Political Violence in America
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2017
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
The events in Charlottesville were just one example of the sharp rise in the number of violent confrontations in America between far-right white nationalists and left-wing groups known as 'antifa' - short for "anti-fascists".
Those on the right claim they're fighting to defend free speech or other deeply held American principles. But their opponents say they're promoting extremism and a brand of racial division far out of line with mainstream thought.
Fights that once took place between the two groups online are now spilling out onto the streets of places like Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon - liberal enclaves where far-right activists have held rallies and which have been turned into scenes of violence, and even murder.
Mike Wendling has travelled to America's west coast to talk to underground antifa organisers and find out what they want - and what they're prepared to do to achieve their aims.
Producer: Anisa Subedar.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the Maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | Well I was here in April and I didn't have a helmet and I got a piece of |
| 0:46.4 | cement thrown at my head and I got urine thrown at me. So this helmet is |
| 0:50.3 | purely for my protection of my head. |
| 0:52.8 | And I also like its design because it's part of my hair. |
| 0:55.8 | It's a Norman helmet. |
| 0:57.7 | Yeah, it's a Viking helmet. |
| 0:59.0 | It's a real steel helmet, but I use it to protect my head. |
| 1:03.0 | That man is an alt-right protester. |
| 1:06.2 | Myself and almost a dozen of us in Sacramento were stabbed by neo-Nazis |
| 1:12.0 | on the steps of the state capital here in California. |
| 1:15.7 | We did not think and know that that was going to happen. |
| 1:19.1 | And that woman is part of the Antifa or the anti-fascist movement, the far left. |
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