November 4 of 2017 will go down as one of the most disappointing days in recent memory for many: the day far-left radical faction Antifa promised -yet failed to deliver- nationwide protests and operations from the New York to LA.
Such was the case in Miami, Florida, when a US Army veteran and Popular Military contributor decided to divert from his day-trip around some of the city’s more interesting areas to check out the scheduled protest- inadvertently hitching a ride with an Antifa member on the way.
Trying to find information for an article but wanting an “on the ground” experience in Miami, Iraq veteran and former infantryman Andy Wolf and his wife had endured a two-hour series of train rides and about three miles of walking in the earlier weekend hours of November 4.
“We were originally looking for the headquarters of Alpha 66, an anti-Castro/anti-Communist ‘terror’ cell that was rumored to still be active in Little Havana,” Wolf said. “Parts of it were nice, but just walking through the eastern part of the area to our search area was a little bit of an urban exercise in itself. Busted windows, crime taking place in the open, human waste on the sidewalk. It felt very foreign…You kind of forgot where you were.”
Despite being on their own in a strange part of one of America’s more dangerous cities, the duo claims they weren’t terribly worried.
“We always carry,” said Wolf, who also worked as a firearms instructor. “We frequently train together as a couple and have a lot of situational awareness training. She’s always got my back, it’s one of the reasons we got married.”
In fact, the couple had stopped an armed robbery during a late-night visit to a convenience store earlier this year, recounting the incident in a video done in cooperation with the National Shooting Sports Foundation and a local shooting club.
Unfortunately for the couple, their trip was turning out to be a big disappointment. They didn’t find the headquarters to Alpha 66- at least, not in operational order.
“It’s a flower shop now,” Wolf laughed. “I guess when Castro and [the organization founder] died, the group lost a lot of funding and either went under or went ‘underground.’ Still, people we talked to seemed kinda squeamish to talk about it.”
Not wanting to leave empty-handed, Wolf remembered that an Antifa protest was scheduled at a monument in a park overlooking the bay. Wanting to get there as quickly as possible, he and his wife summoned an a ride-sharing service using a mobile phone.
Not long after requesting a rideshare, they were picked up and quickly discovered that the other passenger had the same destination- and he wasn’t just going to observe.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Wolf said. “Head to toe in black fatigues with black boots and a red star on his lapel. We knew exactly where this guy was going.”
“Needless to say,” Wolf added, “my wife sat up front.”
For the most part, the trip was quiet. Wolf claims the man tried to tell him he didn’t speak English, though a little probing and bringing up of topics in overt conversation sent cues that he understood.
“After [Wolf and his wife] started bringing things up related to the protest or even funny jokes, I realized he knew exactly what we were talking about,” Wolf said. “He started to get nervous, especially when I started mentioning things about my camera.”
Suddenly, the passenger decided he wanted to get out a little early.
“There was a back and forth conversation between him and the driver,” Wolf said. “I got the gist of it. The guy wanted out, but the driver told him he asked to go to the park.”
“Ultimately,” Wolf added, “the guy really wanted out of the car before he got there and took off in a hurry.”
Disembarking near the location, the couple approached a local police officer. Police presence was noticeable -Wolf reports seeing about four cars with their lights on and a few other patrols- but not the turnout he was expecting.
“When I asked him about the protest, he said he didn’t know where they were, they didn’t show up,” Wolf said, adding that the officer said “We don’t need that sh** around here.”
Ultimately, the rendezvous site listed for the rally -a monument dedicated to John F. Kennedy and known as ”The Torch of Friendship”- was noticeably absent of the hordes of protesters that news and social media had claimed would be there.
“I would later find out that they were ‘no-shows’ around the country,” Wolf lamented. “I was hoping for a good story. I guess I still got an okay-ish story, right?”
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