Smithsonian protest incident escalated by conservative journalist

by David Safier

Remember the story about a protest in front of D.C.'s Space Museum Saturday? The demonstration was over the U.S. use of unmanned drones. Remember how some people rushed the doors and were pepper sprayed?

A conservative journalist, Patrick Howley — an assistant editor at the American Spectator — was among those leading the small group that pushed past a security guard into the museum. He wrote about his role as an infiltrator/instigator:

“As far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator."

Then — this is the best part — when they were pushed back and pepper sprayed, Howley decided to lead a second charge, expecting others to follow. Except no one did:

“I strained to glance behind me at the dozens of protesters I was sure were backing me up, and then I got hit again, this time with a cold realization: I was the only one who had made it through the doors….So I was surprised to find myself a fugitive Saturday afternoon, stumbling around aircraft displays with just enough vision to keep tabs on my uniformed pursuers."

To recap: Since there hasn't been enough violence and lawbreaking from the Occupy Wall Street protesters, a conservative journalist — aren't journalists supposed to be objective observers, not participants? — decided to create some mayhem himself. How else are you gonna justify calling the protesters a lawless mob?

According to Washington Post's Ezra Klein, Howley's story has been taken down from the American Spectator website where it was published, and an edited version has shown up on the magazine's blog.