Daily Archives: February 10, 2021

SEATTLE -- The self-described sergeant-at-arms of the Seattle chapter of the far-right group Proud Boys will remain in custody for now pending charges filed in connection with the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida in Seattle initially said Monday that 30-year-old Ethan Nordean should be released pending trial, rejecting the government's arguments that he posed a danger to the community and was a flight risk. But Tsuchida then halted his own decision and gave the Justice Department time to appeal.

Within hours, an appeal had been filed and U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., further blocked Nordeans release pending a review. She also directed U.S. marshals to transport Nordean to the District of Columbia to face the charges against him.

The Proud Boys are an extremist and male-chauvinist organization known for brawling with antifa demonstrators. At least eight defendants linked to the group have been charged in the Capitol riot.

Nordean of Auburn, Washington, also goes by the name Rufio Panman and has described himself as the sergeant-at-arms and as the president of the Proud Boys' Seattle chapter.

He was arrested last week after being charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with obstructing an official proceeding, aiding and abetting others who damaged federal property, and knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building. Obstructing an official proceeding, the most serious of the charges, carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Nordean has not entered pleas to any of the charges.

The Justice Department said Nordean helped plan the Proud Boys' actions at the Capitol, marched at the front of a group of Proud Boys shortly before the Jan. 6 riot and broke into the Capitol building with other members of the group. He was near the front of the mob that confronted vastly outnumbered Capitol Police officers, prosecutors said.

In asking for him to remain in custody, assistant U.S. attorney Jehiel Baer noted that in the days before the riot, Nordean posted on social media saying, Let them remember the day they decided to make war with us, as well as a photo of himself with the words, And fight we will.

There is no reason to believe that Defendant, or any of his Proud Boy associates, are any more interested in complacency, or any less interested in fomenting rebellion, than they were on January 5, prosecutors wrote in a memo arguing for his detention. If nothing else, the events of January 6, 2021, have exposed the size and determination of right-wing fringe groups in the United States, and their willingness to place themselves and others in danger to further their political ideology.

Baer noted that Nordean gained notoriety for knocking out a counter-protester in 2018 in Portland, Oregon, an event that was captured on video and which garnered him a guest appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' InfoWars program.

Federal agents who searched his house after the Capitol riot found a valid passport on a bedside table issued to another man; Nordean had recently commented on social media suggesting he wanted to start a new life somewhere else, Baer said.

And further, Baer argued, one of the allegations that Nordean aided and abetted the destruction or attempted destruction of federal property, with the intent to coerce the government is a federal crime of terrorism punishable by more than 10 years in prison. Such crimes carry a presumption that the defendant will be detained pending trial, Baer said.

Nordean's public defender, Corey Endo, argued that the presumption only applies if the property damaged is valued at more than $1,000, and the government's complaint didn't say anything about the value of the damaged property.

Further, she said, Nordean has no criminal history; the counter-protester Nordean decked in Portland had first attacked him with some sort of rod; and on Alex Jones' show he said he did not believe in using violence against those with other political views.

As for the passport by the bed, Endo said, it merely belonged to the ex-boyfriend of Nordean's wife, who left it at the home with other possessions after they split up. The person pictured in the passport didn't resemble Nordean except that they're both white men, she said.

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Judge halts Proud Boy's release in Capitol breach case - ABC News

TORONTO (AP) The Canadian government designated the Proud Boys group as a terrorist entity on Wednesday, noting they played a pivotal role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The Proud Boys have faced increased scrutiny after seizing on the former Trump administrations policies and was a major agitator during earlier protests and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. The Proud Boys is a far-right, male chauvinist extremist group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies. Canada is the first country to designate them as a terrorist entity.

During a September presidential debate, Donald Trump had urged them to stand back and stand by when asked to condemn them by a moderator.

Senior officials speaking on a technical briefing said authorities had been monitoring and collecting evidence about the Proud Boys before the Capitol Hill insurrection, but confirmed that the event provided information that helped with the decision to list the organization.

READ MORE: Proud Boys leader arrested, accused of burning churchs Black Lives Matter banner

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said they revealed themselves.

Their intent and their escalation toward violence became quite clear, Blair said.

The terrorist designation means the group may have assets seized and face harsher terrorism-related criminal penalties. A government official said just because they are a member doesnt mean they will be charged with a crime, but if they do engage in violent acts they could be charged with terrorist crimes.

Sending money to the organization or buying Proud Boys paraphernalia would also be a crime.

The group and its members have openly encouraged, planned, and conducted violent activities against those they perceive to be opposed to their ideology and political beliefs, the Canadian government said in briefing materials.

The group regularly attends Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests as counter-protesters, often engaging in violence targeting BLM supporters. On January 6, 2021, the Proud Boys played a pivotal role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The government calls the Proud Boys a neo-fascist organization with semiautonomous chapters located in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It said it engages in political violence and that members espouse misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and white supremacist ideologies.

Since 2018 we have seen an escalation towards violence for this group, Blair said.

In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, we have seen signals of escalation towards violence from a number of different groups including the Proud Boys.

Blair said four right-wing groups are among 13 additions to the list, which include three groups linked to al-Qaida, four associated with the Islamic State group and one Kashmiri organization.

Canada will not tolerate ideological, religious or politically motivated acts of violence, Blair said.

The Proud Boys were formed in 2016 by Canadian Gavin McInnes, who co-founded Vice Media.

READ MORE: U.S. terrorism alert warns of politically motivated violence

In 2018, police arrested several Proud Boys members and associates who brawled with antifascists after McInnes, delivered a speech at New Yorks Metropolitan Republican Club.

McInnes has described the group as a politically incorrect mens club for Western chauvinists and denies affiliations with far-right extremist groups that overtly espouse racist and anti-Semitic views. McInnes sued the Southern Poverty Law Center, claiming it defamed him when it designated the Proud Boys as a hate group.

In response to the federal suit, which is still pending in Alabama, the law center said McInnes has acknowledged an overlap between the Proud Boys and white nationalist groups.

Indeed, Proud Boys members have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists, and known neo-Nazis, law center lawyers wrote in a court filing.

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Canada designates the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity - PBS NewsHour

The Proud Boys are a far-right white nationalist organization based in Canada that was recently designated a terrorist entity by the Canadian government. This designation, however, will not stop violent extremists from attacking Canadian values.

This is a moment in time where extremism now pervades social media. This change has been so gradual that we have not noticed our tacit involvement each time we post or pass on softly violent memes and slogans wrapped in humour.

The criminal justice system will be unable to weather this storm unless it adjusts its approach to understanding the true nature of social movements and determining whether terrorist designations are the most appropriate means of dealing with social movements that express soft violence.

Soft violence describes harmful activities that stop short of actual physical violence. It takes the form of culturally nuanced, inexplicit cues that reinforce perceived power disparities. Specific clothing, memes and symbols are all types of recorded social violence activity associated with right-wing extremists.

While groups like the Proud Boys are undoubtedly violent in intention, they are softly violent in their expression. This soft violence demonstrates the creeping normalization of extremist sentiment in our communities.

To receive a terrorist designation, an oganization must meet three criteria: it must intend or have committed physical harm; it must intend to impact decision-making by policy-makers and or intimidate citizens; and it must be driven by ideological beliefs. The danger of physical harm to citizens must be clearly demonstrated with reasonable grounds that it has carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated terrorist activity.

Groups that plan, conduct and execute physical harm driven by ideological beliefs are just the tip of the iceberg. Neo-Nazi groups like the Atomwaffen Division and The Base also designated terrorist organizations by the Canadian government fit this designation: they sell guns and train militias for race wars, and utter and disseminate hate speech.

These organized right-wing extremist groups are the violent visible minority, and a small part of the much larger movement of sympathizers and supporters.

Extremists thrive in environments where they can easily cultivate an identity that is fixated on maintaining the dominance, authority, legitimacy and superiority of the white race. Misogyny and ultra-nationalism are extensions of these constructs of what white well-being and white welfare should look like.

Groups like the Proud Boys recruit and spread their messages through non-offensive affiliations where grievances align. These destructive, inward-looking, nationalistic, race-dominant, regressive beliefs can lead to oppression, community strife and dehumanization.

This is especially true in an uncertain pandemic, where lockdowns lead to an increase in time spent online and conspiracy theories and anger at restrictions prevail.

My research studies a dataset of more than 94 million extremist transactions to examine how online activity may be a confident predictor of the escalation to violence, based on the degree of usage of softly violent mass identity manipulators, like memes and visual cues.

In particular, I look at how these mass identity manipulators strengthen the bonds of violent transnational social movements. My research lab is currently tracking 16 Canadian Facebook groups with over a quarter million followers who engage with extremist rhetoric.

When other platforms are considered, Canadian support for these groups might number in the millions. These followers make up a range of segments within extremism violent transnational social movements are often elements within broader social movements.

Many of the groups we are examining are actually derivatives, splinters or rebrands of known extremist groups. Elements of the Proud Boys have already refashioned into a new incarnation called Canada First, effectively sidestepping their terrorist designation.

The Three Percenters, a far-right militia movement, have created a group called Canadian Sheepdogs, which has more than 400 followers. The Aryan Guard became Blood and Honour, but three of its members who were charged in racially motivated assaults in Vancouver allegedly joined the Asatruu Folk Assembly. The Qubec Soldiers of Odin splintered into the Northern Guard. The Wolves of Odin, Canadian Infidels and The Clann all emerged from the Edmonton Soldiers of Odin.

Alleged neo-Nazis like Gabriel Sohier Chaput have shown that Canadians are highly influential on message boards and forums. The activity of right-wing extremist groups in Canada is a real and present danger.

It is a positive sign that the Canadian government has asserted that violent extremists will be held accountable for their activities, but the punitive measures are incidental at best. The Proud Boys as an organization will not be able to hold property or be named as a charitable foundation.

The members of the group, however, are free to join other groups because they have not been named individually, and expressing nuanced hate is not a crime or a terrorist offence. These groups, like other extremist violent transnational social movements, raise money through crowdfunding being designated a terrorist organization will limit their ability to do so.

This is possibly the single positive tangible benefit of this action.

A consideration for the justice system may be to focus on more appropriate penalties and legislation for criminalizing individuals who incite violence both on and offline. Stopping the normalization of extremism is the direction we need to move. But without addressing the environment, there will always be an endless supply of groups waiting to take the Proud Boys place.

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Designating the Proud Boys a terrorist organization won't stop hate-fuelled violence - The Conversation CA

Canada has announced that it will be designating the US-based far-right group Proud Boys as a terrorist entity in an attempt to crack down on ideologically motivated violent extremism in the country. With this, the all-male neo-fascist group will be added to a lengthy list of international terrorist organisations, that includes ISIS, Al Qaeda and al-Shabab.

Their violent actions and rhetoric are fuelled by white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny, and unfortunately, often in combination of all of the above, Canadas Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said at a press conference. His announcement came weeks after a few Proud Boys joined the violent mob of Trump supporters that stormed the US Capitol building ahead of President Joe Bidens inauguration.

The Proud Boys grabbed headlines worldwide last year during the first presidential debate between then-President Donald Trump and his Democratic contender Biden. Trump was widely criticised for calling on the group to stand back and stand by, when he was asked specifically to condemn white supremacist and militia groups.

The all-male neo-fascist group was founded in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder and Canadian-British right-wing activist Gavin McInnes. According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the Proud Boys are known for their anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric and have been classified as an extremist group by the FBI.

To be inducted into the fold, a Proud Boy must first proclaim that he is a a Western chauvinist who refuses to apologise for creating the modern world. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the group is also known for anti-transgender, anti-immigration and anti-Semitic views.

However, members of the group insist that they are not, in fact, racist. The groups current leader Enrique Tarrio, an Afro-Cuban, said that the group has longstanding regulations prohibiting racist, white supremacist or violent activity, USA Today reported. They claim that they do not support white supremacists, and merely banded together to oppose the activities of the anti-fascist movement known as Antifa.

But members of the group are often seen at rallies carrying guns and bats and a few have even been convicted of violent crimes against left-wing groups and activists. The group is known to show up bearing arms at right-wing and liberal leaning protests across the United States.

The name of the group was inspired by a song from the musical version of the Disney film Aladdin. Members usually don a fixed uniform of red Make America Great Again caps from Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and black and yellow polo shirts by the apparel brand Fred Perry. Incidentally, the brand withdrew the design after it came to be associated with the far-right group, CNN reported.

Proud Boys have also been associated with other far-right gatherings and protest marches that have turned violent, such as the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina in 2017. A former member of the group, named Jason Kessler, helped bring together members of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and other neo-nazi and militia groups for the event.

They were also a regular feature at the nationwide anti-racism protests in the US sparked by the custodial killing of African American George Floyd. The Proud Boys were known to intimidate anti-racism protesters and in some places have incited violence and fighting.

Many critics have said that President Trumps refusal to explicitly denounce the violence caused by white supremacist and militia groups during the first presidential debate further bolstered the far-right group and others like it.

Their activities are not limited to the United States. In 2017, five members of the Canadian chapter of the Proud Boys, who happened to be soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces, disrupted an indigenous ceremony in Halifax, Nova Scota on Canada Day, the New York Times reported. While they were disciplined, they did not face any criminal charges.

The recent attack on the US Capitol Hill, in which several members of the Proud Boys participated, was not the driving factor, but did produce a trove of information that was added to the intelligence reports that formed the basis of the Canadian governments decision, Blair said.

And as disturbing and concerning as those images and those events were, they also provided law enforcement and our intelligence services with a trove of new information in which quite frankly, many of these groups revealed themselves, he explained, adding that their decision drew from evidence, intelligence and law.

Several members of the group are presently facing legal charges and one top leader was arrested for their role in storming the US Capitol on January 6, along with a mob of angry supporters of President Donald Trump. At least five people were killed in the riot, which is widely being considered one of the worst security breaches in US history. The incident took place just as lawmakers had begun to gather for a joint session in the House of Representatives to count the electoral votes and validate Bidens presidential win.

According to Canada, the group played a central role in the Capitol attack and its leaders planned their participation by setting out objectives, issuing instructions and directing members during the insurrection.

Explaining what qualified as ideologically motivated violent extremism, the Canadian government said that it included xenophobic violence, anti-authority violence, gender-driven violence and and grievance-driven violence shaped by echo chambers of online hate, the Washington Post reported.

Just last month, the Parliament in Canada unanimously passed a motion calling on Canadian PM Justin Trudeaus government to ban the Proud Boys and to label them a terrorist group, CNN reported. Since the attack on the Capitol, the leader of the opposition New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, has been pushing Trudeau to declare the Proud Boys a terror group. But officials insist that the decision was not political.

The group was added to the list along with a number of other extremist groups with links to Al Qaeda, Islamic State and Hizbul Mujahideen.

But some groups argue that banning the Proud Boys would expand the definition of terrorism to a point where free speech and the right to protest will be threatened.

By declaring the Proud Boys a terror group, Canadian officials will not be able to automatically make any arrests. But they will be able to seize their assets and prosecute members or associates for carrying out or contributing to extremist activities, AFP reported. A crime committed by anyone associated with the group can now lead to terrorism charges under criminal law.

Even providing a terrorist group with funds would qualify as a crime. This also includes purchasing group-related clothing or paraphernalia, according to a New York Times report. Authorities will also be able to take down online posts with more ease and add the groups members to no-fly lists.

Minister Blair said that the move would severely restrict the groups ability to raise funds through crowdfunding or any other method in Canada.

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Explained: Who are the Proud Boys, far-right group declared a terrorist entity in Canada? - The Indian Express

On Feb. 3, Canadian officials designated the far-right Proud Boys a terrorist organization, saying they have encouraged and planned violent activities against opponents of their ideology.

The officials also cited the pivotal role the group played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Proud Boys were key instigators of the riot, a Wall Street Journal video investigation found.

Since the attack, U.S. authorities have arrested multiple members of the group for their alleged involvement.

Among them is Ethan Nordean, 30, whose alias, Rufio Panman, is listed in the groups bylaws as a member of its first Elders Chapter. He was arrested Feb. 3, the same day that authorities announced a new indictment against the leader of the groups Honolulu chapter, Nicholas Ochs, who is accused of conspiring with a Texas man to obstruct Congresss certification of the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Ochs, who ran as a Republican for a seat in Hawaiis House of Representatives that year (he lost), filmed himself inside the Capitol and later tweeted a photo of himself and another man, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Hello from the Capital lol, Mr. Ochs captioned his post. That evidence was used by federal authorities to arrest him.

Mr. Nordeans attorney didnt return requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Ochs in D.C. declined to comment. Myles Breiner, the attorney who represented Mr. Ochs in Hawaii, said the indictment was expected.

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Who Are the Proud Boys? Canada Names Far-Right Group a Terrorist Organization - The Wall Street Journal