Chicago Media Flummoxed by Anti-Fascist Mob Attack In Tinley Park

May 20, 2012 - A bizarre attack in a restaurant left ten people injured after they were attacked by a group with baseball bats and hammers. Three people were hospitalized, but other victims declined treatment, according to Oak Lawn Patch. Tinley Park, Illinois is a normally quiet suburban town about 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago (see map), but at 12:45 p.m. yesterday all hell broke loose at the Ashford House Restaurant at 7959 W. 159th Street.

The apparent reason for the attack: The victims are neo-Nazis. The attackers are "Antifa," or Anti-Fascists. The meeting that was attacked was the annual White Nationalist Economic Summit and Illinois White Nationalist Meet-and-Greet.

Antifa is a brutal international Marxist group that has "staged violence attacks all over Europe. Antifa targets members of right-wing groups and its member frequently go from country to country to beat the hell out of people they don't like. "One of the ongoing projects of the gang in Germany is to vandalize Thor Steinar clothing stores," says Council of Conservative Citizens. "The group claims that the Arab-owned clothing line caters to 'Nazis' by putting Viking/Norse imagery on some of their t-shirts." In other words, Antifa is a composed of hypersensitive commie thugs who love to bang hammers over peoples heads.

Editor's Note: Before we continue, I want to make it clear that I am no fan of neo-Nazis or fascists. However, I am also no fan of violent leftists who take it upon themselves to beat people up as self appointed vigilante posses. The White nationalists were not attacking anybody; they were dining and discussing. The attackers were not acting in self defense, and their actions are inexcusable. In short, the "anti-fascists" were acting very much like fascist SS troopers.

Cute logo for vicious vigilantes

The white nationalist group numbered about 12 to 15 people. Witnesses say there were about 15 to 18 attackers, who wore hooded black jackets. The attackers wore black hoods and masks. The incident itself is confusing, but the media response to it, and coverage of it, is also confusing. None of the local media explained what Antifa is or mentioned that this was not the first time that Antifa has acted violently in Chicago.

MEDIA CONFUSION:

Amazingly, the Chicago Tribune story on May 19 made no use of the words "fascists," "antifa," "racist" or "Nazi."  Perhaps reporters Dennis Sullivan and Dawn Rhodes just completely missed this important aspect of the story or, perhaps, the Tribune's editors decided it would be safer to simply omit it.

Weird logo for weird assholes

Fox Detroit did a lot better. They led a May 20 report about the incident with reference to an "anti-racist organization," which they identified later in the story as a group that calls itself "Anti-Racist Action (ARA)," which claimed credit for the horrible attack. According to the Fox report, "ARA claimed that the activists were privy to "anonymous inside information" about the meeting, which it said was organized on the White Nationalist website Stormfront. The ARA website published photos of the alleged organizers and their contact information." (The ARA website is http://antiracistaction.org)

One of the more confusing reports came in waves from Patch. Their initial headline on May 19 was "Mob Attacked Specific Group of People Inside Tinley Park Restaurant."  The story appeared under the same headline in several local Patch sites, all near Tinley Park. With the recent spate of black-on-white mob attacks in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, such a headline was immediately confusing to readers. "Specific Group?" What the hell does that mean? To Patch's credit, they did break the story. However, it was other news outlets that sorted out the facts and present them in a cohesive, easy-to-read manner. While Patch mentioned an "anti-racist website," they did not give the name of that website or a link to it, nor did they identity the ARA as the owner of the website - or as the perpetrators of the violence. The Patch team talked to people at the restaurant and to police, but did not do any very basic research on the Internet to learn anything - or tell anything to readers - about the ARA.

Patch logo: P in the grass

Palos Patch's story on May 19 started with, "At this time, it has been reported that a group of 15 to 18 people dressed in black entered the establishment and began an altercation with a specific group of people dining in the restaurant." However, Palos Patch gives no indication as to what was meant by "this time." Their story had no time stamp. They offered a link to "real time updates" from other Patch reporters at the Tinley Park Patch. While there is some good information there, it is a difficult read because the updates are in little chunks and in reverse chronological order, like a disjointed email conversation. It was, to put it crudely, a clusterpatch.

The absolute worst report, in my opinion, has to be from NBC Chicago. They completely missed the reality of the story, as indicated by their headline: "Men With Bats, Hammers Invade Wedding Shower." Wedding?!? Hey, NBC, this was not about a wedding shower. Sure, there was one going on at the Ashford House Restaurant, but the ARA was not there for that. NBC made no mention of the white nationalists, either.

Let's go back to Patch, this time the one in Oak Forest, Illinois. They posted an update on May 20 at 5:32 p.m. with the headline "Target of Saturday's Attack Believed to be White Supremacists, Mayor Says." Okay, fine, Patch has acknowledged the white supremacist angle of the story... more than 24 hours after most other reports did. In fact, Oak Forest Patch got that from the Chicago Tribune, in the story referred to above. The Trib posted that story at 1:16 p.m. today, four hours before Patch's update. Sadly, that Tribune story, as I already pointed out, made no mention of the ARA. Neither did the Patch "update."

Bottom line: All of the attackers are white. All of the victims are white. Police were holding five people as of the afternoon of May 19. For the best coverage of this Chicago-area story, go to Fox News Detroit.