When Trump supporters began to gather in Washington, DC, for demonstrations in support of President Trump’s efforts to remain in power despite his defeat in the presidential election, opponents, including Black Lives Matter groups, said they intended to avoid clashes and avoiding potential violence that concerns public officials.
“Although BLM DC is not on the streets on January 6, 2021, leaders and activists are mounting a public education campaign now to demand justice,” said the Black Lives Matter DC group in a statement.
Nee Nee Taylor, a BLM DC organizer, told Yahoo News that his group is calling on DC hotels not to sell rooms to Trump supporters, but that “we need to be here after January 6” to continue working toward your goals.
“We hope that by asking people to stay away from these areas, we can keep them as safe as possible,” said Taylor. She added that BLM DC “was not policing any organization” that wanted to march or demonstrate, and that it supported its right to do so.
Taylor and another activist, Beth Yirga of the Palm Collective, said they had been concerned in recent days about threats of violence by Trump supporters on right-wing social media sites.
“We are not encouraging or discouraging people to speak out,” Yirga told Yahoo News. She said that for those who took to the streets, her organization established “remote resources” to assist them, such as places to go, communication resources and “extractions” of trouble spots.
Other racial justice groups in DC have indicated a similar position. A representative from Shut Down DC said in a direct Instagram message that “we are encouraging people to stay safe … whatever that means to them.”
“We are not encouraging people to fight against trombists. SDDC as a group will be carrying out distributed art actions and does not expect to involve them, ”said the spokesman.
Another group, DC Teens Action, was conducting self-defense training on Tuesday night, but a representative of that group also told Yahoo News via Instagram that “as far as I know, no one from DCTA will be on the streets.”
“We have been sharing information from different [organizations] to let people know what their options are, but we’re not encouraging people in any way, ”said the DCTA representative.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser He asked “Washingtonians and those who live in the region to stay outside the city center on Tuesday and Wednesday and not get involved with the protesters who come to our city in search of confrontation, and we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that everyone who attend remain in peace ”.
Congress will certify the results of the Electoral College on Wednesday, which is the last step in the transition from Donald Trump’s power to Joe Biden before his inauguration on January 20. On Tuesday, Trump supporters were arriving in Washington, drawn by the president’s call for a major demonstration to support his efforts to subvert the presidential election. Trump tweeted plans to speak in a “Save America Rally” at Ellipse at 11am on Wednesday.
The president and his supporters have not provided evidence of the allegations that the election was stolen from him, and all claims filed in court have been dismissed by state and federal judges, including some appointed by Trump himself.
The president hinted at a tweet from Tuesday night that parliamentarians should be intimidated by the presence of their supporters in the city. “I hope that Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people who invade DC. They will not run for an overwhelming electoral victory to be stolen, ”said Trump, specifically marking the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., And his two top deputies in the Senate.
A former aide to Vice President Mike Pence said he is concerned about the violence because “the president himself encourages it”.
Fantasies about the reversal of election results were supported by Republican members of Congress. Most Republican members of the House of Representatives and more than a dozen senators said they would object to electoral boards certified by one or more states on Wednesday. The Constitution does not give Congress any power to change the outcome of the election if there is a clear winner from the Electoral College. Nor does the Constitution give Vice President Mike Pence the authority to overturn the result, even though Trump has urged him to do so.
The biggest concern about violence comes from a group called the Proud Boys, a group that calls itself chauvinist machista with white nationalist ties. Twice since the November 3 election, thousands of Proud Boy members have flocked to Washington, wandering the streets, seeming to seek violent confrontations with opponents.
A DC lawyer told Yahoo News that he and other lawyers were bombarded with calls from Trump supporters from outside the state asking for guidance on whether the law allows them to bring firearms into the city. It was a much higher volume of calls than occurred before the two previous events on November 14 and December 12.
The short answer is that, in most cases, they are not. Bowser information disclosed on Monday reminding visitors that the license to carry a concealed firearm in another state is not recognized in the District, and that it is a crime to carry a concealed concealed firearm issued by the city. She also noted that it is illegal to carry a firearm less than 1,000 feet from a First Amendment rally.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested in DC on Monday and charged with property destruction based on evidence that he participated in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that was pulled from a historic Black church during the skirmishes last month. Tarrio was also charged with two criminal charges of illegal possession of high-capacity magazines.
Tarrio, who also allegedly serves as chief of staff for the grassroots Latinos for Trump, posted on Parler last week that “the Proud Boys will be leaving in record numbers on January 6, but this time with a difference”. Instead of his traditional black and yellow polo shirt uniform, he suggested that members of the far right group dress in black, an appearance typically associated with antifa members.
“We are going to be incognito and spread out across the DC center in smaller teams,” wrote Tarrio.
Now it seems that Tarrio will no longer be able to participate. On Tuesday, a judge banned Tarrio from entering DC, except for meetings with his lawyer or to appear in court.
Also planning to be present on Wednesday are members of right-wing militia groups such as the Oath Keepers, who are often seen armed and dressed in military attire in large protests where they present themselves as “voluntary security”, as well as followers of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy movement.
Yahoo News reported for the first time in August 2019 that the FBI identified QAnon believers as “domestic extremists driven by conspiracy theory”, which represent a “potential domestic terrorist threat”. Since then, the cult-like online movement, which was originally based on a myth about Donald Trump secretly fighting a cabal of satanic “deep-state” pedophiles, has evolved into a multifaceted vehicle for a variety of paranoid conspiracy theories – including those related to the 2020 elections.
In fact, the reshaping of QAnon’s social media network helped to amplify Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the results of the 2020 elections, both in preparation for November 3 and in the weeks ahead.
According to the Washington Post, accounts linked to QAnon also contributed to a series of recent posts that circulated on far-right forums encouraging Trump supporters to bring weapons to Washington protests on Wednesday, which would be a violation of laws locations.
Newly elected Republican members of the House, Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, both of whom have embraced QAnon, are among Trump’s allies and far-right personalities who are expected to speak at formal events planned for the Wednesday’s vote counting elections.
The National Park Service has approved at least three different authorization requests from groups planning protests, the first of which is scheduled for Tuesday night, with many others promoting online demonstrations and even coordinating caravans of Trump supporters traveling to DC from across the country.
Other speakers who are expected to take one of the internships include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Roger Stone, the former Republican strategist who recently received Trump’s full pardon for several felony convictions for trying to prevent Congressional investigation into Russian interference in 2016.
The biggest headliner, of course, is President Trump himself. For weeks, Trump has been encouraging supporters across the country to gather in DC this week for what he promised it will be a “wild” day of protests. When the demonstrations began in Washington on Tuesday night, he tweeted in support of those who answered the call.
“Washington is being inundated with people who do not want to see an electoral victory stolen by encouraged radical Left Democrats,” Trump I wrote. “Our country is fed up, they can’t take it anymore! We heard you (and we love you) in the Oval Office. MAKE AMERICA AGAIN! “
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