BLM Protesters Crash Christmas Charity in Middle of Raising Money To Fight Childhood Cancer
Messaging matters.
When considering the social upheaval of the 1960s, for instance, the left has managed to package the parts favorable to the liberals in a neat little box: The March on Washington. Bobby Kennedy eulogizing Martin Luther King.
George Wallace in the schoolhouse door. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s police beating protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention as demonstrators chanted, “The whole world is watching.”
What the left has managed to excise from this package, meanwhile, is stuff like the Weather Underground, a left-wing terror organization that perpetrated dozens of bombings. The Black Panthers, now lionized as a symbol of black militant struggle, was a group that financed much of its activities through extortion and protection rackets.
There were the countless failed utopian visions, the minds left permanently adrift thanks to chemically aided “consciousness expansion,” the wreckage left by the free love movement and the idea that sex could (and should) be divorced from any concept of love, monogamy or marriage — all of these have been deftly left on the cutting room floor.
Instead, the decade is branded as one of peace, flower power and the triumph of love and justice. The reassuring tones of Robert Redford’s voice can narrate it, informing us all just how righteous it all was.
It’s safe to call the period we’re living through now the greatest social upheaval since the 1960s, but how how the left will manage to package it will be a bit messier. There are still the gatekeepers who are more than willing to elide over the parts that aren’t “mostly peaceful,” but social media keeps receipts. Like, for instance, what happened in West Allis, Wisconsin, on Friday night.
Since 1984, neighbors in West Allis have come together to create “Candy Cane Lane” — a strip of houses brightly festooned with elaborate Christmas decorations, all to benefit childhood cancer research. For 35 years, the event was a way to come together and celebrate the season, all while raising money for a good cause.
In year 36, it apparently became an appropriate venue for a Black Lives Matter protest, because nothing engenders sympathy for a cause like crashing a cancer benefit at Christmas time.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the protest was organized by Peoples Revolution, a group that’s been one of the chief organizers of demonstrations that have taken place in the Milwaukee area for 200 straight days but clearly hasn’t been getting the kind of attention it was back in the salad days of the summer of our discontent.
Thus, this:
#BlackLivesMatter at Candy Cane Lane in West Allis pic.twitter.com/s5iXATLHH2
— Lori Nickel (@LoriNickel) December 19, 2020
The group chanted “black lives matter” and “black children matter” — as though a group dedicated to children’s cancer research needs to be told that.
There’s a 30-minute livestream of the group’s march through Candy Cane Lane that’s archived on social media, just in case this was chicken soup for your soul and you’re looking for more of it. I’m pretty sure there are enough clips of antifa members in Portland harassing innocent pedestrians and motorists that you haven’t yet watched to keep you occupied, however.
The Journal Sentinel makes clear that there weren’t reports of violence or vandalism. West Allis Deputy Police Chief Chris Marks told the newspaper there were no arrests or citations.
What’s also made clear — particularly from viewing the 30-minute version of the march — is that the group’s presence was more menacing than just a peaceful protest. At times, the demonstrators blocked the movement of traffic; while there was no banging on car hoods or harassment of individual motorists, it was clear the intention was to impede vehicles on Candy Cane Lane. These weren’t people standing on the sidelines.
In yet more proof that emotions on Twitter bear little resemblance to those of normal human beings, these were some of the reactions to the People’s Revolution crashing a fundraiser for children’s cancer right before Christmas:
This is awesome.
— Be Like Bob—Stay Home (@WausauBob) December 19, 2020
The People’s Revolution ✊?✊?✊?✊?✊? https://t.co/aNtZ3V6rJt
— Hye_Ryee (@HyeRyee) December 19, 2020
It reminds people who think everything is just sparkly Christmas lights that others are still seeking justice.
— MilwaukeeForever (@MilwaukeeForev1) December 19, 2020
This wasn’t the totality of the reaction, of course, or even the majority — but the fact there were Twitter users who saw this footage and were willing to politically co-sign what was happening here is a troubling sign of where we are as a country.
There was, of course, a more reasonable vein of reaction to Friday’s incident, represented here by former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker:
Disrupting a #Christmas tradition that raises $ to fight childhood cancer shows that these riots are really about chaos and destruction. Totally wrong. https://t.co/gAZqzhXYsi
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) December 19, 2020
For what it’s worth, this was the majority’s take on Friday’s “protest” on most social media — yet the fact remains that there’s a vocal minority that saw this and thought: “Well, finally. Those people who wanted to drive through a Christmas lights display to help benefit a cancer charity had it coming, the privileged suckers.”
So far this year, Candy Cane Lane has raised $121,000 for Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer. The People’s Revolution, meanwhile, managed to scare potential visitors off and … that’s it. That’s the message.
Candy Cane Lane raised money for childhood cancer. The protesters targeted the event because it got them attention. It doesn’t mean that more people got the message that “black lives matter.” We’ve gotten the hint. Nobody in that procession was introduced to the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday. Plenty were turned off.
And that’s the thing about social media. In a decade or two, when we look back on this period, conservatives won’t have to search for the footage that was left on the cutting room floor. Social media is forever.
For every starry-eyed liberal who talks about the Black Lives Matter movement as an unadulterated force for good, all conservatives need to do is point to videos like this — and those who defended the marchers.
This is the ugly side of our current social upheaval — and this time, it can’t be ignored.
Let’s see Robert Redford narrate his way out of this one.
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