Antifa activist Sydney Alexander Ramsey-Laree (pictured above) will serve 60 days in jail for assaulting Jack Posobiec, a journalist the Left has smeared as a neo-Nazi because he is a Trump supporter.
This kind of violent direct action is called “Nazi-punching” regardless of whether the target is an actual Hitler enthusiast. Antifa throws around the epithet “Nazi,” with wanton disregard for the truth, lumping ordinary conservatives, moderates, and some left-liberals in with fascists, skinheads, white-supremacists, and other fringe figures. Even if some of these individuals do hold some abhorrent views, Antifa should not preemptively attack individuals it doesn’t like. As long as a person isn’t credibly threatening or intimidating others, they should be allowed to speak, record demonstrations, or generally be left alone.
The alleged Nazis hunted by Antifa are supposedly so evil and dangerous, Antifa activists claim, that Antifa needs to protect Americans by sucker-punching first and asking questions later. In other words, the activists have managed to convince themselves that throwing the first punch at their targets is an act of self-defense.
Beating up alleged fascists is fine, even if they’re not physically hurting or threatening anyone, journalist and Antifa organizer Natasha Lennard writes in an ode to Antifa violence in the Nation. Watching a video of a masked assailant throwing an unprovoked punch at white-supremacist Richard Spencer’s face on Inauguration Day 2017 is in Lennard’s words “counter-violence” and something of “pure kinetic beauty.”
At the time of the assault against him by Ramsey-Laree, April 23, 2017, Posobiec was filming a recruitment rally of the D.C. Anti-Fascist Coalition, an Antifa group, at George Washington University, as a correspondent of Rebel Media.
The battery and its aftermath were captured on video and posted on Twitter by the victim. Police officers who witnessed the assault can be seen running to the scene and promptly arresting the perpetrator who shouts “self-defense!” at them.
Members of the Antifa group claimed Ramsey-Laree was not affiliated with their club.
As I’ve written before, Antifa is not a single organization: it is a movement or coalition of leftist groups, each of which claims to combat “fascism,” a political ideology whose definition academics have been arguing about for decades. The word Antifa itself is a truncation of “anti-fascist.” Despite the name, the movement throws the word fascist around promiscuously, applying it when expedient to conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, and even some liberals. Antifa groups embrace violent tactics and revel in shutting down events conducted by those they label as fascist.
According to the GW Hatchet, a student newspaper:
Posobiec said the man rode up on a bicycle and after members of the D.C. Anti-Fascist Coalition called him a “Nazi,” he punched Posobiec in the hand.
“He screamed ‘Where’s the Nazi? Where’s the Nazi? And then a bunch of them pointed at me and said “‘He’s the Nazi. He’s the Nazi,’” he said.
Posobiec, who is now a One America News TV reporter, and author of the 2017 book, Citizens for Trump: The Inside Story of the People’s Movement to Take Back America. Posobiec also gained notoriety for his role in fanning the flames of the debunked “Pizzagate” story, which alleged that Hillary Clinton was involved in a child sex ring run out of a pizza restaurant.
He isn’t anything close to a Nazi but Antifa supporters don’t care. An assault on him or anyone else smeared as a Nazi can serve as propaganda for the cause and help to recruit new activists.
Ramsey-Laree of Vienna, Va., born Dec. 8, 1992, pled guilty in District of Columbia Superior Court on Oct. 11, 2017 to the simple assault (a misdemeanor) in April that year on Posobiec.
According to D.C. court records (case number 2017 CMD 006994) on Dec. 5, 2017, Ramsey-Laree was sentenced to 60 days of confinement and two years of probation. The 60-day jail term was suspended.
But Ramsey-Laree couldn’t stay out of legal trouble.
He was arrested and charged with possession of an open container of alcohol, escape, and resisting arrest in connection with an incident at Freedom Plaza near the White House on Dec. 12, 2017, according to an affidavit by police officer Kyle Shanberg.
On April 24, 2018, Ramsey-Laree’s probation was revoked and he was ordered to serve the formerly suspended 60-day custodial sentence.
Ramsey-Laree has an extensive arrest record in his home state of Virginia.
According to public records available at Nexis, Ramsey-Laree has been arrested for assault three times in Virginia: in December 2010, July 2013, and June 2015. He was arrested in September 2012 and August 2016 for marijuana possession.
He was arrested in October 2014 for trespassing and destruction of property worth more than $1,000. He was arrested in February 2014 and October 2014 for intentional damage to a monument. He was arrested in August 2014 for obstructing justice and resisting arrest and in March 2015 for violating the conditions of his probation.
Now Ramsey-Laree has 60 days to reflect on the error of his ways.
This article by Matthew Vadum first appeared June 4, 2018, at the Capital Research Center website.