Like it or not, everybody is allowed to protest. For now.

A quick rundown of facts about the campus protests themselves:

• As of 5/2, in the last month, there have been over 100 protest encampments or staged sit ins at colleges across the country, in 39 states + DC
• These are separate from any of the marches that have been going on prior to this.
• The encampments have been non-violent, most have had non-engagement policies, and clearly stated demands that were negotiated with their school’s leadership.
• These seem to be organically organized by students, with some communication between camps to exchange info once there was a critical mass
• The students are diverse in race, faith, sex, and socio-economic standing. Many are Jewish.
• There has been significant faculty support for many of these protests.
• There have been infiltrations and instigators within camps. Most notably, hostile press, one extremely weird ex special forces guy working with Dr. Phil, and some groups have started distributing escalation guides.
• There have been outside agitators who were known troublemakers (the LOKA assholes in CA, the G.O.D. idiots and human canker Curtis Sliwa in NY), however, the most aggressive instigators have been small groups of younger Jewish men, and older Jewish women. (some are identified, many have clear photos and video, links further down)
• There have been incidents of anti-Semitic, anti-Arab, and/or anti-Muslim sentiment at a wide array of these events, depending on who you talk to.
• Many of the incidents being cited as a reason any group has escalated have been debunked.
• This TeenVogue article has a great breakdown of stats and overviews of what has happened on various campuses.

Response to the protests:

• Counter-protesters (like Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht) started their own marches and rallies at and around several of the encampments, then counter-counter-protesters unaffiliated with the encampments came out to protest the counter-protesters.
• Three different incidents where cars have driven into a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters happened in the last week. One of which hospitalized a 55 year old woman and was driven by the cousin of the founder of the extremist group Jewish Defense League.
• Outside agitators came to a head most violently at UCLA over two evenings, where several groups of people attacked the camp with fireworks, metal rods, bear spray, and their fists while groups of police watched and did nothing to stop the attacks.
• In the last week there have been over 2500 arrests
• Campus police have brought out local and state police, the national guard, border patrol, and snipers to handle these protests.
• Students and teachers alike have been violently arrested, teargassed, shot with rubber bullets and pepper balls.
• At Columbia, the NYPD used a military vehicle to break into Hamilton Hall to clear the building, one student was thrown down stairs, and one officer fired a gun inside the building.
• Police at several locations have been refusing access to journalists, arresting journalists, and most recently, also arresting legal observers.
• A group calling themselves either Rose City Counter-info OR Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade OR Emma Goldman Book Club took credit for an incident last week where they torched 10 Portland police cars, which then ignited another seven.
• In NY a fight broke out at a pro-Palestine march where a group ganged up on one pro-Israel protester.
• 4 new bomb threats to NYC synagogues.
• Two new pieces of legislation proposed - one to send protesters to Gaza, and one to add them to the no fly list.
• An attack on a Detroit synagogue

Now here is where I need to stop for context. I have never seen the police treat white nationalist groups protesting with anything but kid gloves. They certainly never put on riot gear to deal with them, even when they are armed, or have leaders with known outstanding warrants. Even when we identify the people we have on video violently assaulting someone, and tell them exactly where they are going to be. I can not watch all this happen, and take police response that they are doing this because they “care about anti-Semitism” when they do not treat people waving swastika flags and beating people on the street like this.

But here’s where clinic experience comes into play. Anybody who has spent time outside an abortion clinic is very used to letting people say whatever horrible thing they want to say to them, and get right up to the very edge of causing physical damage in the name of intimidation. Just because they are mean, does not mean you can make them go away. Everybody is allowed to say what they want, so long as they are not physically hurting people, or physically keeping them from going about their business.

On top of that, every side of damn near every protest has their own pocket of assholes. In the abortion movement, the most visible assholes were Rise Up For Abortion Rights, an offshoot of RevComs, who regularly took over other people’s protests, inserted their inflammatory messaging, and agitated with both police and people on the street. And then there was Jane’s Revenge, who firebombed CPCs and vandalized churches. Within the pro-Israel protests, we’ve seen Jewish Defense League folks showing up to agitate (and as I mentioned, a surprising number of angry older women, which for lack of a better term, I am referring to as the Karen Effect). Regardless of who is starting shit, just because somebody is an asshole does not give anybody the right to physically hurt them.

But also, everybody has a right to protest. Everybody involved isn’t feeling heard. That said, nobody has a right to endanger other people’s lives. Personally, I consider that to include encouraging people to escalate, and providing instruction on how people can do that. Particularly if the people encouraging escalation are not forthcoming about what the risks are to doing so. If someone decides to put themselves at risk, eyes wide open, that's on them. But when someone nudges a group toward dangerous action without explaining the risks, that is wildly irresponsible. But what is going on has wider reaching implications for anybody in the US that wants to protest anything in the future.

Some of the forces in play

• Doxxing accounts and organizations
  • Long before Oct 7, Canary Mission was created to target individuals that were deemed a threat to Israel
  • Since Oct 7, many copycat organizations have sprung up targeting both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel individuals. Shirion Collective, Raven Mission, Stop Zionist Hate, Stop Arab Hate are all accounts that have sprung up, seemingly unconnected to any legal entity, and mass targeting individuals out of context, and sometimes offering bounties for information about them.
  • StopZionistHate and Raven Mission are widely suspected to be operated by white nationalists
• Police and government investment in Israeli training and intelligence tech
  • Most of the police forces in major cities throughout the US are trained by the IDF
  • Several Israeli technology companies provide surveillance intelligence of US citizens that is not legal for the government or law enforcement to collect themselves in the US.
• The Antisemitism Awareness Act
  • Congress has been steadily gathering bipartisan support to legally change the definition of anti-Semitism to include any speech critical of Israel.
• FISA section 702 Expansion
  • In April, Congress extended and expanded section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
  • Per the Electronic Freedom Foundation: “While Section 702 prohibits the NSA and FBI from intentionally targeting Americans with this mass surveillance, these agencies routinely acquire a huge amount of innocent Americans' communications “incidentally.” The government can then conduct backdoor, warrantless searches of these “incidentally collected” communications.”
• The Atlanta Bail Fund RICO charges
  • When the FBI charged the Atlanta Bail Fund with conspiracy charges for providing mutual aid and financial support to people who had been arrested, it had widespread implications for any organization collecting money to provide community care. Abortion funds, practical support funds, food pantries - any organization providing material support to a community that the state deems to be threatening, could now be charged with conspiracy.

When you combine that list, it’s a pretty staggering collection of events that add up to a very comprehensive way to limit and punish free speech. And these are being used primarily against pro-Palestine protesters. And not actual Nazis. In fact, from the people identified at the UCLA attacks, there are known Nazi instigators fighting side by side with the group of younger Iranian Jewish men. I currently have an extensive collection of identified, bonafide active, violent, white nationalists throughout the US. Literally nobody seems to give a damn about going after any of them right now.

What’s more, part of the reason I started following all of these things so closely, is because I was concerned about how much of the surveillance and RICO developments would affect anybody trying to access health care in ban states. Which is already happening. If this is where we are currently under a Democratic president, how do you think these developments can be weaponized under a more hostile one?

Finally, I want to highlight how much escalation and violence plays into the hands of white nationalist extremists, Armageddon enthusiasts, law enforcement, and the government’s long term goals, regardless of what side it comes from. It goes like this:

1. Engagement with hostile person or group is recorded and widely circulated
2. People feel unsafe and look to law enforcement and legislators to escalate to address their fears
3. Law enforcement and legislators enact broadly restrictive measures that enable them to keep much tighter control over the entire population.
4. Groups that encourage authoritarianism (nazis, fundamentalists, anybody that likes to hit people) sweep in to support these measures and paint themselves to be part of the “protecting forces”
5. Anybody voicing dissent, regardless of validity or intention, is now a criminal.
6. Repeat.

At the end of the day, lighting a car on fire or getting in a fist fight in the US does beyond nothing to help people in Palestine or Israel, and very likely goes a long way toward hurting all protesters in the US. In short, watch out for your people and try to keep everybody's head calm. It's going to be a weird summer. Here's the listings.

Last week:

• 4/29 - Berkeley Springs, WV - Speakers at the VDARE Nazi conference included an ex-DOJ official.
• 4/30 - Albuquerque, NM - Drag performance at a high school prom resulted in death threats against the performer.
• 5/1 - Phoenix, AZ - Gays Against Groomers got outraged that Planned Parenthood and Drag Story Hour teamed up at the capital.
• 5/2 - Washington, DC - National Day of Prayer with Sean Feucht inside the Capitol
• 5/4 - New York, NY - Witness for Life monthly harassment parade to the Planned Parenthood.
• 5/4 - Northern AL - Aryan Freedom Network and the freaking KKK are throwing a Dixie Unity Rally
  • Christopher Pohlhaus of Blood Tribe implied he was going
• 5/4 - Hawesville, KY - Raising Arrows Conference - Hope in the Home and Dr. Jim Scott Orrick are having a conference about filling your quiver.

This week:

• 5/7-11 - Arizona - Heartbeat of Arizona ProLife Tour - “Prolife Spiderman” Maison Deschamps, Mayra Rodriguez, and Dr. Anthony Levatino (who?) are sponsored by Turning Point Action to go harass some clinics.
  • 5/7 - Mesa, AZ
  • 5/9 - Tucson, AZ
  • 5/11 - Scottsdale, AZ
• 5/8 - Los Angeles, CA - Sean Feucht & co are taking their Israel March to USC.
  • A bunch of NAR preachers were there, and his security friend Bill Brown from NY
• 5/9 - Oklahoma - Raven Folk Allthing 
  • all the pagan Nazis seem to be getting together for this one.
• 5/9 - Albuquerque, NM - Cherub Initiative will be placing roses in front of all the abortion clinics in ABQ for Mother’s Day. 
  • Sure would be a shame if someone picked them all up and threw them out.
• 5/11 - Temecula, CA - Temecula Pro-Life March
  • We The Parents and likely Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust and the LOKA gang will be marching from City Hall to Family Planning Association

Early warning

• 5/18 - nationwide - White Lives Matter Day of Action