Virginia Beach: How Not To Organize A Counter Protest

We were going to go the March 4 Trump rally in Mount Trashmore Park regardless of how others were organizing. When we came across a Facebook event that was attempting to mobilize against it, I could barely believe what I read. I will unabashedly throw these organizers and this brand of organizing under the bus after what we were subjected to, which includes not only our complete ineffectiveness but also the destruction of my political agency and personal freedom.

This event was distinctly more dangerous than events I have participated in recent memory. When we arrived on time to the event we were subjected to a thoughtfully constructed diatribe of how we were to act, in very specific words. The most emphasized idea was that we were to remain completely silent. Say nothing. Avoid side conversation let alone interact with Trump supporters. As stated this did not only negate me my personal freedom, but more insidiously, painted me as a criminal if I didn’t comply. Shut your mouth until we tell you otherwise. If it even needs to be said, this authoritarian style of organizing fits nicely in with the forces we came out to oppose. At the very least, it was a disgusting display of self-imposed leadership.  Those who organized such an insipid charade should be publicly shamed.

We we subjected to another ill-thought out lecture on how to deal with arrests and conflict as siphoned through the legal system. Don’t do anything, but if you do the legal system can protect you. We were informed to film everything; even to the point of making sure to hold your cellphone camera sideways to get the full scope of the event. In retrospect, I don’t even know why I was standing with these people, I should have just gone and done my own thing. Passing out anarchist propaganda to Trump supporters would have been a hell of a lot more fun and interesting. Thankfully, I only heard bits of this legalese while I was eyeing the crowd for someone I may have some affinity with. The few of us found each other.

Back to these organizers with this sick twist of hypocrisy: they insisted the whole mode of our (in)action was in some way enforcing our rights to freedom of speech. As a friendly pointed out, one of these individuals was unbelievably wearing a tee-shirt that read “White Silence is Violence.” Cognitive dissonance can’t even begin describe this sort of total fuckery. I’m still not exactly sure if it was some creative experiment in protest tactics, an ill-timed art project, done out of fear of state repression or just a shitty idea. The only possible conclusion could be that it was just a really shitty idea; one of the most shittiest ideas out of all shitty ideas I’ve came across lately. I’m no proponent of rights, but one second of critical inspection betrays the fact that this notion of not speaking at all (!) completely tramples our innate freedom to speak. The Trump supporters were exercising this quite liberally.

And really, it just takes all the fun out of a protest for everyone involved. Protests should be at the very least fun. Chant, shout, yell, make a stink! When protests are good they’re empowering, and at their very best: effective. Their concept of protest just threw it all out the windows of reason.

Of course, we were already warned of all this. Anti-authoritarian political critique had told us days prior that this presence, the protest police, is exactly what we would have to deal with.

The geographics were simple: we had assembled across a so-called barricade from the Trump supporters, said barrier maybe 30 yards across with a handful of cops occupying it. What was even more disheartening than all of us not even attempting to step out into this designated space was the fact that there was small children gliding by on hoverboards along with casual runners jogging through the space unabated and ignored. In the end, the pointlessness of our counter protest was only matched by the pointlessness of the Trump rally.

As much as anyone wanted to escalate the conflict, if that’s even the right way to frame it when you could be shushed for just talking loudly, we weren’t about to be quasi-martyrs for a vast majority who would have thrown us to the cops at a seconds notice. A thoughtful discussion was had as to whether if any action whatsoever would paint us as the bad, divisive anarchists. We all pick and choose our moments, and as much as I thought it should have been one of those moments, it wasn’t the moment. The one time we attempted to confront Trump supporters masked, we were challenged with an archaic, localized law on the books that could lock us up with a felony charge for wearing a mask. A cop had this law printed out in their pocket just for the occasion. Of course, one of us Trump-protesters thanked the police on the way out for the good job the police had done. Thanks guy, maybe next time the cops can give us a reach around while they fuck us over on our freedom on a daily basis.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…Fuck you!

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