Fighting Back Against Hate: November 13th, 2010

So here's what my yesterday afternoon involved:

 

(All photo credits: Robert Haasch)

Yes, the National Socialist Movement, a neo-nazi hate group, was back in Phoenix. This time, they were protesting the recent judiciary actions that pared back the provisions in SB 1070, a law fully supported by the NSM. Think about that for a second. When a white supremacist hate group fully endorses your legislation, champions it even, it might be a good idea to rethink the implications of your legislation. Maybe redo the cost-benefit analysis. Right?

While Russell Pearce was conspicuously absent from THIS rally--it should be noted that he's attended (even sponsored) past anti-immigrant events hand-in-hand with a notorious former(?) NSM member. This former(?) NSM member, J.T. Ready, was there, apparently in full support of his comp-'hate'-riots.

A cueball-headed Ready, 11-13-10.

This, to me, is very scary. The fact that these guys have an apparent "in" to the innerworkings of the Arizona State Legislature is disturbing. The fact that one of their own was endorsed for political office in Mesa by the current President of the Arizona State Senate is horrendous. And the mere fact that people still think like this, in 21st century America, is beyond appalling. 

But I digress a bit, because the original intent of this blog post was to reiterate what was conspicuously absent in most of the mainstream media reports from yesterday's march/protest/riot: one entire side of the story. I'm not going to promise neutrality; I can't. I can only promise to relate what I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears. So here it is, emotional at times but as accurate as possible, written to the best of my memory and ability.

The counter-protesters arrived on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Washington, at the site of the eventual NSM rally. With the exception of a squad of police decked out in riot gear, and a couple of NSMers futzing with the sound system, we were alone. This was disorienting to many of us, who had been on time... apparently being a neo-nazi doesn't necessarily make you punctual.  People in clown costumes, anarchists with black hoodies and bandanas obscuring their features, people with drums and whistles and other musical instruments, a Unitarian church group in yellow shirts, members of the Brown Berets in their khaki and brown uniforms, and plenty of people like me: nondescript but passionate enough to rally for the cause, holding signs and megaphones and hoping that somehow, things would stay relatively peaceful.

That wasn't to be.

Word reached us that the NSMers were marching east down Jefferson, toward us. The people with the bandanas took off running in their direction. A large group of us followed at a slower pace. When I arrived at Jefferson and 8th Avenue, the anarchists had formed a human blockade of linked arms, stretching across the four-lane street.  We could see them, in the distance, their flags waving (warped, perverted variations of American flags with black swastikas), but almost completely obscured by the line of riot police forming a perimeter around them. 

At 8th Avenue, things ground to a halt. People stood toe-to-toe with police, shouting obscenities and chanting at the NSMers, who retaliated with yells of "Seig Heil" and racial epithets. A few objects were thrown over the cops' heads, into midst of the NSM group--a few homemade noisemakers, a bag of bloody meat. The police stood silent. The tension was physically tangible.

I need to say that at this point, I did feel sympathy for many of the officers. I remember telling somebody, "I bet some of them are thinking 'What shitty luck I had to come into work today.'" I locked eyes with a few and held up a peace sign; I couldn't see their full reactions behind their helmet-shields. I wonder if theirs were thoughts of appreciation, indifference, or derision for the (relatively) quiet girl with the anti-Nazi sign and the "Am I Legal?" shirt. Even after events unfolded afterwards, I still very much believe that not all police officers are "fascist pigs" (although some of them certainly don't try very hard to disprove those who think so). So when I heard one girl scream "fascist fucking pigs" in their direction for the eleventh time, I couldn't stay quiet anymore. I briefly repeated my sentiment, and she looked at me like I was one of the people with the nazi flags. I guess they were all the same, in her eyes. And as for me, a sympathizer was a sympathizer, in her mind. My general feeling of sympathy would alter drastically, however, in the span of an hour.

People were yelling, and sweating in the afternoon heat, and blowing airhorns, and not moving. I saw one of the bandana-wearers remove his shirt to reveal a Star of David tattoo on his upper left chest. No one budged. This went on for about an hour. It felt like much longer. 

*Never once did I hear an order for the crowd to disperse. It may have been ordered, but no one near me heard it. Let it be said again: standing on the sidewalk, not 10 feet from the line of police, I did not hear any spoken warning from the Phoenix PD.*

A call went out among the counter-protesters: the gas masks were going on. The anarchists braced themselves against the riot shields. Those of us on the sidewalks held our breath. And suddenly, there was pepper spray in the air. Everywhere. One of the local reporters and bloggers at the Phoenix New Times was right in front, and reportedly got the worst of the initial onslaught (read his account here). Even from the relative "safety" of the sidewalks, we were sent scrambling, coughing and gagging. The air was thick with it; you couldn't avoid it. The feeling of thick, blistering pepper spray lodging in your throat, eyes and nose is one that I won't forget any time soon. 

Holding vinegar-soaked rags to their faces, everyone was sent running as the cops discharged what is probably the most liberal amount of spray I've ever seen used on people at any protest, unprovoked. I say unprovoked, because (contrary to news reports) protesters did not charge the police barricade. I've heard this justification used several times. It didn't happen. What did happen was mutual pushing, as protesters struggled to hold their ground against police with riot shields. Meanwhile, the NSMers laughed and chanted "Gas the Jews," over and over. The kid with the Star of David tattoo flashed through my mind. Sympathy for the cops quickly morphed into 'pissed off' in general. 

The counter-protesters regrouped about a block away. This time, heavy metal newspaper receptacles formed a less-vulnerable barricade across the street. While the anarchists reformed their line, volunteer riot medics on bicycles rode around with water bottles full of magnesium hydroxide, to pour in spray victims' eyes in order to counteract the burning. I watched a fellow protester and peace advocate (a friend of mine) get a blast of pepper spray full in the face; she was holding a sign that said "Free Hugs" so I can see how they might have thought she was a credible threat. Sorry, editorializing. But I'm really not sorry. The image of this woman, brought to her knees on the side of the road, screaming in pain from the burning in her eyes and mouth and scalp, is not one I'm likely to ever get over.

*Official mainstream media reports, by and large, ignored this equal-opportunity gassing of the Arizona activist populace by its law enforcement.* Instead, they reported a few "bumps and bruises" suffered by NSMers and by police, due to the events that followed (read on):

Then someone threw a rock. I can't say exactly where it came from, except from someone in the street, but it hit one of the NSMers in the head. Then rocks were flying from multiple directions. I don't condone this type of action at all, but it seemed to me that an inevitable chain of events had been set in motion from the moment the police decided to bring out the pepper spray. People were enraged. You can't ignite a spark in a dry field on a windy day and expect not to have a wildfire on your hands. 

What commenced was essentially a violent back-and-forth between the Phoenix PD and the anarchists. Which, I think, was something the NSM was hoping for. It certainly was something the mainstream media were hoping for, since that aspect of the day was all that was reflected in the newscasts that evening. Purple tear gas was dispensed by the police, nails were scattered across the road by the anarchists to supposedly puncture the tires of the police vehicles, and back and forth; the whole procession slowly made its way down Jefferson to the courthouse.

So the nazis held their rally. The counter-protesters were restrained behind a concrete barricade about forty feet from them, but we continued to hold our signs and chant and make noise. I didn't hear what Jeff Schoep (head Furher) was saying over the speaker system, as our noise drowned most of it out. A lot of the NSMers--even more emboldened because of the distance, and the reinforced barricades of concrete and riot police--waved their flags at us, gave us the nazi salute, and pantomimed targeting and shooting protesters with imaginary guns. Fairly anticlimactic, but we stayed as long as they did. And "escorted" them to their cars.

*This post isn't an attack on the First Amendment.* I am instead trying to underscore the fact that the general attitudes about immigration in this state are creating environments where ideologies of hate groups like the NSM flourish. They were able to come here under the guise of "illegal immigration"; they have come before, and they have come often. Our Senate President, Russell Pearce, used to rub shoulders with J.T. Ready; Pearce has recently denounced neo-nazi movements, but Ready has implied otherwise. 

Another point I cannot stress enough is that there are times when sitting home just doesn't work. People are always torn when it comes to the decision to demonstrate against groups like the NSM: ignore them and make them march alone, reducing the chances for media coverage and making them look like fools? Or in situations like these, is silence another word for implied consent?

I believe the latter. Despite the slanted media coverage, despite the fact that people were hurt, and despite the fact that I would have preferred nonviolent tactics over what did transpire yesterday... I believe that in instances such as these, if you say nothing, do nothing, in the face of evil on your doorstep, evil is soon inside your house. 

If the National Socialist Movement has the constitutional right to march and rally under their racist banner, then we who oppose that disgusting mentality have every equal right to show up and scream loudly our dissent.

Here's one last (skewed?) video recap.  And yes, that is me at 2:02, in my typical role of peace advocate. During the impasse at Jefferson and 8th, I was interviewed by a local Fox affiliate. Yes, ironically, of all the news stations out there, Fox News asked me for an interview. *Sigh.* 

While not all of my comments made it to the airwaves, I do remember talking about the need for civil dialogue. And how the presence of the NSM--their hateful ideology, their deepening involvement in political matters in this state--all but eliminates that possibility.