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D.C. is becoming a protest battleground. In a polarized nation, experts say that’s unlikely to change.

InternationalJan 02. 2021Members of the Proud Boys protest during a rally for President Trump on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post

By The Washington Post, Marissa J. Lang

WASHINGTON – For years, West Coast cities have borne the brunt of violent confrontations between far-right extremists and counterprotesters who come to meet them.

Brawls broke out in Berkeley, Calif. White-supremacist rallies in Sacramento ended in bloodshed. Violent clashes have become common in Portland, Ore., where gunfire broke out at demonstrations over the summer. Demonstrators in Olympia, Wash., recently fired weapons into a crowd, wounding at least one person.

Up and down the western United States, protests have devolved into violent clashes replete with thrown rocks, exploding fireworks and streams of caustic chemicals.

But the nation’s capital – with its strict gun laws and history of orderly, peaceful protest – has largely avoided these violent conflicts.

Until now.

Extremism experts who study the far-right warn that the District of Columbia is on a path to become the next battleground in increasingly violent confrontations with left-leaning counterdemonstrators.

In the weeks since the 2020 presidential election, a coalition of loyalists of President Donald Trump, conspiracy theory adherents, white nationalists,self-proclaimed militia members and other fringe figures have flocked to the nation’s capital to support the president’s baseless claims of election fraud. As Trump’s hopes of reversing the election results have faltered, those who falsely believe the election was stolen or fraudulent have grown increasingly angry and desperate.

Extremist groups intent on sowing chaos and division have capitalized on these feelings to recruit members and spread disinformation, experts say. In online chat groups and forums, political rage and disbelief metastasizes into calls for violence.

Police break up a scuffle between anti-Trump and pro-Trump demonstrators at Black Lives Matter Plaza on Nov. 13, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Washington Post photo by Ricky Carioti

“They feel Trump won the election and that the country is being stolen from them, so this is their last chance to save America,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and the former director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “They’re a lot angrier now, and that worries me. It worries me that now they’re deciding if they’re going to bring guns to the street fight.”

During two weekends of pro-Trump demonstrations in November and December, violent melees spilled into the streets of downtown Washington.

Longtime District protesters, many of whom have been demonstrating since the May police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, have called for District residents and supporters to join them to stand against groups they see as an existential threat. Both times, they have been outnumbered.

“D.C. is not exactly a Proud Boy-friendly city,” said Eric Feinberg, who monitors online activity from extremist groups as vice president of content moderation at Coalition for a Safer Web. “Activists are in a more defensive position here. They see it as protecting their turf. But what happens is then you get these other groups like the Proud Boys that want to cause violence, and they know that if they come to D.C. they’ll be confronted by these left-wing activists – that’s where it gets dangerous.”

On Wednesday, Trump’s supporters and a litany of far-right groups who believe the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud will again converge in the District to demand that Congress overturn the results of the election. That same day, Congress is set to convene to certify electoral college votes, declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner.

Trump continued on Friday to publicize the right-wing demonstrations on Twitter. “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted, although none of the organizers requesting permits gave that start time. “Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!”

The District is no stranger to protests. The city has averaged more than 800 permitted demonstrations annually in recent years and many more that gather without permits. While arrests have increased as protesters have sought to use civil disobedience to make a point, the arrests often are planned and choreographed.

When violence has erupted, it has largely targeted property – not people.

But security experts who study extremist movements and terrorism threats say street brawls are part of the ethos of far-right agitators. Experts said these groups will continue to return to Washington well after Biden is sworn into office.

Trump’s far-right supporters have announced plans to return to the District on Jan. 17 and in the days around Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, during which some militantsare touting a “Million Militia March.”

“This is where people come to march. Historically, this is where hate groups have come to march, as well,” Beirich said. “Washington is a far better target for them than [the West Coast]. You get better press coverage, there’s a lively anti-fascist movement in D.C. so you’re almost guaranteeing you’ll get some clashes in the streets. That’s what they thrive on.”

On Wednesday, four simultaneous rallies are expected to draw pro-Trump demonstrators to areas around the Washington Monument, Freedom Plaza and the Capitol to hear speeches from prominent conservatives, including Trump ally Roger Stone and incoming Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has endorsed the baseless QAnon conspiracy.

Permit applications estimate thousands of attendees will spread throughout various sites downtown, chanting and waving flags. But in encrypted chat apps and online message boards, a different kind of day appears to be taking shape.

For weeks, anonymous users have posted tips and strategies for smuggling firearms into the District, where carrying without a permit is prohibited and guns are banned at protests. Organizers on the left and right have warned their followers to prepare for violence.

Neo-Nazis took to Telegram, an encrypted chat app that allows users to broadcast to a channel of subscribers, to encourage followers to attend, saying they need “boots on the ground” to intimidate lawmakers and push for a nationalist agenda.

Comments on a YouTube video announcing the Hotel Harrington’s decision to close during the days leading up to Wednesday’s protest – after a Washington Post report on how the District’s oldest continuously running hotel became a Proud Boys rallying spot – devolved into calls for violence and an armed takeover along the Mall.

“At what point do armed Americans seize DC and start hanging politicians? It’s an honest question that is not without merit or precedence,” wrote a user in a post that was up-voted by other contributors more than 1,100 times.

A number of commenters indicated they believed – or hoped – a civil war may soon begin against a perceived band of enemies that includes communists, socialists and anyone deemed a member of “antifa.”

Members of the Proud Boys, an all-male far-right extremist group with ties to white nationalism, boasted about their plans to break off into smaller groups to roam the streets looking for counterprotesters to confront.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, who did not respond to a request for comment for this article, wrote in a post that was widely shared on Parler and Telegram that the group will turn out “in record numbers on Jan. 6,” promising “1,000 boots on the ground.”

Tarrio and other Proud Boys leaders also told followers to ditch their signature black and gold dress in favor of all-black clothing – an apparent attempt to make far-right agitators harder to pick out in a crowd of black-clad anti-fascist and anti-Trump demonstrators.

“We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown D.C. in smaller teams,” Tarrio posted on Parler.

Other likely attendees include members of various armed groups, such as anti-government groups like the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers. Members of the youth-led Groypers, a white-supremacist group, are also likely to return. On Dec. 12, they cheered as bands of Proud Boys carried a Black Lives Matter sign torn from outside a historically Black church, then set it on fire.

Experts say far-right groups have used Telegram channels and other social media to exchange taunts and threats with left-leaning activist organizations. Supporters of the Proud Boys gleefully reposted and highlighted videos in recent days of black-clad demonstrators being punched and pushed to the ground at previous rallies.

“They’re putting this stuff online to taunt each other, to try and get the other side riled up,” Feinberg said. “It’s memetic warfare.”

Online fundraisers have cropped up to solicit donations for travel, communications equipment – such as earpieces, microphones and radios – and help covering the medical bills of Proud Boys who were hospitalized after Dec. 12 stabbings in a chaotic altercation across from Harry’s Bar, the in-house pub at the Hotel Harrington.

Street medics, who volunteer to treat those wounded at protests, and members of left-leaning groups have launched similar fundraising campaigns. Some money goes to purchase radios to track real-time movements of the opposition and to send warnings, or marching orders, to their allies.

During the Dec. 12 rally, men dressed in Proud Boys colors pressed radio receivers into their ears as they awaited instructions.

“They found antifa – we have to get to E Street,” a man said to a small crowd gathered around him.

These small, roving gangs often did not unearth antifa – a loose collective of activists who identify as anti-fascist – but instead were involved in violent attacks on passersby.

One man caught in the fray was 25-year-old Christopher Langley, a U.S. Army specialist who said he had stopped in the District for sushi after spending the warm December day at Six Flags America with his siblings and a friend.

As he walked through crowds downtown, Langley said, he was attacked by men wearing vests marked with the yellow letters “PB.” He was punched in the head, knocked to the ground and surrounded by at least four Proud Boys, he said.

Langley said he received four stitches at George Washington University Hospital to close a cut on his lip.

“It was surprising in that I didn’t do anything to provoke them,” he said. “I wasn’t wearing anything they disagreed with.”

Experts say this escalation – marking anyone who is not with them as the enemy – indicates that far-right groups are growing more volatile and less concerned about appealing to mainstream Americans.

Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremism and terrorism threats, said the posture of many far-right groups changed after Trump’s election loss.

“Before that, they were trying to create an image that they were the victims, that antifa was attacking them, that antifa was the real threat,” Katz said. “They still hold this victim mentality, but their message has evolved to suggest that it’s now their turn – if not their ‘duty’ – to spark confrontation. Essentially, ‘this is it; be prepared and bring whatever you need to fight.’ “

Incoming District police chief Robert Contee III, who will oversee the police response on Wednesday, said “violence will not be tolerated” at protests. He said he was “on the ground” during the last visit from the Proud Boys and saw the kind of violence that night wrought.

He said violent protests “are not an anomaly” in the District and compared the last two far-right demonstrations to racial justice protests in late May after George Floyd’s death. At that time, swells of angry and grieving demonstrators converged downtown for weeks. At times, confrontations with police escalated as protesters threw rocks and water bottles or shot fireworks at the police line. Federal police officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of protesters.

On Dec. 12, tight lines of District police officers denied roaming clusters of Proud Boys – some wearing helmets and body armor, or carrying clubs and shields – entry to Black Lives Matter Plaza for much of the night as clashes exploded nearby. Frustrated, members of the group yelled at officers, telling them to “do your job.”

In online discussion groups this week, posts from far-right demonstrators showed a growing disillusionment with police officers. Some called for police to stand back, while others called for violence to be exacted against “corrupt” police.

“The optics aren’t pretty any time you have 200 to 300 people brawling in the street and you’re trying to arrest those involved in violent behavior,” Contee said. “It’s totally unacceptable. When we see and we are safely able to take people into custody, we will do so.”

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Hong Kong’s top court sends tycoon Jimmy Lai back to jail

InternationalDec 31. 2020Jimmy Lai leaves the Court of Final Appeal following a bail hearing in Hong Kong, on Dec. 31. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chan Long Hei. Photo by: Chan Long Hei — Bloomberg Location: Hong KongHong Kong

By Syndication The Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kari Lindberg, Natalie Lung

Hong Kong’s highest court sent tycoon Jimmy Lai back to jail as he fights national security charges, in a decision that also signaled plans to interpret provisions the Beijing-drafted law used to charge him.

The Court of Final Appeal ruled Thursday that Lai must be returned to custody while judges consider the government’s appeal against his bail due to the seriousness of the charges. The court led by outgoing Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, however, said the court planned to weigh in on a controversial provision of the national security law imposed by Beijing on the former British colony.

A Feb. 1 hearing was scheduled to discuss the case, which could affirm the judiciary’s right to interpret the legislation drafted by the National People’s Congress and approved by President Xi Jinping. A lower court had released the Next Digital Ltd. founder from jail last week on HK$10 million ($1.3 million) bail and placed him under house arrest pending a trial next year.

The People’s Daily newspaper — the official mouthpiece of Xi’s Communist Party — blasted the bail decision as “unbelievable” in a commentary Saturday, warning that the case could be transferred to mainland courts under the security law. While the Court of Final Appeal put off an immediate showdown with Beijing, the decision to return Lai to jail could fuel concern about pre-trial imprisonment under the legislation, which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers.

“It will be really interesting to see how the CFA looks at the provision of the NSL, and in particular the protections of human rights that was set out in the NSL and in other Hong Kong laws,” said Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer and author of “City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong.” “How will they reconcile the bail provision of the NSL with other essential human rights? How will they construe them together? And what will that say about how they interpret the NSL as a whole?”

Dapiran also speculated that that the National People’s Congress could preempt the court with its own interpretation of the security law, overruling the local judicial process.

The security legislation has led the U.S., U.K. and others to accuse Beijing of breaking its agreements to maintain Hong Kong’s liberal institutions including its “independent judicial power” until 2047. The U.S. has placed financial sanctions on several top Chinese officials over their roles in enacting the law without public debate, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

At least 29 people have been arrested under the security law since its enactment on June 30 and Lai was among the first to be formally charged. He has been accused of calling on a foreign entity to impose sanctions or engage in hostile activities against Hong Kong or China between July 1 and Dec. 1 this year and faces a separate charge of fraud.

Lai denies the charges and said he’s being targeted for fighting for freedom of speech in the city. He also faces several cases related to his participation in last year’s protest movement. On Tuesday, Lai resigned as chairman of Next Digital, the media group he founded more than three decades ago.

The security law contains several provisions that lawyers say undercut Hong Kong’s English Common Law traditions, giving the government power to select judges and transfer cases to the mainland for trial. The article at issue in Lai’s case says that defendants shouldn’t receive bail “unless the judge has sufficient grounds for believing that the criminal suspect or defendant will not continue to commit acts endangering national security.”

In his Dec. 23 decision to release Lai, Justice Alex Lee had argued it was possible to grant bail for those charged under the new law. Lai was required to surrender any travel documents, remain at home and refrain from meeting with foreign politicians or making any public statements.

Lee said the bail decision to grant Lai bail would’ve been “relatively straightforward,” if not for the national security charge against him.

During proceedings Thursday, prosecutor Anthony Chau argued that the threshold for bail should be higher for defendants in national security cases. Those who require special conditions to prevent them committing future offenses shouldn’t be eligible for release, said Chau, the senior assistant director of public prosecutions.

Lai’s lawyer, Peter Duncan, disputed the claim that Lai should face a higher standard for bail than a defendant in a normal criminal case. He called the government’s argument that bail couldn’t be granted if special conditions were required “a radical departure from the traditional approach.”

The decision appears set to be among the last rulings by Ma, who is set to retire as chief justice on Jan. 11. Andrew Cheung, another member of the Court of Final Appeal that heard Lai’s case Thursday, has been appointed to replace him.

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Fewer people than usual will pop bottles of bubbly at midnight. Pour one out for France’s Champagne region.

InternationalDec 31. 2020John Charles Ricciuti at one of his vineyards in Avenay-Val-d’Or, eastern France, on Dec 29, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Rick Noack Photo by: Rick Noack — The Washington Post

By The Washington Post · Rick Noack 

AVENAY-VAL-D’OR, France – Champagne means celebration. But for France’s Champagne region, 2020 brought little to celebrate.

In ordinary times, the region in France’s east, a global center of sparkling wine production and home to the only winemakers allowed to claim the Champagne name in some jurisdictions, would usher in the new year with lavish banquets in centuries-old castles or palaces, its sparkling treasure flowing freely. But after a year of dismal sales and drastic restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, that seems like a distant memory.

The town of Épernay’s stately Champagne Avenue – an Embassy Row of sorts for the world of champagne – was almost entirely empty this week. Champagne-themed key chains, basketball hats and lighters sat unsold in dark shop fronts.

Americans usually consume millions of glasses of champagne on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, the more than 15,000 producers here are set for disappointment. They have already seen sales plummet by more than 20 percent, the worst decline since World War II.

“It’s a crisis unlike anything the Champagne region has ever seen,” said Maxime Toubart, head of the Champagne winegrowers’ association.

Sales of some alcoholic beverages have gone up during the pandemic. But champagne, a favorite at events, nightclubs and fancy dinners, did not necessarily hold the same appeal as other wines for those in shutdown.

The first months of shutdowns were the most challenging for champagne sellers. After the virus began to paralyze Europe in spring, John Charles Ricciuti, 56, who runs a family champagne business, sold 18 bottles in the first two weeks of lockdown in March – only a tiny fraction of the usual 2,500 bottles per month, he said in a conversation this week at his home in the village of Avenay-Val-d’Or.

More than many other drinks, sales of champagne, distinct from other drinks in its identity as a marker of occasions, have long been linked to prevailing socioeconomic currents. When the global economy rallied or the world recovered from wars, sales tended to skyrocket. “Champagne is often a wine of conviviality; it’s a wine of celebrations,” said historian Kolleen Marie Guy.

During crises, champagne sales tend to suffer – with minor exceptions. As a flu pandemic killed millions between 1918 and 1920, some people initially hoped that dry champagne could fend off the virus. A century later, the coronavirus pandemic sparked similar false claims, this time circulating on social media, but no attendant bump in purchases.

By the summer, the abrupt plummet in sales had triggered what French newspapers labeled the “Champagne wars” – a dispute between the owners of local vineyards and big champagne businesses that turn the grapes into wine.

To avoid overproduction and preserve the value of the tens of millions of bottles stored in their underground cellars, major champagne makers pressed for production curbs, forcing vineyard owners to destroy their own grapes.

“It was painful,” Ricciuti said. “When nature gives you something, you must take it.”

The coronavirus champagne wars were not the first of their kind. “There’s a long history of battle between the growers and the producers,” said Guy, citing an escalation in 1911, when wine growers “burned down some of the wine houses.”

This year, government aid helped the most affected companies through the crisis, preventing bankruptcies, but the coming months could be crucial for the industry’s future. The French watch champagne very closely and have been doing so since the early 20th century, Guy said. “It’s a bellwether.”

Some of the cultural significance of champagne dates back to World War II, when the Nazis plundered large amounts of it after occupying the area. In France’s collective memory, Guy said, it amounted to the theft of a “national treasure.”

For the Ricciuti family, World War II proved a window of entry into the tightknit champagne world. Ricciuti’s father, Albert, arrived in France as a U.S. serviceman in 1944. He helped to liberate Avenay-Val-d’Or, where he met his future wife, Paulette Révolte, and where the family now lives. Paulette and her family had risked their lives to hide two U.S. parachutists from the Nazis in the final weeks of occupation.

Albert went on to help liberate the Nazi concentration camps farther to the east, before returning to the United States. When he decided to marry Paulette and return to France, the Baltimore-born veteran became the first American winegrower in the region.

Visitors to the Ricciutis’ mansion in Avenay-Val-d’Or are still greeted by U.S. flags in the hallway, alongside a letter of “gratitude and appreciation” from the U.S. government for hiding the two parachutists.

While some champagne producers could see the pandemic sales dip as a moment to pivot toward Asian markets, where much of the growth in the coming decades is expected, the Ricciuti family wants to remain focused on expanding its sales in the United States – the second-biggest export market for champagne behind Britain in terms of volume.

The company already sells champagne bottles imprinted with U.S. flags and is working on other marketing campaigns, as it prepares for the post-pandemic business.

“It’s going to be a tougher job,” Ricciuti said.

Some experts say an eventual wind-down of the pandemic could prove an opportunity.

“People want to catch up on pleasure,” said Olivier Gergaud, a food and wine researcher at France’s Kedge Business School.

What’s good for champagne isn’t always good for society. Rising interest in luxury products may also signal growing inequality, as poorer Americans struggle to afford basics while others look for new ways to spend on quality products.

Gergaud said he recently compared Google search interest in champagne across countries and found a spike in Australia. After the country emerged from months of lockdowns and restrictions in recent weeks, interest not only rebounded but exceeded pre-New Year’s Eve levels in 2019.

A post-crisis champagne revival would not be unprecedented. One century ago, WWI and the 1918 flu pandemic (despite the false medicinal champagne rumor) appeared to threaten champagne’s survival.

“But it was followed by this burst of partying,” Guy said.