October 10, 2011 04:50 PM UTC

Yet Another Agent Provocateur

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

It doesn’t directly pertain to Colorado politics, but this story at the Washington Post has to be one of the most appalling incidents by a young conservative “activist” we’ve ever read.

And with the Occupy (Your Town Here) protests ramping up around the country, people should be paying very close attention to this kind of thing:

A conservative journalist has admitted to infiltrating the group of protesters who clashed with security at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on Saturday – and he openly claims to have instigated the events that prompted the museum to close.

Patrick Howley, an assistant editor at the American Spectator, says that he joined the group under the pretense that he was a demonstrator. “As far as anyone knew I was part of this cause – a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator,” Howley wrote…

Howley was determined to escalate the protest further. “I wasn’t giving up before I had my story,” he writes, describing how he continued to rush past security into the museum itself. “I strained to glance behind me at the dozens of protesters I was sure were backing me up, and then I got hit again, this time with a cold realization: I was the only one who had made it through the doors….So I was surprised to find myself a fugitive Saturday afternoon, stumbling around aircraft displays with just enough vision to keep tabs on my uniformed pursuers. ‘The museum is now closed!'”

Howley, in fact, chides the protesters for not taking his lead and rushing into the museum after being pepper-sprayed. “In the absence of ideological uniformity, these protesters have no political power. Their only chance, as I saw it, was to push the envelope and go bold. But, if today’s demonstration was any indicator, they don’t have what it takes to even do that.”

At the same time, Howley criticizes the movement as being “disruptive,” even as he personally helped catalyzed the shutdown of a national museum…

So, young Patrick Howley of the American Spectator couldn’t convince protesters outside the National Air and Space Museum to “go bold,” by which he meant charging the security at the museum and trespassing inside. So he did it himself. As the only “protester” who made it past museum security, Howley is the reason that the museum was forced to close.

None of which appeared in Sunday’s nationwide coverage of the shutdown of the Air and Space Museum–the story of Howley’s incitement and solo trespassing was in the next news cycle.

But now that the facts have come out, Howley’s story about his actions is circulating with a very different reception. Although he was evidently proud of what he had done, it’s pretty easy to understand why most people, even fellow conservatives, are horrified. Much like fellow young conservative “gotcha” artist James O’Keefe, Howley seems perfectly fine fabricating an embarrassment if he doesn’t stumble on one where he expects to. This is well beyond merely outrageous, this was a deliberate attempt to incite lawlessness where none existed.

Anyway, folks, if you find yourself at the Occupy Denver encampment (or anywhere else for that matter), and some well-dressed preppy white kid tells you to do something you know is wrong, for God’s sake, start asking questions and taking photos. A good place to start comparing photos would be the Facebook page of the Colorado Federation of College Republicans.

At least you can’t say you were not warned now. These people are out there, and they can be expected to step up this activity in proportion–or disproportion–to the success of the protests.