OPINION | Unmasking Antifa: The real person behind the attacks

A chilling erosion of free speech looms over sunny West Hollywood

In the wake of politically motivated violence by an Antifascist group and their controversial arrests at Pride, residents fear a troubling trend where political violence is not only tolerated, but also encouraged by those in authority.

On April 15th 2023 at West Hollywood’s Public Library, a protest in defense of Drag Story Hour took a dark turn. Jairo Marquez, a lone protestor, found himself surrounded by two dozen counter-protestors wearing black ski masks and using black umbrellas to block cameras, in aesthetic homage to anti-fascists of the 20th century. Flyers circulated prior to the event, by the group “By Any Means Necessary” or BAMN, warned of right-wing protestors and called for the community to defend against “Nazis calling for the genocide of LGBTQ+ people.”

Marquez, known for his comprehensive coverage of events across the political spectrum on his channel RightNowViews.com, attempted to film the event through the library’s windows, when a suspect wearing a full-face ski mask rushed Marquez and delivered a forceful blow to his cheekbone, visibly shaking him. Throughout the encounter another counter protestor Zodiak Rose, legal name Hunter Lee Darling, is seen aggressively vogue dancing against Jairo and repeatedly stomping on his phone.

The entire chaotic scene was caught on video that quickly went viral with millions of views on twitter, and sparked a wave of national press.

Despite this clear evidence, members of the West Hollywood City Council, known for addressing world events far beyond the city’s scope, failed to acknowledge the assault when it was brought to their attention at a council meeting two weeks later. Their silence left many residents and local activists puzzled and disappointed.

However, the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department did make arrests at West Hollywood Pride, apprehending Zodiac Rose and Abby Thomas. Rose had an outstanding warrant for vandalism, battery, and felony robbery of a cell phone. Thomas was arrested for interfering with the arrest.

In response, supporters of Rose and Thomas organized rallies and raised thousands of dollars for their bail, accusing the arrests of being political retaliation and exemplifying abusive policing of LGBTQ communities. Amanda Goad of ACLU Southern California publically expressed concerns about the arrests and called for the removal of law enforcement from Pride events.

Rolling Stone and other publications questioned the accuracy of the theft charges against Zodiac Rose. Notably, both civil society and the mainstream press have largely neglected to condemn the political violence against Jairo Marquez.

Mayor Sepi Shyne commented on the Pride arrests, criticizing them as “unnecessary”. Failing to address the assault, instead she highlighted a closed meeting that occurred with select activists and the WeHo Sheriffs, notably excluding anyone representing the assault victim. Surprisingly, after reviewing the evidence provided by the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office decided not to pursue the most serious charges against Rose, leaving only a misdemeanor charge of vandalism.

Nearly three months after the assault, I caught up with Jairo to find out about his recovery, and his personal fight for justice.

Jairo Marquez: I’m Jairo Marquez from Rightnowviews.com. I’m recovered now emotionally. I felt like I was just doing my job, I was just there covering the protest. I wasn’t there to disrupt, I was literally just walking by and they were yelling at me. Before I even got punched they were already getting physical with me, covering me with the umbrellas, and pushing me with the umbrellas. They were trying to take my phone. Hunter Lee darling had his foot over my phone as I was trying to take it from underneath his foot. He continued to crush my hand under his foot. And there’s at least three people trying to grab the phone at the same time as me. It’s not a big deal if they would have taken the phone, I would have just wiped it because I had the footage. I think that’s the main thing they were trying to do, to take my footage, because it takes away from the work I did to be there.

West Seegmiller: Did you sustain any injuries?

Marquez: When they crushed my hand that was the main attack I got. I was recovering from that for months! For two and a half months my hand was hurting. Every time I would do something, it was in the way. On the train I couldn’t hold on because it was painful. I spoke to the District Attorney recently regarding Hunter Lee Darling and his punishment for what he did. I don’t believe it’s the correct punishment.

West: That punch to your face looked pretty intense on the video.

Jairo: Well, a punch is a punch. So they got me! It was a cheap shot. When I got punched I went to the hospital that night. I was busy the whole day so I couldn’t go to the hospital right after. So I had to deal with that pain the whole day. I worked at another protest right after that in Beverly Hills, a really loud protest that added to the pain in my head. At the end of the day I had a throbbing headache as I was sitting at the Kaiser Permanente. I recovered within weeks of that, but the hand injury was the one that took the longest to recover from. After what initially happened to me I went to the Sheriff’s station to file a police report. One of the Sheriff Deputies who wasn’t there but saw the video said that they had failed me, and he apologized for their not arresting them at that moment.

West: Do the police know who punched you?

Jairo: We’re suspecting it was “Precious Child”. He made a music video and he mocked how I got jumped by Antifa in the video. He has this long obsession with coming after me, he’s already come after people who are around me at protests.

West: How did you feel when someone was finally arrested?

Jairo: It was one of those unexpected things that I didn’t know was going to happen. But when it did I was just really happy. I was in a good mood all day! I was in communication with them [West Hollywood Sheriffs] and was hoping they would do the right thing. So I was really, really happy when they did the right thing. All this media and twitter people were coming after them. So I was like, “please don’t let them drop everything because of all the media!” Which I think is what happened.

West: How did you react when the District Attorney’s office dropped the charges for Battery and Felony Robbery?

Jairo: It was disappointing, but in a way it was expected. I was thinking please don’t do this, please don’t do this! And then it happened. I was like, I knew it! I had a feeling because of all the twitter stuff. They were saying that I’m a Nazi and all these crazy lies that are not true. When I heard that the West Hollywood Mayor [Sepi Shyne] was involved, I thought she must have heard a horror story about me. This person probably believes these lies about me, and this person has power. So at that point, I was already thinking it was going to happen.

West: What are your thoughts on the media portraying the people involved in your attack as martyrs?

Jairo: They were raising money off a lie! They were saying they were targeted for being activists. They were stationed around the corner from the Sheriff’s station a couple of tables away from the Sheriff’s booth! If you’re around anywhere and there’s Sheriffs, and you have a warrant and they recognize you, what do you expect? You have to get arrested, that’s the law. So they had to twist it to be about a completely different issue that they knew was a hot topic and would get people riled up. And they did! People got riled up that didn’t even know what was going on. The girl that got arrested was raising money for him [Darling] online! Then I saw that the ACLU SoCal had her speak on a livestream. She shouldn’t have obstructed an arrest, and go on to say they were arrested for a completely different reason. She kept saying that I’m a Proud Boy, I’m not a Proud Boy. That’s just one thing she was saying about me.

West: How do you deal with people labeling you like that?

Jairo: I don’t get mad when they say these things because I know it’s completely not true. Something else I heard was that I’m a holocaust denier? I’ve never denied the Holocaust, I’ve never said anything about the Holocaust! I guess that’s just an easy way to discredit me and say that people shouldn’t listen to me because I’m this horrible, evil person. I just have to live with it. I have to be out in public a lot, so I always have to watch my back. Sometimes when I’m in public people will say these to me, things they see on the news or something they hear about me. Like, I had one of my counselors once and I’m pretty sure he saw me on the news or something. Because he started acting really strange and now we’re not really as close anymore. I never told him anything about the activism or journalism stuff I’m doing, I always keep that away from certain people. So I always have to keep in the back of my head that these people are out there.

After the incident, they posted these flyers with my face around Hollywood, saying that I’m a Nazi and all these lies about me. But that wasn’t really scary for me. I’ve been going out even after that. Even with a giant crowd of Antifa like on that day I got attacked, I walked into that mob. I wasn’t afraid! Even after they attacked me I was still there! So it’s not going to stop me. If I see Antifa, honestly it motivates me to keep going, and to keep filming. I’m not intimidated.

Steve Martin is a former West Hollywood City Councilman, and has expressed concern regarding the lack of support for First Amendment rights in West Hollywood.

Steve Martin: I’ve been involved in the City from the beginning and was active on the cityhood incorporation campaign. I served on City Council for two terms and I really love to be here in West Hollywood. Like a lot of people, I saw what happened at Drag Queen Story Hour on Wehoville. I watched the video and saw that guy come up and hit the demonstrator in the side of the head. It kind of looked like the Sheriff let that person get away and it was really disturbing. People who were there with the counter demonstration didn’t seem to have any objection to somebody engaging in violence.

I have a long history of street activity back in the day from Stonewall and Act Up. Nobody ever did that back then, and when people did act out or got violent, people would surround them and either confront them or consult them, just do something. Because we had a responsibility to the group. You just couldn’t let one person hijack what you were doing by engaging in violence or encouraging others to engage in violence. At this demonstration, nobody in this group seemed to think that was a bad thing, and that was discouraging. In the video, Zodiac is really prominent, he was pushing it there. He really was in that person’s personal space, and could have been punched just in self defense.He was trying to provoke a violent reaction.

West: Do you think the Mayor’s statement or media attention were a factor in some of the charges being dropped?

Steve: I read about that in the LA Times. I saw that Mayor Sepi Shyne was not upset that the person who was arrested had done something wrong, she was upset because the Sheriff had arrested this person at Pride. And I just thought that was a bizarre take on her responsibility as Mayor. Law enforcement has to arrest criminals wherever they find them. And just because this person committed an assault at a political event doesn’t mean that they are a political prisoner. They are still a violent offender and probably a psychopath.

West: Did you see that ACLU SoCal had some of the arrested activists on a panel and recently tweeted in their support?

Steve: No, but it doesn’t surprise me. I know John Erickson is involved with the ACLU, that’s part of his resume, so I’m assuming he’s got some influence over there.

West: He’s their double board president.

Steve: Right. It just seems like an odd position for the ACLU to take. The ACLU is supposed to be there to fight for all people’s right to the First Amendment. I understand why the counter demonstrators were there, but at some point we have to understand that we have to respect everybody’s rights to express themselves, or nobody is going to have the right to. You can’t have the kind of moral certainty that people like Sepi Shyne and Zodiac expound, because politics is never morally certain. We can have moral values, but don’t confuse your political ideology as making you morally superior.

The biggest defect of the current left is they are the ‘new puritans”. They believe they are right, everybody else is wrong and should be burned at the stake or banished. It doesn’t make the movement more coherent. All it dose is make us more insular and make us run like lemmings off of a cliff. So West Hollywood gets a non gender bathroom, and the Republicans take over the state legislature. We’re engaging in the culture wars in the most ineffective way possible, so we have fewer friends instead of more friends.

West: If a suspect has been identified and is known to the other activists, is that a legal liability for them?

Steve: There probably isn’t a legal responsibility, but I think there’s a moral one. If you’re not going to report this person, at least confront them and tell them that their actions are inappropriate and that you’re not going to continue to tolerate it. We all have to police our side. There were a lot of people on January 6th at the demonstration who were pro-Trump, but they weren’t there to riot. And some of them got caught up in the riot, but a lot of them said, “you know what? This is stupid and I’m getting out of here.” We really don’t want to be in that kind of situation.

West: Do you have any insights for younger activists?

Steve: I think a lot of people feel that they missed the revolution, and they somehow think they are going to create it. And it’s difficult for me because our community has come so far. Life is not a video game, people get hurt. There may be times and places and countries where political violence is maybe the only answer. But I don’t think violence is appropriate at a demonstration over Drag Queen Story Hour. Let’s keep some f-ing perspective. Where’s the common sense? I guess they don’t have a common sense channel on the internet.

This reporter reached out to ACLU Lead Staff Amanda Goad, Councilmember John Erickson and Mayor Sepi Shyne, all whom declined to comment.

Zodiac Rose and Abby Thomas are currently released from police custody. The assailant against Jairo Marquez is still at large.

Reprinted from 90.7FM KPFK Rebel Alliance News