On the front page of the NYT hard copy: Source: Fringe Groups Revel as Protests Turn Violent – The New York Times
Kyle Chapman expected he might find a fight. And he did — with a teenage girl.
The girl was waving an anti-fascist placard last week at a protest against Shariah law in Midtown Manhattan when a scuffle broke out and she knocked an older woman to the ground.
“Assaulting our people?” Mr. Chapman shouted as he reached across the barricades and ripped her sign apart. “Your days are numbered, Commie!” he called after her as the police escorted her away. “The American people are rising up against you!”
As the founder of a group of right-wing vigilantes called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, Mr. Chapman, a 6-foot-2, 240-pound commercial diver, is part of a growing movement that experts on political extremism say has injected a new element of violence into street demonstrations across the country.
Charming. Maybe they only show up when a group is smaller than their group. Yes, that would fit their M.O.: raging, not very insightful bullies.
And the pro-Trump groups today were apparently small. A woman who went to the National Mall described it thusly: “Literally tens of people! HUGE crowds, at least as big as his hands.”
There were maybe a thousand of us in New York assembling at Foley Square–which leans into Thomas Paine Park. My fave Founding Father, naturally. He was a writer, not a fighter. Well, he wrote the fight. That should be good enough.
I’m again struck by how comfortable I am in a mass of people, when the people are as good-humored, witty and patient as they are in New York. Nobody stepped on my sandal-clad toes, nobody pushed. Except a few photographers. We chanted things like, “Hey Ho Trump must go!” The chant got even more spirited when it morphed into “Hey Ho, the GOP must go!”
There were several bands, at least one massive tuba, drums, the usual courteous laid-back police. Good signs, too. We marched right past the statue of the little fearless girl staring down the Wall Street bull. Today she was wearing a pink pussy hat and was surrounded by admirers.
After the march, I marched myself up to Santiago Calatrava’s great boney bird sculpture which is also the PATH train portal. I’d not yet seen it full blast. They’re calling it the Oculus now, I believe, although to me it’ll always be a great boney bird sculpture. It is spectacular.