Nazis rally fail ends by 2pm with only minor incidents, which is an hour ago. And, since the day went forward with only minor incident, I took the time to go home and dry off before updating. Not many pics, because it was raining like mad.
So how was the day?
Well, by noon the Emergency Rendition Band (one of two marching Bands in Providence) was making some noise. So were a lot of other folks who came out in the rain to protest the Nazi Rally. There were about 250, maybe 300 American Patriots who came to offer their thought about Nazis gathering on the statehouse lawn.
The Nazis, who numbered around 40 (maybe 50), were still setting up equipment under the pop-up tents. A line of police gave the Nazis a warm sense of security, which you can even see by the smile on Ponytail Nazi in the pic. There was no violence or threats of violence, just a bunch of noise makers, 5 gal buckets as drums, a megaphone or two and a brass section.
Eventually, these mental midgets got started with the speechifying part of the program. Pretty much all of them were huddled under the tents, except for a few Nazi trolls* that mingled. They did not really have much of a PA, and the only audience was standing around the PA or behind it. But, the Nazis had a fool proof backup plan in case no one actually came out in the pissing rain to hear the hate speech. They were going to livestream the speeches 10 feet away from a crowd whose loudest chants were sometimes drowned out by its own general noise making, despite pleas from some Nazis to the police asking the police to quiet down the protesters so that the Nazis could exercise their right to free speech in peace and quiet. The cops, at least where I was, understood that private citizens expressing themselves in response to another person’s exercise of free speech is not an infringement of 1st amendment rights. Or not. But they did not stop us from drowning out any possible broadcast. But the Nazis persisted. A few minutes after noon, one Nazi gleefully called out “And… we’re live!”
About ten seconds later, a group of Patriots rushed the Nazi tents. The tents got all upended. The tables got knocked over, and I’m guessing some of their gear got a bit soggy. There was a bit of scuffling, but nobody was arrested or bleeding when it simmered down a few minutes later. For the next hour or so, everyone took pictures of each other and got rained on. The Americans had some fun chants. One of my faves was (to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)
“If you’re a Nazi and you’re fired it’s you’re fault.
If you’re a Nazi and you’re fired it’s you’re fault.
Know that if you lose your job
Because you’re a Nazi slob
If you’re a Nazi and you’re fired, it’s your fault.”
The Nazis had no chants at all.
After about an hour or so of taunting, mocking, and yelling at the Nazis, some of the Nazis left. This confused me, because SirHatesalot of the Dumb Table (pictured above) should know that you should never split the party. I followed the splinter group of Nazis with a crowd singing “NA NA NA NA. NA NA NA NA. Hey Heeyyy. Goodbye.”
I don’t know if the folks at the tent ever got anything working.
Eventually, the rest of the Nazis decided to pack it in. Again, we sang them to the curb. Then continued to chant. Then we got a bit bored and confused because apparently not a single Nazi called for a ride or something at the volume died down for a bit. I let a couple of them know that I’m really sorry they didn’t get enough hugs from their dads, but that they could heal. It took them another half hour or so to finally all get enough minivans with Trump stickers came to load up the gear (minus the tents).
But still they lingered. I guess they explained to the police that that a bunch of them parked at the shopping mall across across the street, they were too scared to go to their cars with all these Patriots around. So, the police led them down the city block like they were third graders on a field trip. Then the Nazis went to mall, and anybody who was not a Nazi was barred entry. (Well dry folks probably were, because if you were dry, you sure weren’t at the rally or counter-protest.)
I saw one arrest. Heard that someone else got arrested. A couple of testy moments, but overall, pretty chill. The state police riot squad piled the busted tents and some other debris as neatly as debris can be piled in the rain and they went home. The patriots sorted the recycling and took out the trash.
SO… all is back to normal in Providence, but Nazis are still out and about in Portland and the seem a good bit inclined to cause a problem.
Link to diary Portland Diary Here
(hey — shout out to the one person I called a troll — super sorry I said that. I really misunderstood what you said and had just dealt with a couple others touting bothsiderism)