This danger is not new and Asheville’s political establishment will not seriously fight it. As always, it’s up to us

Above: Asheville police form a ring around far-right harasser Chad Nesbitt. Special to the Blade.

There’s an image that’s been stuck in my mind this week. Not the fascists tearing into the capitol building or the police enabling them. Not one that happened anywhere in Washington, D.C.

Instead it’s the photo above, captured by a Blade photographer in late September. It shows a ring of Asheville police officers — 15 in all, with more in reserve — gathered around a knocked-out far-right harasser. The person in question, Chad Nesbitt, has a long record of targeting and stalking protesters. His (often-armed) “security” had in the past included literal klansmen and others sporting fascist symbols.

That night Nesbitt and one of his cronies tried to force their way through a crowd of anti-racist protesters, resulting in his “bodyguard” stumbling into him and Nesbitt promptly concussing himself on a parking meter. The Asheville cops — who had, of course, done nothing to stop his friends from attacking demonstrators — quickly formed a ring around him. It was a starkly clarifying moment.

The days after were even more revealing. Asheville’s ostensibly liberal government echoed the far-right talking points: that they were the ones who’d been attacked by scary leftists rather than facing the consequences of their own vicious clumsiness. The APD even tried to attribute a knife tossed on the ground by one of the fascists to the anti-racist protesters.

When it came down to it the whole of city hall seemed far more concerned with smearing an anti-police brutality march than stopping racists who’d repeatedly threatened the public.

I know last autumn seems like an eternity ago, but there is a line from what happened there to literal nazis wandering the halls of the capitol. Not just because some of the local far-right (including Nesbitt and frat boy rapist-turned congressman Madison Cawthorne) attended. Not just because they were echoing talking points pushed by conservative legislators long happy to encourage fascist violence.

We got to where we are now because liberals, centrists and cops have at every step of the way downplayed, ignored and even actively cooperated with fascists. They did this in plenty of places out of the national limelight, like Asheville, and as far-right violence continues in the months and years to come that’s largely what they’ll keep doing.

So it’s necessary to take a look at what that looks like, what’s likely going to happen next and what we can do about it.

Enabling acts

Fascists almost never come to power without liberal and centrist cooperation. The establishment politicians who enabled the rise of Mussolini and Hitler literally belonged to factions known by names like “the middle way” and “the center.”

Closer to home segregationists had plenty of complicity from the political establishment in imposing Jim Crow. Where communities organized to defend themselves, they crushed the white supremacists early. But the establishment pressured people, again and again, to stop militant resistance and trust the official process. So the far-right took power through attacks, assassinations and, finally, outright coups. The government then accepted this as a grand compromise.

That history stretches in an unbroken line up to last week, to the police that were in the ranks of the fascists, flashing badges to other cops who let them through. It extended to the liberals that applauded the same police force later that night, and now promise to give them (what else) more funds, weapons and authority.

Asheville, like a hundred other cities, is no exception. While the ring of cops around Nesbitt is a striking image, it was just one of countless examples of similar behavior that came before.

In 2016 cops brutally cracked down on anti-racist protests after an officer murdered Jerry Williams and left his body in the street for hours. The APD surveilled peaceful civil rights activists. That fall the same cops did little to stop the far-right from attacking protesters after a Trump rally (the local response had been so numerous and militant that the candidate, ever the coward, fled early). But when some locals burned a confederate flag, police showed up en masse to put the flames out and hand out charges.

While some who consider themselves liberals may understandably be appalled at what they saw last week (late, but growing alertness to the dangers of fascism is a good thing) the fact is the liberal consensus for decades has been to shut down any effective anti-fascist actions.

In 2017 the far-right attempted a rally at the Vance monument. Fortunately word got out and anti-racist locals gathered to halt it and defend our communities. They were successful. The scattered fascists that showed up with German military hats and confederate flags were driven off.

But the people who did so acted in defiance of a barrage of condemnation from the liberal and non-profit establishments, far more concerned about the feelings of fascists than the danger posed by a pack of racists gathering in a busy downtown. When fascists can gather without opposition they don’t just disperse: they proceed to target any marginalized person they can find. Bolstered, they will then do it again until they’re stopped.

Last summer police chatted amiably with the armed far-right (including a known klansmen) who showed up to deface a “defund the police” mural. They only pressed charges (carrying a gun at a protest is illegal in N.C.) after public outcry. Weeks later they took bribes (thousands in gift cards) from a far-right “Back the Blue” caravan, who then covered up their license plates and tore around downtown.

Rondell Lance, the avowedly far-right FOP president, showed up to an August anti-racist demonstration to harass and assault protesters. He filmed what he did and bragged about it. The APD protected him while they attacked the demonstration for picketing a hotel. Lance later plead guilty to minor charges (pressed by a local lawyer, not the police or district attorney) but faced no real punishment.

As for the city’s liberal establishment, they repeatedly tell people not to counter fascist rallies, to respect their supposed “free speech” rights and that any method actually effective in stopping them has to be discouraged. They devoted their attention this summer to clamping down on and co-opting anti-racist movements. Not even a fraction of that effort went into stopping the far-right.

This even extended to city hall releasing an unusually detailed level of personal information about protest arrestees (including a Blade reporter pulled out of their vehicle for doing their job). Of course, this made it far easier for fascists to stalk and harass them. That was the point.

This isn’t exclusive to Asheville, of course. Atrocities like Charlottesville were enabled not just by police who are actively sympathetic with the far-right, but by liberal city governments and groups like the ACLU who insisted upon their right to organize, no matter the danger to everyone else.

After the events in September Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer issued a lengthy statement supporting Nesbitt’s account of what happened and condemning protesters. She went further, brazenly lying and claiming protest actions directed at council members constituted threats. Letting the klan to tear around town wasn’t violent, apparently, but leaving grave-shaped protest signs listing Black people killed by the police on officials’ lawns was.

If countless local governments just like Asheville’s have allowed the growing far-right to gather strength, it’s worth keeping in mind that local anti-fascist efforts to stop them have not been in vain. While the fascists who stormed into the capitol were plenty dangerous, they were also divided, incompetent and squabbling. Mobilizing nationwide they mustered hundreds, not tens of thousands, to storm a government building. They folded in the face of even minimal opposition.

Their power would be far, far worse without countless actions by people on the ground. Not just public ones like halting the gathering at the Vance but the thankless work of research, public warnings and keeping fascists out of public spaces that has prevented them from gaining far greater numbers and power. That example offers a way forward.

What happens next

All the evidence shows us that police and political establishments are either deeply reluctant to go after the far-right or actively willing to enable them.

The fascists did badly overplay their hand last week. However much politicians are willing to indulge them, those who hold the power of the state hate being threatened with murder. So some of the more prominent and violent will face charges. A few of those will even be serious. But on the whole they will be lighter than what leftists regularly face. We’re already seeing sentences discussed in terms of a year, maybe a few, not decades.

Liberal officials, meanwhile, have a lifetime of conditioning to focus more on stopping the left than the far-right. That means that the focus will turn to “extremism” in general, something they will further define to clamp down on movements they face in their own backyards. This summer reminded us that liberal politicians are happy to use astounding amounts of violence rather than make even basic changes to the status quo. They didn’t ban tear gas, do you think they’d hesitate to use any new “anti-extremism” law against the public?

This has already started, with news anchors last week trying to conflate the literal nazis with anarchists, the very people who dedicate our lives to fighting fascists. This fits neatly with where Asheville officials already are. Last month they voted to give the APD new rifles. Last week they were once again falsely painting Asheville as overwhelmed by violent crime, an old tactic that means “shut up, stop asking questions and give us more money.”

Local officials already lost their shit facing more militant protest tactics this summer. They’ve already painted as unacceptable violence basic pressure tactics like phone zaps or demonstrating at politicians’ homes. City hall would dearly love to shut all of that down so they can continue devastating the town without ever having to hear from its inhabitants.

What’s going to stop that?

Well, us.

Look, the Blade‘s proudly leftist and I’m an anarchist. We’re not shy about where we stand. But even if you don’t agree with all of our politics, if you are in any way fed up with the political establishment, you have powerful reasons to halt what’s coming. If will not just be used to crush any movement officials don’t like, if successful it will strip communities of their best defense against fascism: the people actually willing to go out and fight it. Failed coups followed by “law and order” crackdowns that somehow hit the left far harder than the far-right is literally how fascist movements come to power.

First off: realize who fascists actually are. They are not put-upon or impoverished. As the identities of those who stormed the capitol have trickled out it’s been a parade of CEOs, off-duty cops, state legislators, realtors, managers, attorneys and wealthy failsons. They stayed in fancy hotels, flew in on private jets and broadcast their identities in the open.

We’re already seeing calls for civility and understanding, which are not just naïve but downright suicidal.

The rest of us have had to survive this gentry trash our entire lives. We understand them perfectly. They’re evil, the happy heirs to a thoroughly genocidal culture. Because of their power and privilege that evil has been indulged their entire lives. They believe, not wrongly, that underneath all its facades government was set up to do exactly that. They’re willing to kill — especially when they think people won’t fight back — to keep things that way.

This is not new. The same people manned confederate death squads and opened fire on union workers. Understanding fascists means you commit to crushing them and the systems that make them possible.

The good news: there are a lot more of us than there are of them. Fascists are dangerous, fascists are incompetent and fascists always like to pretend they’re more powerful than they are. All three are true at once.

Second, we need you to counter the bullshit when it starts up. When liberal officials start trying to lump anyone to the left of the hotel industry as an “extremist” don’t put up with it. If one of your friends and neighbors does the same, correct them firmly enough they get the point.

Know your history. Riots, even occupations of government buildings, are tactics that movements for justice have used throughout history to fight oppression. Fascists storming government buildings as part of an attempted coup to make oppression even worse also has a long history. The two are not the same.

Fortunately more and more people are now aware of anarchists as something other than a vague bogeyman. The left in general is larger, more numerous and better organized than a decade ago. It’s harder for people who’ve seen a mutual aid project help feed their neighbors or gotten tear gas washed out of their eyes by a street medic to believe the propaganda they’re fed.

There are some heartening signs in this direction. The attempt by liberals and centrists to paint protesters this summer as “outside agitators” (an old far-right lie, naturally) fell flat. But the propaganda that’s about to start up on this front will be relentless, and communities constantly countering it is the only way it fails.

Third, work with friends and neighbors you trust to stop this.

Over the past week I’ve seen people considering grabbing supplies and “bugging out” (to where is not clear, nor is the plan afterwards). I get where the reaction comes from, but it’s fundamentally the opposite of what needs to happen. Stocking up on basics like food, water and essential tools is a good idea, we’re in the type of upheaval where access to those could easily get disrupted, but you need to do so as an act of community support.

Survival is a collective act. We’re not going to get out of this by acting as isolated individuals fleeing in fear, but by banding together to keep each other safe.

Last year was instructive on that front. I don’t think it’s an accident that communities that worked to feed and help each other during the first wave of the pandemic then found it easier to mobilize in the streets. Cities are generally hostile terrain for the far-right. Being ready to mobilize and gather in them (and support those who do) is likely a lot more necessary in the times to come than scattering to the woods in individual camp sites.

Fighting fascism can happen in a lot of different ways. It can mean tearing down a racist flier you see in your neighborhood, getting the asshole down the street fired by the time they get back from D.C., refusing to put up with bigotry in your social circle before it starts spreading. It includes poring over documents, sharing information and curbing the local power structures that the fascists’ gentry base thrives on. Yes, it can mean physical confrontation.

Everyone has different skills. We’re going to need them all.

I don’t know what the coming weeks, months and years will bring. I don’t think anyone does. But I believe that we can do more than survive. I believe we can win.

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Blade editor David Forbes has been a journalist in Asheville for over 15 years. She writes about history, life and, of course, fighting city hall. They live in downtown, where they drink too much tea and scheme for anarchy.

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