Who Gets To Punch Nazis, And When, According To The American Public
The majority of Americans would not support opening fire on a white supremacist rally like the one in Charlottesville, VA. For most, these Neo-Confederates and Nazis are detestable, but they are not a direct threat to public safety. White supremacists are only emboldened because of Trump, who [at worse] we’ll vote out. Even Trump’s unstable administration is located within American democracy, and enough of us are good people; this will be fine.
It is a kind logic, one that assumes the best in every person: As long as counter-protesters aren’t violent and just stay out of the Neo-Confederates way, the police will keep the peace and no one will get shot. You shouldn’t resort to violence, because the police will keep the peace.
Until one of them kills a cop.
It will take exactly one day for the entire national conversation surrounding white supremacist marches to change. When one of them murders a police officer or member of the national guard at a rally or protest, the “lone wolf” theory will evaporate. The entire group- in all their torch-carrying, gun-toting, Nazi-flag-waving glory- will all be responsible. For now, the majority of Americans do not view white supremacists as a threat because they believe the police will keep them safe. For communities that do not have that luxury, there is nothing between the white supremacists and their loved ones. When a police officer dies at a rally, it will strike fear in the hearts of millions of Americans who will finally, in that moment, feel at risk. If a police officer can get killed, anyone can.
But wait, let’s back up for a moment- Two police officers did die at the protest, but due to a helicopter crash that appears to be accidental. Trump has tweeted once about the two cops who died during the rally. He hasn’t even said their names. He simply retweeted the US Secret Service. From Trump’s Twitter feed, you can find out (at the same time as the Pentagon!) that transgender people have been banned from the military. But you can’t find a single picture or the full names of the two officers who died in a clash that Trump described as “very, very violent” on both sides. Doesn’t that seem a little bit odd?
Yes, their deaths were accidental, but imagine if this had happened at a Black Lives Matter rally. Imagine the tweetstorm from Trump if a helicopter crashed, killing two police officers, while attempting to manage chaos that had broken out during a Black Lives Matter rally. He’d spend months talking about Black on Black crime and murder rates in Chicago. In fact, that same day he retweeted a Drudge Report article about those very things. He would almost certainly threaten to send in the National Guard the next time a major protest happened, and probably deploy them to Chicago, as he’s already promised to do. Still, somehow, he never managed to tweet the names of the officers killed, much less their pictures. Trump simply offered this Tweet: “Deepest condolences to the families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today. You’re all among the best this nation produces.”
The reason for the disparity between the real and hypothetical crashes is simple: Trump does not want to condemn white supremacists, they are his base. Those officers did die in what appears to be an accidental crash- using it to manufacture rage by blaming the protesters, none of whom are at fault, would have alienated key supporters — after all, the white supremacists marching were overwhelmingly Trump supporters. But this obvious evidence of Trump’s Nazi sympathies only adds to an already large pile. There’s something more important here.
The day there is a clear, inarguable cop killing by white supremacists (at a rally or as a group, likely not just one), the entire nation will revoke their ability to safely organize. When that happens, we must remember the exact reason the left did not attempt to spin the deaths of these two officers. After all, the anti-fascists would have had a persuasive argument for the white supremacists being to blame for the chaos that caused the crash. Here is where I will lose the liberals and only keep the leftists: That can never happen. The death of police can never be our rallying cry.
When you are fighting white supremacy, the institution of policing is an enemy. Law enforcement, definitionally, maintains the system which criminalizes the poor, murders Black Americans, tears undocumented families apart, and excuses the activity of rapists. Those fighting for equality and workers’ rights must always remember our goal is to dismantle police departments, not to center our movement on avenging them.
Killing Nazis is unpopular, but my guess is that it won’t be for long. When that happens, we cannot form alliances with those who are not seeking broader reforms about the institutions which carry forward white supremacy. Don’t let racial equality and workers’ rights get sent to the back in a moment of chaos, because the second “law and order” is restored, and white Americans feel safe, they will return to the belief that the cops are ultimately good. It’s a fundamentally dangerous belief that police are the only legitimate users of violence, and that they have the right to wield it in whatever way they see fit- especially when feeling threatened. We, as a nation, left Black Americans behind the last time we dealt the Confederacy (read about that here), and the last time we dealt with Nazis (by portraying America as a great and ethical savior, ignoring our domestic problems with white supremacists). We must hold the line if this happens.
And P.S., Remember this feeling and teach the truth of whatever happens to your children. These are the types of articles that, 30 years of national amnesia later, will make people who did the right thing seem too radical for a political career, and people who did the wrong thing seem pleasantly moderate. Yeah, it’s not our first time around.
