ground” argument for defensively shooting potentially infected bozos threatening you within your 6 foot safety zone because you are responsible enough to wear a mask and they are intentionally reckless thus pose
a mortal threat? Ranting about Deep State conspiracy theories including Soros and Obama in a bunker while closer than six feet sans courtesy mask should be sufficient reason for invoking “stand your ground” defense. Anyone that dangerously addled at least needs to be Baker Acted. Just sayin’.
I don’t know actual facts about shooting people, but it seems at least possible that if you shoot someone too close to you (maybe not 6 feet, but maybe 3?) you run the risk of some of their blood and other tissues spattering back at you, which might endanger your health if they are actually and not merely potentially infected (with various things, not just the corona virus).
leerudolph, I think you’ve missed hemidactylus’ snark: it’s not whether it’s more or less dangerous, it’s whether one could legally get away with so doing under such a vague law.
(The answer is clear: black victim, white perpetrator, no worries)
“We had a lot of unkind stereotypes about the inhabitants of the eastern side of the state when I was growing up.”
We still have those stereotypes, and they’re all true. Matt Shea is just the most visible example of the kind of folk that live in eastern WA.
@2: The secret to the conservative mind is that that it how it works for literally everything. Every apparent contradiction and hypocrisy is resolved if you remember that their actual operating maxim is “Mine rules for thee but not for me”, and the only question is how much of a tapdance is used to obscure that fact from themselves and/or others.
Why does the NRA not honor the Black Panthers as gun martyrs? Because gun rights are not for black folks. Why is it okay when there’s a safety net for whites, or government graft for Republican districts? Ditto. Why is the fact that government supposedly has distorted the economy with their intervention a reason to admit that we do not live in a meritocracy? Why, only bad people get welfare. People who are not me.
In practice, conservatives do not actually believe in the discipline of markets, or in the value of meritocracy, or closed borders, or anything they say they believe in, or personal responsibility. They believe in these things applied to the people they don’t like.For all their humans faults, liberals, progressives and leftists are at least trying to think in universal terms.
As an Eastern Washingtonian I’ll give the obligatory statement that not all of us are politically, socially, or culturally backwards, but some days I do despair. I come to sites like this just to gulp the oxygen.
Idamon trust me I understand perfectly. I’m Christian just not a fundie or creationist . Honestly they scare me
@#17, Frederic Bourgault-Christie:
Uh huh. After being told by people on this board that not wanting to nominate a rapist to run against Trump is a “purity test” and therefore stupid, I think the second sentence is false and the first one applies to everybody.