Antifascist arrested for wearing mask at NPI protest

On Halloween night, protests at the neo-Nazi National Policy Institute convention continued until the Nazis had to leave. At arount 10PM, all of the Nazis tried to flank the protesters by going around to the F st doors while protesters were on 14th st. Protesters saw this developing and charged over, getting there first. The resulting situation drew bike cops. Meanwhile, a few activists were still on 14th st. A white supremacist named Sam Dixon, former lawyer for the KKK, asked the police to arrest Sima for wearing a mask-and they complied.

The F st situation was interesting. The nazis seemed to be afraid to leave individually or in small groups, so they decided to leave in a single large group. At one point they could be heard discussing this.Their attempt to outflank protesters by using the F st instead of the 14th entrance was a complete failure. On the other hand, the bike cops that responded to that event may have been a blocking force to prevent the group from returning to 14th st during the arrest situation.

Activists responded to Sima being arrested at Sam Dixon's request with a solidarity protest at the First District police station, and Sima was released sometime later. Afterwards, evidence was found that police had tampered with her phone.

Police arrested a person of color for protesting Nazis, apparently at the request of a former lawyer for the Ku Klux Klan. Their opportunity to do this stemmed from the fact that most-but not all-of the protest had pursued the bulk of the Nazis to the F st exit from the Press Club's building. At that time, a line of bike cops took up positions behind the antifascists who were pursuing the Nazis there, raising the possiblity that those bike cops were actually a blocking force to prevent Sima from being protected by other activists. Once again, police have chosen to make a legally questionable arrest, essentially to jump out on someone of non-European descent, at or near the end of a protest against white supremacy.

For most of the evening, the protest consisted of large banners calling out the fact that neo-Nazis were meeting at the National Press Club plus a sound system. The event was billed as a "costume party" for Halloween. Halloween being a night were people customarily wear masks, there was a werewolf mask and many "ninja" outfits. There are no reports of anyone else being arrested for wearing a mask on Halloween. Mask laws were originally written for use against the KKK, yet here we have a Klan lawyer insisting these laws be used instead on anti-fascist activists-and police accepting orders not from a judge, but a former KKK attorney. In addition, no activist perceived as white was targetted for arrest, but given that the orders came from a former Klan lawyer this is no surprise.Having MPD effectively taking orders from the Klan is unfortunately no surprise either. For decades people have said "the cops and the Klan work hand in hand" and here we have just such an example.

About a week after this protest, Anonymous put points on the board, releasing websites, email addresses, and phone numbers of known KKK members. A link to the pastebin file is available in the DC Direct Action News report below:

https://dcdirectactionnews.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/antifascist-arrested...

More on former KKK lawyer Sam Dixon's real estate scams: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2006/how-kla...

Video of the "costume party" and the confrontation with the Nazis at F st as they left in a single large group