Man who knelt said he ‘had to do something’ when he saw QAnon symbols in parade – Manhattan Mercury
When he saw a parade of Trump supporters, some in vehicles painted with QAnon symbols, coming down Poyntz Avenue last week, Josh Brewer said he felt he had to do something.
Brewer, of Manhattan, said he had just finished a bike ride with a friend Sunday afternoon and was sitting on the patio of a downtown brewery having a beer when he saw about 40 vehicles flying Trump flags approaching.
“The first thing I thought was just shock when I saw that parade coming down the street,” he said in a phone interview Saturday night. “This is not the sort of community I associate with those sort of beliefs. I was frightened. I was frightened to see that many vehicles.”
The lead vehicle had “WWG1WGA” on it. That stands for “Where we go one, we go all,” which is a common symbol of QAnon.
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory alleging, among other things, that a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running an international child sex-trafficking ring. They believe President Donald Trump is the only person who can stop it. The FBI has warned that fringe conspiracy theories like QAnon pose a domestic terrorism threat.
All that was in Brewer’s mind when he saw the parade.
“I thought someone had to do something to show them that there is resistance to this idea that there is belief in truth,” he said. “When I was standing there in a crosswalk, I realized that taking a knee would be the most effective nonviolent resistance that I could take.”
He knelt, in an action similar to what Colin Kaepernick and many athletes have begun doing during the playing of the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racism. He also raised his fist in the air, which looked a lot like the gesture two black U.S. sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, made on the medal stand during the 1968 Olympics, which they later said was a human rights salute.
The Mercury published a photo of Brewer kneeling in its Tuesday edition.
“What we had in the center of our town is a rally of people that are denying our reality and, frankly, promising to build some sort of coalition, which is really scary,” he said. “And I think we should take that very seriously.
“To me, I think the scariest piece of the QAnon conspiracy cult is the erasure of the norms of truth. And when truth, whether that be truth about a global cabal of pedophiles, or the truth about the validity of our elections, is removed, we can transfer power to the most dangerous elements of our society.”
“The lead vehicle did lurch toward me and did rev its engine several times loudly,” he said. “Several people did come off the patio.”
He said he didn’t believe that the driver would have hit him.
“I believe that people are not going to do this in this community,” he said. “I trust that person. I trust the humanity of that person.”
A woman in the parade, Reba Major of Manhattan, got out of her truck and asked Brewer to move. He continued to kneel. The cars ultimately began to drive around him. Parade participants said Thursday that as they went past, Brewer hit the vehicles with his hand, but he said that’s not true.
“I did not hit anyone’s car,” he said.
He said that some of the cars came very close to him, and he held his arm out so they could see him and give him a wide berth. Some of the vehicles did hit his hand, he said.
Though his act was one of the most high-profile responses to the parade, Brewer said the parade probably incited action from others.
“I think there were a lot of people around this town who did something when they saw that,” he said. “They flipped them off, or they went home and talked to their children about believing in the truth. I was just one person who did something.”
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Google News can be found here ***
