WEBVTT - Stories of Armed Community Defense 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:03.960 It seems like hardly a month goes by where we 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.960 are not bombarded with horrific images of far ride violence, 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.799 mass shootings, the target synagogues, black churches, and queer nightclubs, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.200 death threats to hospitals, spurred by post from online trolls, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.600 and a barrage of fascist groups attempting to intimidate everyone 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:26.880 and everything. From children's events, black Lives Matter protests, pride celebrations, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.560 and abortion clinics. Boden resistance is mobilized and people do 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.000 push back. The media often frames these confrontations is a 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.200 clash simply between two sets of extremists. On today's shows, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.839 the It's Going Down crew once again takes over it 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.680 could happen. Here we look at how far from being 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.920 just confined to small sets of antifas super soldiers, mass 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.960 community self defense is part and parcel to the DNA 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.680 of grassroots movements for liberation in the so called United States. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.160 We can see this throughout the ongoing history of indigenous 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.200 resistance to callization. In the fight against slavery and racial apartheid. 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.080 Radical labor unions such as the i w W organized 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.160 against the Ku Klux Klan, attention that even led to 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.760 running gun battles, while militant organizers like Robert F. Williams 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.479 and groups such as the Deacons for Defense, who helped 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.320 inspire the Black Panthers, fought back against white racist mobs. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.600 In the book This Non Violent Stuff Will Get You Killed, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.320 author Charles E. Cobb documents this history, discussing the wide 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.720 use of arms and defending civil rights organizers from white supremacists. 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.200 Groups like Anti Racist Action or a r A carried 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.800 on this trajectory, working to set up chapters of organized 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.440 anti racists that confronted neo Nazi groups the Clan, and 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:49.080 participated in defense of abortion clinics. Once again, I'm Mike Andrews, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.120 Let's get into it. In two thousand five, in the 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.880 wake of Hurricane Katrina, the levy surrounding New Orleans broke, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.880 flooding working class communities and homes. Those that could evacuate fled, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.000 while many, often pouring black, were stuck behind to fend 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.440 for themselves. Stepping into this setting was a group of 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.880 black liberation and anarchist activists who worked to set up 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.920 mutual aid hubs and free clinics dubbed Common Ground. But 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.160 as these volunteers worked to feed people, restore people's homes, 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.720 and provide free medical care. They quickly found that they 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.320 weren't the only organized force on the streets of New Orleans. 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.480 In this following interview, Sunseri Ali Shakur discusses how the 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.560 group came up against and defended themselves from a formation 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.959 of armed racist white vigilantees who worked directly with local 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.320 police and our suspected of carrying out multiple murders of 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.600 unarmed black men. A warning. However, this interview was graphic 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:53.840 in details death, racist violence, and anti black racism. My 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.880 name is s I'm organized out of Wasson and d C. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.560 I went to New Orleans UH doing Katraina, doing the 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.480 Katraina after Math, and I helped form co co found 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:14.680 Common Ground Relief and common Ground was formed as a 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:20.720 response to the calamity of Katraina and UM. Common Ground 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.000 was also the brainchild of the Angle of Three, so 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.320 a lot of the base organizers of Common Ground were 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:33.360 already in New Orleans. UH organized and helped the Angola Three. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:38.280 So the Angle of Three was basically the god fathers 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.640 of Common Ground Ground Relief. We lost a few of 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.680 the of the elders, Alfred Wood Fox and such and 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:51.080 we still got King uh King, what is and everything? 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.840 A note to our listeners. Of three referred to here 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.360 is a group of formally incarcerated black political prisoners and 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.760 members of the Black Parentther Party when the nineteen seventies 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.480 were imprisoned in the notorious Angola Facility in Louisiana. This 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.680 included Robert Hillary King, Albert Wood Fox, and Hermann Wallace. 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.800 King was released in two thousand one, and, along with 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:19.000 another former Black panther, Malik Raheem, became involved in mutual 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.320 aid and disaster relief efforts in New Orleans following Katrina 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.400 in two thousand five under the banner of common ground. 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:30.320 Wallace was released from prison on October one, only to 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.480 pass away sadly three days later, a day after being 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.640 reindited by the state. Albert Wood Fox was finally released 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.840 in February of two thousand sixteen and passed on six 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.240 years later due to complications from COVID nineteen tireless activists 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.240 on both sides of the prison walls. Together, the angal 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.760 of three endured a combined total of one fourteen years 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.719 in solitary confinement. Yeah, my job, when I when I 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.039 touched down the common ground was basically I was a 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.880 released scout UM. I wore many hats, I was a 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:08.440 mediation person, head of security UM. And I also organized 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:16.280 about seven UM makeshift hurricane distribution UH centers from New 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.560 Orleans to the Bayou. And I spent eighteen months there 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:24.920 and children's free breakfast program. Anything that the community needed, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.400 you know, I provided. I used to drive like fourteen 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:33.719 hundred miles a week taking supplies from New Orleans UH 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:38.320 into different bious and different surrounding areas in New Orleans. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.360 That was my my job. When I first got there, 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.919 I ran into Malink Rahim, a former black pather in 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:51.279 New Orleans, Scutive Minister of Defense, and when I touched down, 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.560 he had told me that there were a group of 0:05:55.360 --> 0:06:00.400 white vigilantees, up to eighteen of them, riding around and 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.640 murdering black people as they walked through these white communities 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:10.920 and Algiers and Algier Point. Algiers wasn't affected by water, 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.600 but it did have a great deal of wind damage. 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.400 Most of the houses was intact, it just wasn't no 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.560 electricity and the water was also a problem. Well, what 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.279 they would do they would tie UH cans from one 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.600 fence to another beginning of the neighborhood of the street. 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:34.120 And if they were in their homes and uh, you 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:35.880 bumped in, you know, you you try to get up 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.840 under the cans, and the cans started ringing. They would 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.280 open up windows and and and begin u fire at you. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.279 And they were jumping their pickup trucks and chase you down. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.120 And some uh you know, some are murdered, you know, 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.960 point blank. And those whom they wounded, they were throwing 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.200 the back of the truck. Take to a garage and 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.320 pour gasoline over your wounds, put cigarettes out on you. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.719 And uh, some didn't make it out that situation. They, 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.760 like I said, they dropped about courting and information we got. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.520 They dropped nineteen and some black men and the brothers 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.160 in the community got tired of of of these guys 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.520 and they broke into a pawn shop and stole all 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.720 the guns out the pown shop. And there was about 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.680 to be a major race war. And um, you gotta 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:31.119 understand too, how tight the situation was because their base, 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.800 their house the day they hung out at their backyard 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.640 connected with our backyard, so it was extremely tense. So 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.880 when the brothers broke into the pond shop and got 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.120 the weapons out. Just so happened. The next day the 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.400 National Guards showed up. But if the National Guard didn't 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.880 show up the next day, it would have been extremely 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.280 ugly out there. Uh and everything. And yeah, they used 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.880 to patrol the streets and the pickup trucks. We would 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.160 see them all the time. I would see them all 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.240 the time, and they were cowards, man, you know, they 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.160 would tender one. It's always tender one. You know. Ten 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:11.600 vigilante is the one black man, unharmed black man. But 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.080 we noticed one they would drive by. We would come 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.520 out with our weapons on our hips and let them 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.080 know that this ain't no place to mess with. Keep driving. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:22.880 You know what I'm saying. You will be fired upon 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.320 you come here with that business. And I would have 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.920 to set up patrols for our house at night. Um, 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:35.040 I would sleep uh in the hallway and malaks home 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.080 with a nominal of me to car being rifle strapped 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.280 across my chest in a radio column, so I could 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.599 keep in contact with the others who were unarmed and 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.320 doing patrols, you know, watching the house while the other 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.080 thirty six volunteers have slept intense in the backyard. You know, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.200 we're asleep. Lucky for us. They were a bunch of 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.079 cowards and they kept it moving. I would see them 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.400 all the time, and they were they were afraid of 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.920 me because they knew that I was not afraid of them, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.080 and I was armed, and uh we all when we 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.040 had a few people back at the house that was 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.880 armed as well. You could ride down certain streets and 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:22.280 there will be uh dead bodies that were bloated, uh 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.360 from being left out in the sun. And uh those 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.200 bodies were left by the vigilantees. The rumor was that 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.719 the do on the police department told the vigilantes. We 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.880 gave the vigilantes a green light to do what they 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.520 needed to do and as far as the bodies, just 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.480 leave them near the gutter and they would come and 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.440 collect them later, which they didn't. The bodies stayed out there, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.599 I would say up to two months, you know you. 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:51.760 I mean, they were like you can see them all 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.680 the time, and um, there a lot of people had left. 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.079 There wasn't a lot of people there because people had evacuated, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.359 a lot of stray dogs running around out uh impacts 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.480 of thirty And what we would have to do is 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.160 get up early in the morning when the curfew was over. 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.720 Take bids she's from Malink's mother's room, and go out 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.839 and wrap up the bodies with these sheets. Keep the 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.480 dogs from ripping them open for fluid and food. Reporting 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.360 In the Nation of Republica, investigative journalists A. C. Thompson 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.079 spent months speaking with survivors of Katrina about a racist 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.800 militia that formed in the predominantly white neighborhood of Algiers Point. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.760 He carried out a series of deadly shootings and even 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.720 worked directly with local law enforcement. White residents told investigators 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.960 the police had given them a green light to shoot 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:42.440 anyone quote breaking into their property into quote leave the 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.280 bodies on the side of the road. Others spoke of 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.080 a free for all of white against black, where whites 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.479 condulged in violence with compunity. Years later, several white vigilantings 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.760 were found guilty were sentenced to prison time for shootings 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.840 and murder. And like many modern conspiracy theories pushed by 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:03.680 the far right about and BLM during the George Foight Uprising, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.119 the vigilantes and Eltiers Point were largely animated by widespread 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.520 racist rumors that weren't founded about looterers um we were 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.840 harassed a lot by the and OPD. You know a 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.160 lot of times at gunpoint. They would come to our 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.640 house sometimes, you know, ten cars DP, you know, p 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.960 D would looking for Malink. One night they came through 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.320 looking for Malink and what we had heard that they 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.280 were out to assassinate him and anybody with him. They 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.360 came out looking for Malink one night, about ten cars 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.920 D and they had went through the house looking for him, 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.920 and they couldn't find them. And they pulled out this 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.400 fourteen year old young man that we had befriended to 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:49.040 live on the backstreet for mLink and they started beating him, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.360 saying that he has stole a cooler out somebody's yard 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.880 and minds you, you know, no one's there, so no 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.240 one's really missing that cool And the young man thought, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.520 you know, because we didn't have refrigeration and hadn't put 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.400 everything on ice. You know, ice was very important at 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.000 that time, and the water was very important, you know, 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.160 along with gasoline. But the young brother brought us a 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.719 cooler and the police put shot guards and everybody's stomachs 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.120 and they beat them in front of us and dared 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.360 us to do anything as far as like what the 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.080 environment looked like it was not and I say this, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.600 it was not a rescue mission. This was seemed like 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:30.600 they were running a drill, a military drill, you know, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.040 like the same hour, I mean, like the old project. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:34.880 You will look at the bridge and you will see 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.199 continue with military cars going across the cresta city bridge 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.840 at nighttime. In four corners of the community. You would 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.079 have black Hawk helicopters patrolling. You know, they will follow 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:50.760 you through the yard with spotlights. Also, we had homeland security, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:56.640 which included mercenaries. They were sometimes up to cars and 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:01.360 if you were to violate, uh, the curfew, they were 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.120 ride up on you and they had these little and 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.040 I used to have to interact with them because we 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.280 had some some some young people there that thought they 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.480 had privileged from up north would translate in New Orleans, 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.240 which it did not. Um, they've seen any white person 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.880 outside of New Orleans as a bunch of quote unquote 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.600 nigga levels. So I would have to negotiate with these 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.840 homeless security people. Um, you had to be very calm, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.280 very still, because you could see the pupils that pupils 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.199 were dilated with small anybody that's been in the war 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.760 like Vietnam and such an Uh, there's a storm. They 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.319 know when these people, when pupils are dilated like that, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.760 it means these people have killed several times. And the 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.320 my huncle used to call it a hundred miles there. 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.640 And you had to be very calm with these people 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.400 because if you flinched, if you did anything that they 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.599 didn't like or they felt threatened in any type of way, 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.000 they will open up fire on you. Um. They were 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.240 They had a R fifteens all of them had a 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.440 R fIF teams and not milling meter strapped to their legs. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.839 So it was more you know, it seemed more like 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.520 a military takeover, like I said before, than ar rescued 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.920 and further down the line. For in the months, you 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:20.120 had National guardsmen that opened fire on people, uh into 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:25.040 busy traffic. Um. You will find bodies in the seventh ward, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.040 in the eighth ward in different houses, UH with bullets 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.960 in the back of their head, you know, executive style, 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.640 and UM our investigating team will go out and witness 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.720 this firsthand. And I was a part of that investigating 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.320 team that would do a walk through the house where 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.160 the body was at. It was shot in the back 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.640 of the head and the rumor was, you know, we 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:54.240 had some rogue National guardsmen executing you know, people who 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.440 didn't have homes. We're home some homeless people. You know, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.720 they were left behind. Number one lesson I learned, umu 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.920 a trainer, was you may be a pacifist, but you 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.480 might need to pass and fists. You may need to 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.800 go out and get you firearms. Of course, we want 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.920 you to get proper training. Of course, we don't want 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:21.080 you to do anything illegal. Get your legal firearms and 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:26.960 get some training. The second lesson was that human beings 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:32.200 are incredible. We saw a lot of destruction, but we 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:34.560 also saw a lot of beauty and a lot of love. 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:39.080 In my experience too, we were common ground. People came 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.720 together in days and we fell in love with each 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.920 other within days. Because of the pressure of the situation. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.960 If we didn't love each other, if we didn't get 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.160 along with one another, we had to, you know, in 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.760 order for survival. Things were so bad that if your 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.320 car had broken down on the side of the highway 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.360 on the road, you had to call us and five 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:10.040 different vehicles will be speeding to your location. Um you know, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.400 to see who will get there first before Homeland security 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.920 or a vigilante group will roll up on you. You 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.480 can't rely on the state. Can't rely on the state. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.920 Stay with us as it could happen. Here returns after 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:36.440 the short break and the word from our sponsors. The 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.320 same year that Sinceria was facing down armed racist vigilantes 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.200 in New Orleans, the stage was also set for an 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.440 uprising to kick off in Toledo, Ohio. In our next interview, 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.560 Tom tells us how a largely black community an intergists 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.080 affiliated with anti racist action hit the streets against the 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.479 National Socialist Movement for the NSM and participated in uprising 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.000 to the sploded not just against the neo Nazis, but 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.360 the police that were protecting them as well. That Toledo 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:12.240 and to racism protests really began when a National Socialist 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.000 Movement member who was living in a black neighborhood in 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.840 Toledo pulled a gun on two black children that were 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.520 playing in the alley behind his house. Um those kids 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.639 then went home and told their parents. Their parents then 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.440 showed up to his house with weapons. The guy pulled 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.000 a gun on them and then called the National Socialist Movement, 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.919 who then showed up, and so they had been This 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:33.560 is back when Bill White was still the head of 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.320 ns M and NSM was actually starting to make some headway, 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.600 like they were growing really quickly. They targeted Ohio as 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.240 a recruiting ground um because they thought that they could 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.200 gain a lot of membership there. And so Toledo was 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.359 kind of their first foray into trying to do stuff 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.240 in Ohio. And so they announced a date and the 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.120 organizers on the ground and Toledo did something really interesting. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:57.639 Then instead of organizing activists, they went and organized in 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.600 the community directly um that they were going around the 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.359 streets to talking to people. Street gangs were calling truces 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.240 for the day, right, And so when October fifteenth rolled around, 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.760 like everybody showed up, like there were anarchists there, but 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.760 there were like tons of people from the neighborhood there. 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.679 The whole protest didn't last very long. It was this 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.919 is October five they sort of NSM was there and 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.919 they had their shields and people were hooking stuff at them, 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:20.760 but they were kind of too far away to really 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.159 like hit. So the cops started surrounding them and allowing 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.240 them to mark and as they were marching, they got 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:30.200 within projectile range of people who then started pelting them 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.280 with everything that they could think of the cops and 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.000 got them to run, got the Nazis to run so 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:36.960 they could kind of try and get them out of 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.640 the area. A group of people sort of cut back 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.360 behind the school trying and cut them off. I got 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.199 tear gas and when the tear gas flew, everything just 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.320 got set off. There was rioting on and off for 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.520 like three days in this neighborhood. After this, a bar 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.040 owned by a cop got burned, got looted, and then 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.440 burned to the ground. People try to burn this Nazi's 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.320 house down. They had to declare state of emergency over this, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.240 And so there are a number of things that really 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.280 important about that day, I think for for us, one 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.440 was it really did point to the effectiveness of community 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.320 anti fascist work. People that neighborhood were already mad, but 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.840 it was this sort of like mobilization work which was 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:15.720 done by people in the neighborhood and also done by 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.080 kind of anarchists that were down in the neighborhood working 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.240 with people to really make that what it was right. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.080 And it really showed what a community can do when 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:26.560 Nazis show up in their name, and how much a 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.119 community can reassert its ownership over their space when the 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.800 police decided to protect the Nazis that are attacking their neighborhood. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.520 But the other thing that really demonstrated that it really 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.320 kind of created was it created a dynamic in Ohio 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:40.800 which had been sort of building for a little while, 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.439 but you can kind of still feel the ramifications of it. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.560 So starting with the over the Rhine riots, which I 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.560 think we're in two thousand three or two thousand one, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.200 when the Cincinnati police killed Timothy Thomas, there had kind 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:56.200 of been this escalating series of you know, tensions with 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.680 with the state around this period of time. It's also 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.399 the period of time that a lot of high cities 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.040 were sort of beginning. They're the really cute period of 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.399 their decline that they had been sort of declining for 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.400 a while, But this is really when things got bad. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.199 It was starting really like the early two thousands, mid 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:15.359 two thousand's UM. The financial collapse in Cleveland, for example, 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.560 was in two thousand six UM, but it had already 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.240 been sort of going for a couple of years before that, 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.600 and so there were these political conditions that were in 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.840 place that facilitated this. But this also kind of created 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:32.600 a dynamic of confrontation with the state and created a 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:37.679 mentality within anarchist communities about being really realistic about what 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.480 those confrontations look like. UM that instead of being idealistic 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:43.280 sort of like people were in the anti war movement 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:48.560 and um, sort of approaching police from a perspective of 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.359 ideas and discourse, what we learned during those days is 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:54.840 that we should probably approach the police as a logistical 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.800 force and understand them as such. UM. It was after 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.800 that point that people really started researching police tactics in 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.840 this area of the country, and that has had really 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.800 profound impacts over the last fifteen years. Right. It really 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.399 did create an entire culture of really digging into those 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.840 kinds of things very carefully and doing it in a 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.920 way which wasn't bombastic, but was focused on actual research. 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.399 The reason that that could happen was what went down 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.159 on those days was so intense. UM. It was the 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.960 first time a lot of people had experienced like full 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:29.480 blown major rioting before and like major large scale urban 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.080 writing before, and it definitely changed a lot about the 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.960 way that anarchists in this area of the country approached things. UM. 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.600 And you can still feel the the ramifications the ripple 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.320 effects of that today. Stay with us. We're gonna take 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.640 a quick break and we'll be right back after these 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:58.800 words from our sponsors. In our last segment, we're going 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.480 to speak to anti fashion his researcher and author Spencer Sunshine. 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.160 But first, let's rewind the clock to when Trump first 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:11.400 came in as president in two thousand seventeen, kicking off riots, walkouts, 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:16.919 and protests around the country. Angry protests soon spilled into airports. 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.600 His people in the tens of thousands took action to 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.600 defeat the Muslim ban. On February second, a massive riot 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.480 kicked off at you See Berkeley against the far right 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.920 troll Milo Napolis, shutting down his scheduled talk. The far 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:34.320 right responded by holding a series of free speech rallies 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.880 throughout the summer, and anti fascists soon found themselves out 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.360 flanked in the streets by a loose coalition of militia members, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.399 Proud Boys, neo Nazis, and alt right groups. Seeking to 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.920 seize on this moment, the White Nashal swing of the 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.560 movement called for another free speech rally in Charlesville, Virginia, 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:55.320 and the scene was set for historic and deadly showdown. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.359 It was pretty clear, especially as the run up to 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:01.720 it happened, about how big it was going to be, 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:04.800 how many different kinds of groups were going to be involved, 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.560 and that for the first time, although there had been 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.960 increasing mobilizations throughout the year especially, it was the first 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:14.960 one that was gonna be led by open fascists. Some 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:17.320 of the other ones fascists participated in them, but there 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:19.880 were more a pan far right. We were like pan 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:22.400 far right events like what happened in Berkeley, but this 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:24.239 one was going to be led by fascists, and they 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:26.359 were all those many different kinds of groups, and they 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:28.919 were coming out of the woodwork. We had old activists 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:31.679 who had been around in the eighties who stated they 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:33.640 were going to come, and there was clearly a lot 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.240 of energy behind it, and it seemed like it was 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:38.800 the big bid, and there were some of the participants 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:41.399 were openly saying this it was gonna be the big 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.359 bid for power and legitimacy of the ault right. I 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:47.600