PAX Centurion - Fall 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Fall 2017 • Page 35 familiar, starry-eyed, pasted-smile look of complete naiveté, “When are the Nazis coming?” They were genuinely disappointed that they’d been promised a gaggle of Nazis or a pod of Klansmen ( herd? school? I don’t know, whatever …) to jeer and taunt and that none were to be seen, anywhere . When I told them that “ there were no Nazis,” they gave me that confused-dog look: “No, you’re lying to us. I heard it on the news…”. They’d return to the crowd, admire each other’s signs, take more selfies, congratulate each other on how virtuous they all were, and again look around for the non-existent Nazis or phantom Klansmen. (“ Dammit, they paid to see Nazis! Where were they?”) On the other side of the Common, trembling on the bandstand, were an eclectic band of 40 or 50 kooks supporting a cornucopia of causes and presenting a plethora of problems who were being removed in police wagons for their own safety. But much to the dismay of Muffy fromMarblehead and Biff from Beverly, there were NO NAZIS and NO KLANSMEN, at least as far as the cellphone camera could see. There were, though, ANTIFA fascists, anarchists, free-radicals and assorted troublemakers who knew the real purpose of the day: an anti-police riot . The “free speech” rally was just a cover for their true intentions. It was about that time, just as the last of the kooks were being moved off the bandstand, that the tenor and tone of the crowd seemed to change, and we could feel it. Upset at the appalling lack of uniformed Nazis and robed Klansmen, Mommy and Daddy the virtuous liberals wandered away to shop on Newbury St., leaving their spoiled-brat, progressive and privileged children on the Common to be baby-sat by the police. And of course, Moonbeam and Libra, products of the Newton and Brookline Public Schools and filled with the wrenching need to portray themselves as victims of oppression, began the rhyming chants that they’d been taught by their professors at our local centers for higher indoctrination; little ditties such as “F*&^% the Police,” and the ever-popular, sing-song chanty (repeated 10,000X) “this is what Democracy looks like.” (If that was what Democracy looked like, then Plato and John Hancock are turning over in their graves…). And of course, ANTIFA knows how to manipulate and use little Moonbeam and Libra; impressionable, useful idiots and lemmings that they are. Like lost sheep, an occasional nitwit sporting a “TRUMP” t-shirt or MAGA hat (threatening slogans, to be sure, but certainly not illegal) would wander into the crowd, like a side of bacon before starving hyenas. Attacked from all sides and goaded on by theANTIFA savages, the puppy-dog protester was soon surrounded by screaming, yelling advocates of tolerance and diversity. We would then have to rush into the crowd, amid spit, bottles of unknown substances and what seemed like a thousand cellphone cameras jammed in our faces to save the free-speech ninny from a certain beating or worse. It was then that the assembled throngs began to morph from a crowd into a mob. Having no more “TRUMP” supporters to attack, and having exhausted themselves chasing phantom Nazis and ghostly Klansmen up and down Beacon Hill side-streets based solely on a rumor or a tweet, the lemming-like college kids chanted and sang like North Korean civilians at a rally in Pyongyang. Wrapped in their own self-righteous virtue and protected by their feel-good signs and cellphones, they turned their angst, focus and wrath on us, the police. (Hey, why waste the day and head all the way home toWellesley without some fun in the big city, right?) Slowly at first, we noticed the crowd peeling off in ones and twos, threes and fours, away from where they had been confronting our squad at Beacon/Joy Sts. to run towards the downtown crossing area. Instant-action, live-time social media was working its magic. Soon, we began hearing calls for help from beleaguered units clad only in soft-hats in the middle of the Downtown Crossing in front of Macy’s, the Corner Mall, Tremont/West St’s., and a host of other locations. The violent confrontations (which the major media insists did not occur) went on for several hours, with many lightly-protected officers separated from their desperately-needed riot gear by great distance, subjected to urine-filled bottles, rocks, fishing weights, trash, and assorted weapons. Only the arrival and intervention of riot-equipped officers from citywide EDT’s and POP platoons combined with some 33 arrests quelled the violent altercation. Strange thing, though: If the idiot-college kids and the others who participated in the melee took the time to rub two of their brain cells together, they would have quickly learned that the “Nazis” they were desperately looking for were right next to them, with them and behind them, wearing bandanas, kerchiefs and black clothes, goading them to act, but they were too stupid to know it . George Orwell predicted and knew all about the birth of theANTIFA movement, long before it was actually formed. Orwell, in his famous books 1984 and Animal Farm, wrote about double-speak, thought control and how to manipulate people into action or inaction through fear and coercion. ANTIFA, which allegedly means “ANTI-fascist”, is in fact the epitome, the definition of fascism itself : strongarm violence and intimidation by lawless groups seeking to impose their will on the silent majority. But whether they fall into the neat political categories we establish for them (“Nazi,” “Anarchist,” “Marxist,” “Socialist,” etc.) on the political spectrum, they are what they are: violent thugs who seek to impose their political orthodoxy on the law abiding using threats, intimidation and violence. The only way to defeat these savages is to fight fire with fire. Good can and must be allowed to defeat evil, but kind words and kisses are no match for strongarm violence and lawlessness. The message must be communicated loud and clear: The law WILL BE enforced.Your childish behavior WILL NOT be tolerated.You WILL BE unmasked and arrested as a disorderly person if you do not disperse NOW . Lost in the anonymity of the crowd, people will resort to whatever they can get away with. Mad dogs and mobs can sense indecision and weakness. Only the surety of violence meeting violence and that they will be arrested and prosecuted deters rioters. “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm.” The quote is attributed to the (aforementioned) George Orwell. We should make it our motto, too.