Political Memes

Try reading about the May Day Riots of 1919 (even the Wikipedia article reads like a picture perfect example of victim blaming)

If protesters don't bring the violence it tends to be brought to them. There's never a right answer when it comes to fascists.

According to the Cleveland Bicentennial Commission, as they marched to Cleveland's Public Square, one of the units was stopped on Superior Avenue by a group of Victory Liberty Loan workers, who demanded that they lower their flags. At some point, an army lieutenant leading a number of soldiers likewise directed the marchers to discard their flags.[4] When the marchers refused to do so, the lieutenant ordered his soldiers to attack. Mass fighting broke out immediately. A call for reserves brought several mounted police who charged their horses directly into the crowd and swung their clubs indiscriminately.[1] In this ensuing melee, over twenty marchers were severely injured by the clubs, and ambulances from nearby hospitals were dispatched to rescue the many wounded.[1]

After the first riot had been quelled, a second riot began in the downtown area; specifically, the Public Square where former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo was addressing a Victory Loan rally at Keith's Hippodrome.[1] An army lieutenant ordered socialists to clear away from a speaking platform, and directed his men to attack all those who did not comply with his orders.[1] Mounted policemen with clubs and army tanks charged the crowd. Seventy individuals were arrested and incarcerated at the Central Police Station.[1]

A third riot then occurred on Euclid Avenue in the heart of the shopping district.[1] Later in the evening, Ruthenberg's socialist party headquarters on Prospect Avenue was ransacked by soldiers, police, and armed civilians. This latter mob "completely demolished the building" and "typewriters and office furniture were thrown into the street."[1] Towards the end of the day, the anti-socialists piled "scores of red flags and banners" — which they had taken by force from the marchers — at the foot of the Soldiers and Sailors' Monument in Public Square and set them alight in a giant bonfire.[1]