Activists prepare to storm DC in Independence Day weekend protests

Protesters plan to storm Washington, D.C., over Independence Day weekend with protests and demonstrations. Activists in the most high profile of these events plan to protest the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park. The memorial, which leaders of the local collective the Freedom Neighborhood claimed they would topple last week, has become a subject of national interest, with many people making a case both for and against the statue. Glenn Foster, the leader of the Freedom Neighborhood, has promoted multiple protests against the memorial set for the days surrounding the July 4 weekend. In some of his material, he celebrated the fact that on Tuesday the Boston Arts Commission voted to remove an identical copy of the statue, which depicts President Abraham Lincoln freeing the slave Archer Alexander, from public display. “The job is almost finished! Let’s get it D.C.!” Foster wrote in reference to his efforts to remove the memorial. The movement has received support from D.C. public officials. Shadow Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Thursday introduced legislation to have the statue removed from the park and placed in a museum. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said last week that she would be open to having a "reasonable conversation" about the statue’s future.

At the same time, the U.S. Park Police has kept up a fence surrounding the statue, which they say will remain in place until further notice. As of this writing, the fence is covered with many protest signs, as the fence surrounding the White House is, some explaining not only the racism present in the statue but, more broadly, the issue of systemic racism throughout the country. “Our justice starts with tearing down the symbols of our oppression and demanding that we will wait no longer for the government to give us our freedom,” one of the signs reads. Foster had an event planned for Thursday afternoon, but announced to his followers several hours before its start that it had been canceled “due to logistical issues on behalf of our enemy” — namely, the police. The Freedom Neighborhood plans to hold a big event in front of the statue on Friday, but it will be met with resistance. The local historian Nathan Richardson, who, dressed as the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, defended the statue last week, said he plans to show up again on Friday. Richardson said he will recite excerpts from Douglass’s landmark 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” in an effort to explain the country’s complicated history with slavery and racism.

A series of other local historians and fans of Douglass, who famously dedicated the statue in the presence of President Ulysses S. Grant, also plan to stand in front of the statue and promote a “family-friendly community dialogue” about the memorial. Several residents nearby Lincoln Park also plan to stand watch in the park to show their support for the statue. One resident told the Washington Examiner that they “need all the help we can get” to keep the statue from being toppled. D.C. tour guide Don Folden has been visiting the park semi-regularly and since an incident last Friday where he led two reporters, one from One America News and the other from the Washington Examiner, away from protesters attempting to shove them. Folden plans to hold his own counter-rally after July 4 and said that he is prepared to “fight alone to save this statue.”

While the drama unfolds in front of the Emancipation Memorial, many other protesters plan to swarm the city during the day on July 4, according to a series of activist social media accounts. The plan, as it stands, is to wear all black and loudly protest racial injustice in front of the Capitol Building. Christian Tabash, who on Wednesday led an anti-Israel march on the Capitol, said that the reason for the turnout on July 4 is to make a point about the illegitimacy of the American founding. “What is Independence Day to black folks? What was Independence Day to honestly anyone but the white economic elite on that day?” Tabash asked, recalling July 4, 1776. “Poor folks and women couldn’t even vote. It’s a hoax.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/activists-prepare-to-storm-dc-in-independence-day-weekend-protests

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Frederick Douglass | July 5, 1852

https://web.archive.org/web/20200626010517/https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/

https://twitter.com/EleanorNorton/status/1278435717300006915

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/toppling-attempt-led-by-harvard-student-ends-after-confrontation-with-statue-defenders

https://norton.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/norton-to-introduce-legislation-removing-emancipation-statue-from

Obama encourages people to ignore 'folks trying to divide us' on Independence Day

Former President Barack Obama encouraged people to be "smart" while celebrating Independence Day. In what was a clear break from President Trump, Obama urged people to "listen to the experts" when it comes to how to stay safe amid the rises in coronavirus cases, not "the folks trying to divide us." "This holiday weekend, let’s be safe and smart. It’s going to take all of us to beat this virus. So wear a mask. Wash your hands. And listen to the experts, not the folks trying to divide us. That's the only way we’ll do this—together," he said in a tweet Friday that included a link to a New York Times article headlined: "Honor America’s birthday (safely) in 2020."

Trump is expected to give a speech in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore during a Fourth of July celebration that will include fireworks. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said that officials will be providing masks to everyone in attendance but that wearing one is not mandatory. She also noted that social distancing won't be recommended. Both are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to curb the spread of the coronavirus. "Those who want to come and join us, we will give out free masts if they choose to wear one, but we won't be social distancing. We are asking them to come be ready to celebrate, to enjoy the freedoms and the liberties we have in this country, and to talk about our history. And what it brought us today was an opportunity to raise our kids in the greatest country in the world," Noem said on Fox News earlier this week. Trump is expected to reference the "left-wing mob" and "cancel culture" during his speech at the event, according to a campaign official.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-encourages-people-to-ignore-folks-trying-to-divide-us-on-independence-day

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1279082492193050625

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/at-home/celebrate-fourth-of-july-coronavirus.html

Sixty arrested in Seattle as protesters feud with police after demise of CHOP

Protesters continue to clash with law enforcement in Seattle days after the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone was dismantled. Police said they arrested 10 people between Thursday night and Friday morning for property destruction, assault, harassment, and failure to disperse. The Seattle Police Department also reported bottles, rocks, and fireworks being thrown at officers. All those who were arrested were booked into the King County Jail. Local law enforcement officials began clearing out the area early Wednesday after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order mandating that people vacate due to violence and public safety issues. Since then, more than 60 arrests have been made, according to KING-TV, a local NBC affiliate.

One of the arrests on Thursday was of a prominent protester from the CHOP zone who led police in a high-speed chase. Police say the man was wanted for a felony. After the suspect crashed his car, he was seen climbing out of the sunroof and standing on top of his car. “It was crazy. It was really shocking," Sabrina Provost, who captured the incident on video while driving behind the chase in her mother's car, told KOMO News. “The next thing you know, he jumped off of the car, and he did this dance like that — ran around the two cops that were there and just booked it down the freeway. He was so fast. I kid you not.” The King County Prosecutor's Office said Friday that no criminal charges have been filed against nonviolent protesters. "The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has not charged non-violent protesters, and we have no plans to do so," the office wrote in a statement. "Our position hasn't changed since the first protests in response to the murder of George Floyd." Durkan had recommended that the city not file charges for misdemeanor arrests made during protests.

Police had abandoned the six-block CHOP zone, which included the department's East Precinct, on June 8 after people protesting the death of George Floyd took control of the area and declared it an autonomous zone. It was initially dubbed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone before being renamed. The protest was one of many around the nation calling for an end to racial injustice and police brutality, as well as to defund the police.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/60-arrested-in-seattle-as-protesters-feud-with-police-after-demise-of-chop

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2020/07/01/mayor-durkan-issues-emergency-order-regarding-capitol-hill-protest-zone/

https://twitter.com/KCProsecutor/status/1279135967962521602

White House official: Beijing allowed Chinese nationalists 'to seed and spread' coronavirus in US

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro claimed that the Chinese government knowingly allowed people who had contracted the coronavirus to travel overseas before the virus was declared a pandemic. Navarro, who is on the coronavirus response team for the White House, sparred with Ali Velshi in a Saturday afternoon interview on MSNBC about the Chinese Communist Party's role in spreading the virus as COVID-19 cases again spike in places around the United States. "I want everybody right here today, as the day before America’s Independence Day, to understand where this virus started — with the Chinese Communist Party that is making us stay locked in our homes and lose our jobs. They spawned the virus. They hid the virus. They sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationalists over here to seed and spread the virus," Navarro said.

Velshi challenged Navarro's assertion, asking him to explain his claim about the hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals. "Here’s the point: While they were preventing any domestic travel from Wuhan to Beijing or Shanghai, locking down their transportation network, they freely sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals on aircraft to go around the world," the White House adviser explained before the host interjected again. There is evidence that China covered up the coronavirus's spread, muzzled whistleblowers, intimidated doctors, misled the World Health Organization, and blocked outside health experts. In April, the U.S. intelligence community reportedly believed that the Chinese Communist Party downplayed the outbreak and that China continued to mislead the world. Just this week, the World Health Organization backtracked on its assertion that the Chinese government alerted the United Nations agency about the coronavirus outbreak. China has denied orchestrating a cover-up, accusing other countries of politicizing the pandemic.

The U.S. leads the world in infections and related deaths. There have been more than 2.8 million cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., and more than 130,000 people who became infected have died. Nearly 11 million people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus globally since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than a half-million people who were infected have died. Navarro argued that whether or not China intentionally spread the coronavirus is irrelevant and said that "what was intentional" was Beijing moving to protect its citizens by shutting down travel within the country before it shut down international travel. "Let me be really clear about this: I don’t think it matters whether they did — what they deliberately did, Ali, and this is beyond reproach in terms of a fact. They deliberately allowed Chinese nationalists to come to the United States, Italy, and everywhere in between — who were infected — while they were locking down their own transportation network. And I think it’s really important for Americans to understand that," he added.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house-official-beijing-allowed-chinese-nationalists-to-seed-and-spread-coronavirus-in-us

WHO admits China never reported the existence of coronavirus outbreak

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/who-admits-china-never-reported-the-existence-of-coronavirus-outbreak

President Trump Campaign Ad Highlights Consequence of Defund The Police Agenda

The Trump campaign has released a hard-hitting 30-second ad drawing attention to the consequences of the Democrat’s ‘defund the police’ effort.

Abolished

Joe Biden's allies are doing everything they can to Defund the Police.

If you call 911, who will answer the phone?

You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/07/02/president-trump-campaign-ad-highlights-consequence-of-defund-the-police-agenda/