Remember when Donald Trump shared a humorous gif and CNN got all up in arms about how it would “inspire violence against reporters” from conservatives and the right wing? Well, turns out it was Antifa in Richmond that drew first blood and a CBS6 reporter has now been treated for a serious concussion which required stitches.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">4/ he needed medical attention: <a href="https://t.co/hHDZQty8sF">https://t.co/hHDZQty8sF</a></p>— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/897979058054680576">August 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
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At the moment it seems Jake Tapper at CNN is the only one who has made a peep so far about the incident and even he is careful not to go into great details about who was behind the attack. From Twitter he announced it was “protestors.” A smarmy reply of “that’s a funny way to spell Nazis” was offered before the news that it was actually Antifa.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">At least two journalists in Charlottesville were assaulted by people protesting the Klan/Nazi/alt-right rally. Taylor is one: <a href="https://t.co/haVOw89uTN">https://t.co/haVOw89uTN</a></p>— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/897977496930570240">August 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
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This wouldn’t be the first recent attack on journalists from Antifaschiste Aktion, the international “black-bloc” terror organization. The stunning rise of Antifa has been dramatic. The G20 riots in Germany involved 10,000 black bloc anarchists and a full fledged melee including attacks on police, property damage, fire and riots. Meanwhile, NBC, CNN and other sources are touting Antifa as “the anti-racist saviors” who will quell the “Nazi domestic terror rebellion” underway. The Hill’s Taylor Lorenz and another journalist were attacked by the “peaceful counter-protestors” in Charlottesville. The reporter has now been out three days with a concussion at this point.
Antifa made their statement at Facebook. The statement is completely factually inaccurate according to the Richmond, VA CBS6 station.
<a href=”http://archive.is/aXFD9”> Antifa’s statement at Facebook</a>
ASH Antifa Seven Hills
EDIT: CBS 6 has tried to contact us for an interview. Our response? Fuck no.
Let's talk about this WTVR CBS 6 News "photo journalist." We don't know his name because his identity has been protected which is truly ironic.
This man ran out of the The Camel as the funeral March proceeded by. He was not working at the time so we can only assume he was drinking and made one bad choice after the next.
He didn't identify himself as press nor was he wearing anything that identified him as such.
This man ran at a crowd that was holding space for our murdered comrade with just his iPhone.
Due to the intensity and context of this time people are very scared of white men running full speed at them with iPhones as this is the exact behavior of a white supremacist trying to out identity of people of color and anti fascists in order to invoke fear. Additionally, they also use press footage constantly to do this.
When this man ran up he was told people did not want to be filmed. He proceeded to film anyways. He was then told AGAIN that he was not to film people's faces. He proceeded anyways. He intentionally ignored the denial of consent, still without identifying himself (though we still wouldn't care), which was a threat to safety and should be considered in a context of perpetuating rape culture. Denial of consent by the media is still a denial of consent and is disgusting and parasitic behavior.
Once this man ignored people's requests to please back off he tried to pull on a flag to expose someone's face. This is extremely inappropriate and when the media thinks they have the right to expose people that do not want to be exposed they are perpetuating violence against marginalized or targeted communities.
After he tried to remove someone's flag he was pushed back several times. At this point he began to give a mourning crowd the finger with both hands. We can only assume that this was the behavior of someone intoxicated. This behavior was taunting and escalating.
He STILL had not identified himself as press.
He continued to make advances and continued to get corralled back towards the sidewalk away from us. He had not fallen. He had not been hit. Only pushed back to give space to a grieving and righteously angry crowd.
He advanced still.
At this point there were folks that felt they were in extreme danger as no one knew who this man was or what his intentions were. He was now considered combative, aggressive and advancing with violence.
Then he got hit. Once. We aren't sure with what or by who but he did and it was all due to his own ridiculous, likely drunk, behavior.
This is what happens when you make people feel scared and purposefully incite anger.
We will repeat. This march was for our comrade Heather Heyer who was murdered by white supremacists and this white man ran up on people aggressively and trolled a grieving crowd. Think about that.
Media you do not have the right to treat us this way. We are not your spectacle to profit off of. You are very often disrespectful and aggressive and we you will be met with the same behavior. If you don't want to get hit don't act like vultures. Ask for consent.
To RPD: you protected monuments of white supremacy and purposefully intimidated a grieving crowd. This comes as no surprise to us but it did for many others. You exposed yourselves as an army for the rich and for white supremacy to many others who had no ill feelings towards you until then: Fuck you too.
We did not call for this event but we very much needed it and needed to be with other mourning folks. Other traumatized folks. We saw all of this happen and this "journalist" was completely out of line.
While the rest of the world celebrates ANTIFA, anarchists and militant anti racism Richmond decided to continue to demonize and intimidate upon our return home. We were already exhausted and angry so imagine how we feel now.
We hope we have your attention. We do not fear you. You will not deter us.
WHO PROTECTS US? WE PROTECT US?
PS CBS 6 is basically a gossip rag and is completely useless. That's why the racist, Mark Holmberg - WTVR CBS 6, is their biggest selling point. They are trash and should never be considered accurate or
