Honking horns! sirens! confrontations!
You can get that in lots of cities, but only Washington D.C. has a live streamer calling herself “Anarchy Princess” who marches in front of Jan. 6 sympathizers shouting into a megaphone:
“Terrorists coming, watch out, there’s terrorists behind me. The Nazis are behind me, Trump’s little cry baby losers, they insurrected the Capitol, are behind me. F*** Ashli Babbitt!”
This was followed by a smackdown. One of those sympathizers was Ashli Babbitt’s mom, and she literally pushed the Princess, grabbed her megaphone, and “smashed it to the ground,” which of course got her arrested (watch video below). (This wasn’t her first run-in with law enforcement; see video here.)
The Princess herself isn’t so innocent; you can see her kicking over one of several small American flags lining a curb in front of a booth and table occupied by sympathizers, waving her middle finger as she goes.
In a political town like Washington D.C., you’re bound to have disagreements. What we need is a scoring system that awards points for ingenuity, creativity, boldness, chutzpah, sheer guts, and whatever else makes demonstrations interesting.
The backstory of this scene is that a small group of sympathizers gathers at “Freedom Corner” to demonstrate solidarity with insurrectionists rotting in D.C.’s notorious jail, where conditions have long been a target of civil rights groups like the ACLU, but didn’t interest anyone else until the normally black jail population received an infusion of white faces (see story here).
An ACLU lawyer who has sued over the jail conditions says, “it should not have taken the complaints of these white January 6 defendants and their families for people to act on this … family members of the mostly Black residents have been raising these problems for years.” I’m thinking if conditions are now improving for black inmates because white revolutionaries are imprisoned there, that’s a good thing.
Anyway, about 15 to 20 sympathizers regularly gather at “Freedom Corner” to give speeches, sing the “Star Spangled Banner,” and say things like:
“These are really good guys. They’re fathers, they’re uncles, they’re veterans. Most of them have served this country. They fought for us, they fought for our freedom. Because these are really great amazing mentors, stand-up men, they don’t deserve what’s happening to them.”
They’re talking about people like “Jeff Sabol, a Colorado man accused of dragging a police officer down a flight of stairs at the US Capitol on January 6 and beating him.” Whether he’s a victim of government persecution is a matter of opinion. But I think if you’re going to put someone in a rotten, moldy jail, he’s as good as any.
Now, as for my point system, should I award people points for singing the national anthem of a government they tried to overthrow? That’s a tough one, because it’s certainly creative, and a bold demonstration of chutzpah; but also feels awkward. On the other hand, “Anarchy Princess” is a winner in my book, although she gets 20 demerits for kicking the flag.
But the most points go to Washington D.C. itself, because given its posturing politicians, fake “freedom fighters,” and colorful counter protesters, clearly it has the most interesting demonstrations.