This is a story about the vulture journalists who circled my friend, and the military occupation of Washington D.C. during the 2021 inauguration.

I was staying in Maryland and I wanted to check it out. McKenzie Levi, the “Crusader Knight from Cleveland”—the man who wears full 14th century armor and ‘fights’ communists at protests, as well as picks up trash around the city—told me he’d be going. On the morning of the inauguration, around 7:45 am, he came rolling down my street in a big brown pickup. Silver flaps of chainmail hung from his head like a hound’s ears.

20 minutes later, we were entering D.C. An armada of wailing cruisers flew up the hill in front of us. A deep rumble could be felt in the distance. I started smacking the dashboard and cursing in excitement. Eventually, military checkpoints—soldiers gripping guns in front of green trucks—halted our advance. 

We parked on the edge of downtown and resumed our journey on foot. Many gawked at Levi—this was one of his first times out of Cleveland wearing the 60-pound armor he assembled over the last five years. Not a sight you’ve seen maybe ever. National Guardsmen asked to take pictures with him. Three goggled men approached us and warned: “We just came that way. They’re not letting anyone through! They got the whole National Mall locked down! You can’t see nothing!”

We first attempted to approach BLM Plaza—the square in front of the White House where most people were apparently gathering. A checkpoint stood in our way, swarming with officers searching bags. They took one look at Levi and radioed for backup. “Sir, we’re going to need you to step to the side.”

We waited 15 minutes for the stout, sour Sergeant to show up. When he arrived, he looked Levi up and down. “Oh boy,” he thought. He began: “Look, you can’t bring body armor in, we have no idea what you’re hiding in your armor…“ Levi’s nostrils flared: “This is my cultural heritage as a Christian! I wear this outfit every day—” “Look, it’s your right to wear it,” the Sergeant interrupted, “but if you want to come in here you’re going to have to disrobe everything and we’re going to have to search it all.”

As Levi and the Sergeant conversed, journalists began to wander over, looking like crocodiles who spotted a pig. They began photographing Levi and shouting questions at him. “Who are you?” “I’m a Crusader Knight.” “What are you here to do today!” “Just checking it out.” “Where’s your sword?!” “I left it in the car,” Levi said with a tight smile.

“Whoa,” the Sergeant said. “You have a sword…?” “Just a ceremonial one, it’s a blunt—” The police closed in around Levi. Some Secret Service agents with earpieces showed up. A contingent of local police questioned him about the contents of his car. Eventually a woman in a pinstripe suit arrived. She took one long look at Levi, then looked away, annoyed. “Go,” she said forcefully. “You’re free to leave, you’re not a danger, just go.”

As Levi exited the checkpoint, I saw journalists pushing and shoving each other to get the best shot of him—this trash picker-upper, medieval re-enactor from Cleveland. It was debasing to watch. This wasn’t newsworthy; this wasn’t political journalism; this was paparazzi.

Levi waited outside the checkpoint while I went to go find the BLM Plaza Protestors. All 20 of them. They had a bunch of signs saying things like “Kill White Jesus!” and “American Terrorist” about Trump. I’d say the ratio was 5 journalists for every 3 normies for every 1 protestor. Plus lots and lots of law enforcement: you’d spot police laptops in plain cars, Guardsmen snoozing inside white vans.

It was only 11 am. I met back up with Levi and we decided to walk towards the Capitol. Maybe we could hear the inauguration if we got close.

One blond guy in a brown hipster suit—who I later learned was Andrew Callaghan from the popular All Gas No Brakes show—stopped Levi and pointed a mic in his face. Photographers gathered like piranhas. Callaghan began to ask him leading questions, almost like a lawyer. “Why didn’t you like the BLM protests? Did you support the Capitol riot? Would you rather attend a BLM protest or a Capitol riot?” Levi thought about the last question. “…Neither!” He said proudly. “I want to keep the peace.” Callaghan’s eyes kind of lost focus at that point and he ended the interview.

Callaghan’s show is more comedic, and I respect his hustle as an alternative journalist, but man…watching all the videographers eager to catch Levi saying something shocking was pretty pathetic. When I took a step back and captured the whole scene, they started to give me dirty looks.

I wasn’t the only one who witnessed the debasement. Damon Winter from The New York Times approached us afterwards. “Man, they were really trying to bait you, huh,” he said disgustedly. “It’s like a contest where they’re all trying to out-snark each other.” He asked a few questions in a dignified manner and got some cool shots of Levi.

We shed the journalists as we walked on. We passed the FBI building, the Smithsonian, the Department of Labor. The streets were windswept and empty. It was just us and soldiers. Each unit was from a different state. We bantered with rowdy Alabamans, spoke to a friendly Kansas agent who wanted to feel Levi’s armor, and shot the shit with some level-headed Californians. “We’ve been trying to hear the inauguration,” one said, disappointed. “Can’t hear nothing.”

After about a mile, we hit a dead end. We were completely surrounded by barricades and buildings. This was the closest a civilian could get to the inauguration. No one else was around…except a Black girl and White guy hanging out in the shadows. They were dressed in black bloc (associated with Antifa or anarchists) wearing “Jesus Saves” wristbands. The girl had a walkie talkie. “Why are you in that,” she asked Levi coolly. He raised his hand. “For Christendom!” She stared at him. “Hell yeah,” she said.

They were very mum and mysterious, but I got the girl to open up a little. “It’s absolutely bogus,” she muttered. “The fact that the inauguration is completely secured and that American citizens aren’t able to go see what’s rightfully theirs—such as the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument—that we’re being kept from being able to celebrate a presidential inauguration…it’s a political flex,” she continued. “They’re showing their balls: ‘We can seal off the Capitol on one of the most monumental days for any President. As an American, I want to see those things. I don’t care who’s getting sworn in. But for them to just flex: ‘Oh naw, y’all not about to come in here. And then to use the Capitol riots as an excuse, when they were in total cahoots [with the rioters]…fuck Nancy Pelosi, fuck Chuck Schumer, fuck Mitch McConnell, fuck all of them!”

The inauguration was over. It was time to head back to the car. Levi did one last interview with Philip Wegmann, the White House Reporter from RealClearPolitics. Wegmann was handsome and young, and from a small town in the Midwest. (He reminded me of myself!) He took out a pad and paper and asked Levi questions in a thoughtful manner.

Afterwards, we asked Wegmann what D.C. was like. “It’s a town where everyone is pursuing money and power that’s ultimately fleeting,” he said. “And journalists are always second. Meaning, you’re always just waiting around for someone to do something.” He looked sad as he said his final words: “There’s very little virtue here.”

I haven’t looked at the news on purpose while writing this article. I’m not sure how the inauguration is being portrayed. But I want you guys to realize that the entire National Mall was locked down in a way that America has never seen during an inauguration; it’s something that belongs more to a third-world country. What if Trump had been re-elected and done something like this in response to left-wing rioters? What would you think?

I think of the Teddy Roosevelt speech he thundered for two hours after getting shot in the chest, or of how Malcolm X used to make the nightly rounds in Harlem, or how the Pope kisses the sick. I want to feel the leader. See him, hear her. Not like this. Not like this.

I also want you to know exactly how your media—at the highest level—operates. They go to events and find crazy people and use those people as characters in their narratives, and when people resist classification—Black conservatives, Christian anarchists, a Crusader Knight who fights Communists but doesn’t like Trump—they stop asking questions. I watched it happen over and over again. Journalists have a vested interest in chaos happening—or at least a story about chaos happening—at these events. I covered the Black Lives Matter protests in New York City last summer and I saw how one or a few crazy people were amplified to represent the entire group.

There are a few true patriots left—true lovers of freedom—who care less about ideology than they do about authoritarianism. We’re being transgressed upon by a force more dangerous than liberalism or conservatism—and we’re letting partisanship block any unity against it. Your enemy is not your neighbor. Your enemy is the security state, the surveillance state, much of the mainstream media, social media, the permanent political class.

There was nothing wrong with locking down the entire National Mall during an inauguration. It was for the right reasons. We don’t need to self-reflect about it. It was all the other side’s fault. We’re the good guys. We have the righteous intentions. Everything can finally go back to normal. It’s morning again in America.

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