Monthly Archives: August 2022

White nationalists keep showing up in the hearings of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Evidence is mounting that white nationalist groups who want to establish an all-white state played a significant role in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead and dozens wounded.

Thus far, the hearings have documented how the Proud Boys helped lead the insurrectionist mob into the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C, journalist James Risen wrote in the Intercept.

Based on July 12, 2022, testimony from a former Oath Keepers member, the white nationalist group coordinated with the Three Percenters, another group of white nationalists, and the Proud Boys in mobilizing their extremists groups to rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, as asked by President Trump in his Dec. 16, 2020, tweet.

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As a cultural anthropologist who has studied these movements for over a decade, I know that membership in these organizations is not limited to the attempted violent overthrow of the government and poses an ongoing threat, as seen in massacres carried out by young men radicalized by this movement.

In 2020, for instance, the Department of Homeland Security described domestic violent extremists as presenting the most persistent and lethal threat to the people of the United States and the nations government.

In March 2021, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that the number of arrests of white supremacists and other racially motivated extremists has almost tripled since he took office in 2017.

Jan. 6 was not an isolated event, Wray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and its not going away anytime soon.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, tracked 733 active hate groups across the United States in 2021.

Based on my research, the internet and social media have made the problem of white supremacist hate far worse and more visible; its both more accessible and, ultimately, more violent, as seen on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol and the shooting deaths of ten Black people at a Buffalo grocery story, among other examples.

In the 1990s, former KKK leaders including David Duke rebranded white supremacy for the digital age.

They switched KKK robes for business suits and connected neo-Nazi antisemitic conspiracies with broader anti-Black, anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic racism.

From the 1990s to the late 2000s, this movement largely built discreet online communities and websites peddling racist disinformation.

In fact, for years one of the first websites about Martin Luther King Jr. that a Google search recommended was a website created by white nationalists that spread neo-Nazi propaganda.

In 2005, the white nationalist website Stormfront.org had 30,000 members which might sound like a lot. But as social media expanded, with both Facebook and Twitter opening to anyone with an email address in 2006, its views got a lot more attention. By 2015, 250,000 people had subscribed to become members of Stormfront.org.

Between 2012 and 2016, white nationalists on Twitter saw a 600% increase in Twitter followers. They have since worked to bring white supremacism into everyday politics.

The Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit tech industry watchdog group, found that in 2020 half of the white nationalist groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center had a presence on Facebook.

Without clear regulations preventing extremist content, digitalcompanies, in my view, allowed for the spread of white nationalist conspiracies.

Racist activists used algorithms as virtual bullhorns to reach previously unimaginable-sized audiences.

White nationalist leaders, such as Richard Spencer, wanted an even bigger audience and influence.

Spencer coined the term alt-right to this end, with the goal of blurring the relationship between white nationalism and white conservatism. He did this by establishing nonprofit think tanks like the National Policy Institute that provided an academic veneer for him and other white supremacists to spread their views on white supremacy.

This strategy worked.

Today, many white nationalist ideas once relegated to societys fringes are embraced by the broader conservative movement.

Take, for instance, the Great Replacement Theory. The conspiracy theory misinterprets demographic change as an active attempt to replace white Americans with people of color.

This baseless idea observes that Black and Latino people are becoming larger percentages of the U.S. population, and paints that data as the result of an allegedly active attempt by unnamed multiculturalists to drive white Americans out of power in an increasingly diverse nation.

A recent poll showed that over 50% of Republicans now believe in this conspiracy theory.

In 2016, during Trumps presidential campaign, Vice Magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes formed the Proud Boys to further the goals of the alt-right by protecting white identity with the use of violence if necessary.

Proud Boys members are affiliated with white nationalist ideas and leaders, but they deny any explicit racism. Instead, they describe themselves as Western chauvinists who believe in the supremacy of European culture but also welcome members of any race who support this idea.

Along with pro-gun militias such as the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, the Proud Boys are an experiment in spreading white nationalist ideas to an online universe of potentially millions of social media users.

Data from manifestos posted online by white nationalist groups shows that many mass shooters share a few common characteristics they are young, white, male and they spend significant time online at the same websites.

The alleged shooter in the killing of 10 Black people in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo on May 14, 2022, described his reason as wanting to stop what he feared as the elimination of the white race.

His fears that people of color were replacing white people came from 4chan, a social media company popular among the alt-right.

In 2019, nine African American church members were murdered in Charleston by a young white man who became radicalized through Google searches that led him to openly white supremacist content.

Massacres in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and at a synagogue in Poway, California, all took place after the shooters began spending time on 8chan, an imageboard popular with white supremacists and the home of QAnon posts.

For many of these individuals, the most important part of their radicalization was not about their home life or personality quirks, but instead about where they spent time online.

The reasons men join groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and even some liberal groups is less clear.

A former Proud Boy member offered one reason: They want to join a gang, Russell Schultz told CNN on Nov. 25, 2020. So they can go fight antifa and hurt people that they dont like, and feel justified in doing it.

Antifa is a loose-knit group of usually nonviolent activists who oppose fascism.

Other former extremist group members describe seeking camaraderie and friendship, but also finding racism and antisemitism.

But more than any other issue, racial demographic changes are providing recruitment opportunities for white nationalists, many of whom believe that by the year 2045 white people will become the minority in the United States.

In July 2021, the most recent date for which statistics are available, the U.S. Census Bureau notes that of the estimated population of 330 million American citizens, 75.8% are white, 18.9% are Hispanic, 13.6% are Black and 6% are Asian.

What is also becoming clearer is that the spread of white nationalism endangers the idea of a democratic nation where racial diversity is considered a strength, not a weakness.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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White nationalism, fueled by social media, is on the rise and attracting violent young white men - Arizona Mirror

The Antifa group was ordered to either disperse or face getting arrested. Theres a certain verbiage we have to say, its a script that we read from, said Captain Novak.

On January 2 of 2021, a Patriot March in San Diego was announced on social media, to begin at 2 pm on January 9 at the foot of Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach. The flier billed it as a peaceful protest, but in the end, it was not peaceful: members of the activist group Antifa clashed violently with the Patriot March protesters before they even began marching.

In December of 2021, prosecutors in District Attorney Summer Stephans office charged at least seven people on the Antifa side in connection with the events of that day. And in June of this year, those charges were dropped in favor of a grand jury indictment that included 29 felony counts, including the conspiracy to commit riot. The indictment came after the grand jury heard 13 days worth of testimony about the events surrounding that day, including testimony from police who were on the scene.

Captain Matt Novak told the grand jury that in his 28 years as a police officer, he had never experienced that level of rioting. He said that he had responded to more than 25 protests since Febuary of 2020 in his areas of command, which included downtown San Diego. Usually, that meant shutting down streets and walking alongside the demonstrators in order to maintain public safety. His experience with counter-protestors? Sometimes one or two people would come by to heckle the group. He noted that when 300-400 Black Lives Matter supporters had marched down Pacific Beachs Garnet Avenue, the event was very peaceful, all individuals coming to peacefully protest through the area. No problems.

This time, he said, We did have some indication that Antifa might be coming vague intel about people coming down from Los Angeles. However, I didnt expect any more from Antifa than I had at any of the other [protests]. He put his SWAT team on standby near (but not next to) the rallys start point, and put 20 patrol officers off to the side. In addition, he arranged for nine motor officers, eight bike officers, and an additional 22 officers in case they were needed. We dont want to intimidate anybody, and what we dont want to do is deplete the entire city of officers, because were still responsible for the entire city.

An Antifa Twitter account called SDAGAINSTFASH sent out messages the night before the rally, including this: Plan to arrive an hour early to already have [Patriot] meet point occupied. Antifa apparently wanted to assemble first on the spot, so that arriving Patriots would have to walk toward them. The MAGATS dont plan to be there before 2, so hopefully well have a decent crowd for them to approach.

Captain Novak said he was just finishing giving a briefing to his officers at around 12:30 pm when he heard over the radio, Hey, theres some crowds down here. He was at Belmont Park, a little south of the pier at that moment, still trying to stage his officers.

Then he heard, There are people dressed in black.

Which immediately tells me a lot, said Novak, that we may have Antifa black bloc there.

Then he heard, Theres a fight at the pier.

It started earlier than we thought it would, said Novak. Radio reports described black bloc persons moving in small groups over several blocks. Witnesses heard some of them directing their comrades, Keep moving, keep moving. Police had access to a helicopter, but it did not arrive until about an hour after the first radio calls about trouble, about 1:34 pm.

Sergeant Ross Bainbridge, a 17-year veteran of the SDPD, was scheduled to begin his shift that day at 2 pm, but he told the grand jury he got caught in heavy traffic trying to get to the beach. The prosecutor asked, Why didnt you use lights and siren to pass through traffic?

He replied, They hadnt called for an emergency response at that point. So I was listening to the [radio] calls as it was transpiring and it was obvious that things werent going well rather quickly, as we were getting updates on the crowd being agitated, and a large crowd. And I could sense there was not enough cops where they needed them, and that things were kind of happening more quickly than they had anticipated. I think the idea was that all of this was going to happen later in the afternoon, and it happened earlier than they expected. Sgt. Bainbridge didnt make it to the designated staging area at Belmont Park before his order changed, They changed it to, everybody respond Code Three, which is lights and sirens, back up to Hornblend and Mission. When he arrived at about 2:15 pm, there was already a line of officers spanning the street. He put on his riot gear, which includes a special helmet, a riot baton, and a gas mask, and got into the line facing the Antifa group. He said they were aggressive: They had basically formed their own spanning line in front of us and had refused to back up or move.

Officer Jonathan Swankosky was also in the line, and he described the initial launch of projectiles. It just started off with rocks here and there, and eggs, bottles, trash can lids, sticks, anything commonly found or seen thats throwable and not secured.He saw people in an alley trying to roll out a dumpster into the middle of the roadway, but added, I dont know if that was going to be pushed towards us. Then he saw a glass bottle coming at him. It broke on the ground next to him; a shard of glass flew up and cut his hand. The crowd had become hostile towards the police and were attacking us, he said.

Captain Novak said that after Antifa had gathered, police had been able to form a line to block them. He ordered another police line to form in front of the Patriot group, thus creating a buffer zone between them. He said he was in the center, between the two police lines, and that the Patriots yelled at Antifa across the buffer zone, but did not throw anything or commit any violent acts. The Antifa group, meanwhile, used shields and skateboards and people up front to protect themselves and to block our view. So people in the back are throwing objects and we cant see where they come from. At first, the captain was not wearing riot gear. I had my officer go get it for me when I had those rocks bounce next to me, he said. The grand jury saw bodycam footage showing police getting struck by rocks, glass bottles, eggs, and water bottles. As soon as we stabilized in this area and we started receiving the bottles, the rocks, and the eggs had started hitting our officers, I called an unlawful assembly, Novak testified.

The Antifa group was ordered to either disperse or face getting arrested. Theres a certain verbiage we have to say, its a script that we read from, said Novak. He directed a motor officer to use his radio so the whole crowd could hear. The official statement was read three times in both English and Spanish. Then the police helicopter repeated the order. Altogether, the official riot declaration was made more than nine times.

Officer Swankosky saw one of the protestors with pepper spray in their hand, spraying it towards my officers. So he called that out to the SWAT team, which then deployed pepper balls powdered pepper spray at 3:25 pm, roughly one hour after the first declaration of unlawful assembly. Swankosky said that when that happens, It gets really hot. He said Antifa are experienced with police tactics, and they wear gloves, which enables them to handle the balls. They would typically throw it back at us. Antifa used shields and skateboards and a trash can lid to block the pepper balls.

Popping sounds could be heard in police bodycam video. Sergeant Bainbridge said that was the sound of SWAT shooting pepper balls. Pepper balls hit the ground and break, and a dust cloud rises to drive people away, he said. Or, if a rioter is holding an object and is ready to throw it, a pepper ball could be fired to directly hit that person to prevent him from throwing it, the sergeant testified. Reviewing the video, Bainbridge noted that one rioter was up closer to us, making that, like, punching motion or jabbing motion with his skateboard. The rioter retreated more slowly than the rest of his group, His gas mask is helping him defeat the pepper ball, the sergeant noticed. Then he said, Well, he was holding a skateboard, and it appears he dropped his skateboard and then grabbed his genitals afterwards, it looked like. The rioter then dropped to the ground.

Sergeant Bainbridge guessed that he was there an hour before he got the order to move forward and start taking people into custody.I know that its a big decision to make, he said, Its going to get pretty ugly. He said he attempted to make two different arrests. His attempts were not successful.The sergeant said he grabbed the Antifa member nearest him. Then, the rioters, from behind this person, grabbed onto them by both their arms and their legs. So they had several different people pulling this person away from me, and they were able to kind of pull him down and back into the crowd rather quickly. (He said he was unsure if the person was male or female.)

While Bainbridge was trying to make that first arrest, he saw another Antifa person rush him, I saw him coming towards me fast. His bodycam video was played: it showed a tall man with a stick, wearing all black and a helmet, and with a balaclava over his face. The attacker took hold of the sergeants riot baton.You can see that the suspect has got a grip on it, on the forward part of it. With his other hand, he brought his stick forward. Bainbridge said he took hold of this second person, but Antifa grabbed him away too, pulling him by his backpack. The sergeant could hear directions from the Antifa crowd: Somebody yelling like a command for them to back up. The attacker dropped his stick during the melee, and it disappeared under the police line. The stick was later collected by police and shown to the grand jury as evidence.

Besides the police bodycam video, there was also aerial video taken from the police helicopter, which eventually arrived. The video confirmed that the first arrest attempt was made at 3:32 pm, one hour after the first unlawful assembly declaration was made at 2:34 pm. The de-arrested persons could be seen changing clothes as they were pulled back through the Antifa crowd.

The police were there to protect the public, but several members of the public did get attacked. Later, some people complained bitterly that police officers who were on scene saw those individuals being attacked and did nothing. Captain Novak admitted that he has seen videos of his officers not responding to violence happening in front of them. We did pull some victims out of the crowd, but we werent able to get to some of them, he testified. The captain said that the police used military-style tactics, meaning, You have to work together as one entire team. You cant just have one officer or one team go off on their own, because what can happen is they can get drawn into something.

The next court date for all 11 defendants named in the indictment in downtown San Diego is September 8, 2022.

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A cop's eye view of the January 9 encounter with Antifa - San Diego Reader

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On Wednesday, August 25, 2022, a group known as The United People of Canada' or by the acronym TUPOC was set to be evicted by a bailiff at midnight, according to a source with links to the group.

The United People of Canada describes itself as a diverse, intergenerational fraternal organization. They attempt to build strong families and communities, and [solidify] a prosperous future for all Canadians.

Rebel News observations show that it is a freedom-oriented group that offers the opportunity for like-minded individuals to gather and spend time together. Some of the members participated in the Freedom Convoy back in February, peacefully protesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus COVID-19 mandates.

The media has been focusing on the fact residents in Ottawas Lowertown community are allegedly scared of TUPOC.

The details surrounding a potential eviction are very vague and unclear, as the media and TUPOC give two different versions of the story. The group claims they have an active lease of the property signed and also say the landlord refuses to accept the payment, despite having signed a lease.

The potential for an eviction caused Antifa-type groups online to be very excited, and organize a watch party/protest at the St. Brigids Church at midnight, saying that they would bring popcorn.

On August 25, a more tense situation occurred when an older man, who opposes TUPOC, allegedly hit a woman who was part of the freedom-oriented group with his truck while on the the groups private property.

Some action occurred towards midnight, not due to the eviction situation but because of the protesters.

Around 1:30 a.m., officers from the Ottawa Police Service arrived on scene, causing some protesters to leave the area. The situation calmed down, and most of the protesters left by 2:30 a.m.

I stayed and spoke with a lady to figure out what she had to say about these Antifa protesters accusations of the group being hateful and dangerous.

I also was on the ground during the second day, where more protesters showed up. To view the full, in-depth report of the situation, watch the video above.

Read the original post:

TUPOC in the spotlight: Antifa rallies amidst eviction threats - Rebel News