screengrab from https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1069041229122269184

If you aren’t familiar with his work, independent journalist Andy Ngo has made something of a career out of chronicling the outright douchebaggery of the antifa movement and the coziness of the Portland and Seattle governments with that movement. His efforts have discomfited the antifa and irritated politicians. And, along the way, it has given all of us a view of what happens when a governmental entity stops trying to enforce laws equally and decides that supporting a violent and extreme political faction is the way to gain popularity.

Yesterday, a group called the Three Percenters had a permit for a rally in Seattle. They were met by the antifa who didn’t bother to obtain a permit, though the police don’t really seem to care.

Today, around 150 self-described anti-fascists protested a downtown Seattle rally by the Washington State 3 Percent, a conservative group that calls itself constitutionalist. Antifa proudly displayed the red flag of communism on their side. pic.twitter.com/5xLVWlpKgW

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

The trouble starts as Ngo is recognized.

When I tried to walk to the street corner where antifa was demonstrating, two of their people with guns confronted me. pic.twitter.com/C5IrlnQqQ8

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

Washington is an open-carry state but the context of the open-carry here seems to me (and IANAL) to clearly be to intimidate (see 0:34):

RCW 9.41.270 provides that it is unlawful for a person to carry, exhibit, display or draw any firearm in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons. A violation is a gross misdemeanor.

The article at the link points to Washington court cases that have upheld arrests for open carry that didn’t involve crimes but could disquiet the average person, like walking down a sidewalk holding a pistol in your hand.

There are two interesting things that happen in this segment. First, Ngo is headed off by two antifa carrying what appear to be some civilian knockoff of the M-4 and they tell him they will not let him pass. Then a cop intervenes and tells them to let Ngo through. The cop is less than six feet from the armed antifa, he seemingly heard them tell Ngo he couldn’t pass but somehow the blocking of passage on a sidewalk and the possession of a pair of semi-automatic rifles are never linked into one act.

Then the situation starts to deteriorate for Ngo:

They surrounded me, and on cue, all of them took out their cameras to record. They pushed me and followed me when I tried to leave the area I was boxed in. One @SeattlePD officer tried to stand up for me. pic.twitter.com/ghJXoNQOqm

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

A woman screamed into a bullhorn in front of my face. I was pressed up against a barrier. She led the mob into called me a “Nazi.” It was so loud that I felt physical pain in my ear drums. pic.twitter.com/0C8Ny16nQH

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

Then the Seattle PD decided to say “f*** that Constitution bullsh**” and took the side of the antifa, threatening Ngo with arrest for “inciting conflict.” One unarmed guy with a camera was to blame. Go figure.

This was a surreal moment: @SeattlePD officer came up and said I was "inciting conflict" and potential violence just by being there. If my physical presence in a public space makes someone else want to become violent, the problem is not with me. pic.twitter.com/08wM5KXwx0

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

And when the death threat came, Ngo left.

“I’m known to do this shit for real,” an antifa protester said to me. “Are you willing to die for Youtube shit?…Death is coming to you.” pic.twitter.com/bhK2wWkMBD

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) December 2, 2018

Sort of amazing, really. The Seattle PD had zero problem with armed people showing up for an un-permitted protest. They had zero problem with a sidewalk being obstructed or a journalist being rather unambiguously threatened. And rather than enforce the law, they told a guy engaging in Constitutionally protected behavior–covering this illegal demonstration as a journalist–that he was the problem.

This kind of gutlessness by the police and sympathetic treatment of these thugs by various governmental bodies is going to inevitably lead to violence and bloodshed. Maybe when these masked Starbucks employees are stacked up like cordwood in the streets, someone will decide that the law should be enforced.