Protest Warriors Show Colors as Protest Punks

[DS1]

Inauguration Day in Washington D.C. turned out to much more exciting than expected. Protest activity swarmed about the city with a large portion taking place far from the presidential parade route.

While anti-Bush protesters had a strong showing for the day and vocalized their dissent, the seemingly silly anti-anti-Bush protesters organized by groups such as FreeRepublic and Protest Warriors did not fare as well.

One of the most publicized incidents of the day involved the Protest Warriors and their gathering dubbed, "Operation Hail to the Chief." According to the Washington Post, the Protest Warriors' event drew out a laughable 13 supporters. Unfazed by their lack of numbers, they moved forward with their mission to provoke opposing groups. The group "infiltrated" an anti-Bush rally with signs such as "Say no to war unless a Democrat is president" and "Not to brag, but Bush won, so shove it!"

Promptly, and some would argue appropriately, a leader of the Protest Warrior's group, Gil Kobrin, was on the ground getting his "ass kicked" as one witness stated.


http://www.washingtondispatch.com/spectrum/archives/000769.html

[RetroLounge]

1. This makes me giggle

a bunch of pampered college repugs acting all big and bad get their asses kicked by the anarchists.

Made me smile...

RL

[not systems]

2. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch...

"Make war then love"

starting with the next PW seen.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

While I totally understand their desire to do some ass kicking.

That was just what they were trying to provoke them into doing.

It's always best to keep a cool head and verbally kick their asses when there are cameras around.

[RetroLounge]

4. Nope. Wrong. Bullshit.

These little shits needed an ass kicking and they got one.

It's not being provoked. The men who did it to them are now true patriots in my book.

anything else is just useless words...

RL

[tinonedown]

5. Correct - they deserved it (EOM)

[Melynn]

34. PW was asking for trouble

And they found it. Although not in the way that they expected it. :spank:

[DBoon]

6. I agree

Look at their web site - they really think liberals and anti-war protestors are all a bunch of delicate little flowers that will wilt at the sign of a muscular protest warrior.

I hope those stupid protest warrior bastards learned something, but I doubt it.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. I agree they deserved it

This is from the article

"The Protest Warriors' agenda is to infiltrate and provoke leftist groups or "hippies" as the events are caught on film. One of their founders, Kfir Alfia, clarified in an interview on Air America Radio recently that they mainly use sarcasm to provoke groups at public gatherings."

I just can't see giving the jerks what they were after.

edit: Note that in my first post I only mentioned not doing it on camera. :)

[Stirk]

12. They want to provoke them verbally- to get them angry.

I don't think those flabby wimps ever wanted to provoke actual violence. Well- not the sort of violence that would get their own asses beat. I'm sure they'd be happy to jump some vulnerable person and beat the shit out of them- you know, so long as the odds were in their favor.

If they weren't a bunch of a chickenshits they'd be in Iraq right now, "spreading freedom".

[Jack_DeLeon]

16. So Patriots...

use larger groups of people to beat up smaller groups of people with opinions different than thier own?

I must have been taught a different definition of patriotism.

Words should be countered with words.

Violence should only be used against those that truely deserve it. No one deserves to be assault for saying speaking words.

[ComerPerro]

24. Well, no. Protest Warrior isn't just a group of dissenters

They literally are a group whose sole purpose is to go to liberal events and try to start as much shit as they can.

These cowards hide behind the flag, and should be in Iraq right now. Instead, they try to pick fights with people legally exercising their free speech.

Protest Warriors deserve to get their ass kicked. They come to events looking for a fight. I am happy for them when they get one and it blows up in their face.

[formernaderite]

27. sorry, but I've been a pacifist my whole LONG life....

..I've never reacted to words with violence and am disappointed when anyone on the left does.

[Jack_DeLeon]

29. I'm no pacifist...

and I have absolutely no problem with fighting violence with violence, but I think that people who respond to words with violence are ignorant assholes.

[proud patriot]

31. I just love your sigline RL

:loveya:

[Spiffarino]

8. You're correct; that's exactly what they were looking to do

I still contend that they aren't doing themselves or their side any favors. The only people who think our side looks bad are the ones operating under the illusion that everyone on the left is about peace at any price.

I am in this to win. Bush and his minions think we are all about sniffing flowers and turning the other cheek, and some of us are. However, most of us know that no great social change has ever been realized in this country without blood being shed.

I would rather it be theirs than ours.

[Spiffarino]

3. I love this

They think being anti-War means believing in "peace at all costs?" They are delusional.

I have opposed the Iraq war from the day Bush first ran it up the flagpole. Here's a newsflash, you little neocon bitches: Nothing in that statement makes me a "peacenik."

I would have relished kicking their asses. I have no love for Bush's insane war policies, and I have no pity for the idiots who support it. If the assholes want to fight, they should support their leader and join the National Guard.

[AnnInLa]

7. At the Jazz Funeral for Democracy in New Orleans on Jan 20

we had ONE counter-funeral-bush-supporter protester. He sat in his folding chair along the march route, with American flags and a cooler and a bush tee shirt. When interviewed by the press, he said the Funeral marchers were Dems who couldn't get over the fact that they lost the presidential election. Marchers quickly responded that the march was to point out the contrast in ideologies between the bush admin and anti-war, anti-bush U.S. citizens.

Want to feel PROUD? Go to www.jazzfuneralfordemocracy.com, click on Gallery 1, and check out Maggie's (Funkybutt here on DU) pics. We had the largest counter-inaugural in the country, including the one in Washington DC...AP estimates put our numbers at 500, but NOPD estimated in excess of 2,500. People came from all over the U.S., Canada, Australia and Serbia to participate. News reports also called us "eccentric" because we dressed in costume (see pics) and had jazz bands playing dirges, and had a horse-drawn carriage with casket containing the Constitution, we burned the Patriot Act and threw ashes into the Miss River. An inspiring time was had by all.

[Spiffarino]

11. I...I love you

...and all the loud-and-annoying Dems in Louisiana.

:yourock:

[Cha]

21. Thanks, for some reason

:shrug: that made me cry!:cry: And I have a big lump in my throat!

[SmokingJacket]

37. I've said this before but I'll say it again...

Democrats in red states are HARD CORE!! It's easy being blue in a blue state (as I am) but you have to really put your butt on the line to be a dem in a red state. You are GREAT!!!

Thank you.

[Stirk]

9. The only reason these "Protest Warriors" do that sort of thing

is because they think anti-war people are pacifists. They think it's a free-pass to push some wimpy lefties around.

They should get their asses kicked every time they come out. They're eventually learn.

[BrotherBuzz]

32. Don't stoop to their level....Just ask them....

if they have any idea what John F. Kennedy might have been thinking when he said this in 1945:

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."

On second thought, ask them after you kick their butts.;)

[Occulus]

35. ah, but they won't LET you ask them that

because they'll be yelling and screaming at you the whole time. They have no respect for what we have to say- they only want to shut us up and shout us down...

[raggedcompany]

13. Liberals have steel toed boots and guns, too.

The sword cuts both ways. Nice to see these nationalist dirtbags on the recieving end for a change.

[MHalblaub]

14. "Operation Heil to the Führer"?

Look at the picture they got on their page of BII
http://www.protestwarrior.com/
and read their operation plans for the day.

The Protest Warriors remind me on Hitler's SA.

And a sign on the PW page saying:
"Except for ending
Slavery, Fascism,
Nazism & Communism
WAR
HAS NEVER
SOLVED
ANYTHING"

Let me think:
Did war ended slavery or did the end of slavery started a war?
Fascism in Spain disappeared after Franco died 1975 peacefully.
Nazism was ended through a war the Nazis started.
War against a communist state? Let me think USSR, Poland, CSSR, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, GDR, Cuba (Thanks JFK) - no
Vietnam - yes - Mission accomplished?

[Jack_DeLeon]

15. Hmm? Who are the real punks here?

Despite the fact that I dont agree witht he protest warrior guys, assault someone just because they state that they disagree with you makes you a punk.

The guys who assault the PW just because they have a different opinions are the real punks here.

[ZombieNixon]

17. If the PW had been "protesting" in a different area,

I would say the same thing, but since they infiltrated a large group, they brought it upon themselves. If you crash a party, you can't complain when you get thrown out.

[Downtown Hound]

18. Yep

PW's tactics are designed to provoke an angry reaction. If I went and stood in the middle of a pro-war rally and shoved cameras in their faces and tired to block out their signs with my own, I would expect to get my ass kicked. Protest Wimps though, always hide behind the, "I'm just exercising my first amendment rights" crybaby defense.

Wimps. Hey PW lurkers, and I know you're out there, you get in people's faces, you're going to get burned. Deal with it.

[Tacos al Carbon]

20. "I'm just exercising my first amendment rights"

Is now considered a "crybaby defense?" How very progressive. I'm sure that all of those heroes in American history who spoke out in spite of intimidation and ridicule and who are, apparently, "crybabies" would be so very proud of your analysis.

[Downtown Hound]

22. Whatever

Have you ever seen what Protest Warrior does? If they show up at a rally where there's only a dozen or so antiwar protesters, they will stand in front of them and block out their signs. They shove their cameras in their faces and do everything to piss them off. And they justify it all as "first amendment rights."

Sorry, but what they're doing is agitating people that are exercising their first amendment rights. What they do is just downright bullying and then like true cowards they hide behind the first amendment. Yeah that's a crybaby defense. If you're going to bully people, admit what you're doing and don't run and hide behind the first amendment.

[ZombieNixon]

33. Not only that,

in fact, by blocking other people's signs with their own, they are interfering with others' first amendment rights. If, in the process of exercising your own free speech, you interfere with someone else's, that is not protected by the first amendment, which applies to protect everyone's free speech, at the same time. It's not "mine now, yours later."

[Occulus]

36. well, there's exercising rights, and then there's abusing rights.

"Fire" in a crowded theater is a textbook example of how the First Amendment can be abused. It's much like how saying 'bomb' while in line for an airplane ticket- and saying it in any context- will get you in some serious trouble.

Where the exercise of one's Constitutional rights directly threatens the well being of the people around you, the actions taken are often found to be excessive or illegal. In this case, what PW did could easily be seen as provocation or even assault, the last from which the ligitimate protesters had a right to defend themselves.

In other words, they had it coming.

[deutsey]

19. Punks jump up to get beat down

[Jack_DeLeon]

30. I never knew you could get kicked off of public property...

well, actually I know the police do kick people off of public property all the time. However its just as wrong when the police do it and a gang of people who are supposidly practicing thier freedom of speech.

Its one thing to have a party at your home or some other private property and kick out unwanted guests.

Its entirely something else to go to a public place and do utilize your 1st amendment rights while at the same time using force to prevent others from doing so.

[CyberSon]

25. i would tend to agree..

but as its been said they don't just stand there and be nice about it.

if you were walking down the street and some guy was following you, and every time you were trying to talk he would blast an air horn, the whole time shoving a camera in your face while insulting you, eventually you would start swinging too, we all would. i don't say i agree with what happened but when you abuse other ppl *which PW do* then if they retaliate you instigated them first

[SouthernDem2004]

28. Let me get this straight...

One group deserves to get assaulted because they spoke their minds and had the nerve to be somewhere they were not wanted...

Soooo.... Those of you that believe this... If they had allowed you at the inaguration should they have had the right to assault you? They did not want to listen to you and they did not want you there... I guess maybe you think there are public places that you can only go if you have a certain opinion. If you disagre, you will get attacked.

Bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of who does it. Those people could have been seriously injured.

[Occulus]

38. Most of what you're saying is just simply misdirection

"One group deserves to get assaulted because they spoke their minds and had the nerve to be somewhere they were not wanted..."

With PW that isn't the case at all. These people go out of their way to interfere with the expression of others' rights. Since it's an organized group doing this, it seems to me they could be liable under one criminal statute or another.

Direct interference with my rights is not one of your rights. It's just that simple.

[CyberSon]

23. my post at the site

well I have to say some people are just dense.

The words Anti ad War placed together with a hyphen means against War, which might I add is completely different then Against Violence.

I am against the war in Iraq. does this mean I will not retaliate when someone insulates irritates and attacks me? No.

Would I have attacked these so called "protestWorriors"? I doubt it. If in deed they were just standing there with counter movement signs. I think i might have even talked to them and said something along the lines of "I'm very glad you are expressing your personal freedoms, however i fear that neither you nor myself will have them much longer."

However i doubt they were in fact as peaceful as they may have claimed to be. You see i have encountered these trolls before. And if not them then ones like them. They do not just stand there an be peaceful. They don't just say their message they try to destroy other peoples.

How do they do this. Most often yelling over speakers, sometimes using bull horns. Insulting people personally and by just being rude.

Ironically you claim that we are diminishing your right when you try to voice your opinion, when if we were to show up at one of your events doing just as you were. we would be arrested or have to sign a contract saying we are supporters.

so which is the bigger injustice?

[CyberSon]

26. i think this is

a real interesting story and its deffenatly caused a commotion on its original page