The VICE News report on the Charlottesville white supremacist rally was shocking in large part because of the hateful racist remarks and the open embrace of violence from one its leaders, Christopher Cantwell.
But this is not Cantwell's first appearance on national television. In 2014, he was featured on "The Colbert Report," in a segment skewering him for his "Free Keene" anti-government campaign against Keene, New Hampshire's parking meter attendants.
In the Colbert Report's satirical "Difference Makers" segment, Cantwell and his two comrades are dubbed the "Free Keene Squad," 1970s cop-show disco music pumping the background.
We first see Cantwell showing off his .38-caliber revolver, earning him the moniker from Stephen Colbert, "The Enforcer." While Cantwell was armed, he would harass Keene's parking enforcement officials throughout their working day, following them with video cameras and flinging insults. )"They're not harassing," Colbert corrected, "They're annoying for liberty!")
'We're going to follow you wherever you go. You're not going to get away with it today," Cantwell says in threatening one attendant. "Nobody likes what you do. It's a crappy position to be in, in life," he harangues another. After we meet one attendant who was previously an Iraq War veteran, we see Cantwell harass him by saying, "You're not going to get a break the entire day. This is never going to stop." ("It was hell" the vet told "The Colbert Report.")
In a sit-down interview, Cantwell explains why he is not stopped on the street: "I find that when I carry a gun, people are very unlikely to hit me." Toward the end, we see YouTube footage of Cantwell plugging an American flag.
At the time, the segment seemed like nothing but good fun, humiliating a pathetic group of extreme libertarians who deserved the mockery they got. But the darkness in Cantwell was already beginning to show.
But this is not Cantwell's first appearance on national television. In 2014, he was featured on "The Colbert Report," in a segment skewering him for his "Free Keene" anti-government campaign against Keene, New Hampshire's parking meter attendants.
In the Colbert Report's satirical "Difference Makers" segment, Cantwell and his two comrades are dubbed the "Free Keene Squad," 1970s cop-show disco music pumping the background.
We first see Cantwell showing off his .38-caliber revolver, earning him the moniker from Stephen Colbert, "The Enforcer." While Cantwell was armed, he would harass Keene's parking enforcement officials throughout their working day, following them with video cameras and flinging insults. )"They're not harassing," Colbert corrected, "They're annoying for liberty!")
'We're going to follow you wherever you go. You're not going to get away with it today," Cantwell says in threatening one attendant. "Nobody likes what you do. It's a crappy position to be in, in life," he harangues another. After we meet one attendant who was previously an Iraq War veteran, we see Cantwell harass him by saying, "You're not going to get a break the entire day. This is never going to stop." ("It was hell" the vet told "The Colbert Report.")
In a sit-down interview, Cantwell explains why he is not stopped on the street: "I find that when I carry a gun, people are very unlikely to hit me." Toward the end, we see YouTube footage of Cantwell plugging an American flag.
At the time, the segment seemed like nothing but good fun, humiliating a pathetic group of extreme libertarians who deserved the mockery they got. But the darkness in Cantwell was already beginning to show.