Antifa activists have targeted a Republican club along with religious celebrations. “New York City’s venerable Metropolitan Republican Club, a G.O.P. bastion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was allegedly vandalized by activists targeting its support of President Trump and its holiday religious celebrations,” according to FoxNews.
“I am deeply disturbed and disgusted at this attack,” club president Ian Walsh Reilly told Fox News.
“Republicans are in a situation where we can come together under social guidelines and hold an election night party that went off flawlessly,” he explained. “We were then having a celebration of religion, of Christianity and Judaism and their holidays, and that was the date they chose to attack the Met Club. It shows such intolerance from the very people who say they are anti-fascist.”
The club held its annual “Christmas and Hanukkah Social” on the evening of December 3rd, announcing “Tis the Season to be of Good Cheer and gather with your fellow Republicans at the Met Club to Celebrate the Holidays Together!”
When the guests arrived they were greeted by anarchist graffiti and Antifa symbols spray-painted in red across the elegant building’s facade, and the words “You’re Canceled” scrawled across the two heavy front doors. A circle with three arrows was spray painted on the sidewalk, a symbol often used by Antifa in protests. The letters “ACA B” were also spray painted on the building, a common anarchist anti- police phrase meaning “All Cops Are (epithet.)” Additionally Black bags symbolizing dead bodies of non-White victims of coronavirus were left on the sidewalk.
New York City police are investigating the crime, which Reilly claims was carried out by four men clad in black who used the darkness to hide early in the morning. He believes the activists were not just targeting Republicans, but also those who celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah.
“We do openly put the words Christmas and Hanukkah in the title of the party, because we should be open and honest. This is a celebration of two wonderful religions, and as the club is the most visible symbol of the Republican party in New York City, a city that is becoming more and more intolerant of opposing opinions, I am afraid that is going to continue.”
The club has been attacked before, in 2018 some of the club’s windows were smashed and the anarchist symbol, the letter “A” inside a circle was spray painted on the building. Police said a note was left behind that warned “Our attack is merely a beginning. We are not passive, we are not civil, and we will not apologize.”
Reilly says he and the other club members will not let the latest defacing of their headquarters deter them from celebrating the holidays.
“The members’ reactions were disgust and horror, especially when they recognized what “ACAB” means,” said Reilly. “People were just sad, but also defiant. They just wanted to come together and honor our traditions.”
“We will not be intimidated, and if our vocal and unending support for the NYPD continues to bring this type of hatred upon us, we will not back down from it,” he added.