from It’s Going Down
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
When: Saturday, September 19th, 2020 @ 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Where: Clark Park, 4300-4398 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
When a hate rally is pending, people like to tell folks to stay home and ignore it. But what if a violent hate group whose rallies are pretty much geared to be violent comes directly to you?
That’s what it looks like the Proud Boys are planning for the 19th. Originally they announced that they were going to hold a rally on the 26th in South Philadelphia in conjunction with the one Proud Boys are holding in Portland, Oregon, but now comes word that because of conflicts with the Portland rally (they want to be there) they are doing a rally the Saturday before in Clark Park in West Philadelphia. The timing and location of this rally is telling as hell – not to mention that they are calling it “Belly of the Beast 2020” and they “and other patriots” are going there “to demand an end to antifa terrorism.”
Normally this is the date and location of the Uhuru Flea Market, a regular thing that has been taking place for 20+ years in the park every third Saturday from April to October. The pandemic shutdown has caused such events to be canceled until at least Feb. 2021, but this is where a lot of West Philly locals who made it clear that they do not care for Proud Boys, in particular recently by causing a neighborhood bar and venue a lot of grief for supporting them, like to come regardless and take in the day, so Proud Boys want to have a go at them. The group is basically trying to pick fights all over the country, and the police chief that was giving them leeway in Portland for three years is now the Philadelphia Police Commissioner. That doesn’t mean that people will not be able to keep them from using their neighborhood as a playground for far-Right, pro-Trump violence. They are working to oppose them now.
Photo from the originally Uhuru Flea Market SOURCE: Twitter
And here’s where it gets interesting: Philadelphia Proud Boys have a rough go of it, pretty much being regulated to trash talk online, sneaking around IRL and latching onto other people’s events so they can do something worth a damn. But they think they have a little juice via the knuckleheads that were trying – in vain – to save the Columbus statue by physically attacking anyone that comes near it – which is actually the catalyst which has resulted in plans to take it down. So we expect them to show up two hours before this rally at another one in Marconi Park in South Philly. That’s a rally organized by an outfit calling itself “Italian American Patriots” that is still trying to save the now-boarded up Columbus statue. The 26th rally was touted as protecting Italian Heritage, but now that this event was announced, they might have decided to use this as cover – which means Philly has a full day.
This is just one of a few rallies the Proud Boys have planned over the next few months. In addition to the one in Portland, there will be one in Columbus, Ohio as well.
