Anti-Fascist protesters confront Cernovich's event at City Club of Washington
Video:Scenes from the Anti-Fascist protest (1 min 18 sec)
Alex Rubenstein Video: antifascists take a knee NFL style as fascists sing "star spangled banner"
On Feb 24th, Mike Cernovich and others associated with the Deploraball were back in DC. They held "A Night for Freedom DC" at The City Club of Washington just a block from the Deploraball site, running the gauntlet of loud anti-fascist protesters to get in and often being photographed. Attempts by the fascists to conceal their venue location ended in failure, with protesters descending on their party.
Organizers promised "Night for Freedom" attendees their event would be in Washington DC, then suddenly claimed to have lost their venue and moved the event to the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor with a few hours to go. Public statements said refunds were also available. This was as CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) was ending their convention there. One of the "A Night for Freedom DC keynote speakers was Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been banned from CPAC and whose presence at any CPAC venue would have created major issues. Then with only an hour to go the venue shifted again, back to DC to The City Club of Washington. The City Club of Washington is just a block over from the National Press Club, site of the Deploraball of Jan 2017 but no longer available to Fascist events due to "security issues."
Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec are standard-bearers of the "alt-light," a faction of the alt-right that tries to avoid being publicly associated with Nazi salutes, Pepe the Frog, etc. Early Deploraball publicity openly featured Pepe the Frog and other explicitly fascist imagery, as this is what the organizers in fact believe in. Then came Baked Alaska's big mouth on Twitter, with unending anti-Semitic rants that cast the other Deploraball organizers in an ugly light. The the alt-light/alt-right split then opened as Baked Alaska was expelled from the organizers and banned, and Pepe the Frog, Nazi salutes et all were banned as well for reasons of political expediency
Also present in Cernovich's "alt-light" crew are many of the so-called "men's rights activists," "Manosphere" types famous for claims that date rape either should be legalized or does not exist at all. Cernovich himself is known for statements of this sort. One of the attendees at the Deploraball was Roosh V, famous for overtly advocating the legalization of date rape so long as it takes place on private property. A series of Roosh events in Feb 2016 drew protests in DC, Baltimore, and all over Turtle Island, all on the same night. Most of his "meetups" that night ended in failure.
The first "Night for Freedom" in New York City was notable for several arrests and the outing of "Jack Murphy" who turned out to be an adminstrator with the DC Charter School board. Mike Cernovich was one of the Deploraball organizers, and apparently finding a venue that would take his event was not easy. Richard Spencer's "National Policy Institute" was unable to get any venue at all in DC for their November 2017 event and attempted to meet at a wedding barn in Poolesville, MD. That lasted until the owners checked in on them, found out who they were, and ordered them off the property.
The stench of harboring fascists and pro-rape activists can linger over a venue for a very long time as bad reviews get posted and stories travel by word of mouth. Cleaning up a reputation after providing a platform for advocates of rape, ethnic cleansing, and white supremacy can be an exceptionally difficult job.
Marching on The City Club of Washington's front doors
Luke Kuhn celebrates victory over the same fascists that organized this event in the earlier Deploraball case
Blocking the parking garage many of the fascists were using to enter the building
Fascists asked to commit suicide like Hitler did
Some of the fascists hid behind a line of cops to argue with their opponents. Few dared to engage in the open
Projection on the walls of the venue
The scene from the street after about an hour and a half. Teams of anti-fascist activists were in multiple locations around the building
Fash have a discipline problem: Nazi Salute aka "Roman Salute" is not supposed to be used at alt-lite events
