A Black man – Phillip Johnson – has been arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly stabbing four people, thought to be members of the fascist Proud Boys street gang.
The incident happened on the Trump supporters’ protests in Washington DC at the weekend.
Turns out the fracas outside Harry’s Bar where the fascists thugs were meeting was an attempted lynching, judging by the New York Times report of the demonstration.
The Times reports that a number of the violent far-right gang had gathered at the bar and spotted a black man dressed in black and decide to attack him, even after three Trump supporters implored them to leave him alone.
The pack attacked and start beating the lone black man, ounching and kicking him.
Johnson managed to get free of the mob twice:
The NYT report continues: “At that point, the man pulled out a knife and began slashing with it as more demonstrators piled onto him. The man broke free twice, but was then grabbed and beaten again. Police officers intervened after the man was face down on the ground. Several protesters yelled that the man had a knife and had stabbed someone. The man’s face was swollen and bloodied when police officers picked him up.”
The paper says that minutes before the attack on Johnson, the fascists had targeted two black churches – the United Methodist Church (established in 1836) and the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, ripping down BLM flags outside the places of worship and burning them.
The pastor of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Dr. Ianther M. Mills, described the scene as reminiscent of a cross burning in the Deep South:
“We are a resilient people who have trusted in God through slavery and the Underground Railroad, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement,” she said, “and now as we face an apparent rise in white supremacy.”