D.C. resident Joe Flood often spends his time riding around the city on Capital Bikeshare, and an impromptu decision to protest a white supremacist group earned him the moniker “red bike guy.”

Joe Flood / Flickr

In just about any high school debate class you’ll learn that you should attack the idea, not the person. But what if the idea, and the person expressing it, are both unreasonable and reprehensible?

For one D.C. resident, the answer is simple: Deploy brutal mockery.

That’s what Joe Flood did last Saturday during an impromptu one-man counterprotest to a white supremacist march in D.C. Rolling on a red Capital Bikeshare alongside a few dozen members of Patriot Front — a Texas-based hate group that often demonstrates wearing matching clothes and white masks — the 30-year Logan Circle resident yelled and heckled his way into internet fame.

“I was out having coffee and I saw on Twitter that they had snuck into D.C. without telling anyone,” Flood, 56, tells DCist/WAMU. “When I got to the Washington Monument, they were all lined up neatly in this line, listening to the their leader give a speech. And I thought I should just roll right down the line on a Bikeshare and yell at them. I felt like I had a duty to yell at them.”

And yell he did.

But instead of arguing the merits (or lack thereof) of Patriot Front’s abhorrent racist and anti-semitic beliefs, Flood unleashed a stream of petty and biting insults at the group’s members.

“Booo, get a job, losers!” he yelled as they marched and rallied while holding a “Reclaim America” banner. “Hi fascists! Show your face, losers! You wear Walmart khakis! No one likes you. Your mom hates you. Your friends hate you. You were the losers of your high school class. You’re a bunch of incels,” he continued, referring to the online community of men who believe they are unable to attract women. “You’re sloppy, you’re not even matching. You all have different types of pants on. Cargo pants are out! Reclaim your virginity! You look like General Custer’s illegitimate son!”

Video of Flood’s solo counter-protest quickly made its way to the internet where over the course of weekend and into this week it was viewed some 17 million times. It was posted by local Instagram influencer WashingtonianProbs; it has since drawn almost 37,000 likes and 900 comments. Originally known only as “red bike guy,” Flood was exalted as a “hero” and called a “chaotic Leslie Jordan” on social media. “I love him and want him as my BFF,” offered one supporter on TikTok; “‘You wear walmart khakis’ was a deep cut that I didn’t even realize existed,” hailed another.

By this week a clip of his “skilled heckling” made it on “The Rachel Maddow Show“; it’s been viewed more than 1.3 million times on YouTube so far. And that’s not all: “As seen on CNN! I need a shot of bourbon,” Flood tweeted on Tuesday night. As an homage to him, a Tennessee-based baker made a cake with a red-bike riding guy on it and the message “Cargo Pants Are OUT!”, while a pair of his friends are selling t-shirts emblazoned with his many heckles on them, with a portion of the proceeds going to World Central Kitchen.

Unexpectedly, Flood has officially entered D.C. protest lore. And he’s not alone, at least not in a category of solo bike-based protesters. Early last year, another one-man two-wheeled demonstrator attracted internet fame by single-handedly blocking (and mocking) a small convoy of right-wing truckers driving through D.C. to protest vaccine mandates (among other things). In 2017, a cyclist in Loudoun County became famous when she flipped off the passing motorcade of then-president Donald Trump. She later won a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors.

Flood admits the protest that made him famous isn’t exactly common behavior for him. A writer and government contractor by trade, he’s also a street photographer (in fact, you’ve probably seen his photography on this here website). Usually, he’s behind the lens snapping shots of protesters and counter-protesters. I asked him what prompted him to jump into action, especially given that some local activist organizations have taken the position that small extremist groups like Patriot Front should simply be ignored. Flood admits that he once would have agreed with that approach.

“But as we saw from January 6, these fascist groups are not your typical protesters. They are violent and they will overthrow the government if they have an opportunity. And I think the mistake which was made in 2020 was thinking, which I did too naively, that they were just another protest group,” he says, referring to the constellation of right-wing and pro-Trump groups that led the charge into the U.S. Capitol.

Last summer, 31 members of Patriot Front were arrested in Idaho and charged with conspiracy to riot during a planned Pride event. (Last month arrest warrants were issued for five of the men for failing to show up to court hearings.) Over the weekend, the Anti-Defamation League called attention to the Patriot Front protest in the city.

“Since 2019, Patriot Front has been responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributions in the US. The group has neo-Nazi roots, and held four large demonstrations in several cities in 2022. We strongly condemn their presence and messages of hate,” wrote the organization.

Flood says he shares the concerns over the group and its ideology, but that when he arrived at their demonstration on his bike, it was another sentiment that fueled his heckling.

“They look like a motley collection of dudes in mismatched khakis. I mean, they look like the Geek Squad to me. And I just thought they looked like a joke. And so when I got there, you know, I was not intimidated at all by them because they just looked they’re all mismatched,” he says. “And that’s why I decided to just make fun of them because I don’t think there’s any point in trying to engage. There’s no point in debating with these people because they believe conspiracy theories.”

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