Black Ops Matter

For several days following Saturday, June 13th, the mass media was full of stories about the two rival demonstrations that took place in London that day and the media coverage was intense and as we have come to expect, massively biased in favour of one side. The mass media were determined from the outset to report that Black Lives Matter demonstrators were of noble cause and of peaceful intent, and the media deliberately ignored any evidence to the contrary.

A good investigative journalist, just like a good police detective, ‘accepts nothing at face value’ and ‘’questions everything’, but so far it would seem, investigative journalists, even in the face of some quite glaring inconsistencies, have been woefully lacking where the events of Saturday 13^th June are concerned.

Some political commentators state that there is no such thing as ‘coincidence’ and for others there is another old saying, ‘that if it looks too good to be true — it probably is too good to be true’, and in the light of that Saturday’s strange ‘coincidences’ and almost too good to be true photo opportunities, any good investigative journalist’s healthy scepticism should have kicked in and caused them to question what they were seeing.

If we are to believe the media narrative for that Saturday, we would believe that under the spurious pretext of protecting our national statues and monuments, large numbers of ‘far-right’ louts had descended upon Central London with the sole intention of violently confronting the police and anyone else they encountered, preferably Black, and that in a drunken stupor these ‘far-right’ demonstrators had urinated on the very monuments they were supposed to protect, got themselves either beaten up or arrested, and that their crass actions contrasted sharply with the peaceful conduct of the Black Lives Matter demonstrators, whose behaviour was exemplified by the noble actions of a group of Black ‘community role models’, who selflessly ‘risked their own lives’ in order to save a lone far-right demonstrator who had been ‘deserted by his cowardly comrades’.

Of course I am aware that some of the patriotic demonstrators did allow their passions to get the better of them and did stupidly engage in violent confrontations with the police, but it is possible there may have been a number of undercover police officers acting as agent provocateurs among their ranks.

And of course I am aware that one patriotic demonstrator did allow himself to get caught short with a call of nature and did inadvertently disgrace himself by urinating in close proximity to a plaque memorialising the heroism of a dead police officer who gave his life for his people. I am not saying that the patriotic demonstrators were without fault, simply that they have been depicted in the press far more negatively than the Black Lives Matter demonstrators, who on that occasion appear to have almost escaped any negative media coverage whatsoever.

Having waited a while before ‘putting pen to paper’ regarding the events of that day, I have been able to conduct a little investigative journalism of my own, which may enable us to adopt a rather more balanced view of that Saturday’s events — still not squeaky clean from the patriotic perspective, but rather more balanced.

For example, on the left-wing, Afro-centric LRB Blog, an anonymous Black Lives Matter writer tells a rather different story to the mass media narrative, and from an entirely Black Lives Matter perspective.

The anonymous writer reports: “Most of us were Black and Asian under-thirties … What would come after this, we weren’t … sure, but we were asserting ourselves and refusing to be bullied off the streets. A friend suggested we were clearing the streets of fascists … There were more cries of ‘Black Power’ than ‘Black Lives Matter’; the music was NWA and Public Enemy rather than grime and contemporary hip-hop.

“Over the next two hours we engaged in small battles with hovering fascist groups. There were only around three hundred of us, so we kept together. We ran up Charing Cross Road to Leicester Square where a few young far-right men were attacked but managed to escape behind police lines on Whitcomb Street … “

“Back in Trafalgar Square the music restarted and a couple of people made speeches. Two neo-Nazi types had snuck in and stupidly decided to provoke a couple of Black teenagers. Within seconds they were on the ground getting kicked. The police rushed in on horses, formed a protective circle around the two men and dragged them away to safety.

“After these skirmishes, and with our numbers now at around five hundred (still fewer than the white supremacists down the road), morale was high and the loudest voices suggested we should head out onto the streets and make our presence felt to the self-declared ‘Patriots’. At around half past four we headed up the Strand with some minor police resistance. As we reached Waterloo Bridge, excited shouts of ‘take over the bridge’ filled the air …”

“We soon abandoned the bridge when reports came in of more groups of ‘Patriots’ at Waterloo Station. Protesters charged towards the station, where several suspected fascists were thrown to the ground and kicked. One man who fought back with a glass bottle got a particularly violent beating until a photojournalist stepped in and called for a halt. The protesters stopped. The photojournalist stood by the man until the police came in to protect him.”

Clearly the Black Lives Matter demonstrators were far more inclined to violence than the mass media have reported.

My attention has also been drawn to some inconsistencies regarding the other significant element of that day’s news reports, the rescue of the lone ‘far-right demonstrator’, photographed being carried to safety by a Black man.

First however, let us focus our attention on what was going on in the area around Waterloo Railway Station towards the end of the afternoon. It was in this area of London, where the southern end of the Golden Jubilee Bridge meets the Royal Festival Hall, Jubilee Gardens and the Southbank Centre that many small groups of patriots, returning home, report being directed, seemingly deliberately by the police, right into the path of the roaming gang of 500 or so violent Black Lives Matter supporters. Some had lucky escapes, others were not so lucky.

The following pictures show two of the unfortunate patriots, beaten to the ground, kicked in the head and stomped on by frenzied Black Lives Matter demonstrators.

These men were set upon by a large mob in Mepham Street, near Waterloo Station, less than 200 yards from the bottom end of Queens Walk adjacent to the Southbank Centre, where shortly afterwards, as the Black Lives Matter writer recounts, “a scuffle broke out with a lone fascist and a Black protester was photographed carrying him to safety”.

From accounts in the news media, the ‘fascist’ concerned ventured alone down Queens Walk at a time when it was occupied by as many as 200 Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Some reports claim that he shouted out, “fuck Black Lives Matter”, an act that one would expect to have been suicidal in the circumstances. Alone and outnumbered at least two-hundred to one, and with inflamed passions cursing through the mob around him, one might have expected this ‘lone fascist’ to have been kicked to death. One would have expected him to at least emerge a bloody mess — his body bruised and battered, his clothing torn and tattered — but that was not the fate that befell this man.

Amazingly, our intrepid ‘patriot’ emerged from this encounter with few injuries, if any at all. Nothing of any seriousness has been reported, and the photographs of him being carried to safety do not indicate anything more serious than a bruised cheek and a small contusion on the bridge of his nose. His appearance certainly does not justify the description, ‘bloodied’, that featured in so many melodramatic media reports. Not in comparison with the unfortunate patriots featured in the photographs above

Our intrepid patriot, as I shall call him, was allegedly rescued on the steps at the bottom end of Queens Walk, by a tall, muscular, Black man, named Patrick Hutchinson, described by Channel 4 News as a, “personal trainer”, “grandfather” and “British hero”!

Apparently Patrick Hutchinson and a group of friends had attended the demonstrations unofficially that day, and merely from a public spirited desire to ensure that young Black demonstrators didn’t get into trouble. According to Patrick Hutchinson, he didn’t know the man whose life he saved, he simply knew, “he had to act” to save another human being whose life was in danger.

Interviewed for Channel 4 News, Hutchinson stated of the man he rescued, “His life was under threat and so I just went under, scooped him up, put him on my shoulders and sort of, started marching towards the police with him”.

When it was put to Hutchinson that it was ‘a very scary moment’? He went on, “Yeh it was, you don’t think about that though at the time, you just do what you’ve got to do”, and the inference here is that the mood of the mob was so frenzied, Patrick was placing his own life in danger by attempting the rescue. That in their rage, the mob may have turned on him also.

The Channel 4 narrator reinforces this perception of great danger again, stating: “The man Patrick saved, had been caught alone, left by his friends. It was about to get really nasty.”

However, if one is prepared to scour various news websites one can easily find quite a number of photographs, but sadly rather fewer video clips, showing what happened to ‘our intrepid patriot’ at several points of his journey along Queens Walk, and while the individual concerned does appear to be surrounded by less than friendly Black demonstrators, he does not appear to receive any serious blows or injuries.

Indeed the photographs that have been published appear to show two rather large Black men who appear to be warding off what few blows were directed at our intrepid patriot. One short video clip appears to show our intrepid patriot receiving a kick from which he staggers backwards onto the ground at one point, but he does not appear to have been viciously kicked and beaten while on the ground as one would have expected – as the two unfortunate individuals above were.

Apart from one spiteful looking White man who attempts to stub a cigarette out on our intrepid patriot’s bald head, it is surprising that the crowd of mainly Black demonstrators appears to shepherd him along Queens Walk, past the bust of Nelson Mandela, and down the flight of stairs approaching the Ping-Pong takeaway restaurant.

As our intrepid patriot is guided down the stairs, an individual — a bare chested Black man wearing, bizarrely, what appears to be a distinctive, faux-leather covered helmet in the style of a Stahlhelm with goggles — engages with him and continues to shepherd him along. The individual in the ‘Stahlhelm’ places a protective arm around our intrepid patriot, as do several others, but no-one appears to be aiming any blows whatsoever. Then at a certain point, as they near the bottom of the stairs ‘Mr Stalhelm’ takes hold of our intrepid patriot by the wrists and appears to control his fall as he is lowered gently onto the steps below. Why our intrepid patriot fell and was unable to get back up is a mystery because the crowd around him appears to be virtually stationary and no-one appears to be directing any violence towards him. In fact no-one appears to have been aiming any blows at him for some time.

Our intrepid patriot is at this point in an ostensibly vulnerable position, but he is surrounded by people shielding him, and the passive crowd seem more concerned with recording this incident on their phones and cameras than taking any aggressive action. Strangely up to this point, Mr Hutchinson, the “personal trainer”, “grandfather” and “British hero” eventually credited with carrying our intrepid patriot to safety, was nowhere to be seen in any of the photographs published.

Throughout his journey from the top end of Queens Walk — during the initial confrontation in which he ended up on the ground temporarily, down to the last few steps close to Ping-Pong Restaurant — our intrepid patriot had been behaving in a strangely pathetic way. Adopting a tortured posture like someone forced to run the gauntlet of a vicious mob, stumbling as if the mob were raining blows down upon him, except that the crowd does not appear to be raining blows down upon him. Almost everyone was stationary, watching with curiosity the passage of this cringing man, shielded and shepherded as he was by Mr Stahlhelm and his associates.

From these steps close to Ping-Pong restaurant, it would appear possible for our intrepid patriot, if he had been helped to his feet, to simply stand up and totter the twenty metres or so to the open arms of the police. But this is not what happened. Mr Hutchinson suddenly appeared on the scene lifted our intrepid patriot onto his shoulders and carried him to a point about 20 metres from the steps where he is photographed putting him down in front of the police.

This incident was a God send for the Black Lives Matter movement, a golden photo opportunity allowing them to be portrayed as having amongst their ranks, good guys who might serve as role models, uniting Black kids and White kids alike, and while Mr Hutchinson, our intrepid patriot, Mr Stahlhelm and the other ‘actors’ in this drama may have taken part quite genuinely, sincerely and innocently, there are a number of factors indicating that this narrative is potentially ‘too good to be true’.

Firstly, Queens Walk was not the scene of a violent confrontation between ‘far-right demonstrators’ and Black Lives Matter demonstrators – our intrepid patriot appears to have ventured into Queen’s walk on his own – as photographs would tend to indicate.

Secondly, as photographs again indicate, although knocked to the ground at one point, our intrepid patriot did not appear to have been brutally or viciously beaten and his life does not appear to be in any great danger at any point. Instead he appears to have been shielded and shepherded by a number of individuals all the way to the foot of the stairs close to the Ping-Pong restaurant. There he appears to have been gently lowered to the ground with ‘Mr Stahlhelm’ apparently holding his wrists, and despite the fact that he was only metres away from safety and surrounded by a passive, virtually stationary crowd, it apparently became vital for Mr Hutchinson to lift our intrepid patriot onto his shoulders and carry him past a battery of waiting cameras, creating the perfect propaganda photo opportunity for Black Lives Matter.

As we all know, on the Sunday that followed the demonstrations, and in the days that followed, photographs of Mr Hutchinson carrying our intrepid patriot were plastered all over the mass media and the front pages of our newspapers.

Initially the identity of our intrepid patriot was not known, however it subsequently came to light that his name is Bryn Male and a photo of him appeared in a number of newspapers wearing bizarrely, ‘Dame Edna-esque’ sun glasses and what could easily be taken for rather more feminine styled attire than a typical ‘far-right’, ‘football thug’ would have felt comfortable wearing in public.

Later it was revealed that Bryn Male may not be a far-right thug at all, and may not even be a football hooligan, he was reported by the Guardian to be a retired police officer, apparently having been a member of British Transport police.

Later still, it was reported that Bryn Male was not just a member of British Transport Police, but was a Detective Constable, with duties that included, a 1995 Metropolitan Police initiative to tackle muggers, and it was revealed that he was heavily involved with Millwall Football supporters.

Eventually by the 19^th June it was reported by the Daily Mirror that Bryn Male, “… is a former British Transport Police detective constable who is also thought to have been on the robbery squad in the Nineties. He spent a significant part of his 20-year career, before retiring in 2014, investigating football hooligans under cover. He is said to have infiltrated Millwall’s notorious Bushwackers” the Daily Mirror reported.

“Bryn was perfect. He looked the part. He was intelligent and quick- witted and was able to blend in”, a colleague is quoted as saying. However not so intelligent and quick witted that he could avoid blundering into a large Black Lives Matter mob, and not sufficiently intelligent and quick witted that he knew to keep his mouth shut in such a situation, it would appear.

It also appears from information on his public Linked-In profile that Patrick Hutchinson may not simply be some guy unconnected with the organisation of the demonstrations that day. There appears be more to this than immediately meets the eye.

Now it may be that I am reading too much into all this, but there do seem to be several coincidences to many: that a man who was apparently for many years a police detective, allegedly working under-cover for several years collecting information on football hooligans, in circumstances in which he may have been required to be an agent provocateur; who allegedly infiltrated the notorious ‘Bushwackers’ and who one would therefore assume knows how to defend himself, and how to deceive others; should innocently, and as a one-off, decide to go to a ‘far-right’ demonstration where he would be mixing with the likes of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance; and on his way home from the demonstration was foolish enough to inadvertently stumble alone into a large crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and upon doing so shouted out, “fuck Black Lives Matter”; and despite receiving what appear to be only minor (some might say, token) injuries, was adopted by a number of large Black men and apparently shielded and shepherded to a place where he was conveniently rescued. Conveniently and coincidentally swept-up by a tall muscular Black man who then carried the retired police officer to safety, thereby creating a golden photo-opportunity and masses of free positive publicity for Black Lives Matter. A tall muscular Black man who it appears from his public Linked-In profile, coincidentally just happens to be an employee of a company called Universal Private Equity Ltd, which appears from records held at Companies House, to be owned by the same man who owns Black Lives Matter Ltd.

Now, what the truth of this matter is I would not like to state with any certainty, but this whole affair looks contrived and rather too convenient to be true and some people will understandably suspect that some underhand collusion has taken place between the various actors involved. I will reserve judgement for the time being however, because it’s a funny old world we live in and sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction. And I will leave you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions.

By Max Musson © 2020

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