#police protect the fascists

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

The photo doesn't really do it justice, the video is on Penzance Socialists' twitter.

But this is the point in time where police decided to try and push back anti-fascists to make space for the fascist demo. And they decided to do it by driving a van onto the pavement.

What the photo also doesn't do justice to is the very high sheer drop down the cliff on the other side of the wall.

Last time the fash were able to occupy that pavement directly across from the hotel and use it to throw missiles.

This time we were able to hold it and confine the fash to a very small space (I mean there was only about 20 of them).

But the police absolutely did not want us in that space, and were using very agressive tactics to try to get us to move. The police wanted to give fascists the space and it was very clear later in the day who's side they were on.

Just to add that photo definitely doesn't do justice to the turnout - most people were in front of the hotel at that point.

This is about half the demo later when we occupied the road.

[commiepinkofag]

[ID: a revised world war 2 political poster, depicting a row of pigs branded with letters spelling ‘DEFUND.’ 

The smiling pigs view the poster text reading ‘NO Cop City’, ‘Demilitarize’, ‘End Fascism Now’. 

Below the pigs sits a garbage can, marked ‘waste.’ Text to the left of the garbage can reads ‘Demilitarize’, ‘No Privatization’, ‘End PR Lobbying.’ 

Additional text to the right of the garbage can reads ‘Public Oversight’, Accountability’ and ‘Public Safety’]

[creative commons/non-commercial use]

[spiltcandycoatedpunkblood]

just so you know how normal the UK is, left wing climate change activists and anti-monarchy protesters are getting jail time and beaten for simply holding up banners and being considered disruptive whilst right wing bullshitters against shit like ULEZ (literally about having areas that are specifically for ultra low emissions so we, y'know, don't constantly have to breathe in fucking car fumes and other pollutants because some fucking people actually bizarrely want to???) and road safety limits EVEN FUCKING RIGHT NEAR SCHOOLS are driving basically massive vehicles through the streets and are not considered a disruptive protest

[captain-crackship]

Oklahoma you are fucking abhorrent. I can’t even be nostalgic about my time there because your government has fucking ruined it for me. Thanks a lot. My heart goes out to the kids you will irreversibly damage by your inhumane policies. To whomever’s running this clown show, I hope there is a hell because there is a spot there waiting for you.

[johnnyrico]

“Anyone who clings to the historically untrue—and thoroughly immoral—doctrine that ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

[colorsinautumn]

im finally listening to the behind the insurrection series on btb and its absolutely fascinating to learn about fascist insurrections of the past are almost a mirror image of what happened on january 6th. even more-so that anti-fascist fighters face nearly the same problem modern day anti-fascists face, you know with people saying that punching nazi's doesn't work when it's really the only way to combat fascists because otherwise their speech and freedom to protest and say what they say is constantly and consistently protected by a legal system that can't and won't punish them for literally saying out loud that they want to overthrow the government UNTIL they actually gain enough numbers and try to do it.

[sowhatnotcreative]

"We need more funds to fight organized crime! We need more funds to fight against the shootings!" What about the systemic crimes? What about the crimes that men commit against women? What about the crimes that barely 0.1% of offenders see ANY punishment for?? No?

Ooh riiight, cause that benefits youu. Cops can have a lil rape as a treat yea?

🤮

[esyra]

Haven't heard from family in days. I feel like it's time to accept they're gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn't supposed to be like this.

We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.

We thought it couldn't get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we're past 2,300 in one week.

What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it's that "this time is different". And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i've been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it's not helping. Nothing is changing.

I feel like I'm screaming into a void. There's some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as 'hate speech' or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it's: "blame it on hamas", "tell them to give up hamas", "the hamas asked for it". They're not even among civilians!!!!!

My heart feels full seeing the manifestations in favor of Palestine, then I see police forces breaking protests apart and remember that the people that can actually save Gaza don't care.

If there's nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I'm going to beg for anyone reading this to please don't forget. Please.

Israel is hiding behind Judaism to commit genocide against Gaza. Netanyahu supported the Hamas militant group to prevent the establishment of the Palestine State, and now he's using them to justify his agenda of ethnic cleansing. He abandoned Israelis and left them to die because he cares more about seeing Gazans dead!

Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.

Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you've helped spill.

This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.

For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they'll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.

Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK's Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.

May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.

[sscarletvenus]

please stop scrolling for a moment and read.

this happened on wednesday in occupied jerusalem, supposedly the "only democracy in middle east."

israeli police raided the anti-zionist jewish neighborhood, to attack any symbol of jewish solidarity with Palestine, took down the Palestinian flag, brutally assaulted anti-zionist jews by knocking them down on the road, hitting them, and punching them in the face.

zionism is a violent and fascist ideology that doesn't even spare the very people it is supposed to protect. anyone who disagrees with its racist mandate, even jews, are targeted by the entity that falsely claims to represent jewish people.

if they can do this to their own, can you even bear to imagine how they have treated, and continue to treat, Palestinians? except you don't really have to - idf soldiers have, on multiple occasions, documented their own war crimes and violations of the very nature of being human. they have gloated over their own capacity to commit undeniable evil too many times on camera.

does amy schumer care about these people standing up against genocide and getting persecuted for doing so? what does noah schnapp have to say?

what do well-off white jews in the west who record tiktoks with a face full of makeup, impeccably manicured nails, curated fits and ring lights, who have monopolized claims to antisemitism and grief and victimhood while black and other non-white jewish people have been rendered almost entirely invisible from public memory, have to say about this?

israel was never about judaism.

[communistkenobi]

I was listening to Behind The Police (podcast about the history of American policing) recently and at one point the hosts were discussing the tendency of white supremacist/fascist violence to have this element of absurdity to it - ie, people dressing up in white KKK robes and calling themselves wizards while attacking black people - and the point of this is to deny their victims the decency of “straightforward” experiences of violence. To later recount that a group of wizards attacked you makes you to sound absurd to whoever you’re talking to, and it becomes more difficult to make sense of. it’s all “just a joke bro.” your discomfort and fear and confusion and pain is the punchline. and modern right wing discourse is so laughably deranged as to be a joke in itself (perhaps best epitomised by the now-memetic phrase “the fluoride in the water is making the frickin’ frogs gay”), but this is of course deliberate. the rhetoric of “satanic pedophiles are sacrificing children in the basement of a pizza restaurant” or whatever is employed because it distracts from the real message they’re trying to deliver (ie, antisemitism). it isn’t just a denial of reality but a very particular form of cruelty that makes it more difficult for the victims of right wing violence to be taken seriously, to make sense of what’s happened to them.

and it feels like the same thing is happening now with transphobia - rhetoric that insists on “protecting children” from trans people while the US is actively loosening their child labour laws (x) (x). this isn’t a case of mere “hypocrisy,” this is rhetorically deliberate. the rank absurdity and insincerity of their words is meant to deny you the ability to think clearly, to distract you, to make you sound like a crazy person, to enrage you, all the while they get to carry on as if they aren’t saying or doing any of these things

[kropotkindersurprise]

January 13, 2024 - Edwin Wagensveld, leader of Dutch fascist group PEGIDA, came to Arnhem to attempt to burn the Quran. Wagensveld and his four fascist friends were completely outnumbered by anti-fascist and Muslim locals, and despite heavy-handed riot police protection it was another humiliating defeat for PEGIDA. They tried and failed twice at setting the book on fire, Wagensveld got a flying kick to the face, and in the end the counter-demonstrators rushed the scene and managed to save the Quran that the fascists had brought to burn. [video]

[felixcloud6288]

Listen.

If you can vote, you need to get out and vote. You cannot boycott an election. Refusing to vote does not send the message you think it does. In fact, it sends the exact opposite message. If you refuse to vote, you're telling politicians that you are a demographic not worth appealing to.

If you care about reproductive rights and don't vote, politicians will not try to appeal to you.

If you care about LGBT protections and don't vote, politicians will not try to appeal to you.

If you care about a free Palestine and don't vote, politicians will not try to appeal to you.

If you care about police and prison reform and don't vote, politicians will not try to appeal to you.

If you care about immigrants and don't vote, politicians will not try to appeal to you.

Politicians will act to appeal to the greatest number of voters. If you do not vote, they will appeal to the people who will. And the people who want to take away birth control, and criminalize trans people, and support Israel's genocidal campaign, and want to militarize the police, and want to exile every non-white person WILL VOTE.

In November, there are only two choices that matter. You either vote for Joe Biden or you do not. Any vote not cast for him or a vote withheld is support for Donald Trump.

Joe Biden is a politician and an imperialist. He may support Israel, but as we've been seeing, he can be made to back down. If you are loud and you put pressure on him, he can be made to do what is right. And he knows that if he wins, it will be because the people didn't want Trump. So he will be more inclined to listen to the people.

Donald Trump is a dictator and a fascist. He does not respect the rule of law. He does not respect the will of the people. He does not respect anyone or anything. If he comes into power again, he plans on seizing permanent power, deporting people en-masse and stripping away everyone's rights.

And we have seen his response to protests. He has had protestors shot at. He will never yield to any amount of force. He will only respond with violence.

Fascism doesn't use tanks and armed forces to seize power. It seizes power through deception. Fascism uses the tanks and armed forces to keep its power after seizing it.

The majority of people DO NOT want what the Republicans are offering. The Republicans only have power because they have lied and cheated and manipulated everything. And we need to come out in a force great enough that no amount of foul-play can overcome.

All the Republicans have to offer is hatred. All they can do is divide us against each other. And they can only win by stripping the rights from the people they dehumanize.

No amount of moral conviction matters if you will not commit even the barest minimum effort.

No amount of protest or demonstration or internet posting matters if you do not vote.

If you refuse to vote because no candidate is the purest morally right choice that would solve everything, then you can take your WORTHLESS moral superiority and FUCK OFF!

Taking no sides is siding with whoever DOESN'T NEED YOUR HELP. And Trump and his fascist cronies DO NOT need your help.

I meanwhile am going to add what little strength I can to moving the US in the right direction.

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Marginalized group: carries firearms and practices community self-defense literally to stay alive and protect community members from vicious fascist violence

Liberals: ooh this is so cool because maybe if Republicans see Black people/LGBT people/immigrants with guns it will trigger them into passing gun control laws so those communities can't defend themselves anymore and the police will have even more control over them I am a huge piece of shit and literally have the politics of Ronald Reagan in 1967

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Now that the dust has settled a little bit on the arrests around the coronation, I want to talk a little bit about what this means for the future of protest and policing in England and Wales.

Firstly, I want to caveat this by saying the police have always hated protests. Getting arrested at a protest has always been a risk. Getting beaten up by the police as they try to provoke violence has always been a risk. At a recent anti-fascist counter protest I attended, two arrests were made. One of these later turned out to be “mistaken identity” (neither person was charged), but this is what we’ve always been dealing with.

However, I do think this idea of arrest for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance is dangerous. It’s essentially a thought crime. We think you might do something criminal, therefore we are going to arrest you. It has the power to significantly disrupt all sorts of actions, and we do need to be wary of it. The fact you can be arrested whilst walking to a protest, carrying a sign or a megaphone, and that this arrest *may* be legal (I hope some of those involved today try to sue for wrongful arrest, but we will see) means potentially some actions will never get started, and that is not good for the future of protest in this country.

I would never blame someone for their arrest- their arrest is the fault of the police and the police alone. That said, we know Republic were talking to cops about their plans. This did not protect them, and may have made it easier for the police to locate and arrest them. I think, on here, we all know talking to cops is a bad idea, but let’s say it again, louder for those at the back “DON’T TALK TO COPS”.

Now, the police say that the coronation is a once in a lifetime event, hence their response- blah blah- the police hate protest. If they get away with this, they will do it again, they will push things as far as they can to try and shut down protest they don’t agree with. This means we do need to be careful around OpSec etc. I also know people who don’t understand why e.g. antifa groups conceal their identity. But this is yet another good reason to do so. Black bloc, grey bloc, staying anonymous online, secure communications all of this is increasingly important- whilst also obviously trying to ensure good turn outs.

If the police are going to arrest you for walking to a protest with a megaphone, then what’s stopping us from being more violent/aggressive in our protest? I know some people are ideologically wedded to peaceful protest, but these actions are now potentially illegal too. So what’s stopping us? What is actually holding us back? If holding a sign is too much for them, if that’s on the level of smashing a window now, then what’s to stop us smashing windows?

Finally, I want to talk to the organisers of peaceful protests about police monitoring and post arrest support. In the past, many groups have felt this wasn’t needed. But now, it could be. If you’re organizing a protest of any kind, I strongly encourage you to get in touch with the Green and Black Cross for advice, and to arrange legal observers. Print out bust cards and distribute them. I’d also strongly encourage you to set up some post arrest support. It’s far better to have it, and not need it, than need it and not have it. If you’re concerned about police behaviour, you could also contact NetPol for advice.

Green and Black Cross: https://greenandblackcross.org/

NetPol: https://netpol.org/

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

Peaceful anti war/pro Palestine protestors are being beaten and attacked by police with snipers on rooftops. Hundreds of Jewish students and faculty members being arrested.

Vs

Actual Nazis on the columbia university campus protesting.

If you’re Jewish in America this should be pretty terrifying. America protects its fascist that includes Zionists.

[racefortheironthrone]

This is probably a dumb question, but do you think that superheroes are an inherently fascistic idea? I was reading an anarchist essay that described the police as "militarized groups with coercive authority and a closed, bureaucratic structure. Not developing out of a social necessity to protect people, but rather as a means to give the ruling class greater control over the population and expand the state’s monopoly on the resolution of social conflict." That sounds uncomfortably like a superhero team.

See here.

And no, that doesn't really describe a superhero team. They generally don't have coercive authority (or any authority), they are almost never bureaucratic, and they often have quite tense-to-hostile relationships with the state. I also question the extent to which they're militarized (at least in the sense of a strict chain-of-command, formal rules of engagement, professional training, etc.).

I find that quote particularly ironic, in that superhero groups arguably most closely resemble anarchist self-defense organizations if they had a lot more power but were less actively engaged in trying to overthrow the government (but I repeat myself).