This is getting interesting, and will only grow more so as the '24 elections approach (Updated)
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Masked Antifa mob and assorted other fascists attack in Pittsburgh
Gabrielle Etzel, Campus Reform:
I never thought I would be in the middle of a violent physical battle on the streets of Pittsburgh, a practical war zone breaking out in my hometown. But it happened on Tuesday night.
Michael Knowles and Brad Polumbo were in Pennsylvania to debate transgender rights and the role of government in those rights. The protest itself, though, was an illustration that free speech and intellectual inquiry in America are being replaced with acts of intimidation and violence.
As a reporter covering the event, I walked amongst the protesters for nearly an hour before the start of the debate, hearing the organizers with their microphones screaming that they were going to “get in the faces” of the attendees. I followed them to the venue and heard them chanting “Nazis go home” and “Shut it down.”
But as soon as I crossed the barricade to attend the event itself, I became the protesters’ enemy.
From that point, the scenes became increasingly frightening.
Obscenities were screamed at my companion and me. We were told that we “should have been wiped out in 1945” and that there would “be no Nuremberg Trial for us this time.”
Shortly after this, someone in the crowd threw a lit road flare into the line of attendees, which landed inches away from me. Thankfully, my companion and I, as well as the other attendees, were able to swiftly flee and escaped harm.
Even once we made it into the event hall and through the intense security, everyone inside the venue sat in shocked silence when an incendiary device exploded close enough to the building that the lights shook and the sound reverberated throughout the room.
Being told to stand clear of the windows as the chants of the protesters became louder at the end of the debate, and being rushed out of the back exit by armed police were also new experiences for me.
What struck me to my core, however, was being screamed at by an individual protester, “Go home, nobody wants you here, Nazi.”
I am not a Nazi, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, is and will always be my home.
But freedom of speech is not just under attack in my home. Although the protests at the Knowles-Polumbo event may have been extreme, they were just one manifestation of a growing problem.
[RELATED: Matt Walsh cancels campus speech after threats to his family]
In recent weeks, Campus Reform has been following the outbursts of trans rights activists at both the Cabot Phillips and Riley Gaines speeches that were held at the University of Pittsburgh, which were met with hostility from students and the broader community.
Gaines was also physically and verbally assaulted by activists at San Francisco State University, where she was locked in a room for three hours until the San Francisco Police Department was able to secure her exit.
The Fort Worth Police Department released surveillance and body camera videos of Antifa members attacking people who were protesting a drag event and then resisting arrest from officers after they attempted to bring them in custody for the initial assault.
The first video taken from a surveillance camera shows the Antifa members walking over to the side of the street where the anti-drag protesters were. The Antifa group started to surround them and one of them used pepper spray on the protesters. Fort Worth Police say many in the Antifa crowd were armed with either handguns or long guns.
When responding officers tried to get suspect Samuel Fowlkes to surrender, Fowlkes can be seen on body camera walking, then running away from the officers. This forced the officers to grab Fowlkes to arrest him. Other Antifa members can be seen fighting the police. Christopher Guillott swung an umbrella and hit an officer in the face before being arrested.
Fowlkes continued to resist arrest after being pinned to the ground and called out for help. An officer can be heard telling Fowlkes to not reach for a gun or else he is going to be shot. After Fowlkes was secured, Meghan Grant charged the officers, claiming one of the arrestees needed medical attention, being pushed back multiple times before being taken into custody.
We banned the KKK from wearing masks decades ago, and it’s time to do it again, but this time to prevent ANTIFA Brownshirts and Inner city thieves and looters from tearing apart the country.
