White nationalist cancels rally
“We have people in law enforcement that are on our side, no doubt about it. I’ll be honest. There are law enforcement on our side, that are let’s say police officers, sheriff’s deputies, state patrol,” white nationalist Michael Weaver told News2Share. “There are also law enforcement that are against us, that are looking for any reason to lock us up.”
Confederate Monument at Stone Mountain Park
Weaver is the spokesperson for “Rock Stone Mountain II,” a rally planned for February 2nd – a day ahead of the Super Bowl – in support of the confederate monument at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia. A coalition of dozens of antifascist and antiracist groups calling themselves FLOWER United plans to oppose them.
The rally’s permit was denied weeks ago, but in an interview with Chris Joyner of Atlanta Journal-Constitution only six days ago, Weaver said, “To hell with their permit. The Constitution is our permit.”
Now, he tells News2Share, he wants his followers not to go. “I am not going to risk the safety of participants,” he explained. According to him, a law enforcement official sympathetic to “his side” warned him that police planned to arrest his side.
“Our people were going to be arrested,” he said. “The police were going be used to silence us by arresting us in mass.”
“A general doesn’t lead his troops into a trap… It was going to be a shitshow.”
With his event cancelled, I asked Weaver whether he considers #Antifa to have won given that their goal is to deplatform.
“A general doesn’t lead his troops into a trap,” he said.
He went on to explain, basically, that this event was unwinnable, so cancelling wasn’t a loss. pic.twitter.com/Y4dvDKp65C
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) February 1, 2019
A community response
FLOWER’s coalition still plans to assemble at Stone Mountain Park at 9am and stay throughout the day. The event will either be a community defense if confederate activists show up, or a celebration if they don’t.
“The nightmare scenario is that somebody decides to be a lone wolf and pulls something like what happened in Charlottesville,” an organizer who wished to be identified as “Firebug” told News2Share.
While Weaver tells his followers not to show up, nothing prevents individuals from going.
Flower Coalition
“It’s also possible that a few of them will show up and just do the flag thing,” Firebug said.
FLOWER stands for “Frontline organizations working together to end racism,” she explained. “These things don’t go away if you ignore them. They get worse.”
“Physically stopping them, physically showing up and being present when they say they’re going to rally is an indispensable tool in the tool kit.”
On the actual monument that the rally would have been about, Firebug didn’t mince words. “It’s a monument to white supremacy and genocide.”
News2Share will be livestreaming the FLOWER coalition community response beginning early morning Saturday.
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