DAVID MARCUS: If you're marching with Antifa, you are not a 'peaceful' protester
So, you’re thinking about going to your local anti-ICE protests this weekend, and I get it. I did some serious protesting in my day, against the war in Iraq, for example, and if you detest what the Trump administration is doing, of course you have a right to protest it.
But there is something you need to know before you and the kids make your rainbow-colored "Trump is a Fascist" signs and head down to the rally. What you need to know is that, whether you know it or not, you are being used by some really, really bad people.
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By now, I’m sure you have heard from Rachel Maddow and The New York Times, as well as most Democrats in Congress that the vast majority of protesters in Los Angeles are peaceful, and it's just a handful of bad apple agitators making trouble.
This is not actually true of the police confrontations, but between you and me, let's just pretend it is. What is your responsibility, as a peaceful protester in that situation?
Let me pose a scenario: You’re marching, waving your sign, chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go," when suddenly you see a group taking over a street and blocking traffic, or setting fires. What do you do?
At this point, you have a personal choice to make that has nothing to do with the law, or the Constitution. Legally, you can stay at the protest, but you need to know that, if you do, you are not only condoning, but literally abetting the violence.
This is because Antifa and other agitator groups are counting on you and thousands of others to remain and occupy police attention. The cops will have to spend more time protecting you than quelling mayhem.
The whole reason Antifa shows up at large protests is to use you and other peaceful protesters as its offensive line in a football game you didn’t even know you were playing.
I can hear you saying that you aren’t going to surrender your right to protest to a small group of ne'er-do-wells, but you don’t have to, you don’t have to accept that violence and destruction are just a natural part of protest.
Every year in Washington DC the March for Life occurs, I have never seen a reporter in a helmet and flak jacket at the March for Life. I’ve never seen any of the kids from the Mount Saint Mary’s Aquinas Club set a police cruiser ablaze.
For years, the Tea Party held protests that never featured mass arrests or looting, so you see it can be done.
And I know what you are going to say. You’re going to say, what about January 6? But what happened after January 6? Over a thousand people were tracked down across America and jailed. That didn’t happen after Minneapolis or Portland in 2020, did it?
So ask yourself, why are you so accepting of violence at left-wing protests? Why do you treat it as inevitable?
Why are the organizers of these events, who are very much professionals in the protest industry, incapable of keeping these major protests from descending into violence, almost every single time?
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Allow me to suggest that these organizers are not only aware that agitators plan to use their event as cover for criminal mischief, they seem to condone it with their actions, and they have no problem using you and your family as human shields to protect Antifa.
The deadly destruction of the 2020 riots was enabled in large part by the giant throngs of people who only wanted their voices heard. Today, in 2025, you have a chance to avoid contributing to similar chaos.
If you feel you must attend the protests, then by all means, do so. But keep your head on a swivel. If you see black-bloc figures starting trouble, then at that exact moment, you are no longer merely a peaceful protester.
In fact, if you and all the other peaceful protesters just go home at the sight of crime or violence, then you are personally condemning it, and you are making it far less likely to flourish.
In the end, it is up to you, and for everyone’s sake, I hope that you make a wise choice.