Right-Wing Editor Brags about "Infiltrating" DC Protest March
AlterNet
Sat Oct 8, 2011
Category: Politics
Area: Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
Washington, DC saw not one but two major protest actions this weekend, and one of them, a peaceful march to the Air and Space Museum to protest an exhibit on unmanned drones, saw a confrontation with police that led to protesters getting pepper-sprayed.
Apparently, one of those "protesters" was American Spectator editor Patrick Howley.
Blogger Charlie Grapski at FireDogLake writes:
Immediately after the incident began hitting the newswires Howley published a "Breaking News" story with The American Spectator online in which he reveals that he had consciously infiltrated the group on Friday with the intent to discredit the movement. He states that "as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause - a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator - and I wasn't giving up before I had my story."
According to Howley's story he joined the group in its march toward the Air and Space Museum but the protesters on the march were unwilling to be confrontational. He states "they lack the nerve to confront authority. From estimates within the protest, only ten people were pepper-sprayed, and as far as I could tell I was the only one who got inside."
Since peaceful protesters wound up getting a face full of pepper-spray because of Howley's decision to act aggressively, Grapski argues:
It is highly likely that the events that occurred would not have taken the turn they did if it were not for Howley's admitted adventure in an effort to discredit the Occupy movement. So before the public, the media, and officials turn their attention negatively towards the protests and the protesters there needs to be a critical eye turned on the role of the American Spectator and the role played in these events by its editorial staff. If arrests were made at this incident, and even if none were, the admissions of Howley published brazenly in the pages of his Conservative magazine and bragged about on his Facebook page should lead to an official investigation into his role and that of his employer in the events in Washington D.C. today and should be seen as at least part of the causal nexus that led to the inappropriate use of force that along with Howley negatively affected many who were innocent of any crime other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Share your thoughts in the Forum
