A Baltimore bookstore, Red Emma’s, announced plans on Thursday to reflect on America’s 250th Independence Day by fundraising for detained antifa criminals and defendants.
Red Emma’s “F*** The 4th” event on Friday will raise money for nine convicted in a July 4, 2025, terrorist attack in Texas and 15 charged with conspiring to impede law enforcement in Minnesota, according to the store’s Instagram post. The announcement invited viewers to join in “unpatriotic socializing” and support the legal defense for the jailed “comrades.” Around 40 miles away, thousands are scheduled to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday alongside President Donald Trump on Washington’s National Mall throughout the weekend.
“The American government is waging war on dissent,” Red Emma’s wrote. “People who have dared to oppose the deportation machine and the camps are being targeted and punished by the state. This July 4, we stand in solidarity with them.”
Jurors convicted the nine Texas defendants of attempted murder, supporting terrorism, riot, gun and explosives charges, and corruptly concealing incriminating records in March for attacking a migrant detention center in Alvarado and trying to evade authorities afterward. A police officer was shot during the attack and survived. The case marked the Justice Department‘s first prosecution explicitly targeting the “antifascist” movement as terrorists.
Leftist activists have cast the nine convicts as persecuted by Trump’s officials for political expression and raised funds for the group through the DFW Support Committee, which also shared Red Emma’s post. The “Prairieland 9,” nicknamed in the post for the facility they attacked, received lengthy sentences ranging from 30 to 100 years in prison. Seven more convicted in the Independence Day attack were sentenced to between two and 50 years.
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The DOJ charged the 15 antifa-linked Minnesota defendants in June with banding together to stalk, harm, and impede federal agents and destroy government property during a Trump-backed deportation surge that sparked riots. The charges sent shockwaves through left-wing communities and further challenged the idea that antifa groups are too decentralized to be a threat, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Red Emma’s calls itself a “Vegan cafe, bar, and killer radical bookstore.” The facility is also marking July Fourth with a webpage promoting “250 books on why America is a problem.”