UPDATE: @1ew has consolidated the videos taken at the March 18 protest here

Why we are not advertising either of the Pizzagate Protests

This post began as a reply to @sound_of_silence, who created a graphic and asked that we post it to help publicize the two upcoming protests. After much discussion among the mods, we have decided not to, and have removed the March 25 poster from the sidebar as well. Hopefully, you can suspend your disbelief for a bit and hear what I am about to say.

Because v/pizzagate has sort of become the "newspaper of record" documenting the Pizzagate investigation during a time where just about every other site has completely shut down discussion, it is really important that we protect the continued existence of the forum -- especially from the sort of legal action that has shut down other sites. To that end, we have a responsibility to point out potential threats we see that could harm users or Voat itself. So please weigh the following with an open mind...

Problems with the March 18th protest at Beyond Borders Haiti

When we first considered promoting this event, we were surprised that someone would plan an additional protest a week prior to the one that had already been on the books for a while.

Why split the potential crowd and media coverage between two events?
Why go to all the trouble and expense to fund, permit, and promote two separate events?
Why risk causing conflict between pizzagate investigators, and the plentiful troll-fuel it would generate?

This last question was particularly apropos, as this just happened to come to our attention in the midst of a concentrated, organized effort to ban prolific pizzagate investigators on Twitter, Reddit and systematically defame and undermine some of the most popular pizzagate "broadcasters."

So, I looked at the organizer's twitter stream and saw this exchange: https://twitter.com/Charyoutree19/status/838543624509980672. From the permit, it looks like he wants to protest at Beyond Borders Haiti for three hours before marching:

"The demonstration will begin in front of Beyond Borders located at 5016 Connecticut Ave NW and after a three hour protest there, we will march to the Whitehouse elipse . My permit for this event was approved by National Parks Services on 3-3-2017. Protest will end at dusk."

That seems like an awfully long time to have an upset, frustrated crowd stand outside a charity to call them out as pedophiles, rapists and slavers -- plenty of time for Antifa types to rain down mayhem and start fights as happened recently at UCBerkeley and during the election at Trump rallies.

Given the popularity of Based Stick Man in the past couple of weeks, the odds of violence have intensified. Why set up a situation conducive to it? Why pick such a confrontational location and stay there so long?

Well, my tour of his social media accounts revealed Mr. Gallant not only has an eye for cool graphics, but a taste for aggression.

He uses some fairly dark/threatening artwork, and calls his group "The Anti-Pedo League". Here's a darker poster of the event.

When I did this research March 6, the background photo of his Twitter profile was this picture -- kids with falcons backed up by a posse of gunslingers, implying a pack of killers -- from a graphic novel by Stephen King. Since mod @wecanhelp posted about the concerns we had, it has been completely removed from Gallant's Twitter media, though the theme of armed resistance remains.

Don't get me wrong -- I frankly think the kids with falcons image ought to be the official Poster of Pizzagate. It's cool AF and captures the feeling many of us have, the same spirit that made Based Stick Man go viral. That is fine for a meme, a tweet, a Facebook post, street art, etc. But the combined effect of the time in front of Beyond Borders plus the use of militant imagery to promote and set the tone for the event is problematic.

Especially in light of what the supposed DHS Insider told Victurus Libertas on March 5:

Q. Will it get bloody?

A. Lets just say its flag weather.

From what I can tell, Mr. Gallant is a decent guy who simply couldn't sit on his hands anymore. I am not trying to throw shade on his character. I DO wish to remind people of the big picture:

The Clinton Cabal and Soros-funded Antifa have a history of manipulating rallies in order to incite violence
The Comet Ping Pong shooter was likely a false flag, and we are again in "flag weather" according to supposed insiders
That incident has been used to debunk and suppress the pizzagate investigation ever since
The violence-loving deep state operatives who we believe started and maintain the trafficking rings are skilled manipulators capable of LARPing on made up sites, any of the sites we use as sources, or fooling the investigators who run them.

Then there was this language, also in the permit:

I, Erik Gallant of Jackson MI, aided by a handful of dedicated others, have been the hub of this movement of concerned citizens from all over the U.S. and abroad who have pitched in their efforts to make this demonstration a reality, working hard day and night pushing our campaign on various online platforms

Given the emphasis on himself, his requests for money, his cool looking but dangerous imagery and melodramatic organization name (superheroes like the Justice League?) I am not confident Mr. Gallant would necessarily recognize if he were being manipulated.

Imagine the effect of turning this rally into a Berkeley-type riot. It would not only impact March 18, it would likely completely shut down the originally planned rally on March 25. Were we to advertise it here, we might subject Voat and v/pizzagate to increased vulnerability to censorship through legal action.

Problem with the March 25 protest

Today we became aware that the March 25 protest, which will feature Titus Frost and David Seaman, also features a guy named David Surter who purports to be a Satanic Ritual Abuse survivor and the Anti-Christ (and is selling his book about it). From a post by @WolvesandSheeple:

In this Youtube Video. He goes on a 10 minute long rant talking about how he was raised to be the antichrist and put a curse on several people, including Johnny Depp. He also claims that the second coming of Christ or some otherworldly event will take place within two weeks, because he can "feel it." This man is one of the advertised speakers, and a [member of the "steering committee"](https://youtu.be/FmoUwySslaA at the second march on the 25th. Take a look at his "official" website as well: David Shurter

It is unclear how significant Surter's role will be. This protest lacks the confrontational nature of the March 18 event. It will be at Laffayette Park, a neutral location, and they are not promoting the event with imagery glorifying vigilante justice. They have raised most of their $10,000 goal. They plan to feed protestors, listen to speakers, and have an open mike. They also have security. For these reasons, we have much fewer concerns about this event being a manipulated.

To be fair, however, we removed the poster for it in the sidebar.

We are not saying stay away from these protests, or that the organizers are shills. People need to weigh that issue for themselves.

But please be aware of the issues we've pointed out. Despite the risk of unleashing a shitstorm and triggering everyone, I could not in good conscience allow these issues to go unremarked. Please be cautious if you attend the protest. We have to look out for each other, because the pitfalls are many.