Gavin McInnes co-founded Vice magazine in 1994 but was pushed out in 2008 after several years of turmoil following a New York Times interview in which he talked about his pride in being white. After leaving, he began "doggedly hacking a jagged but unrelenting path to the far-right fringes of American culture", according to a 2017 profile in the Canadian Globe and Mail.[41]

The Proud Boys organization was launched in September 2016, on the website of Taki's Magazine, a far-right publication for which Richard Spencer had once served as executive editor.[42] It existed informally before then as a group centered around McInnes, and the first gathering of the Brooklyn chapter in July 2016 resulted in a brawl in the bar where they met.[18] The name is derived from the song "Proud of Your Boy" used in the soundtrack of the Disney film version of Aladdin (1992), which had become a running theme on McInnes' podcast hosted by Anthony Cumia's Compound Media. McInnes had heard the song at a children's talent show in December 2015 and took immediate dislike to the perceived "fake, humble, and self-serving" nature of the lyrics.[18]

The organization has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center[36] and NPR's The Takeaway,[35] and Spencer, McInnes, and the Proud Boys have been described as hipster racists by Vox[43] and Media Matters for America.[44][45] McInnes says victim mentality of women and other historically oppressed groups is unhealthy: "There is an incentive to be a victim. It is cool to be a victim." He sees white men and Western culture as "under siege" and described criticism of his ideas as "victim blaming".[41] Their views have elements of the white genocide conspiracy theory.[22][23][24] The group is part of the "alt lite" and it is "overtly Islamophobic".[46]

In early 2017, McInnes began to distance himself from the alt-right, saying their focus is race and his focus is what he calls "Western values"; the rebranding effort intensified after the Unite the Right Rally.[20][21][47] In 2018, McInnes was saying that the Proud Boys were part of the "new right".[48]

The organization glorifies political violence against leftists, re-enacting political assassinations, wearing shirts that praise Augusto Pinochet's murders of leftists, and participating directly in political violence.[25][30] McInnes has said "I want violence, I want punching in the face. I'm disappointed in Trump supporters for not punching enough."[25][42] He stated, "We don't start fights [...] but we will finish them."[49] Heidi Beirich, the Intelligence Project director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that this form of intentional aggression was not common among far-right groups in the past; she said: "'We're going to show up and we're intending to get in fights,' that's a new thing."[50] In August 2018, Twitter shut down the official account for the group, as well as McInnes' account, under its policy prohibiting violent extremist groups; at the time, the group's profile photo was a member punching a counter-protester.[51] In late November 2018, it was reported, based on an internal memo of the Clark County, Washington Sheriff's Office, that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism.[13] Two weeks later, however, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Oregon office denied that the FBI made such designations, ascribing the error by the Sheriff's Office to a confusion over the FBI designating the group as such, as a designation made by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and other outside agencies.[32]

The organization is opposed to feminism and promotes gender stereotypes in which women are subservient to men.[41][42] The organization has a female-member-only auxiliary wing named "Proud Boys' Girls" that supports the same ideology.[52] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) states that McInnes and the Proud Boys are misogynistic and states that they call women lazy and less ambitious than men (and venerat[e] the housewife"); McInnes has called for enforced monogamy and criticized feminism as a cancer.[46]

Some men who are not white have joined the Proud Boys, drawn by the organization's advocacy for men, anti-immigrant stance, and embrace of violence.[53] The ADL states that the Proud Boys' "extreme, provocative tactics coupled with overt or implicit racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny and the fact that the group is so decentralized, inconsistent, and spread out suggest the group should be a significant cause for concern".[46]

The Proud Boys say they have an initiation process that has four stages and includes hazing. The first stage is a loyalty oath, on the order of "Im a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause."[30][19][54][55][56][57]

The Proud Boys have adopted a black Fred Perry polo shirt with yellow piping as their unofficial uniform.[58] Fred Perry was previously associated with the Mod subculture and skinhead groups,[58][59] including the British National Front.[60] Fred Perry's CEO John Flynn denounced the affiliation with the Proud Boys in a statement to CBC Radio, saying "We don't support the ideals or the group that you speak of. It is counter to our beliefs and the people we work with."[59]

Women and transgender men are not allowed in the organization.[61][42]

The Proud Boys discourages its members from masturbating and watching pornography so as to motivate them to get "off the couch" and meet women.[56] McInnes added no masturbation to the group's core ideas after interacting with Dante Nero, a relationship expert and comedian with a podcast on Riotcast, who came to serve as a sort of "pope" for this idea within the organization.[62]

Gavin McInnes founded the group and served as its leader. In November 2018, shortly after news broke that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalistsa claim later disavowed by an FBI official, who said they only intended to characterize the potential threat from some members of the group[34]McInnes said that his lawyers had advised him that quitting might help the nine members being prosecuted for the incidents in October. During the announcement he defended the group, attacked the reporting about it, said white nationalists don't exist, and at times he said things that made it appear he was not quitting, such as "this is 100% a legal gesture, and it is 100% about alleviating sentencing", and said it was a "stepping down gesture, in quotation marks".[37][38]

As of November2018[update], the group named its leaders as Enrique Tarrio, designated as "chairman", and the "Elder Chapter", which consists of Harry Fox, Heath Hair, Patrick William Roberts, Joshua Hall, Timothy Kelly, Luke Rofhling and Rufio Panman.[63][3] Jason Lee Van Dyke, who was the organization's lawyer at the time, had been briefly named as chairman to replace Gavin McInnes when he left the group, but the organization announced on November 30 that Van Dyke was no longer associated with the group in any capacity, although his law firm still holds Proud Boys trademarks and is the registered agent for two of the group's chapters.[64] In December 2018, arrest warrant was issued for Van Dyke over his death threat to a person he previously sued.[65]

Although McInnes had earlier said that any Proud Boy member who was known to have attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 was kicked out of the organization, the new chairman, Enrique Tarrio, admits to having attended the event.[57]

In February 2017, McInnes arrived at New York University to give a speech, accompanied by a group of about ten Proud Boys. Minor scuffles broke out between Proud Boys and antifa protesters, and the NYPD said that eleven people faced criminal charges. One member of the Proud Boys who encouraged others to fight the "faggots wearing black that won't let us in" was later arrested for punching a reporter from DNAinfo.[66][67][25]

At the 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California, Kyle Chapman was recorded hitting a counter-protester over the head with a wooden dowel. Images of Chapman went viral, and the Proud Boys organized a crowdfunding campaign for Chapman's bail after his arrest. After this, McInnes invited Chapman to become involved with the Proud Boys, through which he formed the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights.[50]

On April 15, 2017, an alt-right rally was organized in Berkeley by the Liberty Revival Alliance, which did not seek or receive a permit, and was attended by members of the Proud Boys, Identity Evropa (an American neo-Nazi group)[68][69][70] and Oath Keepers (an anti-government, far-right group);[71][72][73][74][75] many of these people traveled to Berkeley from other parts of the country. The rally was counter-protested and violence broke out. 21 people were arrested.[76][77]

In April 2017, a concert organized by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police to protest Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx attracted several people wearing Proud Boy clothing. One of them, Thomas Christensen, got into an argument with another attendee, and ended up stabbing him with what the prosecutor called a "folding dagger" with a 3-inch blade. Christensen was arrested on charges of aggravated battery.[78] In August 2019, Christensen was convicted at a bench trial; the judge rejected Chrsitiansen's statement that he acted in self-defense. After the trial, a friend confirmed that Christiansen was a member of the Proud Boys.[78]

In 2017 Proud Boys joined a caravan to ride through Islamberg, New York, a community of around twenty black Muslim families who moved upstate to escape the racism and violence of New York City, and which has been a target of conspiracy theories from various Islamophobic hate groups and right-wing terrorist plots.[79][80][81]

In 2017 and 2018 Proud Boys participated in several rallies organized by Patriot Prayer in Portland, Oregon and nearby Vancouver, Washington.[82][83][84] Scenes of violence from one of these rallies was turned into a sizzle reel for the Proud Boys and was circulated on social media.[2][85]

On July 1, 2017, five Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members who self-identified as Proud Boys disrupted a protest organized by indigenous activists, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at a statue of Edward Cornwallis, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. Indigenous activists had previously protested at the site and called for the removal of the statue because of Cornwallis's actions against Natives, including ordering a bounty for scalps of Mi'kmaq people. The Proud Boys carried the Canadian Red Ensign flag from the time of Cornwallis and one of them said to the indigenous protesters, "You are recognising your heritage and so are we."[15]

General Jonathan Vance, the head of the CAF, announced an investigation,[86][87] Rear Admiral John Newton, Commander of the Maritime Fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy, was "personally horrified" by the incident and said the Proud Boys were "clearly a white supremacist group and we fundamentally stand opposed to any of their values."[88] The CAF's investigation concluded by August 2017,[89] Later that month, Newton announced the CAF had taken "appropriate measures to address individual shortcomings" and that four of the members had returned to duty, warning, "Any further inappropriate behavior could result in their termination from the Canadian Armed Forces."[90] In 2018, the statue was removed from the site by the City of Halifax.

In June, McInnes disavowed the planned Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[41] However, Proud Boys were at the August 2017 alt-right event, which was organized by white supremacist Jason Kessler.[91] Kessler had joined the Proud Boys some time before organizing the event.[92][93][94] McInnes said he had kicked Kessler out after his views on race had become clear.[41] After the rally, Kessler accused McInnes of using him as a "patsy" and said: "You're trying to cuck and save your own ass."[21] Alex Michael Ramos, one of the men convicted for the assault of DeAndre Harris which took place at the rally, was associated with the Proud Boys and Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights.[95]

In October 2018 McInnes gave a talk at the Metropolitan Republican Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He stepped out of his car wearing glasses with Asian eyes drawn on the front and pulled a samurai sword out of its sheath. Police forced him inside. Later, inside the event, McInnes and an Asian member of the Proud Boys re-enacted the 1960 murder of Inejiro Asanuma, the leader of the Japanese Socialist Party; a captioned photograph of the actual murder had become a meme in alt-right social media.[42] The audience for the event was described by The New York Times as "a cross-section of New Yorks far-right subculture: libertarians, conspiracy theorists and nationalists who have coalesced around their opposition to Islam, feminism and liberal politics."[96]

Anti-fascist activists had started protesting outside the club before the event and had reportedly engaged in vandalism. Following cross-provocations between the opposing sides, the Proud Boys charged towards the protesters, who threw a bottle in response, resulting in a fight.[96][97] NYC police present at the protest reportedly did not respond.[42][98]

On November 21, shortly after news broke that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalistsa claim later disavowed by an FBI official, who said they only intended to characterize the potential threat of some members of the group[32]McInnes said that his lawyers had advised him that quitting might help the nine members being prosecuted for the incidents in October and he said "this is 100% a legal gesture, and it is 100% about alleviating sentencing", and said it was a "stepping down gesture, in quotation marks".[37][38]

The fallout from the incident left the group in internal disarray.[96] After McInnes nominally left the group, the "Elder Chapter" of the group reportedly assumed control. Jason Lee Van Dyke, the group's lawyer, was appointed as the chapter's chairman.[63][99] Van Dyke was previously known for suing news media and anti-fascist activists for reporting on the group, and for making violent online threats with racist language.[100][101] The group then publicly released its new bylaw online, with the names of its "Elder Chapter" members listed and redacted. The redaction was later discovered to be botched, as the list of names can be accessed by selecting over the black bar of the released document.[63] A day later, the chapter announced that Van Dyke was no longer leader of the group, and Enrique Tarrio is the group's new chairman.[3]

Video evidence from three separate videos showed conclusively that the Proud Boys had instigated the fight after the Metropolitan Republican Club event. John Miller, New York City's deputy police commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said that "incidents like [the post-MRC fight] make it more likely" that the Proud Boys would be "higher on the radar" of authorities.[96]

Ten men connected to the Proud Boys were arrested in connection with the October 2018 incident.[102] Seven Proud Boys pleaded guilty to various charges including riot, disorderly conduct and attempted assault.[102][103] Two of the men who accepted plea deals were sentenced to five days of community service and did not receive jail time.[104] In August 2019, two of the Proud Boys, Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, were convicted following a jury trial of attempted gang assault, attempted assault and riot; the jury deliberated a day and a half of deliberations before rejecting their claims of self-defense.[102] Hare and Kinsman were each sentenced to four years in prison.[105] The final defendant is awaiting trial.[102][103]

The four anti-fascist victims of the beating are not cooperating with prosecutors, even to the extent of revealing their identities, and are known only as "Shaved Head", "Ponytail", "Khaki" and "Spiky Belt". Because of their non-cooperation, the Proud Boys could not be charged with assault which requires evidence of injury and were instead charged with riot and attempted assault, which merely require an attempt to cause injury. Without the victims to testify, the bulk of the evidence in the trial came from videos of the incident, including footage shot by a video documentarian, and video from security cameras.[102][103]

In January 2019, Reggie Axtell, a member of the Proud Boys, threatened Ted Wheeler, Portland, Oregon's Democratic mayor, in a Facebook video post. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Axtell said in the video that Wheeler's "days are fucking numbered ... I promise you this, Ted Wheeler: Im coming for you, you little punk." Axtell also said that he would "unmask every [anti-fascist] son of a bitch that I come across", referring to a campaign initiated by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, Proud Boy Tusitala "Tiny" Toese and former Proud Boy Russell Schultz to tear off the bandanas of anti-fascist (antifa) demonstrators and taking pictures of their faces, thereby "demasking" them. The announcement of the campaign came shortly after an altercation that took place when Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer members attempted and failed to invade a chapter meeting of the left-wing organization Democratic Socialists of America. The groups clashed with anti-fascist activists nearby after being denied entry to the meeting, and said that they had been attacked.[106][107][108]

Roger Stone, the long-time informal advisor to Donald Trump, has close connections to the Proud Boys. According to University of Nevada researcher Samantha Kutner, during McInnes' time as head of the group, Stone was "one of only three approved media figures allowed to speak" about the group. A photo of Stone, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and two Proud Boys in the Fox News greenroom was posted by Stone on Instagram in May 2018.

In February 2018, the Proud Boys posted a video on Facebook which they described as Stone undergoing a "low-level initiation" into the group. As part of the initiation, Stone says "Hi, Im Roger Stone. Im a Western chauvinist. I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world," making him a "first-degree" member, which Kutner characterizes as being a "sympathizer". Stone denies being a member of the group. In July 2020, Facebook announced it had shut down the accounts and pages linked to Stone and Proud Boys. This network of over 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts spent more than $300,000 on ads to promote their posts and included false personas.[109]

Stone has used members of the Proud Boys as his personal bodyguards. In March 2018, when Stone attended the Republican Dorchester Conference near Salem, Oregon, he was concerned about his safety and used members of the Proud Boys to be his private security; Stone was photographed with the Proud Boys members. In September 2018, Stone was escorted to and from the right-wing Mother of All Rallies by Proud Boys. Stone says that the Proud Boys are "volunteers" and are necessary due to the number of death threats he has received.

In late January 2019, when Stone was arrested by the FBI on seven criminal counts in connection with the Mueller investigation, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, met Stone as he left the courthouse in Florida. Tarrio, who wore a "Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong" t-shirtsold by a company owned by Tarriotold a local TV reporter that the indictment was nothing but "trumped-up charges", and was later seen visiting Stone's house. The next day, in Washington D.C., a small number of Proud Boys demonstrated outside the courthouse where Stone pleaded not guilty to the charges, carrying "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" signs and others that promoted the InfoWars conspiracy website. The Proud Boys got into an argument with anti-Stone hecklers[110][4][111] Tarrio was later filmed behind Donald Trump in February 2019, during a televised speech in Miami, where he was seen wearing the same message on a t-shirt.[112]

Although McInnes has supposedly cut his ties with the Proud Boys in November 2018, stepping down as chairman,[37][38] in February 2019 he filed a defamation lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in federal court in Alabama, over the SPLC's designation of the Proud Boys as a "general hate" group.[39][113] The SPLC says on its website that "McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term 'alt-right' while espousing some of its central tenets," and that the group's "rank-and-file [members] and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville".[36][113] McInnes is represented by Ronald Coleman. In addition to defamation, McInnes claims tortious interference with economic advantage, "false light invasion of privacy," and "aiding and abetting employment discrimination".[114]

The SPLC filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in July 2019.[115]

The day after filing the suit McInnes announced that he had been re-hired by the Canadian far-right media group The Rebel Media.[40]

In February 2019, Slate magazine reported that Square, Chase Paymentech, and PayPal had pulled their payment processing services from 1776.shop, an online far-right merchandise site associated with the Proud Boys. 1776.shop lists itself as a project of Fund the West LLC, a Miami business registered to Henry Tarrio. In the past, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of Proud Boys, has said that he is the "business owner" of 1776.shop, raising the probability that "Henry Tarrio" and "Enrique Tarrio" are the same person. Henry Tarrio is also the registered owner of "Proudboys LLC", which uses the same address as Fund the West.[116]

On May 17, 2019, Bill Burke of Ohio filed a $3 million lawsuit against the Proud Boys, Kessler, and multiple other people and groups associated with the Unite the Right rally. Burke was seriously injured in the August 2017 Charlottesville car attack which followed the event.[117][118] The 64-page initial complaint alleges that the named parties "conspired to plan, promote and carry out the violent events in Charlottesville". According to Burke, his physical and mental injuries have led to "severe psychological and emotional suffering".[119][120]

A Proud Boys rally called "Demand Free Speech"[121] took place on July 6, 2019, in Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Plaza and Pershing Park, drawing about 250 people.[122][123][124] McInnes, Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos appeared, but former Trump advisor Roger Stone and Jacob Wohl did not. A counter-protest/dance party across the street drew more people than the main rally. Police said there were only minor skirmishes between the far-right and antifa, and no arrests were made.[122][123][124]

Republican candidate Omar Navarro, a perennial challenger for Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters' congressional seat, withdrew from speaking at the event, tweeting that his ex-girlfriend DeAnne Lorraine, a self-described "MAGA relationship expert," had threatened him, using cocaine and having sex with members of the Proud Boys.[121] In response to Navarro's tweets, the Proud Boys issued a video featuring former Infowars staff member Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean the star of a viral video showing him beating up an antifa protester in which they "banished" Navarro from the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys' chairman, Enrique Tarrio, described the group as "pro-drugs". Other speakers who had been scheduled for the rally, including Pizzagate promoters Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, had already cancelled their appearances, for reasons not apparently related to Navarro's charges.[121]

In July 2019, it was reported that on several occasions Proud Boys had gone to the homes of their critics and menaced them. In June 2018, Vic Berger, who posts videos online mocking far-right figures, including Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes, reported that he was visited at his home by a Proud Boy who told him that "Youre really hurting the Proud Boys. You need to stop making these videos." Berger later said he had come into possession of an internal Proud Boy document which called for Proud Boys to find the addresses of their opponents and those of their relatives and "SHOW THEM THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES!!!"

Then, on June 29, 2019, a group of Proud Boys showed up at 11 p.m. at the Philadelphia home of Gwen Snyder, who tracks the movements of the Proud Boys. Snyder wasn't home at the time, so the group spoke to a neighbor, telling them that Snyder needed to stop posting on Twitter the names of Proud Boys and other information about them; "You tell that fat bitch she better stop", one of the group allegedly said. Snyder reported the threat to the Philadelphia police, giving them security camera footage of the incident. Prior to the menacing of Snyder, an anonymous Proud Boy posted on Telegram, an encrypted Russian messaging app, a comment which called for action against "Philly's biggest shit stains."[125]

After Major League Soccer (MLS) ruled that the Emerald City Supporters (ECS), anti-fascist fans of the Seattle Sounders Football Club, could not the fly the flag of the 1930s anti-Nazi Iron Front paramilitary group at Sounders' matches, eleven members of the Proud Boys met the group of about 100 people as they marched into the stadium on August 4, 2019 to taunt and yell expletives at them. There was additional police coverage, with the only incident occurring when the Proud Boys attempted to enter a bar which is a known place for ECS members to gather. The MLS had categorized the Iron Front flag as "political imagery", which is forbidden under league rules, however a number of groups in Seattle and elsewhere are challenging the League's ruling.[126]

The Proud Boys and radio talk show host and former InfoWars staff member Joe Biggs organized a demonstration held in Portland on August 17, 2019 which members of numerous far-right groups attended.[127][128] The rally, which was sometimes subtitled "Better Dead Than Red",[129] was intended to promote the idea that the "antifa" anti-fascist movement should be classified as "domestic terrorism". It received national attention, including a Tweet from President Donald Trump.[130][131] The event drew more counter-demonstrators than participants with at least one group urging its members in advance not to attend and ended with the Proud Boys requesting a police escort to leave.[128]

In September 2019, Haverford Township, Pennsylvania announced that one of its volunteer fire companies, the Bon Air Fire Company, had been permanently relieved of duty at the end of business the previous day because of its unwillingness to dismiss a leader in the fire company, Bruce McClay Jr., who was in the "initiation" process of joining the Proud Boys; McClay had offered his resignation, but the fire company had declined to accept it.[132][133] Four days after the township cut ties with the Bon Aire Fire Company, the fire company reversed its decision and accepted McClay's resignation, saying its initial decision to refuse it was a "mistake"; this cleared the way for the township to re-open the company.[134]

Read the original post:

Proud Boys - Wikipedia

An Air Force veteran and MMA instructor headed towards the entry of Seattles Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in the late afternoon on June 15.

The man, who asked to be referred to as Maximus X, was donning a large American flag. He was also surrounded by a group of men wearing polo shirts with prominent logos that read Proud Boys. (RELATED:Before And After Photos: Heres What Seattles CHAZ Has Done To The City)

The Proud Boys are a far-right extremist group of brawlers who gained notoriety for their violent exchanges with members of Antifa in Portland and Seattle. Maximus told Daily Caller reporters that he was only trying to enter and leave the autonomous zone safely, which is why these far-right fighters were accompanying him.

As the group neared the entrance to CHAZ, they began to generate quite a buzz. They were allowed to enter and tense altercations quickly broke out. Many of the Proud Boys were clearly armed, as were many protesters pushing for them to leave the area.

Following tense moments with choice words exchanged between the two groups, Maximus and his security detail exited CHAZ safely. Maximus drove away and the Proud Boys began walking up the street just outside of CHAZ.

A few individuals were spotted tailing the group of Proud Boys and the group appeared to notice.

While the reason for the confrontation that took place soon after remains unclear, two Daily Caller reporters arrived on the scene just as the Proud Boys were attacking a lone male. The group took his phone and smashed it to pieces, and as the man fought to retrieve it he was repeatedly beaten about the head and face.

The man tried to fight back, but was left bleeding and phone-less after the minutes-long attack concluded.

The group of Proud Boys escaped in an unmarked van before police were able to arrive on scene.

Originally posted here:

Heres What Happened When A Group Of Proud Boys Attacked A ...

Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Indeed, former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped to organize the event, which brought together Klansmen, antisemites, Southern racists, and militias. Kessler was only expelled from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of the Charlottesville rally-goers.

Other hardcore members of the so-called "alt-right" have argued that the western chauvinist label is just a PR c--- term McInnes crafted to gain mainstream acceptance. Lets not bullshit, Brian Brathovd, aka Caeralus Rex, told his co-hosts on the antisemitic The Daily Shoah one of the most popular alt-right podcasts. If the Proud Boys were pressed on the issue, I guarantee you that like 90% of them would tell you something along the lines of Hitler was right. Gas the Jews.

McInnes himself has ties to the racist right and has contributed to hate sites like VDare.com and American Renaissance, both of which publish the work of white supremacists and so-called race realists. He even used Takis Magazine a far-right publication whose contributors include Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor to announce the founding of the Proud Boys. McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term alt-right while espousing some of its central tenets. For example, McInnes has himself said it is fair to call him Islamophobic.

"Its such a rape culture with these immigrants, I dont even think these women see it as rape. They see it as just like having a teeth [sic] pulled. Its a Monday. I dont really enjoy it, but thats what you do. I wouldnt be surprised if it doesnt have the same trauma as it would for a middle-class white girl in the suburbs because its so entrenched into their culture. Gavin McInnes, Get Off My Lawn, June 19, 2018

"Muslims have a problem with inbreeding. They tend to marry their first cousinsand that is a major problem here because when you have mentally damaged inbreds which not all Muslims are, but a disproportionate number are and you have a hate book called the Koranyou end up with a perfect recipe for mass murder." Gavin McInnes,Get Off My Lawn, April 24, 2018

We brought roads and infrastructure to India and they are still using them as toilets. Our criminals built nice roads in Australia but aboriginals keep using them as a bed. The next time someone b------ about colonization, the correct response is Youre welcome.Gavin McInnes, 10 Things I like About White Guys, Takis Magazine, March 2, 2017

Well look at the canary in the coal mine called Britain. We see guys get away with raping children regularly, and they have excuses like I didnt understand the word no. We have a woman raped several times in one night. All these guys seem tothey dont all get away but they seem to get away way too often. And then you have people being jailed for rude tweets and comments when theyre white, sopeople in America say Muslim are what? One or two percent of the population? Theres never gonna be sharia law here. And I say have a look at Britain. Have a look at Europe. Thats where were headed.Gavin McInnes, Get Off My Lawn, November 4, 2017

Maybe the reason Im sexist is because women are dumb. No, Im just kidding, ladies. But you do tend to not thrive in certain areas like writing.Gavin McInnes, The Gavin McInnes Show, June 28, 2017

I just realized something. Cory Booker is kind of like Sambo. Hes kind of shucking and jiving for the white man. Cory Booker grew up rich in an all-white suburb. Hes basically a white guy. His parents were very wealthy executives at IBM .But he wants to be a black dude, so he pretends that hes down with the brothers and he acts outraged about racism all the time for white people. That gets him votes from whites.Gavin McInnes on his CRTV show Get Off My Lawn, January 17, 2018

The white liberal ethos tells us blacks arent at MIT because of racism. They say blacks dominate the prison population for the same reason. They insist America is a racist hellhole where people of color have no future. This does way more damage to black youth than the KKK. When you strip people of culpability and tell them the odds are stacked against them, they dont feel like trying. White liberals make this worse by then using affirmative action to correct societys mistakes. When blacks are forced into schools they arent qualified for they have no choice but to drop out. Instead of going back a step to a school they can handle, they tend to give up on higher education entirely. Thanks to the Marxist myth of ubiquitous equality, this mismatch leaves blacks less educated than they would have been had they been left to their own devices.Gavin McInnes, America in 2034, American Renaissance, June 17, 2014

Im not a fan of Islam. I think its fair to call me Islamophobic.Gavin McInnes, NBC interview, 2017

Palestinians are stupid. Muslims are stupid. And the only thing they really respect is violence and being tough.Gavin McInnes, The Gavin McInnes Show, March 8, 2017

Why dont we take back Bethlehem? Why dont we take back Northern Iraq? Why dont we start our own Crusades? Thats what the Crusades were. They werent just someone picking on Muslims for no reason they were a reaction to Muslim tyranny. We finally fought back.Gavin McInnes, The Gavin McInnes Show, March 8, 2017

Buying woman parts from a hospital and calling yourself a broad trivializes what it is to be a woman. Womanhood is not on a shelf next to wigs and makeup. Similarly, being a dude is quite involved. Ripping your vaginal canal out of your fly doesnt mean you are going to start inventing shit and knowing how cement works. Being a man is awesome. So is being a woman. We should revere these creations, not revel in their bastardization.Gavin McInnes, Transphobia is Perfectly Natural, Thought Catalog, August 8, 2014

I am not afraid to speak out about the atrocities that whites and people of European descent face not only here in this country but in Western nations across the world. The war against whites, and Europeans and Western society is very real and its time we all started talking about it and stopped worrying about political correctness and optics.Kyle Chapman, who formed the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, a wing of the Proud Boys, Unite America First Peace Rally, Sacramento, California, July 8, 2017

Put something on the table! Give us a reason to accept you, because you know what? Sharia law aint it. Raping women aint it. Cutting off clits aint it. Throwing gay people of roofs aint it. You are a disgrace.Pawl Bazile, a production director of Proud Boys magazine, on Muslims, March against Sharia rally, New York City, New York, June 10, 2017

Canadian Gavin McInnes has been flaunting his contempt for PC culture for decades. Before entering the fray of right-wing politics, McInnes co-founded VICE Magazine, a publication that came to epitomize hipster culture in the late 1990s and 2000s. While the magazine tended to dabble in provocative and taboo topics generally under a veneer of irony McInnes took pleasure in stepping over the line. In 2002, for instance, when a New York Press reporter asked McInnes what he thought about his neighbors in New Yorks Williamsburg neighborhood, he responded, Well, at least theyre not n------ or Puerto Ricans. At least theyre white.

While presenting his observation as a joke and revenue-generating ruse (incendiary political statements garnered endless publicity for us, helater told Gawker), McInnes seems to have meant its underlying sentiment sincerely. I love being white and I think its something to be very proud of, he told The New York Times a year later, revealing an ideology that would later form the foundation of the Proud Boys. I dont want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life. McInnes also started writing for VDare.com, a white nationalist hate site. In one 2005 article, he railed against Canadian multiculturalism and lamented that Jared Taylor, the editor of the race-science newsletter American Renaissance, had not been invited to speak at the University of Ottawa. Ten years later, McInnes would welcome Taylor onto his own show, where the white nationalist spent more than an hour explaining why he believes white people are better than African Americans.

McInnesleft VICEin 2008, citing creative differences, and pursued a variety of other media projects. But his relationship with mainstream outlets started to erode in 2014 as he began to swap irony for earnestness. As part of an American Renaissance series featuring race-realist commentators on the future of American race relations, McInnes offered his predictions alongside fellow contributors like John Derbyshire, Paul Gottfried, Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor. In his piece, McInnes wrote that while he didnt harbor any hate for minorities, he did for white liberals who subscribed to a Marxist myth of ubiquitous equally and refused to acknowledge innate disparities between people of different races a notion he supported using the long-discredited work of Charles Murray. McInnes insisted he held out hope for the future of American race relations: once were all forced to live side by side, well quickly realize were incompatible, and agree to disagree, he concluded. The blind utopians at The New York Times will be crushed and the rest of us realists will be dancing in the streets.

Only months later, McInnes published an article titled Transphobia is perfectly natural that prompted his then-employer, the ad agency Rooster, to indefinitely sever ties with him. Were all transphobic, he wrote in the Thought Catalog piece. We see there are no old trannies. They die of drug overdoses and suicide way before theyre 40 and nobody notices because nobody knows them. They are mentally ill gays who need help, and that doesnt include being maimed by physicians. McInnes has also referred to transgender people as gender n------ and stupid lunatics. McInnes repugnant rhetoric extends to women, too. Hes written that through trial and error, I learned that women want to be downright abused by men, and, in a tweet, that Every guy Ive ever known to be involved in a domestic was the result of some c---trying to ruin his life.

With former business partners turning him away, in the spring of 2015 McInnes formed a partnership with the Canadian far-right video channel Rebel Media and, a couple months later, launched The Gavin McInnes Show with Compound Media. On both platforms, he regularly chatted with right-wing guests (his first show featured the far-right provocateur and former Breitbart reporter Milo Yiannopoulos) and carved out an ideological space for frustrated young men to rally around: western culture is superior to all others, racism is a myth created by guilty white liberals, Islam is a culture of violence, and feminism is about de-masculinizing men, he told his audience. A group of like-minded men at Compound Media who bonded over their shared frustration with PC culture began to meet in New York City dive bars. From these gatherings, the Proud Boys were born, and McInnes officially introduced the group in Takis in September 2016.

There are three degrees of membership within the Proud Boys, and to become a first degree in the pro-West fraternal organization a prospective member simply has to declare I am a western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. To enter the second degree, a Proud Boy has to endure a beating until they can yell out the names of five breakfast cereals (in order to demonstrate adrenaline control) and give up masturbation because, in theory, it will leave them more inclined to go out and meet women. Those who enter the third degree have demonstrated their commitment by getting a Proud Boys tattoo. Any man no matter his race or sexual-orientation can join the fraternal organization as long as they recognize that white men are not the problem. Women have their own contingent called the Proud Boys Girls.

Members are identifiable by more than ink: they sport yellow-trimmed black Fred Perry polos and yell the tongue-in-cheek catchphrase Uhuru! a Swahili word they picked up from a YouTube videoin which an activist talks to white people about reparations. Their name comes from an Aladdin song, Proud of Your Boy. They adhere to a list of libertarian-leaning principles, including opposition to the drug war, racial guilt, and political correctness, and support for small government, closed borders, and Venerating the Housewife.

The oddball humor that tinges Proud Boys culture, and creates a set of references incomprehensible to those on the outside, has attracted a surprisingly large number of men. There is an obvious overlap between their views and those of President Donald Trump, whose election in 2016 played a clear role in increasing Proud Boys membership. A red MAGA hat is nearly as prominent at Proud Boys gatherings as their Fred Perry polos, and, in fact, one of their first public outings was at a pro-Trump art show called #DaddyWillSaveUS where McInnes displayed photos of himself as a white slave. Its a favorite mythical reference of his as well as neo-Nazis and white nationalists; oneepisode of his Rebel Media showcentered on the notion that thehistory of slavery is rife with white slaves.

The Proud Boys took off after the presidential election. Each of their official Facebook and Twitter pages had over 20,000 followers at the end of 2017. The website Rewire estimatesthere are roughly 6,000 members. Group meetings, according to McInnes, usually consist of drinking, fighting, and reading aloud from Pat Buchanans Death of the West.

For McInnes and the Proud Boys, much like Buchanan, pro-Westernism is indistinguishable from outright opposition to Islam. McInness Rebel Media videos feature titles like Donald Trumps Muslim ban is exactly what we need right now, 10 examples of the Koran being violent, and Islam isnt dope. Its sexist. Hes also hosted Pamela Geller, among the most prominent figures in todays anti-Muslim movement, on his newest show on the conservative online outlet CRTV, Get Off My Lawn. People in America say Muslims are what? One or two percent of the population? Theres never gonna be sharia law here, he said during the interview before assuring viewers that Britain, where Muslims are raping children regularly and where women are raped several times in one night, is the canary in the coalmine. In aninterview with NBC, McInnes admitted Im not a fan of Islam. I think its fair to call me Islamophobic.

The Proud Boys pro-western posture allows them to position themselves somewhat counterintuitively as a tolerant and progressive social force. If Islamic backwardness, as they imagine, threatens gay people and women, then they serve as their guardians by protecting and promoting western values. Their opposition to Muslims and Islam, improbably, stands as a marker of their own tolerance. In that way, their ideology is similar to many European far-right groups like the French National Front and Danish Party for Freedom who push hardline anti-immigration policies at the same time they call for greater tolerance in the form of secularism and gender equality, all the while attempting to distance themselves from overt racists. According to the sociologist Rogers Brubaker, the concurrent embrace of intolerance and inclusion is not only a rhetorical strategy but a political one, employed to reach out to new constituencies and gain mainstream acceptance from people who might otherwise hold an aversion toward extremist groups.

Proud Boys do their best to muddy right-wing taxonomies. Despite the pains theyve taken to distance themselves from open white nationalists and antisemites, Proud Boys have been present at high-profile alt-right events, including the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. [J]ust dont f------ wear your Fred Perry, or decide to belt: Proud of Your Boy, McInnes limply warned followers before the event. [I]f you decide to rub elbows with those people [while] in colors, you very well could find yourself disavowed.

But they did show up, which McInnes evidently expected. In the first episode of his Compound Media show after the August rally, McInnes said he had been just combing through all the media reports going, Dont say Proud Boys, dont say Proud Boys, dont say Proud Boys, hoping the lunatic Nazi who allegedly killed Heather Heyer wasnt a member of his group. He wasnt, but the white nationalist Jason Kessler who has been filmed undergoing his second-degree Proud Boy initiation was the rallys principal organizer. Less than two months earlier, Kessler had been a guest on The Gavin McInnes Show, where he promoted Unite the Right and, in a chummy interview, laid out the ideological overlap he and McInnes shared. Whats really under attack is if you say, I want to stand up for white people. I want to stand up for western civilization. I want to stand up for men. I want to stand up for Christians, to which McInnes nodded in agreement and added other examples: Im against immigrationIm against jihadis. Im against radical Islam.

After Charlottesville, in a move to protect the fratty and innocuous Proud Boys brand hes worked so hard to cultivate, McInnes ejected Kessler from the organization and insisted he had never really been a Proud Boy. Im suspicious of you, coming to Proud Boys meetings saying youre not alt-rightand I think you were there to try to recruit guys, McInnes told Kessler when they spoke on his show two days after the rally. It was only after the violence in Charlottesville, whenany doubts about the true nature of the movement were stripped away, that Mcinnes attempted to earnestly distance the Proud Boys from the alt-right label. Before that, he seemed content to let the Proud Boys brand appear more ideologically ambiguous, profiting off the alt-rights rising popularity until things got ugly.

Although McInnes has attempted to distance his organization from the violence of Charlottesville, violence is firmly entrenched in Proud Boy dogma. McInnes was filmed punching a counter-protestor outside of the Deploraball in January 2017, and after a speaking engagement at New York University the next month turned violent, he wryly declared, I cannot recommend violence enough. Its a really effective way to solve problems. In fact, in early 2017, the Proud Boys added another degree to their membership hierarchy: in order to enter the 4th degree, a member needs to get involved in a major fight for the cause. You get beat up, kick the crap out of an antifa, McInnes explained to Metro. Though he claimed in the interview he was ready to get violent and beat the f--k out of everybody, he later backtracked in a Proud Boys Magazine piece, assuring the public the fraternal group was opposed to senseless violence. We dont start fights, we finish them, McInnes wrote.

Around the same time, Proud Boys member Kyle Chapman announced he was forming a new tactical defense arm of the Proud Boys with McInnes full approval called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK). The paramilitary wing positions itself as a defensive organization formed to protect right-wing activists at political demonstrations. Chapman, who has an extensive criminal history, first gained renown within the alt-right when he was photographed hitting a counter-protestor over the head with a stick at a March 4, 2017, pro-Trump rally in Berkeley, California.

Now referring to himself as Based Stick Man, Chapman has been making the rounds of far-right rallies around the country, doing little to create rhetorical distance between the Proud Boys and outright white nationalism. I am not afraid to speak out about the atrocities that whites and people of European descent face not only here in this country, he told a crowd at the JulyUnite America First Peace Rally in Sacramento, but in Western nations across the world. The war against whites and Europeans and Western society is very real. Its an idea he brings up over and over again. Whites are being discriminated against en masse, he told a reporter at The Atlantic. On social media, hes used the tags #ItsOkayToBeWhite and #WhiteGenocide both of which originated in white nationalist web forums.

Chapman openly encourages fellow Proud Boys and others on the far right to sacrifice for their beliefs. You are also gonna have to come to the realization that you may have to bleed to keep this going, he told the crowd in Sacramento. Youre maybe gonna have to do some time in jail and you very may well have to dieIm willing to die. Are you guys willing to die? he asked, and was met with cheers.

Similar calls have come from Augustus Invictus born Austin Gillespie a former Florida attorney and Senate candidate Chapman named his second-in-command in FOAK. Invictus ideology is a bizarre mix: he holds many mainstream libertarian beliefs but also claims Nazi and antisemitic thinkers (from the likes of Carl Schmitt and Francis Parker Yockey) as his chief intellectual influences and paganism as his faith. During his Senate run in 2016, journalists discovered that the candidate had slaughtered a goat and drank its blood as part of a pagan ritual. In campaign material, he criticized the federal government for abandoning eugenics programs. Hes also an admitted Holocaust denier.

McInnes welcomed Invictus onto his show on July 28, 2017, where the conversation repeatedly dipped into Invictuss interest in armed revolution. He explained that hed fallen out with his fellow attorneys because they took offense to his suggestions that maybe lawyers should be hanged in a revolution andif people get in our way, shoot them. With regard to journalists, he continued, Ill tell them, youre the first ones that are gonna be hanging from a lamppost in the event of revolution. McInnes only nodded along and, in response, offered up his own frustrations with liberal journalists.

Like some former members of the Proud Boys, Invictus eventually left the group for more hard-core parts of the white nationalist movement. Two months after the interview, Invictus severed his ties with FOAK and, by implication, the Proud Boys, explaining in a Facebook video that he was frustrated with Chapmans lack of professionalism. He has since focused on strengthening his relationship with the alt-right, becoming a board member for Kyle Bristows white nationalist legal outfit, Foundation for the Marketplace of Ideas.

The turn toward violence and the blurring borders between alt-lite and alt-right is typified by Brien James, the state representative for the Indiana Proud Boys and a member of FOAK. James gained his racist skinhead credentials in the Outlaw Hammerskins and the Hoosier State Skinheads before becoming one of the founding members of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a racist gang known for its extreme violence. Since its creation in 2003, the VSC has been linked to at least nine murders nationwide. James once bragged that his Joint Terrorism Task Force file was a mile long, and allegedly nearly beat a man to death for refusing to Seig Heil at a party.

James no longer considers himself a white nationalist but does identify as a member of the alt-right. In June 2017, he posted a video on YouTube in which he painstakingly attempted to categorize the groups that fit under the alt-rights umbrella, drawing distinctions between white nationalists and what he calls constitutional nationalist organizations that put America first and are ostensibly racially inclusive. He explains that the Proud Boys and American Guard an organization James founded as a modern version of the nineteenth-century anti-nativist group the Bowery Boys fall into the latter category. But American Guard appears to draw a large portion of his membership from the racist skinhead VSC. And, even though James has stated that he refuses to mingle with National Socialists, he marched alongside them in Charlottesville. A video captured by Charlottesville Weeklyshows James in an American Guard t-shirt trudging behind a man yelling Black lives dont matter and Hitler did nothing wrong at the August rally.

Proud Boys have become a staple at anti-Muslim and other far-right demonstrations, like when a group of Halifax Proud Boys disrupted a July 2017 ceremony held to mourn the murders of indigenous people by declaring the land a British colony and singing God Save the Queen. Both rank-and-file and FOAK memberswere in attendance at the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for Americas March Against Sharia rallies held in 28 cities around the country on June 10, 2017. At the New York City event where Chapman harassed counter-protesters local Proud Boy Pawl Bazile gave a speech contrasting his own Italian forebears with Muslim immigrants. Give us a reason to accept you, he yelled, because you know what? Sharia law aint it. Raping women aint it. Cutting off clits aint it. Throwing gay people off roofs aint it. You are a disgrace. He also referred to Burkas as a ghost costume.

Only weeks after the rally, the New York chapter gathered for an event they called Islamberg Exposed: Ride for Homeland Security. The Proud Boys, along with radical anti-government groups including the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, caravanned through the small, upstate New York African-American Muslim community of Islamberg, which they described as a suspected ground for recruiting, housing, and training terrorists, as well as a place away from the public eye for stockpiling weapons. In a film Bazile made of the ride through, one of the participants claimed to have conducted night-vision reconnaissance in the town, and allegedly witnessed training like breaking-neck-practicing and hand-to-hand combat training. Participants featured in the film, including Lisa Joseph from ACT for America, referred to the community as a no-go zone: fictitious Muslim neighborhoods that are so dangerous even the police refuse to enter. Unsurprisingly, the outing turned up nothing to suggest anything nefarious happening in the community.

While its hard to imagine anyone but a racist would spend their weekend menacingly parading through a Muslim neighborhood, Proud Boys continue to forswear that label. A number of journalists whove written about the group have received cease-and-desist orders from Proud Boys lawyer Jason Van Dyke insisting they do not now, nor have they ever, espoused white nationalist, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, or alt-right views.

The statement is especially remarkable coming from Van Dyke, a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter and known neo-Confederate. Van Dykes affair with far right extremism stretches back until at least his college days, when Michigan State University police searching his dormfound extremist literature, including The Turner Diaries and Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In 2000, the university suspended Van Dyke for several semesters after he was arrested for domestic violence, possession of a banned weapon and firearm safety violations.

Van Dyke's penchant for violence appears on his Twitter page, where in 2014 he made death threats against another user. Alongside a picture of a noose, he wrote, Look good and hard at this picture you f------ n-----. Its where I am going to put your neck. Your kiddies are quite a nuisance, he wrote to another, My advice: run and hide. If I find you, I WILL kill both you and your family. After the musician Talib Kweli drew attention to the tweets, Van Dyke tweeted a picture of an AR-15 with the caption, Stupid Talib is trying to get a lynch mob on IG to attack my home, job, & family. It wont end well for the attackers. Twitter banned him in response.

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Proud Boys | Southern Poverty Law Center

More than three weeks since the death of George Floyd, anti-racism protests are continuing across the US.

While in many cases peaceful, the protests have also featured scenes of police brutality, looting and violence.

Politicians, law enforcement and commentators on the left and right have accused a number of fringe groups of encouraging and participating in acts of violence.

BBC News has been examining these groups on social media platforms.

This relatively new anti-government subculture is perhaps the most dangerous of the bunch. Steven Carrillo, a 32-year-old US Air Force sergeant from California, has been charged with the murder of two officers during the George Floyd protests, one in Oakland and another in Santa Cruz.

Before being arrested, he wrote in his own blood the terms "boog" and "I became unreasonable" on a car. Both terms are commonly used by the movement.

Rooted in a bulletin board dedicated to firearms on 4chan - called the /k/ board - Boogaloo Bois is a loose, leaderless movement.

The group's name is a reference to a poorly-reviewed 1984 film, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The phrase "Electric Boogaloo" has since become an online meme meaning a low-quality sequel.

But Boogaloo Bois use it to refer to armed conflict with authorities, something akin to a second US Civil War.

Relatively small on 4chan in its early days, the movement has since considerably grown in size, notably helped by dozens of Facebook groups and pages with tens of thousands of members and followers. In order to evade Facebook restrictions on the word "Boogaloo", alternate terms like "Big Igloo", "Boog" and "Big Luau" are also frequently used.

Like other online movements born out of 4chan, Boogaloo Bois are steeped in the vernacular of internet memes and in-jokes.

Some in the movement refer to themselves as "boojahideen", a parody of the term "mujahideen" which is frequently used to refer to radical Islamist militants.

Followers have a variety of views and levels of seriousness towards the movement, but most could be described as extreme libertarians and sign up to two fundamental beliefs: A desire for an armed overthrow of the government, and an unwavering commitment to gun ownership.

Boogaloo Bois were overwhelmingly opposed to coronavirus lockdowns, which they saw as an alarming sign of tyranny. When anti-lockdown gatherings were held in several states in April and May, some armed members of the Boogaloo movement were seen in the rallies, often wearing Hawaiian shirts - a tongue-in-cheek reference to Hawaiian luau celebrations.

Black Lives Matter protests have caused a divide in the group. While the majority of members support the protests and are anti-police, some in the movement's more radical circles are conflicted.

Facebook groups and pages post footage of armed members in Hawaiian shirts attending the protests carrying Boogaloo flags, claiming they are there to protect the protesters from police. Some even suggest that the demonstrations might trigger the "Boogaloo" that they've been waiting for.

Videos and hashtags sympathetic to the group have also appeared on TikTok in recent weeks. They are often posted by young men with firearms who call for an uprising. One video features captions such as "becoming more and more willing to die" and "cops showing at your door will be targeted first".

Some members are capitalising on the protests to engage in acts of violence against authorities. Three Boogaloo members were charged with terrorism offences in Nevada this month for alleged attempts to "spark violence" in protests.

Facebook has since limited the reach of Boogaloo-themed groups and pages. Several have been removed - or "got Zucced", as members call it - in the last few days.

Antifa, short for "anti-fascist", is a loose affiliation of mostly far-left activists.

They include anarchists, but also communists and a few social democrats. What sets them apart is their willingness to use violence - they say, in self-defence or to defend their communities.

The movement, which at one point almost entirely disappeared in the US, saw a surge of interest after the election of Donald Trump. They routinely clash with the far right.

During the recent protests, there's some evidence that they've been involved in property damage and looting. Authorities in Texas, for instance, say three alleged looters in Austin were antifa affiliates.

But right-wing activists and President Donald Trump have made much bigger claims - that they are the driving force behind the violence.

While US presidents can designate individuals or groups as foreign terrorists, legal experts have questioned whether Mr Trump has the authority to label antifa a "domestic terrorist organisation".

There's little evidence for the sweeping claims. Antifa activists are relatively rare - their numbers are tiny compared to the size of the US protests.

Founded in 2016 by Canadian-British right-wing activist Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys is a far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group with a history of street violence against its left-wing opponents, notably antifa.

The group's name is a reference to a song from the musical version of the Disney film Aladdin. Members often wear black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirts along with red "Make America Great Again" hats.

A member must declare that he is "a Western chauvinist who refuses to apologise for creating the modern world".

The Proud Boys and affiliated groups have faced off against antifa in a number of violent street rallies in the last two years, most notably in Oregon, Washington and New York. Two members were jailed last year for beating up antifa activists in New York.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a prominent civil rights group, describes the Proud Boys as a hate group.

Although Mr McInnes quit the group in November 2018, he filed a lawsuit against the SPLC three months later. Enrique Tarrio is the group's current chairman.

Proud Boys members are vehemently opposed to BLM protests. Describing attempts to bring down statues of Confederate leaders as a left-wing plot to "destroy American history", members have been seen "guarding" statues of historical figures in a number of states.

Following the establishment of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, a police-free district in Seattle, Proud Boys members - some armed - turned up to confront what they called "authoritarian behaviour" by the protesters.

Photos and videos of clashes between the group and antifa members near the zone have gone viral.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have all banned the group from their platforms. But accounts associated with the movement have popped up again during the protests. This week, 358 Facebook accounts and 172 Instagram accounts tied to Proud Boys were removed.

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Who are Boogaloo Bois, antifa and Proud Boys? - BBC

The Proud Boys are amens organizationfounded in 2016 byVice Mediaco-founder Gavin McInnes. McInnes has described the Proud Boys as a pro-Westernfraternal organizationfor men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.

Proud Boys values center on the following tenets:

Minimal GovernmentMaximum FreedomAnti-Political CorrectnessAnti-Drug WarClosed BordersAnti-Racial GuiltAnti-RacismPro-Free Speech (1st Amendment)Pro-Gun Rights (2nd Amendment)Glorifying the EntrepreneurVenerating the HousewifeReinstating a Spirit of Western Chauvinism

Though these are our central tenets, all that is required to become a Proud Boy is that a man declare he is a Western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world. We do not discriminate based upon race or sexual orientation/preference. We are not an ism, ist, or phobic that fits the Lefts narrative. We truly believe that the West Is The Best and welcome those who believe in the same tenets as us. We have an international reach, with members spanning the globe.If you have any questions or would like get in contact with your local chapter, feel free to contact us directly via our staff page.This, after all, the one and only Proud Boy Magazine. For Proud Boys, by Proud Boys. UHURU!

If youre interested here are some additional articles and video clips to shed some more light on our movement. In fact, here are a few Gavin has written for this website.

We Are Not Alt-Right

Clarification on the 4th Degree

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Proud Boys: Who Are They? Proud Boy Magazine

ENTERPRISE A crowd estimated by Wallowa County Sheriff Steve Rogers at about 200 people packed the Wallowa County Courthouse grounds and lined adjacent North River Street on Saturday, Aug. 22, for a Back the Blue rally.

The rally also included local members of the Proud Boys.

Were here to support law enforcement, rally organizer Janet Furbish said. Our police officers and community policing are key parts of our community.

Furbishs sister, Laura (Collins) Ledgett, said there are bad police officers that need to be weeded out, just like in any profession.

But for the most part, theyre really good guys, she said. Were a small town, a small community and if we dont have their backs, who does?

The rally started with a parade through downtown Enterprise and continued with a gathering at the courthouse. Attendees waved blue-and-white flags as passing vehicles, from Cooper Minis to log trucks, honked on their way by.

The reason that I did this rally is that I was told to sit down and shut up every time I tried to open up any kind of dialogue, Furbish said.

The rally had a family-friendly, celebratory air feel, providing free cookies and bottled water for participants. Many rally attendees also signed flags that Furbish presented to representatives of each law enforcement agency in Wallowa County the Wallowa County Sheriffs Office, Enterprise Police Department, Oregon State Police, and the U.S. Forest Service at the close of the rally.

When the BLM (Black Lives Matter) protest was going on right after the George Floyd thing happened, I wanted to talk with people and I tried asking, How do we open dialogue? Where do we go from here? Furbush said. I was told, Sit down and shut up, you racist, you bigot. I could never get a dialogue started.

Furbish said that she had gotten a lot of pushback when she first proposed the rally, and had even gotten death threats via Facebook Messenger, but declined to name the senders. Threats and negativity made her even more determined to do the rally.

This was a way for me to do something, she said. To have my voice. And Im so happy its turned out so well.

The crowd was largely composed of local, Wallowa County residents. They were joined by three men who carried the flag of the Proud Boys clubs, and who said they lived in Wallowa County. Mason Walker, who is Black, said that he has lived in Joseph for about six years, and was heading up an effort to establish an Eastern Oregon Proud Boys chapter.

Right now, there are only three of us here who are members of the organization, he said. So we are still officially part of the Portland chapter.

Walker said the group has received negative publicity in the past.

In the major metropolitan areas theres been clashes with Antifa and BLM. But thats not the agenda, he said. The agenda is to uphold the Constitution, protect the members of your community and be for freedom of speech. Our club stuff is mostly talking about how we keep our families safe, how we back one another, if theres ever an issue, and how we can be more active in our communities.

The Proud Boys organization was classified as a terrorist organization by the FBI, but was reclassified as a far-right nationalist group in 2018, according to the Washington Post. The Southern Poverty Law Center website designates them as a hate group that spouts white nationalist themes, and are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric.

Were not anti-anything anything, except that we are anti-racism, and anti-sexism, Walker said. Its good for men to have something to fall back on. Masculinity is so masked nowadays that men are afraid to be men, and they are afraid to need support from other men.

In Enterprise, only a single counter-protester was present and throughout the rally silently held a sign that said Disarm, Defund, Disband on the northwest corner of River and Main streets. He said that he preferred not to comment any further than what his sign said.

Sheriff Rogers said that he thought the rally was a great event.

Its nice to feel appreciated once in a while, he said.

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Back the Blue brings patriots and Proud Boys to rally - Wallowa County Chieftain

Myron B. Pitts|The Fayetteville Observer

The Proud Boys are a hate group with a record of violence. Facebook has banned them.

On Saturday, a North Carolina-based chapter of the group is supposed to be coming to march in Fayetteville.

The alleged purpose is to participate in a march against child sex trafficking and pedophilia. The event is co-organized by Emily Dean, an online apparel designer, and Heather S. Holmes, a Republican running against incumbent Democrat Billy Richardson for the District 44 seat in the state House. The seat represents Fayetteville.

More: Members of far-right group the Proud Boys expected to be at Fayetteville march

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While the march is supposed to be about protecting children, it seems to be becoming a meeting of the minds, to use the term advisedly, of some far-right groups. Conspiracy group QAnon is supposed to be taking part as well as the Three Percenters, an armed militia group organized in the wake of President Obamas election.

Holmes told a Fayetteville Observer reporter she was initially concerned about the Proud Boys coming but was not anymore. She feels there will be an adequate police presence at the event.

I dont want to turn anybody away from marching (against) trafficking and pedophilia, she said.

Holmes told me Wednesday she doesnt know anything about QAnon and is not affiliated with them. She says: They dont fit into Saturdays march.

It is at least possible a well-meaning event has been hijacked. Media accounts say QAnon and the Proud Boys are joining forces to leverage a cause to which no one disagrees how do we best protect children to create an opening for their controversial ideas.

But Dean doesnt sound like shes being hijacked. She said of the Proud Boys: I consider them friends and added they were family-oriented.

I have some advice for anyone who truly supports the marchs stated causes or who might wish to show up to counter-protest. Ignore the march. Let it show up and fade away like a raindrop in Sandhills heat.

I certainly hope the event will be peaceful. But I dont agree with Holmes or Deans stance of come-one-come-all when it comes to whose support you accept.

You have to be aware, especially as a leader, who you choose to align yourself with and what message you are sending to the public. The women should tell the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and QAnon: Thanks but no thanks. We got this.

The Southern Poverty Law Center designates the Proud Boys a hate group. Organized during the 2016 election, the members do not admit women and call themselves western chauvinists. The Anti-Defamation League describes their ideology as Misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration. Some members espouse white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups.

The Proud Boys are known for street fights, most recently for tussles at a rally organized by the group in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Last year, two Proud Boys were sentenced to prison for brutal assaults on a residential street in New York City in October of 2018.

Jason Kessler, a former member, was a co-organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, in Charlottesville, Virginia, a white nationalist event that drew together neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates and the Ku Klux Klan. There, a counterprotester, Heather Heyer, was murdered by a man who drove his car into a crowd.

As for QAnon, it is the pro-Donald Trump conspiracy group that previously gained its most notoriety in 2016 when a man from Salisbury drove to Washington, D.C., and brandished and then shot a gun in a pizza parlor. He had been on the hunt for a nonexistent child sex ring in an incident dubbed Pizzagate.

The movement has only grown, and recently a QAnon supporter won a GOP congressional primary in Georgia and is likely headed to Washington in the fall.

Event is tarred

In a news release Wednesday, Holmes criticized the Observer news story about the Saturday march and wrote: I dont condone racism, hatred or violence of any sort. No activist groups were invited to participate as this is a march to bring awareness to the issue which has been kept quiet for decades.

She also called for stricter legislation and harsher punishment for offenders.

For sure if she or anyone wants to make an effort to protect children from predators there are plenty of organizations and individuals in Fayetteville and Cumberland County that do this important work.

They include: The Child Advocacy Center; Prevent Child Abuse NC; and the Community Child Abuse Prevention Plan, which includes more than two dozen partner organizations that seek to prevent abuse, to include trafficking.

As for Saturdays event, Im probably going to hold anyone suspect who shows up. I will wonder: Are you in it for the child advocacy? Or for the racism and QAnon nuttiness?

People judging from the outside will not know. Whatever legitimate cause an organization wishes to raise at this proceeding will be tarred by the association with extremist groups.

I believe you dont fight against one social ill, child sex abuse, by inviting in two others intolerance and the threat of violence.

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

Originally posted here:

Myron B. Pitts: My advice for Fayetteville march with Proud Boys, QAnon? Stay away - The Fayetteville Observer

The Portland Police Bureau appears to have all but given up on policing the far-right factions brawling in the Oregon citys streets, despite a recent escalation in violence that has seen those extremists throw explosives, brandish guns and in one case fire them at other protesters.

Its common to see far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys exchanging blows with counterprotestersin Portland. Theyve been doing that for years, often as PPB officers watched until a riot was officially declared and then police cleared the streets using tear gas and other munitions.

But over the weekend, police took an entirely hands-off approachto the fighting, even as the demonstrations grew more violent than ever. As officers stood by on Saturday, the Proud Boys and their far-right friends attacked and intimidated anti-fascist protesters using paintball guns, mace, fireworks, aluminum bats and various firearms, according to The Washington Post.

One of them notorious Proud Boys organizer Alan Swinney was seen pointing a gun at protesters, his finger on the trigger. Another Proud Boy, Tusitala Tiny Toese, was present, per the Post,in apparent violation of his parole over an attack at a similar demonstration in 2017 (he wasnt apprehended on Saturday, but a judge on Monday issued a warrant for his arrest).

Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesA member of the Proud Boys fires a paintball gun into a crowd of protesters against police brutality as the two sides clashed on Aug. 22 in Portland. For the second Saturday in a row, right-wing groups gathered in downtown Portland, sparking counterprotests and leading to violence.

Meanwhile, over a loudspeaker, police encouraged those present toself-monitor for criminal activity. In essence, the PPB had thrown up its hands.

In a statement to The Washington Post, the bureau said that officers were tired from responding to ongoing demonstrations against racism and police brutality, which have kept Portland in the national spotlight for weeks. Officers wouldnt intervene in small skirmishes between willing participants, even if the clashes fit the citys definition of a riot.

Each skirmish appeared to involve willing participants and the events were not enduring in time, so officers were not deployed to intervene, the bureau said of Saturdays events.PPB members have been the focus of over 80 days of violent actions directed at the police, which is a major consideration for determining if police resources are necessary to interject between two groups with individuals who appear to be willingly engaging in physical confrontations for short durations.

Allowing local far-right groups to wreak havoc on the city isnt a big departure for the PPB. As the Proud Boys cheered, officers launched tear gas and other munitions at anti-fascist counterprotesters during a rally in 2017, which left one antifa protester with a gas canister lodged in his head. Policegave the Proud Boys an escort out of the cityfollowing a rally in 2018 that saw the far-right demonstrators outnumbered by anti-fascists. A key officer had a friendly and ongoing relationship with the leader of Proud Boys affiliate group Patriot Prayer, judging fromtexts obtained by Willamette Week.

But relinquishing the act of policing to the brawlers themselves is both new and concerning, especially given the context: Local extremists have escalated their violent tactics in recent weeks, brazenly introducing guns and a lot more weaponry to the melee.

Local right-wing protester Skylor Jernigan, who attended a conservative flag wave demonstration in Portland earlier this month alongside Swinney, allegedly shot at Black Lives Matter protesters from inside a car. (Nobody was hit.)He was later arrested and charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon. During the same event, Swinney was seen spraying protesters with chemical irritants and shooting them with rounds from a paintball gun. He faced no immediate consequence for those displays or for pointing a pistol at protesters this past Saturday.

Long before this months events, the Proud Boys and other local Portland groups had been emboldened by governmental inaction during their rallies. Proud Boys leadership admitted at a rally last year that one of their stated goals was to continue such demonstrations in order to waste taxpayer dollars, overburden city resources and embarrass Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler. (For his part, Wheeler released a statement Monday saying he was closely reviewing the PPBs strategy to limit their intervention.)

Now it appears that the Proud Boys enjoy not just a broader arsenal at their rallies, but a tacit promise from the city that theyll face little to no police intervention.

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Portland Police Are Giving Up On Policing The Far-Right - HuffPost

Aright-wing rally with the theme "No to Marxism in America" led, unsurprisingly, to brawling in downtown streets near the Multnomah County Justice Center early Saturday afternoon. Opposing left-wing groups protected themselves with shields, while some right-wingers, including Proud Boys, openly carried guns.

Video and photos posted by the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, among others, showed at least one right-wing protester pulling his weapon on a crowd in the midst of a brawl.

Reporters, including Katie Shepherd of The Washington Post and freelance journalist Sergio Olmos, provided running coverage on Twitter. Both noted that Portland police allowed violent skirmishes to proceed. Olmos filmed federal police swarming only after the right-wing protesters left the area.

In a statement after the event, the Portland Police Bureau responded to questions why it had not intervened to halt the violent clashes.

"Incident commanders have to weigh out the entire situation to determine if police action is likely to make things safer or not. In this case there were hundreds of individuals and many weapons within the groups and an extremely limited amount of police resources actually available to address such a crowd," the bureau said. "Additionally, PPB members have been the focus of over 80 days of violent actions directed at the police, which is a major consideration for determining if police resources are necessary to interject between two groups with individuals who appear to be willingly engaging in physical confrontations for short durations.

"While the activity in the group met the definition of a riot, PPB did not declare one because there were not adequate police resources available to address such a declaration. PPB had roughly 30 officers available for crowd management and there were several hundred individuals associated with the events downtown."

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Right-Wingers and Anti-Fascists Brawl Downtown as Police Stand By - Willamette Week

Council split on strategy around Wednesday evening's planned protests at City Hall

The city of Gresham is mulling taking down the Black Lives Matter flag flying at City Hall in an attempt to deescalate threats of violence surrounding a planned armed protest tonight.

During an emergency council meeting Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 26, hours before a planned protest and counter-protest surrounding the flag, city leadership debated different strategies on keeping the community and police officers safe.

"I am very concerned about the safety of our officers, staff and community," said Mayor Karylinn Echols. "When it comes to violence and destruction, we can't have any tolerance around this."

The Wednesday evening event is a planned "flag wave" organized by folks from outside the community, including an alleged spearheading by the Proud Boys, and have included messages on social media about "tearing down the Black Lives Matter flag."

The Gresham Police Department received reports the anti-flag group's plans on coming armed with weapons to City Hall, 1333 N.W. Eastman Parkway. Chief Robin Sells, who requested the flag be taken down for the evening, said the organizer is Alan Swinney, a member of the Proud Boys, who has been involved in the downtown Portland "Back the Blue" rallies that have led to violent spats with counter protestors.

Swinney made national headlines Saturday, Aug. 22, when he brandished a gun and pointed it at the opposing crowd. Regardless of whether the city removes the flag, Swinney has allegedly told police he and his group are coming.

In response to their arrival in Gresham, a group of local protestors plan on rallying around the Black Lives Matter flag to protect it from being forcibly removed.

"I might have 50 officers here tonight but we will be outnumbered," Sells said. "My ask is that we take down all the flags at City Hall. I don't know if we should stand by the flag and jeopardize the safety of our community."

Council was split on what to do about the potential for violence. Mayor Echols, Council President Janine Gladfelter, and Councilors Jerry Hinton and David Widmark all were reluctantly leaning toward taking down the Black Lives Matter flag tonight in an attempt to remove the potential target. The idea includes putting the flag back up in the morning, and continuing to fly it through Aug. 31 as was initially voted on in June.

"I am afraid for my community," Widmark said. "We have honored our commitment to the symbol, and I would be willing to consider taking it down for tonight. I do not want to consider putting our officers in harms' way."

Councilors Vincent Jones-Dixon, Eddy Morales and Mario Palmero all disagreed with that strategy.

"If hate is truly not a value we have, then we cannot lower the flag," Palmero said.

Instead, they said, the flag should remain in place so the city does not bow to intimidation tactics.

"I don't want us to be a council that takes action when we are threatened by violence, hate and weapons," Morales said. "We need to put our foot down and show we don't accept hate speech and destruction of property here in the city of Gresham."

The protests are planned to begin at 6 p.m. at City Hall, and the Gresham Police Department recommends the community stay away.

At the end of the meeting, council reiterated that it denounces any hate speech, racism or violence within the community.

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Gresham mulls removing BLM flag in face of armed threats - Pamplin Media Group

C. and I arrive at Justice Center in downtown Portland on Saturday a little after 11 a.m. Unlike the night demonstrations, in which protesters pelt police headquarters with fireworks and flaming trash, the few dozen people this morning are waving American flags and shouting, "Blue lives matter!"

Which is not popular with the crew across the street, who shout back "ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS!" and that all cops must die.

Even the good ones?

"There are no good ones," an Ojibwe boy wearing a medicine pouch tells me.

He cannot name an instance where a police officer has done good for someone?

"You need to step six feet away from him," a kid at the curb tells meand, regarding my question about the police, "I am going to totally KICK YOUR ASS!"

So good morning from Day 87 of the protests in Portland, Oregon. This one is a little different: It's organized by Back the Blue, a group showing its support for police, support that includes a caravan of Trump-supporting motorcyclists who roar up and form a barrier between the opposing sides.

The call-and-response continues.

"All cops are brave!"

"Especially when they're wearing white hoods!"

"God, what a mess," says what looks to be a homeless dude, just before he wings a full water bottle at the flag-wavers.

"The Proud Boys are 100 deep and on their way in, on the MAX [light rail] train," says C. She's referring to the alt-right group behind today's "No to Marxism in America Rally," planned for noon. Last year's meet between the Proud Boys and antifa resulted in just about zero face time, in part because Portland police coordinated with various factions to keep the groups apart.

Things are different this year. Though the action is taking place directly in front of police headquarters, there is not, for the length of today's confrontation, one officer in evidence. Instead, there's a message through a bullhorn several times an hour, "This is the Portland Police Bureau. Our priority is the preservation of life and the protection of everyone's First Amendment [right] to speech We recognize there are groups with different views gathered here today"

The message's coda, to "Stop participating in criminal activity," does nothing to stop the anti-cop side from throwing eggs, throwing rocks, and shooting fireworks across the street. They are primed to fight, and they've been practicing every night since late May. The movement has grown from grief and outrage over the killing of George Floyd to demands for the abolition of all police and all forms of what it considers state-sponsored oppression.

The oppressors now appear to include anyone inside their homes at night. For two months the protestswhich during that time were mainly protests, with people of all stripes and ages marching in relative peace for the cause of Black Lives Matterwere in the main held at the courthouse blocks where we are today. But the dynamic has now changed. Each night, usually at 8 p.m., the black blocthe by-any-means-necessary wing of the movement, named for their all-black clothesmeet at a park somewhere in the city and march to the closest institution they deem problematic (police stations, social services buildings), which are graffitied, set on fire, pelted with trash and sometimes feces. Last week they added a new twist, marching through residential streets late at night and shining lights into people's homes, demanding they wake up, that they get "out of the house and into the streets!" These nightly campaigns take place citywide; residents have no idea if or when it will come down their block, which does not make for a peaceful night's sleep.

"I feel, as a community memberwe came from East Portland, Cherry Park neighborhoodand as one of many mothers in that neighborhood, we want to see the violence and the rioting end," says Christa, a petite woman standing next to a stroller holding her three children, ages four and under. "We want the city council to make a stand, to make some tough calls. We believe in peaceful protest and Black Lives Matter and all these issues. We do not agree with the collateral damage that is happening to our city. We love Portland and downtown is being ravaged by the ongoing riots; businesses are going out of business. It's just very frustrating."

She holds over her head a sign that reads "WHEELER/HARDESTYDO SOMETHING!" What does she think Mayor Ted Wheeler and Councilmember Jo Ann Hardesty should do?

"Hardesty needs to step up and support the police doing their job," she says. "People have the absolute First Amendment constitutional right to protest. They do not have the right to destroy property or assault individuals."

Christa is drowned out by the canned police announcement asking people to stop antagonizing each other.

"Right. 'Stop criminal behavior,'" she says. "The problem is, the district attorney refuses to prosecute once they're arrested. In essence, they're promoting ongoing violence by not having any consequences."

Would it be better if the police had a presence here today?

"Honestly? If the police were out here right now, it would just escalate the situation," Christa says. "When you have such a polarized issue, anything can add fodder. The police show up, this could very well turn into a violent situation."

It's already a violent situation: Proud Boys and black bloc screaming in each other's faces, golf balls and eggs being launched, pepper spray and smoke bombs making everyone cough, and the kid who promised to kick my ass whacking the sidewalk with a thick six-foot pole.

"USA! USA!

"BLM! BLM!"

"This is the Portland Police Bureau.We recognize there are groups with different views gathered here today"

"It's a testament to the passivity of Portlanders that someone hasn't gotten shot," says Kevin. Right, I tell him. Portland is not Pocatello, or Chicago. If someone is eventually shot by, say, someone who feels their home is under threat, the protesters will then have a martyr, who will be held up as proof of a racist system. It's a bit of a finger trap, really.

"And exactly their plan," he says. "For people who claim to be anti-fascist, they're awfully fascist in their tactics."

This "free speech for me but not for thee" manifests, too, in the anti-fascists constantly taking pictures of me, taking pictures of my notes, and, one time, taking my phone. The Ojibwe boy heckles me for 20 minutes. Someone posts photos on Twitter, identifying me as a "fash."

"I don't like you," a man I have never met tells me. "You spread propaganda."

What?

"Don't deny it, I've watched hours and hours of you online," he says. When I press him for these propagandistic details, he spends 10 minutes telling me he doesn't know exactly but doesn't need to know to know I am an enemy. He then galumphs toward the black bloc side, and I think how it makes sense for him to join a movement where he can feel integral without having to substantiate his reasoning, where the cost of membership is hating the people he is told to hate. As I watch him become subsumed by the crowd, another unidentifiable figure in black, I see him as no part revolutionary, more a meat-sack of insecurity.

I've encountered black bloc activists who, when alone, fold like a cheap suit, and also those who want to talk one on one, to maybe find a way toward progress together. This is not what is happening today.

A painter who's told me he paints the demonstrations because "they need to be captured in a medium other than film" gets a face-full of bear mace. A black bloc "medic" rinses his eyes with milk of magnesia. Five minutes later, C. pukes from the pepper gas.

To quote the homeless guy: What a mess.

"And it's not going to stop until the mayor and the governor let us do our jobs," a Portland police officer later tells me. Which neither have been inclined to do, framing the protests as peaceful when they visibly and exponentially are not.

What, I ask the officer, will it take for the nightly demonstrations to stop?

Maybe violence, he says. "You have a 24-year-old white kid who lives in his mother's basement get hit upside the head? He's not going to come out the next night."

The violence right now is not being doled out by the absent police, nor by the Proud Boys, who a little after 2 p.m. have started to march south. The black bloc contingent, which grew considerably as the afternoon wore on, follows close behind. Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" plays as the Proud Boys are pursued through the empty streets of downtown. A dozen young people in black run up the ramps of the Unitus Plaza building, looking like cat burglars, looking to cut off the Proud Boys, to continue the fight. What else are they going to do in a COVID-closed city on a Saturday night?

But the Proud Boys have apparently ditched, heading not into the streets but directly to the MAX train. There will be no more fight with them tonight.

There will, apparently, be a little more pepper spray.

"I can't open it," says a young woman, her eyes shut and streaming tears as she holds a bag of eye wipes. Two blocks later, C. and I minister to another girl similarly blinded.

"I used to love this city. I used to love waking up and knowing I lived here," says C., as we walk past people cheering and sloganeering in the park across from Justice Center. "Now I just feel bad. Not for Portlanders. For Portland."

What will the park crew do on a Saturday night? What they do every night, which is take to the streets, maybe your street. They will tell you, via the same six or seven slogans, that if you are not with them, you're against them. They will call it love for their fellow man. They will claim they are righting historical wrongs, and who but a monster or a racist would object to that? They will call the destruction of property free speech, and average citizens, out of fear or confusion or not wanting to be seen as a monster or a racist (because who knows what terrors that might bring?) will say nothing, or squint hard enough to think yes, yes, it all makes sense, better to be with them than against them; better, maybe, to burn it all down.

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When You Say Yes to Hate: Dispatch From Portland - Reason

The normally quiet Upper East Side erupted into a street brawl between white supremacists and anti-fascists. Members of the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group with a violent history, allegedly attacked four Antifa protesters Oct. 12, 2018, during a violent clash near the Metropolitan Republican Club, where the leader of the Proud Boys had just finished giving an address.

The New York Police Department sought 12 suspects for rioting and assault. They had a complete list of all the Proud Boys on the scene because everyone had signed the register at the Metropolitan Club speech. What they lacked was the identity of the four assault victims, all presumed to be Antifa members. Disguised in black anti-surveillance garb during their counter-protest, the victims could not be identified by street camera footage. And the wounded Antifa supporters refused to come forward to press charges.

Eventually, the Manhattan District Attorneys office used a controversial technique to further trace victims: a reverse location search warrantalso called a geo-fence warrantwhich compiles the anonymous digital identity and location data from the cell phones, smart watches, laptops and tablets of all users who were in a given geolocation at a certain time.

While a reverse location search can potentially track individuals through their geolocation at the scene of a crime, privacy advocates say the system fails to differentiate between potential suspects and innocent passersby. New York state Assembly Member Dan Quart introduced a bill earlier this year to ban reverse location search warrants.

I became very concerned because I believe it violates Fourth Amendment requirements for particularized search, Quart said. Reverse location search is the exact opposite. Its a fishing expedition to get peoples data without actual probable cause. Thats just antithetical to the Fourth Amendment.

The digital evidence identifies not people but devices, said Andrew Quinn, general counsel to the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association. Any investigative technique could be abused, but what prevents abuse is for an independent magistrate to review evidence and issue the warrants.

The use of reverse location search warrants often remains undisclosed to the public, however, attorneys in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance testified to using such a warrant during the court trial of several Proud Boys members.

In this particular case, the use of the digital reverse location warrant yielded no evidence used in the trial. Nonetheless, the Manhattan D.A. managed to nail two Proud Boys convictions based on video shot during the violent clashes.

Vances office declined a request for comment from Zenger News, as did the New York Police Department.

You may be innocent but you may be able to provide invaluable eyewitness evidence, said Quinn. Reverse location search can be an incredibly useful tool in solving a serious crime. Son of Sam was solved because they tracked a parking ticket on his car in the area of one of the crimes.

Under Quarts bill, proposed in April, evidence from reverse location search warrants would become inadmissible in any New York court. The bill and a companion bill in the state Senate by Sen. Zellnor Myrie are pending in the New York State Legislature. No vote has yet occurred.

In the era of a burgeoning Black Lives Matter mass protest movement, banning reverse location searches appears timely. If allowed, Quart said, it creates a double infringement of constitutional rights. In addition to Fourth Amendment violations, it can target protesters and accumulate data on thousands of individuals who are peacefully assembled to exercise First Amendment rights.

Quart also objects to the lack of transparency. Its unclear whose data is revealed, and how long the data will linger in official law enforcement files after an individual warrant is closed.

The goal of the bill was really to create a first of its kind. It will outlaw the practice in New York State, blocking police and prosecutors from using reverse search warrants, said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which helped author the proposed legislation. I hope it will start a national trend because we will eventually need federal legislation to completely block the practice.

Cahn said a reverse location search warrant is an incredibly powerful way to monitor every single person who attends a mosque, a protest or a healthcare facility. Its chilling and dystopian.

Everyone at the protest is visible, counters Quinn. Law enforcement is not permitted to go to the protests and take pictures to form a database. Almost all the videos of protestors are taken by the protestors themselves and posted to social media.

All people in the range are also having their data collected, even those who had nothing to do with it, said Jerome Greco of the Legal Aid Societys Digital Forensics Unit. The problem is, youre making innocent people possible suspects. Also, its not always accurate.

In 2020, big tech companies control so much of the publics personal informationeven incidental apps, downloaded free of charge, can access and collect data for the developer to sell to the highest bidderthat constitutional privacy rights in the digital realm have become an issue.

For the past decade, Google has published a biannual report that reveals the number of government requests for user data, without differentiating the types of warrants or locale.

A Google spokesperson said that when a request comes in from a governmental agency or member of law enforcement, it is carefully vetted before any data is released. If Google perceives them as overly broad, requests are refused or challenged.

Unfortunately, much of the pushback comes at the discretion of Google and other tech companies. National communications privacy laws were last challenged in 1986. Back then, the digital world was less complex. Big tech companies played a more limited role in controlling public discourse.

The problem is technology moves at an incredible pace, and the court system at a glacial pace, said Greco.

Thats why legislation is so important, advocates say.

Dan Quarts bill strikes the right balance, said Greco.

(Edited by Emily Crockett and Blake French.)

The post New York Seeks to Ban Reverse Location Searches appeared first on Zenger News.

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New York Seeks to Ban Reverse Location Searches Free Press of Jacksonville - Jacksonville Free Press

The start of 2020 caught everyone off guard, and honestly, no one was expecting 2020 to bring this much drama and tragedy. George Floyds passing sparked a global uprising against police brutality on social media, news outlets and in cities around the world. Weve seen videos and heard stories of similar experiences for years now, and it all culminated in late May.

The world was hurt and angry, protesting not only for Floyd but also for others like Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Elijah McClain and Tamir Rice. The world was no longer going to stay silent on these tragedies that were happening in Black communitiesand havent stopped.

Black people are disproportionately killed at the hands of the police, and its continuing to happen with each video going circulating social media that depicts another Black person dying at the hands of the police.

The latest horrible video going around social media (that doesnt need to be shared because his family is facing enough pain),twenty-nine-year-old Jacob Blakewas shot seven times in the back atpoint-blank range.

Blake was allegedly trying to break up an altercation between two women when the cops pulled up to address the situation. In the video, Blake walks away toward his car with the police following closely behind and then shooting him in the back. Blake did survive the shooting and will be paralyzed from the waist down,according to his dad.

Blakes altercation with the police is just one of dozens of tragic incidents with the police that have happened this year. Here is a timeline of some of the major instances of police brutality and racist killings in America in 2020:

February 25 Ahmaud Arbery, anunarmed25-year-old Black male, was fatally shot by two civilians while jogging in Georgia.

March 13 Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black EMT, was shot by police eight times when entering her apartmentwhile she was sleepingwhen they executed a no-knock search warrant in Louisville, Kentucky.

May 25 George Floyd, a 46-year-old black male who was killed in Minneapolis during an arrestallegedlyusing a counterfeit $20 bill.

June 12 Rayshard Brooks was shot by an officer when a complaint filed against Brooks wasasleepin the restaurant drive through line.

August 23 Jacob Blake was shot seven times by police while trying to break up a fight between two women in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

These are just five out of countless other victims killed in the from police brutality and racism, and there are still many cases that are popping up every day with the same scenario of a black male shot by the police. All those protestors that are out there every day only want justice for the victims that have lost their lives.

News outlets can misconstrue protesting.

Just because you dont see it on the five o clock news doesnt mean that protests arent still happening. In places like Portland, Seattle, Chicago and Detroit, protesting is still going on strong. There are many places that are still having protests, and the police riots have not stopped either.

Portland protestors getting hit with tear gas, rubber bullets, and beaten.

People are still protesting because they are demanding justice against police brutality.

News coverage on the police brutality protests can both help and hinder the protests. Since the protests began, many news outlets have covered the stories as a way of inciting fear that the protesters are destroying cities by focusing on the negative stories instead of seeing the bigger picture.

In a recent study from thePew Research Center,half of U.S. adults (51%) say nonviolent protests against police brutality are getting too little coverage. I believe that to be truenot only with the protests but also with any news; we can change that by focusing on the good and focusing on the message that Black Lives Matter is trying to send.

We arent here for violence, nor do we care for it; we just want the world to acknowledge whats wrong and whats right.

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Here Is A Timeline Of Police Brutality in 2020 - Grit Daily

Protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin against the shooting by police of Jacob Blake degenerated into lethal violence Tuesday night, with two dead and one injured. Who did what last night is still unclear, though a suspect is in custody.

While we'll learn more details, what's unlikely to change is the chaos in the streets, with multiple hard-to-identify factions and unaffiliated individuals joining up in loose alliances or squaring off in volatile confrontations. That's the face of modern social unrest, and a sight with which we'll become very familiar if the situation in this country continues to spiral out of control.

"Two people were killed and a third injured in a shooting at a used car lot on the corner of Sheridan Road and 63rd Street overnight Wednesday by a man armed with an AR-15-style rifle," Kenosha News reports. "The man, who was white, was seen on social media with a group of armed men described online as 'militia' who were at a small used car lot on the northwest corner of Sheridan Road and 63rd Street."

"Militia" could mean anything at this stage, from local people defending businesses to organized groups from elsewhere participating in the scrum. For what it's worth, at least one Boogaloo Boys group disavows any connection to the shooter.

But there are any number of possible participants. In Portland, Proud Boys and antifa (and others) tangled over the weekend while police pulled back. In communities around the country, residents and business owners have faced-off against protesters and sometimes shot looters. And lone individualsadvocating police reform, or else supportive of cops, or just wanting to see shit burnhave shown up to participate in protests or to just stir the pot.

That's all too common a pattern, and an unpleasant indicator of where the whole country could be headed if the growing political and racial tensions of recent years follow the path on which the people of Kenosha, Portland, and elsewhere are already walking.

In terms of where those tensions are taking us, the possibility of domestic strife as serious as a second Civil War has been a topic of conversation in recent yearssometimes mockingly (#secondcivilwarletters, anybody?)but other times more seriously. Three years ago, Thomas E. Ricks scared the hell out of a lot of people when he casually asked "smart national security thinkers" their spitball estimates of the near-term chance of a second civil war and came up with an average estimate of "about 35 percent" for a piece in Foreign Policy.

Most Civil War 2 discussions dwell on a red states vs. blue states battle, as if clear geographical divisions and well-defined sides are a standard feature of civil wars. But social unrest in the modern world is usually messier.

"The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a battle between three factionsthe Bosnian Muslims, Croats (Catholic) and Serbs (predominately Orthodox Christian)," the U.S. Army notes of the experience of Hajrudin Djedovic, who left the Yugoslav Army in 1992 as that country was falling apart to fight for Bosnia and Herzegovina. "It was strange fighting against people he had served with only a few years earlier, he said. One day, they are neighbors and friends. The next daythey attacked his village, killed his friends and members of his family."

Countries don't have to collapse for chaos to reign. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Italy muddled through the anni di piomboyears of lead. The Economist summarizes the confusion of that time, which still cast a shadow over Italians' lives:

Marxist extremists, notably the Red Brigades, began kidnapping and assassinating 'anti-worker' officials: policemen, judges, journalists. Their right-wing opponents bombed civilians to 'drown democracy under a mountain of corpses'. Both sides hoped to weaken the state and to spark revolution or a military takeover. Members of the Italian secret service nudged things along, working with neo-fascist killers to frame the left.

For a taste of the uncertainty of a country plagued by factional violence, it's worth seeing the 2014 movie '71. Set in Belfast at the start of "The Troubles," it follows an accidentally stranded British soldier whose fate depends on the loyalties of the neighborhoods through which he passes, and the inclinations of whichever paramilitary has him at its mercy not just unionist or nationalist, but specific factions thereof.

The U.S. as a whole is not yet immersed in its own version of "The Troubles" or the "years of lead," let alone a Balkan-style civil war. But we're not as far from that state as we were six months ago, let alone a decade ago.

We started this year with nearly six in 10 Americans believing that political tensions in this election year would lead to protests and rioting, according to Ipsos polling. The source of those fears is obvious, given the contempt in which the country's major political factions hold each other. Fifty-five percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats say the party opposing their own is "not just worse for politicsthey are downright evil," according to a 2019 YouGov survey. As a result of those hostilities, just over 20 percent of both Democratic and Republican respondents believe violence is at least somewhat justified if their side loses the election, according to the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.

To that political tension, we've added pandemic-fueled panic and lockdown orders that have crippled the economy and increased stress. We've also seen an eruption of long-simmering resentment over police treatment of civiliansespecially African-Americans. The killing of George Floyd brought that anger against law enforcement abuses to a head, and it continues to this day.

The result has been protests, which have all-too-often morphed into violence in the streets in multiple cities. That violence features antifa, Proud Boys, Black Lives Matter, Boogaloo Boys, neighborhood watches, and other factions and individuals of every and no ideological flavor. They interact in various shades of support, conditional alliance, and outright oppositionsometimes resulting in bloodshed.

And we haven't even arrived at Election Day, which had Americans so on-edge at the beginning of the year.

Kenosha doesn't have to be a vision of America's future. Neither does Portland. But the fact that the violence is continuous and seems to be escalating is cause for concern. To avoid the spread of that conflict, we're going to have to find a way to live with each other, or to leave each other alone. If we don't, the violent social unrest that plagues some of our communities will become a feature of many more.

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Kenosha Doesn't Have To Be a Vision of America's Future - Reason

Adam Duvernay|Register-Guard

Rarelocal episodes of violence and property destruction, videos of scenesout of Portland and asense the Black Lives Matter movement has been infiltrated by anarchists are driving some in Oregon to organizedandsometimes violent resistance.

In Eugene and Springfield, Black Lives Matter protesters now are more frequently met with opposition beyond the policepolice-supporting counterprotesters, often calling themselves patriots, who say their missionis keeping local neighborhoods safe.

Some have group affiliation. Some are just sympathetic to organized opposition to Black Lives Matter or other groups they perceive as threats. Some come to rallies and protests armed. Some come from out of town. Some are more than willing to fight protesters.

Many support President Trump and conspiracy theories about the federal government. Most see the Black Lives Matter movement as largely dangerous and misguided.

"The only thing that keeps the level of violence we're seeinginPortland from happening here is they simply do not have the numbers to do that here, and because we have been coming out, meeting them and facing them down. We're not going to allow it," said Tim Davis, a Springfield contractor affiliated with the group The American Patriots Society.

Groups like TAPS andWe the People of Lane County have attended or organizedlocal rallies and counterprotested Black Lives Matter events here and elsewhere as that movement gains longevity and daily scenes of clashes with police comefrom Portland.

"We're regular Americans that are coming together because we're afraid of what's going on against our country, against our businesses and against our families," Davis said.

But when belief meets fear, the potential for action rises, saidJoe Lowndes, a University of Oregon political science professor who's written extensively on right wingpolitics.

"The threat they describe is antifa as a terrorist organization and Black Lives Matter as a group that is only there to cause chaos," he said. "The dangeris they have created this imagined threat, and that authorizes the possibility of extreme violence in that moment."

Tyshawn Ford, a leader of local racial justice protest organization Black Unity, said his group rejects violence and destruction forits part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Though he said people of color may be righteous in using those protest tactics, he said he believes others merely are taking advantage of the movement for their own ends.

"They've been in quarantine. They just want something to do, to get that adrenaline from fighting the cops or breaking stuff," hesaid."That detracts from the movement 100%."

Despite what they say, Ford said he believes people like Davis actually know better.

"Counterprotesters ask us all the time if we're antifa. I think it's just an ignorant question," Ford said. "We don't go out covering our identities. We put on community events. We come out and show our faces. Anyone that's antifa is not going to do that."

There was a riot in Minneapolis after a white police officer there killed George Floyd, a Black man,during a May 25arrest by pressing his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Many protests remained peaceful, but downtown Minneapolis from May 27-29 was subjected to looting and property damage. Rioters burned down a police precinct.

The night of May 29,protesters in Eugene marched for the first time. The march itself was loud, went against traffic and set the tone for most protests that would follow hundreds of bodies chanting the names of people of color killed by police nationwide.

But at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Washington Street, the march stopped and some in the crowd set fires in the street with dumpsters,city property and signs torn from local local shops. An hour later, people brokein and looted nearby businesses.

Eugene police declared a riot.

Eugene police recently arrested 11 and are looking for more than 60 suspects.

Since May 29, there have been more daysthan not with some form of local activism, but no local protests, except for the night of July 25,included widespread property damage.

Those who support Black Lives Matter say marchers arefighting for racial justice.

"The movement is just going to get stronger from here. It may not be in the way of marches, but definitely our ability to capitalize on what's happening," Ford said.

In a small area of Portland over more than 60 days, however, authorities have declared a riot more than a dozen times. Images of clashes with police, tear gas cloudsand often violent arrests of the protesters there have been splashed daily across national news.

In Seattle, Austin, Oakland and elsewhere, similar scenes of violent clashes with police have played out over the summer. But across the country and Oregon, the vast majority of demonstrations are peaceful protests calling for police reform and racial justice.

How those protests and riots have been portrayed varies by outlet and viewership. But such images have played a role in promoting organization against Black Lives Matter.

Davis sees no distinction between the wider Black Lives Matter movement, powered largely by local leaders and lacking nationwide marching orders, and antifa, shorthand for a loose affiliation of far-left militant anti-fascists that resist right-wing demonstrations.

Trump has branded antifa a terroristgroup despite its inherently unorganized nature.

Ford says counterprotesters at their marches now are a frequent occurrence.

"Now it's like every protest ... " Ford said.

He believes the appearance of right-wing counterprotesters at Black Unity and other marches truly started with the July 25 protest outside the U.S. Courthouse in Eugene.

They showed up at the Black Lives Matter protest, some carrying firearms and the set of homemade plywood riot shields made up to look like protest signs that they have carried into multiple protests and rallies. The two sides squared off near the federal courthouse, exchanging competing chants and taunts.

Then ashot was fired intothe air. A Black Lives Matter protester threw water on a counterprotester who fired a Taser in response. There were fights. Two men pointed guns at each other. A motorcycle sped through the crowd. They spilled onto Mill Street.

Though the two sides eventually broke apart, Black Lives Matter protesters continued on to the Lane County Jail where police ordered them to disperse, which they then did.

But before the night was done, many people had vandalized parts of downtown, includingbreaking the windows of the Wells Fargo bank and tagging walls and city sidewalks with spray-painted graffiti. Though some protest leaders called for destructive behavior to end, Eugene police eventually declared a riot as the vandalism continued.

"That triggered the counterprotesters coming out more to'protect' their city," Ford said.

Five days later, Black Unity brought a protest to Springfield's Thurston neighborhood. Their march was a reaction to accusations of racism leveled by a Black resident against her neighbor, who hadhanged a Halloween decoration skeleton with a noose in his yard.

The noose, a terrifying image from America's history of racial lynchings, has been used in more recent times as a hate symbol. In Thurston, the skeleton's owner said his was just one of the many Halloween decorations he keeps up year round, not a racist icon.

He told The Register-Guard before the march that he'd been threatened over the noose.

"I'm a combat veteran with severe PTSD. I really don't feel good about having a crowd of people known for throwing things and setting things on fire," David Harbick said. "You could have just told me that you have a problem with this. I would have taken it down."

Ford said that while the hanged skeleton triggered theprotest in Thurston, Black Unity changed its route from passing Harbick's house once they learned more about the situation. But he said the group still felt an educational demonstration there was needed.

Harbick said he didn't ask anyone to help him, but some who saw the social media post calling for the protest reached out to support him. Many showed up to protect his house.

Davis was one of them, and so were others from TAPS and counterprotester groups.

Before that Black Unity march was done, fights had broken out on Thurston streets.

Davis was one of the locals who went to Salem last weekendto take part in a rally at the Capitol that devolved into group-on-group clashes. He spoke for the group Open Up Oregon, which wants to see an end to mask mandates and forced business shutdowns.

Davis said it was the BLM supporters who started the violence that day. Black Lives Matter protesters that day toldthe Salem Statesman Journal it happened otherwise.

Also at the Capitol protestwas Marcus Edwards, a speaker at the July 10 "All Lives Matter" rallyat the Springfield Public Library, who told the Salem Statesman-Journal:

"These criminals, theyre trying to attack the American way of life, and if you understand how these communists work, they use every form of either political or racial tension, and they use it to create division as a divide-and-conquer strategy so that we do not pull together as an American people and rise up against the corruption at our door.

At the Springfield All Lives Matter rally, Edwards spoke to a need for unity while also defaming the BLMsupporters playing the role of counterprotesters across the street.

At that rally, like most others, the groups largely kept separated and exchanged insults and slogans, though thescene did grow tense.

But whenEzekiel Rubottom, a counterprotester, marched through therally to disrupt it with an accordion, a handful of men attendingused U.S. flags to push him to the ground, mobbing himand smashinghis instrument in the process.

Rubottom then was arrested on a years-old warrant for missing a court date in Eugene. Springfield police on July 14 said an investigation was ongoing into the incident.

"I thought at most I wouldget booed out of there. The next thing I know I'm getting pushed," he said."Then I had a sign-shield pushed at me with screws coming out of it."

Accordion player attacked at 'All Lives Matter' rally in Springfield

At a July "All Lives Matter" in Springfield, Ezekiel Rubottom was attacked by rallygoers after he walked through the demonstration with an accordion.

An Aug. 16"pro-America rally and flag wave" hosted by "the Oregon patriots" in the same downtown space had a different tenor. Billed as family friendly, members of groups like TAPS and We the People Oregon held a peaceful cookout in front of the Springfield library.A similar flag wave event was held recently in Cottage Grove.

No one came to counterprotest the gatherings. There were no fights.

Lowndes, the UO right-wing researcher, said he attended a July 25 rally in Salem where protesters on opposing sides clashed in a brief skirmish. He described meeting people who see it as their jobs to defend the nation against threats he said are largely fictitious.

Though such people often are lumped in with white supremacists, Lowndes said what brings them together is less about race and more about perceived threats to their lives.

"There is a general right wing organizing itself not around white supremacy, but the Second Amendment, around the idea antifa is a terrorist organization, around the idea Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization and people wanting to defend the police," Lowndes said. "These protests potentially bring out more, different kinds of people."

We the People of Lane County started as a Facebook group created by Springfield resident Mark Miller. Some of its membership went to scenes such as those at the federal courthouse in Eugene and Thurston. Miller said they see themselves asguardians.

"Black Unity, or whatever flag you want to call it, went there to intimidate people and to threaten people. It was not about anything else," he said. "They come with this disguise of Black Lives Matter. But listen to these people and what comes out of their mouths."

Miller said he believes the Black Lives Matter movement is not the grassroots endeavor it's portrayed to be and is funded by nefarious sources. He said he believes antifa members are the ones primarily responsible for property destruction in Eugene.

And he believes members of groups like his have done the job of keeping the peace.

"By our presence, they've cleaned it up a little bit," Millersaid. "We will not tolerate, particularly in Springfield, criminal behavior."

A June Black Lives Matter protest in Klamath Falls drew hundreds ofcounterprotesters, many armed, bent onprotecting homes and businesses from riots. There were rumorsantifa was coming to the protest, but the antifa threat that night was unfounded.

On July 31, hundreds gathered outsideNew Hope Christian College in south Eugene to protectthe cross that once stood on Skinner Butte from a threat that never materialized.

Threats to tear down that "racist" symbol its history is otherwise were circulated on social media, possibly as a hoax. Neither antifa members nor other groupsshowed up.

Many who did go see antifa and BLM-aligned groupsas a threat demanding opposition.

"Much of the community has risen up spontaneously. We didn't call them, they called us and they showed up en masse," college President Wayne Cordeiro said at the time. "They are saying we are tired of this and we're not going to stand it anymore."

Lowndes said this kind of organization is happening in Oregon, but also nationwide.

Incidents in Eugene and Springfield such as these, in which the opposition to racial justice marches isn't police presence but other civilians, are infrequent but troubling, he said.

"My fear is we're going to see more of this," Lowndes said. "As the election gets closer, I think we're going to see things get more heated."

The July 29 Black Unity march in Thurston was designed to be peaceful and educational, but the night ended as one of the summer's most violent and confrontational.

Before the beginning of the march which at its midpoint saw a locally unprecedented brawl between protesters and cops there was a chance for dialogue.

Ford was one of the Black Unity members to cross the street out ofJesse Maine Memorial Park and talk with people who said they'd come to protect the neighborhood.

"We're here for people like you guys that think we're antifa and we're going to come through your neighborhood and bust your houses and bust your cars up, to show you that we are here to peacefully protest," Ford told them.

"Well, why do you guys let antifa come with you? Don't let antifa come with you," said a man who only would identify himself to The Register-Guard that day as Will.

"Black Unity has done multiple marches. We did one through Thurston where we did not break anything. We do not march with antifa.That's not our group," Ford told them.

Ford wasarrested later that evening in a violent skirmish with Springfield police.

Though that tense conversation ended with some moderately mollified because, as Will said, "we like what we're hearing so far, you're not here to destroy," any progress they made evaporated by night's end. After the fight with police,the sun went down and theBlack Unity marchers were confrontedbycounterprotesters at the park.

Groups face off after Thurston protest march

Groups of counterprotesters confronted Black Unity demonstrators in Springfield's Thurston neighborhood after a march last month.

The protesters were trying to leave, but the last leg of their march included taunts, threats and their own chants"whose streets?" "our streets" thrown back at them. In front of the park, groups squared off face to face, and there were sporadic fights.

"We're supposed to fight them! That's why we're here," shouted one man who was angry with hisfriends' chastisementsafter he fought with a Black Unity protester.

The Civil Liberties Defense Center has been deploying legal observers at protests in Eugene and Springfield to witness police conduct and behavior, already having filed two lawsuits against Eugene police during the protest season. Executive DirectorLauren Reganwas on the ground performing that role in Thurston during the Black Unity march.

She said CLDS will file another lawsuit against Springfield police concerning "blatant collusion" between certain officers and "knownand obvious white supremacists."

A Springfield police spokesman said those allegations are baseless.

"The suggestion that SPD has 'colluded' with counterprotesters, specifically during the Thurston protest, is not supported by evidence. There are several occasions where our officers turned away counterprotesters who were asking to 'assist'officers with crowd control," Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. David Grice said in an email.

Springfield police arrested one counterprotester for assault that night.

Miller said he and others lined up behindpolice barricades where Black Unity marchers fought with police. He said they were there to support police in case of violence.

"We didn't have to do anything but stand there," Miller said.

Miller said We the People of Lane County also tried to stop the Thurston protest before it happened by starting a rumor on its own Facebook page, knowing it was being monitored,that Proud Boys and federal officers would be joining the counterprotest.

Regan said she's been a legal observer for more than 20 years, but that never before in the local community has she felt afraid for her safety while doing her job.

"I'm constantly looking around for, basically, violence, fascists and racists that are pulling out guns, pulling out machetes, pulling out wasp spray and aiming it at innocent human beings," Regan said. "When you have to use a thick neck and a gun in order to try and scare your adversaryor scare someone who disagrees with you, that is a sign you recognize your position is incredibly weak and you're on the wrong side of history."

Thurston residents had mixed reactions to the night's protests and fights.

Some were displeased Black Lives Matter protesters came at all, and more still that some of the protesters after the fight with police shouted obscenities and threats at peoplethey perceived as a foe. Some were happy to see self-appointed defenders come to Thurston in an attempt to balance the scales and protect property from harm.

Others just found both to be a nuisance. Some were frightened. Some felt put in the difficult position of having to comfort their childrenor explain the violence and profanity.

Charlie Vermilyea lives on the street where most of the protester vs. counterprotester collisions occurred that night. She described a night of fear, suspecting neither Black Unity nor TAPS nor anyone else who came from outside Thurston was there for peace.

"It's a nice, quiet, peaceful neighborhood. Most of those people weren't from our neighborhood,"Vermilyea said. "They were looking for trouble."

Read more here:

Locals have organized against Black Lives Matter, leading to street fights, standoffs - The Register-Guard

On August 19, President Donald Trump praised believers of QAnon a movement based on the unfounded conspiracy theory that a cabal of elite Americans run a child trafficking ring and are secretly fighting to destroy the president.

Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory passionately believe that Trump himself is actively fighting this cabal, which they also allege involves Hollywood power-players and several Democrats.

Adherents to the unfounded theory have been accused of violence, attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, and other criminal acts. The FBI field office in Phoenix warned in a bulletin last year that the group was becoming a domestic terrorism threat, and the same determination was made in a July report from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Many of the accused consider themselves to be vigilantes seeking justice where the US government has not.

And yet, when asked by a reporter to address the conspiracy theory, Trump showed support: "I've heard these are people that love our country," he said during a press conference.

Immediately after Trump gave his response, QAnon followers rejoiced on social media. August has been a particularly emboldening time for the movement, as Marjorie Taylor Greene, a popular supporter of QAnon from Georgia, earned the GOP nomination for a US House seat. Trump called her a "future Republican star."

Trump's flattering comments have already emboldened QAnon believers and could lead to more serious incidents, according to Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters for America (MMFA), a progressive non-profit that tracks far-right extremism and right-wing media, and has extensively analyzed the spread and dangers of QAnon.

"If you believe in QAnon, you almost have to fundamentally believe that violence is inevitable to 'save the world,'" Carusone told Insider in an email. "As we get closer to Election Day and in the days after, you will see increased urgency for action within the QAnon community, increasingly inflammatory language, and increased calls for acts of violence."

Here are all of the crimes QAnon-linked people have been convicted or accused of so far.

Have a tip about QAnon-related crimes? Email this author at rgreenspan@businessinsider.com.

See original here:

QAnon crimes: US allegations linked to conspiracy theory and followers - Insider - INSIDER

As protests continue to bring cities across the United States to a standstill, the problem of racist policing is more evident than ever before. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department was the latest in a long line of violent assaults on people of color by law enforcement, and his name joins an ever-growing list of those who have been killed by ones who are sworn to protect and serve. The United States is grappling with the issue of police racism before the worlds eyes, and the scale of the conversation currently happening is unprecedented and, sadly, still not enough.

While the unconscious bias of some officers of the law has been laid bare for all to see, the conscious and hateful bias of others has remained largely in the shadows. The systemic issue of racial profiling is evident, but the hidden epidemic of far-right activism in police departments around the country is an insidious and even more dangerous threat. The links between the police and organized racism are as old as the institutions themselves. During the civil rights movement, Southern police chiefs coordinated with local Ku Klux Klan chapters, and many officers and commissioners in the deep South were accused of aiding Klan activity and even being active members of KKK organizations.

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While this trend seems like an archaic symptom of the era of segregation, links between law enforcement and far-right organizations have remained constant through the 20th century and into the 21st and are now seemingly more widespread than ever. In the 1990s, a federal judge found that a number of deputies in the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Office had concrete links to neo-Nazi organizations and that a number of cases of police violence against black and Latino communities had been motivated by their racist hostility and terrorist sympathies. Likewise, in 2008, a prominent Chicago-area police officer was fired and prosecuted over links to the Ku Klux Klan.

A 2015 FBI investigation found that white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement agencies was at epidemic levels, and suggested that right-wing and anti-government domestic terrorists were using links with law enforcement to gain intelligence and restricted access privileges, as well as ultimately evade capture. The report found that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies across the United States did not screen potential recruits for links to far-right organizations and often turned a blind eye to those recruits with questionable political beliefs.

The bureau was aware of widespread infiltration as early as 2006, suggesting in a heavily redacted report that white supremacist activists were taking advantage of weak vetting procedures in local law enforcement agencies to gain access to restricted areas vulnerable to sabotage and to elected officials or protected persons, whom they could see as potential targets for violence. The 2006 report suggested that this was a systematic effort, coordinated by high-profile far-right figures such as William Pierce, and infiltration was seen as a key element in the philosophy of leaderless resistance.

Despite the concerns and recommendations outlined in the FBIs latest report, recent research has shown that the links between law enforcement and the extreme right have continued to flourish. Last year, a Reveal News investigation found that hundreds of active duty and retired law enforcement officers were members of online forums dedicated to Islamophobia, neo-Confederate ideology and even neo-Nazism. Almost 400 police officers from 150 different departments had their identities verified, and many were found to have been actively peddling hate speech, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and anti-government rhetoric.

The Proud Boys in particular have strong links to law enforcement, and a number of high-profile investigations have highlighted the extent of the collusion between police and the hate group described as the alt-right fight club. In May this year, a Chicago PD officer, Robert Bakker, was found to have been an active member of a Proud Boys Telegram channel called Fuck Antifa, where he actively coordinated Proud Boys meet-ups and bragged about his connections in the police department and the government.

Six months earlier, a police officer from East Hampton, Connecticut, was forced into retirement after his links to Proud Boys groups in the area. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law led an investigation into the officers social media activity, finding that he was an active member of the self-described western chauvinist group. A year before that, a female officer from Clark County, Washington, was fired after she was pictured wearing a Proud Boys sweatshirt and was later discovered to have been merchandising Proud Boys apparel on the design-sharing RedBubble website.

Even in cases in which officers are not active members of hate groups, collusion remains a very real issue. In 2019, police officers in Washington, DC, were pictured fist-bumping Proud Boys members at a July 4 rally in front of the White House. The members of the group were then given a police escort to a local bar, while anti-fascist protesters were met with violence from both the police and the Proud Boys. In an even more egregious case, an investigation in Portland, Oregon, found that a senior police officer had been exchanging friendly text messages with Joey Gibson. Gibson was the leader of the far-right Patriot Prayer, a sometimes violent offshoot of the Proud Boys defined by both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

In the lead-up to a number of high-profile clashes between the group and anti-fascist counterdemonstrators, Gibson and Lieutenant Jeff Niiya shared joking messages and talked about Patriot Prayers planned actions, with Niiya even confiding in Gibson that he had told officers to ignore outstanding warrants for the arrest of a prominent Patriot Prayer member, Tusitala Tiny Toese. A separate investigation found that Niiya had submitted police reports on Gibsons behalf, launching criminal investigations against antifa activists based on footage Gibson had privately sent him. This raised concerns that far-right demonstrators were being given preferential treatment by Portland police, particularly given the reputation for forceful suppression of anti-fascist counterprotest in the city.

Although this trend reaches uniquely epidemic levels in the United States, the rest of the world is not immune. A 2019 report showed alarming levels of collusion between law enforcement and violent right-wing extremists in Germany. The investigation, led by the nations general prosecutor, found that the extreme-right Nordkreuz group had compiled a death list of leftist activists, journalists and pro-refugee targets using police records and was in the process of planning a major terror attack. It was found that the 30 members of the group had close ties to law enforcement, with at least one member actively employed by a special commando unit of the state office of criminal investigations.

A recent investigation by Der Spiegel found that the elite unit, known as the KSK, openly tolerated extremist right-wing iconography and membership, even using widely-known Nazi ciphers such as 88 code for HH, or Heil Hitler. The investigation uncovered high-level officers openly promoting national-conservative ideology and espousing racist ultranationalism. Earlier this year, a KSK soldier who reportedly had links to extremist groups was arrested after a weapons and explosives cache was found in his back yard. The German government responded to Der Spiegels expos by launching its own investigation into the unit, finding that racist extremism was endemic across all ranks. As a result, the unit was officially disbanded in early July.

As historian Kathleen Belew has shown in her most recent book on the long history of the far rights links to the United States military, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, the siphoning of weaponry and ammunition from military bases to white supremacist organizations has been a constant tactic of would-be terrorist groups. There is no doubt that the continued militarization of police forces in the United States and Europe, combined with the high levels of extremist infiltration, offers new avenues for the theft of high-grade weaponry and tactics, and further armament of extremist right-wing groups.

These links between law enforcement and white supremacist organizations are deeply concerning, and present a very real threat to peace, justice and liberty in the United States and around the world. As police racism once again enters the spotlight, it is more important than ever to examine and challenge the infiltration of law enforcement by racist extremists. A centralized vetting process that directly seeks out links to organized racism and excludes candidates with any affiliation with far-right groups is the bare minimum and should be the first step toward a total overhaul of the training and oversight procedures.

Despite a number of legal challenges to the protective role of policing, law enforcement, at its core, still exists to protect and serve the people regardless of race, religion or creed, and any affiliation with hateful ideology compromises an officers ability to execute this role fairly and without prejudice. Until the systemic and personal racism of law enforcement is no longer an issue, we will see more George Floyds, more Breonna Taylors, more murders in the name of law and order. Preventing and eliminating racist bias in police departments across the US is only the first step toward a long process of reckoning and reconciliation.

*[Fair Observer is amediapartner of theCentre for Analysis of the Radical Right.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

See more here:

The Infiltration of Law Enforcement by Racist Extremists - Fair Observer