Holly MatkinDenver, CO – Antifa militants stopped vehicles, harassed motorists, and threatened citizens outside the Western Conservative Summit in downtown Denver over the weekend.
The scaled-down 2021 event was held at the Hyatt Recency Denver Hotel beginning on Friday, The Denver Post reported.
Entry to the widely-attended annual gathering, which is hosted by the Colorado Christian University Institute, was limited to just 500 people this year, according to the paper.
Meanwhile, an antifa group advertised their “Western BLM-Antifa Summit” protest on Facebook, encouraging like-minded demonstrators to come join in on “two days of fiercely jubilant opposition to the Western Conservative Summit,” The Washington Times reported.
The protest was organized by the Front Range Mutual Aid Network, Denver Communists, Denver Action Network, Anti-Repression Colorado, Anon Resistance Movement, Front Range Community Defense Collective, and WITCH Denver, according to the paper.
Flyer from the Denver Communists protesting outside the Western Conservative Summit. “Our general approach is to outnumber and outshine the far right … We want to send these worms back into their holes, demoralized and isolated” pic.twitter.com/COTj0zvhW6
— Emily Brooks (@emilyelarsen) June 19, 2021
The mob harassed people heading in and out of the hotel, yelled at people with bullhorns, blocked traffic, and threatened citizens they believed were attending the summit, cell phone footage showed.
One video showed demonstrators blocking an SUV and spraying it with a substance as the vehicle tried to move down the street past the mob.
Members of the group raised their middle fingers towards the driver, who ultimately backed out and drove away, the video showed.
Denver: Antifa shut down the road in downtown to protest the @CentennialCCU conference. They photograph the faces of drivers and their license plates to dox them later. pic.twitter.com/S2tBM7Idjd
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 19, 2021
Reporter Andy Ngo, one of the speakers at the conference, said the group shut down the road to protest the summit.
“They photograph the faces of drivers and their license plates to dox them later,” Ngo said in a tweet, along with the footage.
Members of the antifa group ordered guests at the hotel to “pee on the floor” of the lobby as a sign of solidarity to show they were also against the Hyatt choosing to “host Nazis,” reporter Elijah Schaffer tweeted.
DENVER: antifa command hotel guests sympathetic w/ their cause to “pee on the floor” of the hotel because they “host Nazi’s”
These are the people MSNBC called heroic pic.twitter.com/DjFqbIBEbo
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) June 19, 2021
One member of the mob, identified only as “Leonne,” told the Washington Examiner he was protesting the Hyatt for letting “a conference like this happen” and for accepting money “from these sorts of people.”
“They’re known Nazi sympathizers,” Leonne declared. “They sit at the tables with people like Proud Boys.”
Another demonstrator said it was “particularly…distasteful” that the conservative event was being held on Juneteenth, the Washington Examiner reported.
“This is called ‘Frontier Freedom,’ but y’all are on stolen indigenous land,” the “protester” added.
Denver: Violence broke out at the antifa protest outside the Western Conservative Conference. Video by @emilyelarsen: pic.twitter.com/yZpOEpPxAN
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 19, 2021
According to The Washington Examiner reporter Tiana Lowe, Leonne warned her that her phone would be smashed because the antifa mob hates journalists.
“This is not a threat,” he said, according to Lowe. “But I am warning you what will happen.”
Lowe said members of the group tried to break her phone and shined harmful green lasers into her eyes while she was trying to record a physical altercation a short while later.
The mob screamed profanities at Denver police who were lined up outside the hotel on Saturday, The Washington Times reported.
DENVER: heavy law enforcement presence outside of the Western Conservative Summit as antifa pre-organized violent assaults against conference attendees on @Facebook
While tech companies took no action to prevent the targeted violence, law enforcement took it seriously pic.twitter.com/coRad2NW54
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) June 19, 2021
“Antifa view events like this and even just this speech as extremely threatening to them, which is why they’ve organized the so-called protests outside,” Ngo said during his presentation on Saturday, according to The Washington Times.
He noted that the situation has become even more severe in Portland, where he resides.
“I feel like I can’t overstate it,” Ngo told the crowd. “This is what happens when you turn a blind eye to left-wing extremism. The population has been cowed and silenced because if you dare speak up again them, then you’re called a racist, a fascist, and all that, and then they will dox you. They really have held the city, the population as hostage, in a way.”
Antifa violently confronted a purported attendee of the Western Conservative Conference in downtown Denver. The antifa gathered & waited for attendees who were leaving the Hyatt Regency. (I am speaking there.) Video by @ElijahSchaffer: pic.twitter.com/m2tBMPjDri
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 19, 2021
When Seattle officials handed a six-block “autonomous zone” over to antifa last year for what Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin initially said would be “a summer of love,” the situation devolved into murder and mayhem, Ngo pointed out.
“Look at what happens when they are given territory,” he said, according to The Washington Times. “They want to create anarchist-communist communes where there is no law, there’s no order, and they can do whatever they want. And they got to experiment with that, and it leads to people dying and getting murdered.”
Antifa protesting the Western Conservative Summit in downtown Denver, chanting “hey hey, ho ho, this capitalist scum has got to go” and “Hyatt cash is Nazi trash.” (Hyatt is hosting the summit.) pic.twitter.com/PPBbrMyC10
— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) June 19, 2021
Centennial Institute Director Jeff Hunt echoed Ngo’s position with regards to the antifa demonstration in Denver.
“The fact Antifa has chosen to protest our event proves to me three things: 1.) the Western Conservative Summit is doing things right; 2.) they’re afraid of the impact of the conservative message; and, 3.) they’re just rabble-rousing idiots,” Hunt told The Washington Times in an email.
He also thanked the Denver Police Department (DPD) for ensuring the safety of those who attended and those who spoke at the summit over the weekend.
