Vigilantes Are Longtime Defenders of White Supremacy
Trump’s warnings of a violent left are hand-me-downs from his vigilante predecessors
During a campaign rally in late August, President Trump stood before a packed crowd and railed against a familiar boogeyman. “Look at Joe Biden supporters on the streets screaming and shouting at bystanders with unhinged manic rage,” he said, referring to the hundreds of demonstrators who for months had been marching against police brutality. “They’re not protestors. Those are anarchists. They’re agitators. They’re rioters. They’re looters.”
Trump’s broadsides against protesters have spanned months and in some cases have been interpreted as a call to arms. In June, dozens of people with assault rifles patrolled the streets in parts of Idaho after social media posts echoing Trump’s rhetoric promised that “antifa agitators” were headed for their state. (They weren’t.) That same month, gun-toting white citizens in Oregon kept watch outside local businesses, NBC News reports, convinced of an impending antifa attack. Such processions have continued throughout the summer: From Philadelphia to Chicago to Portland, self-described patriot groups have mixed warily with peaceful protestors, usually in search of antifa, as those on the right call left-wing protestors whom they believe are anarchists…
