Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

After publishing my previous article, “Time to Fight?” I decided that it was time to comment on some of the most recent events regarding the fight for free speech. I had written the previous article about two months ago, not too long after the first set of riots at Berkeley. Since then we have seen free speech advocates do exactly what I talked about in my article. I have always had a theory that most of these people in the so-called antifascist mobs are wimps that don’t have the gonads to hold their ground in an actual fight. In many ways, I have been proven right.

Even since free speech advocates have taken it upon themselves to fight back against Antifa, an Anarcho-communist group that calls itself an antifascist organization, there have been many instances where these “badass” radicals have fallen down after a single punch to the face. In a video posted by Breitbart.com, where free speech activist, Kyle Chapman, aka Stickman and aka The Alt-Night was harassed and attacked for carrying an American flag. When one of the Antifa members tried to attack him, Chapman took him down with one punch. When the others tried to attack him, Chapman swung his flagpole around which discouraged them from any further attacks. It’s interesting how a bunch of “badass” punks despite having a five to one advantage over Chapman, were not able to take him down.

There have also been more comical aspects to the free speech struggle, such as Antifa claiming that that their comrades have been duct taped to traffic signs and trash bins. They even have pictures of a man duct taped to a yield sign on a major intersection and some guy duct taped to a metal trash bin. As amusing as I found these so-called duct taping incidents, it turns out that at least one of them was faked. The picture of the man taped to the yield sign, was an incident that took place in my hometown of Houston, when a man lost a bet about the outcome of a Rockets’ game. There hasn’t been a smoking gun that disproves the other picture, but it has been called into question. I find this both amusing and somewhat disappointing at the same time. I think it is amusing that these violent thugs have the nerve to try and play the victim, while I am somewhat disappointed because I was hoping that there were actual members of the free speech movement that were teaching these punks a lesson in humility.

It is also amusing that one of the most famous figures of our free speech fight is Kyle Chapman who goes by the names of Stickman and The Alt-Night. His nicknames were derived from the homemade shield and wooden stick that he uses to fight back against leftist agitators. Lately he has found himself becoming an internet meme in YouTube videos that feature him breaking his stick over the head of an Antifa disciple, while music such as “I’m a Real American” and “I’m Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler plays. Sadly, Chapman has faced many arrests for defending himself and others against leftist mobs, though luckily none of the bogus charges have actually stuck.

More recently there was a free speech march on Berkeley that was met with several attacks by Antifa members. One of the people was Lauren Southerland, a former Rebel Media reporter who on her YouTube channel reported that the anti-fascists were throwing smoke bombs and M-80 firecrackers into the crowd. Southerland said that one of the M-80’s bounced off the helmet she chose to wear for the event and despite having goggles, she still managed to get pepper spray in her eyes. Luckily, this particular group of wannabe anarchists weren’t the brightest when it came to how smoke bombs worked. The wind blow the smoke in the direction of the anti-fascist members, which forced them to retreat. What is really telling about all this is that the police forced the free speech advocates to give up any weapons before they could precede on their march to Berkeley. Interesting enough, the Antifa members didn’t seem to get that same memo, so they were able to throw everything and the kitchen sink at their opponents. It is even more telling that the police who were on the scene did nothing to quell the violence that was taking place in the streets.

As I had pointed out in my previous article, we can’t expect the media to be truthful. A prime example of this was an article on MSN.com who tried to portray Louise Rosealma as some kind of Martyr for her cause because she got hit in the face by an alleged Neo-Nazi. I say alleged because Antifa and its allies seem to apply the Nazi label to just about anyone that doesn’t agree with them. The article also tries to make Rosealma seem innocent, despite the footage that clearly shows her throwing punches of her own and her Facebook page where she talked about collecting Nazi scalps. I know that there are some who are going to say, there is no excuse for a man to hit a ninety-pound woman. Alright, then maybe that same ninety-pound woman shouldn’t be kept at the front lines to throw punches in the first place. It’s interesting how the free speech side kept the few women they had in their group protected by surrounding them with men, while their opponents sent their women to the front lines to get punched out by grown men. It makes you wonder which side has a greater respect for women. Actually, it’s quite obvious that Antifa protestors are intentionally keeping their women exposed to danger as a way of making free speech advocates look like a bunch of barbarians when a woman ends up getting punched. Though I would argue that using women as human shields is the ultimate act of cowardice, but that’s just me.

The media has tried real hard to make the free speech protestors look like the bad guys. I don’t think that they are having as much success in spinning it in Antifa’s favor, since it’s difficult to make an organization that takes great joy in destroying private and public property, but will not show their faces look good. It also doesn’t help the media that almost everybody carries a camera phone, which makes it difficult for them to have complete control over the narrative. That is why I made the suggestion that all protestors should make sure that they have something to document the occasion. Now, what we really need to do is to find a way to hold the mayor of Berkeley accountable for ordering her officers to doing nothing when there were Antifa members who were trying to suffocate free speech advocates by placing plastic bags over their heads. We need to get Trump to live up to his threats of cutting off federal funding to Berkeley. That’s the only way that the mayor is going to learn her place.