Unite the Right II: Dozens of Nazis run gauntlet of thousands after special Metro train ride

Video-Unite the Right II runs a gauntlet of thousands of counterprotesters (3 min 46 sec)

Ash L video of incident where police having just pepper sprayed a bloc near 12th and G sts threatened to spray again (44 sec)

Update Aug 13:Washington "Moon-Times" confirms police attempt to exit Lafayette Park west with the fash repulsed by antifa bloc

On the 12th of August, WMATA broke their promise to ATU Local 689 by running a special train just for a few dozen Nazis from the Vienna Metro to Foggy Bottom. Once there, the fascists had to run a gauntlet of thousands of counterprotesters. Counterprotesters were incensed that neo-Nazis would dare to commemorate August 12, the day one of them murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA.

Once through the gauntlet on the way in, Unite the right II nearly got kettled by counterprotesters at Lafayette Sq, and when the rains began to fall they had to be removed by a different route from the park to return to Metro

Just over a week earlier, ATU Local 689 (which represents Metro's train and bus operators) had threatened to refuse to operate any special trains for fascists coming to "Unite the Right II," Jason Kessler's follow-on to the deadly 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right neo-Nazi rally. In response, WMATA agreed to not run special trains for Nazis, only to go back on their word. Metro's bus and train operators as well as station managers are mostly people of color. Video footage proved the Nazis used the Vienna and Foggy Bottom Metro stations. Even Fox News ran coverage slamming WMATA and Paul Wiedefeld for this utter breach of faith and going back on their word.

The fascist's problems began well before the Vienna Metro. AirBnB, Uber, Lyft all permitted their landlords/workers to refuse service to UTRII. AirBnB went further, threatened to cancel accounts of UTR II participants. In DC itself, some restaurants posted signs ordering Nazis to stay out.

Once the Nazis arrived at Foggy Bottom Metro, they found their problems had just begun. Instead of being able to assemble in isolation to confront protesters further down the road, they emerged from the Metro station into a scrum of very displeased DC and surrounding area residents reinforced by protesters from all over the East Coast. With some difficulty cops forced a passage and got the Nazis between their two solid lines of motorcycle cops. From here is was a double-time march south to F st, E to 17th st, and north to the entrance to Lafayette Park. All the way there, counterprotesters marched surrounding the police and the other fascists the police were protecting.

When the fascists arrived at Lafayette Park, they went into a fenced protest pit close to their friend Donald Trump's White House. The whole northern half of the park was crammed with counterprotesters from many groups. Just as most of the original gauntlet of counterprotesters had moved on to Lafayette Park, a black bloc marched onto the scene and sealed the exit from Lafayette Park back onto 17th st and Penn ave. Then the skies opened and the rains began to fall. Soon, the somewhere between 20 and 80 white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other assorted fascists had had enough. What looked like a police attempt to force an exit past the black bloc was quickly stifled and turned back. On August 13, the Washington "Moon-Times" confirmed this was in fact a failed police attempt to escape Lafayette Park to the west with the fash in tow.

Shortly therafter, police set a police line across 17th st just south of H st. A second group of bike cops parked on Penn Ave as though waiting for orders to spread out and seal off that exit. It looked like the start of a kettle, but that police line turned out to be facing outward as though to block reinforcements from arriving. Those reinforcements arrived soon anyway, flanking around the cops by other streets while the bike cops disappeared. Soon both potential kettle lines were gone-as were the Nazis. The fake kettle may have been a diversion to cover a move to get the fascists out of the park by another direction. They were loaded onto busses and driven to a Metro station. Unknown if another special train was then run just to return the fascists to the Vienna Metro station.

Interestingly, the last video clip shot on August 12 by the Indymedia reporter who posted this was timestamped Sun 12 Aug 2018 05:33:18 PM, and it was taken well after the fascists had departed due to rain. That departure thus took place prior to the announced 5:30PM start time of Unite the Right II.

Late in the day, police opened up with pepper spray on protesters in the 13th and G st/12th and G sts area, then threatened to start spraying a second time. The targetted protesters were marching to ICE after victory over Kessler's band of fascists, and were engaged by police before they could reach this notorious den of racist hate. Nowhere did the Washington Post or any other mainstream news media mention that the "black clad Antifa" protesters they accused of "pinballing" around downtown were in fact trying to march on ICE without being kettled by police.

At about the same time, four leftover or late fascists were spotted in Lafayette Square and engaged by an estimated counterprotesters well after the main Nazi group had been hauled away like yesterday's garbage. Those four fash were driven out of Lafayette Square in a police command center van, no doubt again to a Metro station.

As the main action wrapped up, there were reports from a person who had gotten close to the fascists that they were visibly shaking with fear at one point. Another person reported that the cops were "really pissed" about the day's events.

It has also been reported that at the start of this whole mess the Vienna Metro was closed to all other customers, becoming a "Nazis only" railroad station for a time. Only cops and other fascists were permitted to use it, and Metro's workers were expected to put up and shut up.