What can possibly follow just days after Trump’s Fourth of July national embarrassment? A “Demand Free Speech Freedom Rally” organized by a handful of prominent far-right groups. The most well-known? Probably the Proud Boys, who the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group. This rally began around noon on Saturday. The “theme” was, apparently, tech censorship. This isn’t too surprising, as many white supremacists have been booted from social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube—though, to be clear, still not enough have gotten kicked off.
Let’s go over some speakers whose numbers you’ll probably recognize. Greg Aselbekian talked about the importance of free speech (he’s been removed from Twitter) and ranted about flag burning, as reported by DCist. After him, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer (you might remember her from when she handcuffed herself to Twitter’s headquarters), Enrique Tarrio (the current chairman of the Proud Boys), and Gavin McInnes (the founder of the Proud Boys) all spoke on stage.
McInnes compared beating up antifa members to Nazi soldiers killing Soviet troops in World War 2, by the way. You can see the clip below…
More notable, however, is the sheer amount of counter-protesters who showed up.
Protesters including Black Lives Matter, Code Pink, and antifa groups worked together to protest in Pershing Park (across the street from Freedom Plaza, where the far-right rally took place). Among other things, counterprotesters danced to go-go music.
As has been reported, Proud Boys, in particular, have a history of violence at their protests. In an interview with Think Progress, Park Police noted that they were well-aware of this and had Special Forces units prepared, if necessary. So far, no arrests have been made.
Now, to be clear, police presence is not necessarily a good thing for everyone. Especially for communities who are historically terrorized and targeted by the police, it can be downright dangerous. Reports of seeing the cops be seemingly pretty darn chummy with white nationalists, including Proud Boys, are also important to keep in mind:
People who have attended the protest (or simply walked by) have added a lot of context on Twitter, too:
You can follow protest updates with the #AllOutDC hashtag on Twitter, too.