Category Archives: Antifa

Antifascist doctrine does not allow for avoiding such confrontations: They will not pass is another precept, deriving from the Spanish Civil War. But, in the summer of 2018, several activists in Portland created a new organizationPopMob, short for Popular Mobilizationwhich aimed to enlist a more diverse, and less militant, league of protesters to counter Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. Whereas Rose City Antifa has strict vetting protocols for new members, Effie Baum, a co-founder of PopMob, told me, Everybody is welcome under our tent, except cops and fascists. PopMob promotes what Baum calls everyday antifascism, not as an alternative but as a complement to front-line combatants in black bloc. If youre gonna punch a Nazi, punch a Nazi, Baum said. If youre gonna stand in the back with a sign that says Love Trumps Hate, theres room for both of us.

The feud reached a head this summer, on August 29th, when hundreds of Trump supporters met in the parking lot of a suburban shopping mall, then drove into Portland together. The route was announced just before the caravans departure, to stymie protesters. That afternoon, I interviewed Shane Burley at a bar on the east side of town; after leaving the bar, I pulled onto a road full of honking cars and trucks bedecked with huge American flags and Trump 2020 banners. I followed the caravan out of the city, not realizing that dozens of drivers had broken off and headed downtown, where local residents shouted obscenities at them and threw water bottles. Some of the Trump supporters fired paintball guns and pepper spray from their vehicles; others got out and assaulted protesters.

It was dark when I arrived downtown. As I parked on a wide avenue in the shopping district, several people in black bloc sprinted by. Turning a corner, I came upon a small crowd facing a police cordon. Behind the officers, a dead body lay in a pool of light.

The victim was Aaron Danielson, a thirty-nine-year-old supporter of Patriot Prayer. Hed been shot by Michael Reinoehl, a forty-eight-year-old white man whothough unaffiliated with Rose City Antifa or PopMobonce wrote on Instagram, I am 100% ANTIFA all the way! Reinoehl later claimed that he had fired in self-defense, and a cannister of bear spray and a telescopic truncheon were found on Danielson. At the time, however, nobody in the crowd knew what had happened or who was involved.

What are you doing here? I heard someone say. A man in black bloc, his face concealed behind a balaclava and ski goggles, was addressing a man with a trimmed beard, wraparound sunglasses, and a baseball hat emblazoned with the name Loren Culpthe Republican gubernatorial candidate for Washington. He also wore a hooded sweatshirt that said Patriot Prayer.

Its Joey Gibson! someone said.

Gibson later told me that he and Danielson had driven into Portland in the same truck. After following the pro-Trump caravan back to the shopping mall, they received messages about the skirmishes downtown, and, separately, they returned to the city. Gibson had happened on the crime scene accidentally, and he had no idea that the corpse thirty feet away was Danielsons.

Another man in black bloc told Gibson that hed heard the victim had been murdered by a Proud Boy. This seemed to be the crowds prevailing assumption, though neither Antifa nor the Proud Boys had killed anybody before. Affecting a casual posture, Gibson waved dismissively and said, Thats what they always be yelling and screaming aboutSome white supremacist killed someone tonight. They say that shit all the time.

Because you bring white supremacists to town all the time, someone said.

Im brown, Gibson responded. He rolled up his sleeve and showed his skin tone.

People pressed around Gibson, shouting at him to leave. When he asked, Why dont you guys stop acting like Nazis?, a man in a Young Turks sweatshirt spit in his face.

Can we stop with the hate? Gibson said, making no move to wipe off the saliva.

Protesters continued to arrive, and, as the volume and ferocity of their insults escalated, Gibson turned to a blond woman whod been standing at his side and said, Lets go. A mob of at least fifty young people pursued them. Gibson kept up a show of equanimity until his hat and glasses were snatched away. Soon, drinks were emptied on him, objects were hurled at him, eggs were smashed on him, and he was punched and pepper-sprayed. With the blond womans help, he stumbled forward while someone rang a cowbell in his ears and others strobed flashlights in his eyes.

Kill the Nazi! someone screamed.

The mob grew. As far as I could tell, all of Gibsons assailants were white. At some point, several people pushed their way to Gibson and escorted him down the street, keeping at bay the most belligerent aggressors. A short Asian man in a bicycle helmet yelled, Let him leave, goddammit! Everyone back the fuck off!

After several blocks, Gibson and the woman ducked into a gas station, and an employee locked the door behind them. The man in the bicycle helmet blocked the entrance, but people smashed the windows and kicked open a side door. Another protester raised his gas mask and pleaded, Hes a fucking Nazi, but are you going to lynch him?

The police arrived, and the protesters fled. Gibson vomited in the bathroom, washed the pepper spray from his eyes, and called a friend to pick him up. A reporter looking to identify the shooting victim texted Gibson a photograph of medics treating Danielson. I recognized him right away, he said.

After the crowd dispersed, I found the man in the bicycle helmet at a nearby 7-Eleven. His name was Rico De Vera, and he was a twenty-seven-year-old Filipino-American who studied engineering at Portland Community College. Earlier that day, a Trump supporter had shot him in the face with a paintball gun; the flesh around his left eye was stained neon pink. De Vera had been regularly participating in Black Lives Matter protests since May. Although he remained enthusiastic about the movement, he worried that in Portland it had been subsumed by the citys militant antifascist culture, which he saw as violent and white. It pisses me off, he said. People are going to use tonight to say that Black Lives Matter is a bunch of thugs.

We walked a few blocks to a park outside the Multnomah County Justice Center, where people had congregated by a perimeter of concrete barriers and metal fencing. This was where most of the Patriot Prayer rallies and Antifa counter-protests had taken place; more recently, it had become a locus for Black Lives Matter demonstrations. In June, huge crowds had lobbed fireworks, bottles, and other projectiles at the Justice Center, a fortresslike monolith that contains the Portland police headquarters and the county jail. On June 26th, Trump called for the deployment of federal agents to protect government property throughout the country from left-wing extremists. The Justice Center stands beside a U.S.District courthouse, and in July more than a hundred employees of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S.Marshals Service arrived in Portland, ostensibly to protect the federal building. A U.S. marshal shot a twenty-six-year-old protester in the head with an impact munition, fracturing his skull; the protester had merely been holding up a boom box with both hands. Such excessive force drew larger and larger crowds to the courthouse until Chad Wolf, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, began to relinquish responsibility to the Oregon State Police, in late July.

Now a young woman with a megaphone told the people at the Justice Center that she had an announcement. I just got word that the person who died was a Patriot Prayer person, she said. He was a fucking Nazi. Our community held its own and took out the trash.... I am not sad that a fucking fascist died tonight.

Everyone cheered.

Although years of antifascist activism in Portland have likely contributed to the extraordinary staying power of its Black Lives Matter movement, white antifascists insist that theyve played no role in organizing racial-justice protests. Sophie, of Rose City Antifa, said, We dont feel like, as a group, we should be taking away space from people who have dedicated their lives to this. However, Sophie added, we are fully supportive, and many of us attend as individuals. Effie Baum, the PopMob co-founder, similarly told me, Weve been really intentional about not taking the lead on stuff thats been happening since George Floyd was murdered. One reason for this, Baum explained, was that were a mostly white organization.

Portland, whose population is six per cent Black, is the whitest big city in America. The historian Walidah Imarisha traces the origin of these demographics to the founding of Oregon, which settlers envisaged as a white utopia. When Oregon joined the union, in 1859, it became the only state with an outright ban on Black people. Later, redlining policies and urban-renewal projects displaced many African-Americans, a process reprised by more recent waves of gentrification.

The Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Portland are resolutely non-hierarchical; as a rule, however, white protesters defer to their Black and brown peers, who are usually the only people to use megaphones, deliver speeches, and lead marches. Since the federal withdrawal from the Justice Center, the protests have targeted the Portland police with nightly direct actions. Every day, a message circulates on social media announcing a rendezvous point (usually a park); from there, protesters depart to a nearby destination (usually a precinct house). A diffuse, anonymous network, communicating on encrypted messaging apps, chooses these locations. Although Fox News and the Trump Administration characterize Portland as an apocalyptic war zone, some direct actions attract fewer than a hundred people, and even on well-attended nights their impact is undetectable beyond a few square blocks.

Still, property destruction does occur, and, because the vast majority of protesters are white, this has been a source of tension with some residents of color. In June, after rioting damaged several businesses along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in a traditionally African-American neighborhood in North Portland, a consortium of Black community leaders held a press conference to condemn the vandalism. J.W.Matt Hennessee, the pastor of Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, told white protesters, Get your knee off our neck. That is what you are doing when you do stuff like this. Ron Herndon, who led civil-rights campaigns in Portland during the eighties, called the vandals demented and said, Go back to whatever hole you came from. You are not helping us. On the weekend of Columbus Day, which Portland recognizes as Indigenous Peoples Day, protesters toppled a statue of Abraham Lincoln, shot through the windows of a restaurant owned by a Black veteran, and broke into the Oregon Historical Society, where they inexplicably stole a celebrated quilt commemorating African-American heritage, stitched by fifteen Black women in the nineteen-seventies. (Police found the quilt lying in the rain a few blocks away, slightly damaged.) The leaders of thirty Native American groups released a statement comparing the conduct to the brutish ways of our colonizers.

Two days after Aaron Danielson was killed, I joined a few hundred protesters outside a luxury building where Ted Wheeler, Portlands Democratic mayor, owns an apartment. In Portland, the mayor serves as the commissioner of the police bureau, which protesters are determined to see defunded. As a picnic table from a restaurant was dragged into the street and set on fire, I spotted Najee Gow, a twenty-three-year-old Black nurse, leading chants of Fuck Ted Wheeler! Id met Gow the previous week, when several young women had staged a sit-in in Wheelers lobby. Gow, who wore a peacoat over a red-white-and-blue tank top, had been incensed that no African-Americans were included in the demonstration. Its what theyve always done, hed said. Hijack Black peoples movements. This is disgusting.

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In the Streets with Antifa - The New Yorker

A new Netflix documentary is setting out to expose social medias corrosive effects on society during a pandemic that's left people more dependent than ever on tools that keep them connected with friends, family and colleagues. (Sept. 8) AP Entertainment

Lafayette Consolidated Government is arguing that a pair of fake "antifa" events on Facebook arent protected forms of speech and that the events' creator should be liable for the costs incurred from police response to the events.

Mayor-President Josh Guillorys administration filed the lawsuit in September, arguing John Merrifield, who describes himself as a comedian and satirist who was born in Lafayette and now lives in Brooklyn, created the Facebook events and should pay up.

More: Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory sues creator of fake ANTIFA social media events

Mayor President Josh Guillory holding press conference. Wednesday, March 18, 2020.(Photo: SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network)

City-parish attorneys are seeking to recoup considerable sums of money spent on the police response to the events, though theyve limited the damages theyre seeking to less than $75,000. That limit keeps the case out of federal court and instead puts it in the hands of 15th Judicial District Judge Edward Broussard.

Despite the phony nature of the events, government lawyers have argued they prompted confusion, anxiety and concerns from the public, which in turn led local authorities to respond to the sites.

More: Fake 'ANTIFA Takes River Ranch' event sparks reaction from Lafayette mayor, police

Antifa, short for "anti-fascists," is the name for loosely affiliated, left-leaning anti-racist groups that have been involved in some violent clashes in recent years.

In the city-parishs latest filing, attorney Michael Adley argues that the fake events are not protected from litigation by the First Amendment, essentially the same argument that shouting Fire! in a crowded theater is not protected speech. He wrote that famous example "is the exact situation here.

A hoax "ANTIFA Takes River Ranch" event created by a meme page has caught the attention of Lafayette city officials.(Photo: Screenshot from Facebook)

Merrifield created two phony hoaxes (that antifa was coming to 'takeover' parts of Lafayette) with the intention that law enforcement would needlessly spend time and effort investigating and responding to his hoaxes, Adleys filing reads.

Adley also argued the events violated a Louisiana law prohibiting people from transmitting false information that may endanger public safety with the intent to prompt an emergency response by law enforcement. That type of move dissolvesfree speech protections, he argued.

More: Fake antifa event creator says Lafayette city-parish lawsuit violates his free speech

But Merrifields attorney Andrew Bizer argued the lawsuit is frivolous, vindictive and unconstitutional in its targeting of Merrifield for creating the fake events and in seeking a judges permission to depose Merrifields mother, who thought the events were legitimate.

This is protected speech by the First Amendment, Bizer said. They are analogizing it to shouting fire in a crowded theater, but shouting fire is a crime. There has to be some sort of underlying criminal element, and in this case he called for a peaceful protest.

City-parish attorneys have hung onto the word takeover used in Merrifields fake events - and a Department of Homeland Security warning that antifa contains members who engage in domestic terrorist violence - to argue that it is dishonest to characterize the events as peaceful rallies.

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But Bizer argued that the word does not independently have violent connotations, pointing to takeovers of places like Bourbon Street in New Orleans by traveling fans during high-profile football games.

Its a show of numbers, is what it means. Its not inherently violent, not at all, he said.

Lets say there was a takeover of the mall or River Ranch, what would that look like? Does that mean smash every window and loot and pillage? No, of course not! Thats ridiculous. Its a very tenuous argument.

The cases first hearing in front of Broussard is set to be held in Lafayette on Monday to determine whether the lawsuit against Merrifield can move forward.

Follow Andrew Capps on Twitter or send an email to acapps@theadvertiser.com.

Read or Share this story: https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2020/10/27/lafayette-government-argues-fake-antifa-events-not-free-speech/6038820002/

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Lafayette government argues in lawsuit that fake antifa events aren't protected free speech - Daily Advertiser

An ex-Army private has been federally charged for allegedly throwing an explosive mortar at law enforcement during a night of violent rioting in Portland in September.

Following an FBI investigation, 23-year-old Ty John Fox, of Astoria, Ore., was charged with felony civil disorder, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Oregon announced.

On Sept. 5, hundreds of Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters descended on the Portland Police Bureaus east precinct. Viral video recorded that night showed rioters throwing lit Molotov cocktails toward the line of police. Two people were set on fire and one person was taken to hospital for injuries. Amid the mayhem, a sergeant was struck and injured by a commercial-grade mortar firework.

According to the criminal complaint, Fox was recorded on video igniting a large, cylindrical firework with a torch lighter. He allegedly hurled the device from behind a line of protesters towards Portland Police and Oregon State troopers. An explosion and flash occurred moments later.

Nearly 60 people, including Fox, were arrested at the riot in a residential area of southeast Portland. Fox was charged with first-degree felony arson, third-degree escape, attempted assault and felony riot. He was let out on supervised pretrial release. The local felony arson and escape charges have been dropped by the Multnomah county district attorney. Foxs arraignment for the local charges is set for Nov. 3.

Originally from St. George, Utah, Fox was once a member of the Armys 82nd Airborne Division. He served in Iraq in 2017. It is unknown under what circumstances he was discharged from the military.

Fox made his initial appearance in federal court last Friday where he pleaded not guilty. He was arraigned and ordered released pending a two-day jury trial scheduled to begin on Dec. 29. A spokesman for the Multnomah County District Attorneys office told The Oregonian that he expects the state charges to proceed as well.

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From the Army to Antifa: Ex-private accused by feds of throwing explosive at Portland riot - The Post Millennial

Even allowingfor over-the-top campaign rhetoric, it seems pretty hard to associate the suburbanwomen of the Chathams with Antifa.

Peter King is trying.

Chatham Moms for Change, a Modern Hate Group? is the provocative headline on a lengthy letter circulated this week by King, the vice-chair of the Morris County Republican Committee.

In short, Kings missive alleges thatthe Democratic-leaning Chatham Moms group is guilty of vile social media posts, relentlessly and falsely attacking its opponents and stealingand vandalizing campaign signs.

In a chat this afternoon, King said these tactics are designed to intimidate people.

My opinionis that theyre trying to suppress peoples free speech, King said. And that, he added, is how hate groups flourish.

Kings letter is filled with generalizations, but an individual he criticizes by name is Jocelyn Mathiasen, a councilwoman in Chatham Borough. (For the record, there are two Chathams a borough and a township;these are separate municipalities, but the demographics are similar and one school district serves both towns).

King says Mathiasen spends much time engaged in dueling posts with the constituents shes been elected to serve.

Reached by phone this morning, Mathiasen said of Kings letter, I mostly just try to ignore the whole thing, its silly.

Some things here are beyond dispute.

One is that the Chathams have changed politically big time. A Republican bastion a decade or so ago, Democrats are now a majority on the governing bodies of both towns.

More broadly speaking, it was suburban women who keyed much of the success Democrats had in the 2018 midtermelection,both across the nation and locally. In Morris County, they were strongbackers of two large marches in Morristown that year one for womens rights and the other for gun control.

Similar to others, the Chatham Moms group popped up around the time of Donald Trumps election. On its Facebook page, the group describes itself this way:

At itsinception, members of thecommunity felt marginalized and unheard and formed this group. Over the past four years, there have been tensof thousands of moments of supportive messaging, political activism, education and volunteerism. Members at times have vented frustrations with local and national challenges, but the mission and our actions remain the same; to provide a place of support to empower its members to have a voice and make positive change in our community.

King is not impressed by this romantic notion of civic involvement.

He points to posts that he says wish COVID-19 on political opponents, ridicule minorities who support Republicans and label Republicans in the Chathams as racists, homophobes, misogynists and white supremacists.

Of course, its necessaryto ask, Isnt this the normal course of events in anincredibly divisive election? After all, I have heard much GOP rhetoric that labels Democrats as socialists and communists who support mobs running amok in the street.

King argues that in the Chathams, the strident rhetoric has morphed into destructive action.

Turns out that Laura Ali, the chair of the Morris County Republican Committee, lives in Chatham Township. She recently reported to police that signs on her property backing police and the president were stolen.

Kings letter says the signs were defaced with such things as F Pigs, F the NRA. and dumped outside the township police station. The letter also said that the perpetrators screamed vulgar insults at officers. He said many Republicans now fear publicly stating their opinions.

The police confirmed most of this in a Facebook post, adding that the suspects are 3 white females, one of whom may have pink hair.

Pink hair?

She shouldnt be that hard to find. The Chathams have changed, but this is not yet the East Village.

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Republican Plays the Antifa Card on Suburban Women of the Chathams - InsiderNJ

Until last week, that seemed like a possibility for Minnesotans, thanks to Altas Aegis, a Tennessee-based security firm run by U.S. military veterans.

A couple of weeks ago, the company posted a listing through a defense industry jobs site for security positions in Minnesota during the November Election and beyond. A large contingent of recruits was supposed to head to Minnesota to protect election polls, local businesses, and residents from looting and destruction.

In a subsequent interview, company founder Anthony Caudle told the Washington Posthis firm was retained by a consortium of business owners and concerned citizens in Minnesota, though he didnt get much more specific. That group had hired a firm in Minnesota as a contractor, and Atlas Aegis was responsible for recruiting security staff.

Theyre for protection, thats it, he said. Theyre there to make sure that the antifas dont try to destroy the election sites.

When the Post contacted state and city officials, they said they hadnt even heard of Atlas Aegis, but did not like the sound of this plan.

Its illegal in Minnesota for pretty much anyone other than voters and election staff to be within 100 feet of polling places or possibly even farther, if you happen to be armed. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said such interference was unnecessary and not welcome.

Last week, Ellison announced his office had launched an investigation into Atlas Aegis. By Friday, the company confirmed it will not provide private security at or near polling places in conjunction with the election.

As part of a settlement, the company admitted a few more details. It claimed that a Minnesota security company had sought officers to work at its clients private property around the election, but never indicated the work would involve security at or near polling places.

Rather, of its own accord, without the prompting or knowledge of its industry contacts or the prime security contractor, Atlas Aegis advised that the scope of work included security to protect election polls, a statement from Ellisons office says. Caudle reportedly misunderstood the potential scope of the work, and had no direct information to suggest that Minnesota election officials or law enforcement were aware any of this was happening.

Atlas Aegis also acknowledged its statements to the Post were incorrect. None of its officers or employees or contractors will be present in the state in November, let alone providing security detail.

Im holding Atlas Aegis to account for their misstatements about recruiting security for polling places in Minnesota that potentially frightened Minnesota voters, Ellison said in a statement. They wont be doing it again and will not be anywhere in Minnesota before, during, or after Election Day.

Election Day is November 3. For more information about getting your ballot cast, visit the Minnesota Secretary of States website and look up your polling place.

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On second thought, Minnesota doesn't need to 'protect election polls' from 'the antifas' - City Pages

In the days when you could still watch a nature documentary without feeling as if you were sitting through a politics lecture I saw footage of a pack of smaller predators taking down an elephant. At the time I remember thinking: Why dont you keep running? Why dont you knock the first one off and keep going? Strangely, I thought of that elephant again in the very different savannah of Portland, Oregon.

In recent years this city in the Pacific Northwest has become famous for a variety of reasons none of them good. As one long-term resident said to me last week: This used to be a very civil town. Not any more.

Of course, like every city in the west, the madnesses that already existed here have been exacerbated by the coronavirus and the ensuing decision to lock down the population and shutter the economy. As in cities across the UK, the businesses here are mainly closed, many for good. Some were able to get through one lockdown but very few can get through multiple lockdowns or the depression to come.

As a result, downtown Portland is a desolate, dangerous place, populated by homeless people who flooded into the area over recent decades, incentivised by left-wing administrations that allowed them to pitch their tents wherever they liked. In the main squares, unattended tables of food and drink are set out for them to pick at.

But it isnt just the virus or the reaction of the authorities that led to this wasteland. The giveaway is the status of the few shops that are still open. Almost all have hardboard affixed to their remaining windows. Some have bullet-holes in them, not fired by the police. The businesses that do still operate do so as in a city under siege.

Portland has been the epicentre of a confusion that has afflicted a smaller number of activists in our own country. That is the taught perception that they live in a patriarchal, unequal, cis-heteronormative, irredeemably racist society. In time this defamation sank in and caused a reaction. For years, the city has seen regular rioting by the far-left group Antifa. In the name of pursuing non-existent fascists these activists laid waste to their city, dragged passing motorists from their cars, hospitalised journalists whose reporting was disobliging and otherwise turned the city into a first-world slum.

After the killing of George Floyd at the end of May, protests in Portland were among the most violent in the US. They are still going on. The left-wing mayor forbade the police from working with the federal authorities to act meaningfully against the rioters and at the forthcoming mayoral election the only candidate running against him is an open supporter of Antifa.

Recent successful operations carried out by this candidates favoured militia include the pulling down of almost every statue and public monument in the city. The weekend before last it was Abraham Lincoln who fell. On another occasion in a quasi-pagan ceremony rioters repeatedly set a monument of an elk on fire and then pulled it down. A tour of the sights in Portland now comprises a huge variety of empty plinths. Few tourists will be returning for that. The remaining state and federal buildings are boarded up, graffitied over and abandoned.

Over the summer the President sent in federal guards, against the wishes of the local authorities. Today the remaining federal agents are among the few targets Antifa have left. I joined Antifa-BLM activists for a couple of nights this week.

First there was a Fuck Gentrification march (my first). With no policemen in sight, the activists used their own police force, including outriders on motorcycles, to block off roads and then parade through the streets screaming through megaphones at customers in the remaining bars and at the residents of an area which they claimed had once been lived in by black and indigenous families. The people who lived in many of these houses came out and put their fists in the air or waved in solidarity. Most had BLM or Dont hurt me posters in their windows. All were accused of living on stolen land by the mostly white marchers, whose other chants included Wake up, motherfucker, wake up.

A night later and we were outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility by the waterfront. This federal facility was boarded up, but Antifa like to try to burn these buildings down with the occupants inside. The federal authorities remain opposed to this. So a cat-and-mouse game kicked off, one which both sides are now practised in. The Antifa activists hurl projectiles at the boarded-up facility, beating drums to work themselves up into the violent frenzy they crave. Whenever the rioters get within a certain distance of the doors, and only after sufficient siren warnings have been given, the agents of law enforcement break out. Tear gas is fired and pepper bullets are used.

On Saturday the police came out shooting after fires were started in the street and Antifa made it to the door. A running battle saw the protestors chased back for a time, only for the police to retreat under a barrage of oink noises from the protestors including young white women (one in a pink onesie jumpsuit) shouting Nazis and screaming through megaphones at the officers about how much the officers children would hate their fathers.

Antifas tactic is to provoke the police into an act of violence on camera so the activists can then claim they are being oppressed. From everything I saw of the police including being cleared from an alleyway at gunpoint along with a dozen or so Antifa activists I would say that most US federal agents have the patience of saints.

Still the image comes to mind of the elephant brought down by the smaller predators. America is not being brought low by one beast, but by a whole pack of them. These predators include, though are not limited to: ignorance, educational failure, radical indoctrination, pandemic, poverty, narcissism, boredom, the disappearance of the adults, a belief that law enforcement is the enemy and much more. Why America didnt throw off the first attacker and keep on moving is a question I cannot shake off, whether this pack brings the big beast crashing down or not.

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My week with the baying Antifa mob - Spectator.co.uk

On Oct. 8, federal and state officials in Michigan announced they were charging 13 men accused of terrorism, conspiracy and weapons crimes in connection with an anti-government group.

At least six in the group had plotted to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, investigators said surprising news that generated wide national coverage at a time when fears of civil unrest are already in the spotlight.

But some social media claims suggest that journalists lost interest in this headline-grabbing case after they discovered the suspects were sympathetic to Black Lives Matter and antifa. Antifa, which stands for "anti-fascist," is a broad, loosely affiliated coalition of left-wing activists thats been around for decades.

"Notice how the Whitmer kidnapping story disappeared after we found out the perps were ANTIFA and BLM anarchists," one post says.

"13 Antifa members arrested for plotting to kidnap a governor," another post says. "13 Antifa members ARRESTED for trying to KIDNAP Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to START A CIVIL WAR."

Both posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

First, the case is still very much in the news. But its also continuing to unfold, so theres a lot we dont know. However, there is no evidence that the kidnapping suspects are antifa activists. And we found that of what is now a total of 14 suspects, only one is known to have attended a Black Lives Matter protest. Another suspect criticized the movement.

The suspects and their ties

On Oct. 9, the day after the kidnapping plot was disclosed to the public, the New York Times published a story titled, "What we know about the alleged plot to kidnap Michigans governor."

The article doesnt mention Black Lives Matter or antifa, except for a reference to a tweet from President Donald Trump, who, criticizing Whitmer, said Democrats "refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities."

The FBI named Adam Fox was the leader of the kidnapping plot. Fox reached out to members of an anti-government group known as the Wolverine Watchmen for help, according to the Times.

Seven members of the Wolverine Watchmen were arrested and state authorities accused them of threatening to start a civil war and collecting the addresses of police officers to target them.

In addition to Fox, the names of the other men facing federal charges are Kaleb Franks, Brandon Caserta, Ty Garbin, Daniel Harris and Barry Croft.

The federal criminal complaint against these men frequently references a Michigan based "militia group." It does not mention antifa or Black Lives Matter.

The names of the men charged by the state are Paul Bellar, Shawn Fix, Eric Molitor, Michael Null, William Null, Pete Musico and Joseph Morrison. The state later arrested an eighth man: Brian Higgins.

The state affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against these men does not mention antifa or Black Lives Matter either. Rather, it describes the Wolverine Watchmen as an "anti-government, anti-law enforcement, militia group." The affidavit reads:

"Members of Wolverine Watchmen periodically met for "field training exercises" (FTXs) on private property in remote areas where they engaged in firearms training and tactical drills to prepare for the boogaloo, a (term) referencing a violent uprising against the government or impending politically-motivated civil war."

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told NPR that multiple white supremacist and anti-government groups acted "in concert based on shared extreme ideology."

Some of the suspects appeared at protests supporting different causes before their arrest, but of the 14 we only found evidence of one person attending a Black Lives Matter event. The individuals were aligning themselves with other causes.

The Null brothers both attended a protest against Whitmers executive orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to the Times. They were photographed there carrying long guns.

A sheriff in Barry County, Mich., has also said that he met William Null several years ago when he came to his office to vent about the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the Washington Post. The sheriff said Null wanted to start his own cause "My Life Matters" which he eventually turned into what he called the Michigan Liberty Militia, according to the Post.

Later, Null told the sheriff that he drove to Flint during the citys water contamination crisis to pass out water bottles alongside Black Lives Matter activists, the Post said.

At least one of the suspects, Daniel Harris, did attend a Black Lives Matter protest, said Amy Cooter, a Vanderbilt University lecturer who studies militias in the United States. Harris who was quoted in the Oakland County Times saying he was upset about the killing of George Floyd and police violence.

A video clip shows another suspect, Brandon Caserta, standing in front of an anarchist flag saying Trump is a "tyrant."

Boogaloo movement more likely, experts say

Cooter, who recently dug into this issue on Twitter, told us shes seen "zero evidence that (the suspects) are antifa."

She speculated that some people are conflating anarchy and antifa to try to divert attention away from the suspects militia connections.

But anarchy is more closely related to the Boogaloo movement an extremist effort aimed at overthrowing the government than antifa, she said. Antifa activists tend to include communists, socialists and anarchists who protest against white supremacy and other far-right causes. Experts say that while they sometimes turn violent, the bulk of antifa organizing is nonviolent.

Many militia members are opposed to racism, Cooter said, and they expressed genuine outrage over the death of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis in May after a police officer pressed his knee against Floyds neck. But she said their support for Black Lives Matter protests are rooted in "notions of anti-governmentalism, a more right-wing concept."

JJ MacNab, a fellow at George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism, has also tweeted about the case. She criticized "Right-wing Facebook" for "trying to reframe the Michigan militia kidnaping plot as a left-wing extremist conspiracy." More recently, she described the defendants as "a mix of Boogaloos and militants."

Our ruling

The Facebook post claims that the suspects in the kidnapping plot are "ANTIFA and BLM anarchists."

We havent found anything to support the claim that the suspects are antifa activists. We looked for news coverage, court documents or expert opinion that could corroborate that and came up empty.

At least one of the suspects attended a Black Lives Matter protest. But to paint the group as a whole as antifa and BLM activists is disingenuous, and discounts the vast reporting from the media and state and federal officials on the militia and anti-government ties of the men arrested.

We rate this post Mostly False.

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Looking at the ideologies of the Whitmer kidnapping plot suspects - PolitiFact

The Trump campaign called out "unprovoked violence" against the president's supporters in recent weeks after a string of attacks ranging from New York City to San Francisco.

PROTESTERS RAID SHOPS, ATMS AFTER PHILADELPHIA POLICE SHOOTING

No one should be attacked for peacefully showing their support of the president, and all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, should be disgusted by this type of unprovoked violence," a Trump campaign spokesperson told Fox News on Tuesday.

The statement comes after a family of seven including four childrensaid they were pepper-sprayed by counterprotesters on Sunday while participating in a pro-Trump vehicle caravaninNew York City.

A caravan of Trump supporters driving through NYC, prominently displaying Trump 2020 flags. (Provided)

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said 11 people were taken into custody after the rally descendedinto chaos and violence Sunday afternoon.One of the people arrested on Sunday, a 36-year-old homeless man identified as Devan Harris, is accused of throwing eggs in two police officers' faces and then resisting arrest, the NYPD said.

Groups including United Against Racism and Fascism NYC and NYC Antifa posted about their involvement with the counterprotest.

"Outside agitators came into NYC today and were told to GTFO," NYC Antifa wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

United Against Racism and Fascism NYC's counterprotest started near Central Park and "some members of the crowd continued to Times Square to counter-protest," according to the group's Twitter account.

"The vague insinuation that our anti-fascist action was anti-Semitic is insulting," the gropu wrote on Twitter."It was called by our coalition, which includes many Jews, and@outlivethemnyc, a Jewish antifascist group. Meanwhile, we were protesting actual white supremacists."

TheJewish Telegraph Agencyreported that a convoy wasto takeplace in several Orthodox Jewish communities ahead of an event in Brooklynorganized by Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to the Trump campaign and co-chair of Jewish Voices for Trump.

Cities including Gettysburg, Pa., Douglas, Mass., and Pueblo, Colo., have seen clashes between pro-Trump and anti-Trump groups as well as violence against Trump supporters.

Gettysburg, a normally quiet college town, is being described as a microcosm of American political polarizationas Black Lives Matter demonstrations and "Trump trains" have stretched its small police department, the Washington Post reported.

A lot of folks have just had it with the hubbub of whats going on, Gettysburg Police Chief Robert W. Glenny Jr. told the Washington Post.

MASSACHUSETTS VETERAN WHO SAYS WOMAN ASSAULTED HIM FOR SUPPORTING TRUMP VOWS 'WE'LL BE BACK'

Incidents in Massachusetts and Colorado involved attacks on individual Trump supporters. Kiara Dudley, 34, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran whilehe and his wife were holding a Veterans for Trump sign at an intersection in Douglas, Mass., the Boston Herald reported.

In Pueblo, Colo., a Trump supporter captured body camera footage of his clash with a man he said was taking a shovel to his truck. Fred Haddock told KRDO he did not provoke Gabriel Perez, 32, while waving an American flag on the side of the highway. Haddock's footage shows him rushing across the highway to his truck, where he scuffled with Perez and eventually chased him off with pepper spray.

"He smashed the windows of both doors, and smashed the back window out [of the truck]," Haddock told KRDO."I was just there.That seemed to be provocation enough for him. For some reason the [American]flag itself seemed to be enough provocation to him. "

NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT ON ELECTION DAY WORRIES TEXAS DEMOCRATS

A free speech rally in San Francisco attractednational attention after organizerPhilip Anderson, a Trump supporter, said a counterprotester knocked his teeth out and lit up social media with a bloody photo. The San Francisco Police Departmentsaiditarrested a35-year-old man named Adora Anderson for the alleged assault and charged him with mayhem and hate crime enhancement.

A tooth dangles from free speech rally organizer Philip Anderson's mouth after he was attacked by a counter-protester on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. About a dozen pro-Trump demonstrators were met by several hundred counter-protesters as they tried to rally. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

"The rally became so violent in nature it was declared a public safety hazard and was shut down," San Francisco PD said in a statement. "Several rally participants sustained non-life-threatening-injuries. Three San Francisco Police officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries when they were assaulted with pepper spray and caustic chemicals. One officer was transported to a local hospital for treatment."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Incidents of violence do go both ways, however. Trump supportersin Duluth, Minn.,attacked a photojournalist for local station WCCO and knocked a camera from his graspin September.

Fox News' Bradford Betz, Paul Best,Stephen Sorace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

More:

Trump supporters face string of attacks in run-up to Election Day: What we know about the suspects - Fox News

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Italians in Philadelphia have had it with the ongoing Italophobia that resulted in the unwarranted theft and destruction of Mario Lanza flags in his own park, Your Content has learned.

Attorney Robert Petrone reports this week, the flags in South Philadelphias Mario Lanza Park bearing the esteemed Philadelphia tenors face were replaced with flags with a cartoon bird on it.

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It has come to the attention of the Italian-American residents of Philadelphia that Mario Lanzas image has been removed from the flags adorning the park that is named in his honor. reads a letter drafted by Petrone to city officials.

We the undersigned are appalled that this was done without consideration for the community, during a time when we are in great pain at the recent and repeated removal of the likenesses of Italian-American icons all over the city, including (1) the removal of the statue of the first and only Italian-American mayor of Philadelphia, Frank Rizzo, whose administration as Chief of Police integrated the police force by putting both African-American and Caucasian officers together in the same squad cars and promoting the first officers of color to administrative positions, (2) the boxing up of the statue of the first civil rights activist of the Americas, Christopher Columbus, at Marconi Plaza, and (3) the obliteration of the names of Columbus and many prominent Italian-Americans at the base of the Columbus monument at Penns Landing.

Despite that misguided historical revisionists have slandered Mayor Rizzo and Christopher Columbus of lateslander that has been debunked categorically of lateno such slander has ever been levied against Mario Lanza.

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There can be no other reason for the continuation of this course of conduct than blatant Italophobia. Petrone continued.

That Friends of Mario Lanza Park, entrusted as stewards of the park and its contents, would be so insensitive to the community in this regard, is unforgivable. Our community demands that Mario Lanzas likeness be restored immediately.

Protect Independent Journalism

Your Content is a nonprofit newsroom that produces nonpartisan, evidence-based journalism to expose injustice, corruption and wrongdoing.

Spearheading the news revolution for Americans across the nation, Your Content has brought a voice to those the media failed to acknowledge.

This story youve just finished was funded by our readers and we hope it inspires you to make a gift to Your Content so that we can publish more reports like this one that holds people in power to account and produces real change.

Your donation will help us ensure that we can continue this critical work. We are busier than ever covering stories you wont see anywhere else.

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Lawyers Say Philly Officials Are Partaking In 'Italophobia' By Allowing Antifa to Target Them - YC

Shortly before the deadly Unite the Right rally, in 2017, the FBI and DHS produced a joint intelligence bulletin concluding that white supremacist groups were responsible for carrying out more attacks on U.S. soil than any other ideology or movement in the previous 16 years. The report, which was published just three months before the killing of Heather Heyer by a neo-Nazi, shouldve been a glaring warning to local and federal law enforcement across the U.S., yet its findings appear not to have been heeded by Charlottesville police who stood idly by and allowed hundreds of white extremists to stage a race riot. But it was Donald Trump who had consistently downplayed the threat, both before the 2016 election, when he flirted with far-right supporters online, and after, when he referred to white extremist rioters as very fine people, while simultaneously ginning up concerns about leftist and Black radicals.

In a tumultuous election year, the president has repeatedly declined to condemn his far-right supporters, even going so far as to order the Proud Boysa violent pro-Trump gang, members of which were in attendance at Unite the Rightto stand by. Trumps reluctance to derail the threat of white extremism has been evident in his hinting at firing FBI Director Christopher Wray for designating racially motivated violence as the top domestic terrorism threat. And now, with the U.S. one week out from a presidential election that has heightened fears of political violence, the bureau has not fulfilled a legal obligation to release its reporting on domestic terrorism threatsincluding far-right violencethat the nation could face after November 3.

According to the Daily Beast, the FBIs negligence in producing such findings, which were expected to be finished in June, keeps prosecutors, local law enforcement, and public officials out of the loop regarding what threats must be prioritized and what resources are being doled out to minimize those threats. I would hate to think that they are reacting to President Trumps machinations about his dislike for senior leadership in the FBI, said House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson in a statement to the Daily Beast. This report probably would not be viewed favorably by this administration. That, I think, precipitates the report not being released by Nov. 3. The Mississippi Democrat went on to say that the nation needs to know who the real, documented terrorists in this country, based on the FBIs intelligence, really arevital information that the public relies on the FBI for. I think [Wray] understands that if he wades too far in the water around this subject, he might drown, or get fired, to be honest.

In response to the implication that the FBIs four-month delay might be politically motivated, a spokesperson claimed that the holdup is solely due to limitations caused by COVID-19. However, the bureauis potentially bucking a legal requirement by conveniently not publishing its preelection findings on domestic terrorism. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in its most up-to-date iteration according to the Daily Beast, mandates that the FBI, as per the Department of Homeland Securitys request and with help from Office of Director of National Intelligence, produce a report on both the current top domestic terrorism threats; the ideologies relating to domestic terrorism; and how the law enforcement and national security apparatus are preparing to ensure those threats are not realized. According to the Daily Beast, the NDAA should detail the necessity of changing authorities, roles, resources or responsibilities within the Federal Government to more effectively prevent and counter domestic terrorism activities.

Even as Trump has, at best, downplayed the threats of white extremist groups and, at his worst, winked, nodded, and otherwise flirted with them, he has continuously pressured the federal government to condemn antifascist protesters as terrorists. The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization, the president tweeted earlier this spring, implying that a disjointed ideological movement of U.S. citizens deserves the same treatment as international militant groups placed on the State Departments designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. However, there is no one federal agency with the legal authority to label groups of protesters in such a waynot only because antifa is not an organized group and is devoid of a hierarchy, stated goals, or any sort of national structure and official membership, but also due to the U.S. lacking a domestic terrorism designation law.

But that reality has not stopped the Trump administration from attempting to target antifa and Black Lives Matter like terrorist groups, as Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of DHS, explained to Fox News in August after host Tucker Carlson called for the feds to use RICO charges to arrest the leaders of those movements. Wolf replied by saying that Attorney General William Barr is already working on it, adding, The Department of Justice is also targeting and investigating the head of these organizations, the individuals that are paying for these individuals to move across the country.Wolfs anti-antifascist crusade is especially notable, given that the NDAA requires the FBI to produce its extremism report in accordance with DHSthe current director of which is busy looking for the leaders of leaderless leftist movements, rather than being concerned with Americas litany of highly energized far-right groups and militias.

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Is the FBI Avoiding Telling Trump His Far-Right Supporters Are a Threat? - Vanity Fair