Donald Trump has made warnings about the threat of antifa and far-left fascism a central part of his re-election campaign. But in reality leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists, new research indicates, and antifa activists have not been linked to a single murder in decades.

A new database of nearly 900 politically motivated attacks and plots in the United States since 1994 includes just one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to fatalities. In that case, the single person killed was the perpetrator.

Over the same time period, American white supremacists and other rightwing extremists have carried out attacks that left at least 329 victims dead, according to the database.

More broadly, the database lists 21 victims killed in leftwing attacks since 2010 , and 117 victims of rightwing attacks in that same period nearly six times as much. Attacks inspired by the Islamic State and similar jihadist groups, in contrast, killed 95 people since 2010, slightly fewer than rightwing extremists, according to the data set. More than half of these victims died in a a single attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

The database was assembled by researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a centrist thinktank, and reviewed by the Guardian.

Its launch comes as Trump administration officials have echoed the presidents warnings of a violent leftwing revolution. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent and extremist agenda, the attorney general, William Barr, said amid nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd. A new justice department taskforce on violent anti-government extremists listed antifa as a major threat, while making no mention of white supremacy.

Defining which violent incidents constitute politically motivated acts of terrorism, and trying to sort political violence into leftwing and rightwing categories, is inherently messy and debatable work. This is particularly true in the US, where highly publicized mass shootings are common, and some have no clear political motivation at all.

Stated political motives for violent attacks often overlap with other potential factors, including life crises, anger issues, a history of violent behavior and, in some cases, serious mental health conditions.

While researchers sometimes disagree on how to categorize the ideology of specific attacks, multiple databases that track extremist violence, including data maintained by the Anti-Defamation League, and from journalists at the Center for Investigative Reporting, have found the same trend: Its violent rightwing attacks, not far-left violence, that presents the greater deadly threat to Americans today.

Leftwing violence has not been a major terrorism threat, said Seth Jones, a counter-terrorism expert who led the creation of CSISs dataset. .

Most of the deadly extremist attacks the CSIS researchers categorized as leftwing were killings of police officers by black men, many of them US military veterans, who described acting out of anger or retribution for police killings of black Americans.

These shooting attacks include the murder of two police officers in New York City in 2014, after Michael Brown and Eric Garners killings; and the murders of five officers in Dallas, Texas, and three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2016.

Some of the gunmen who killed police had connections to black nationalist groups, which extremism researchers at CSIS and elsewhere said they typically categorize as leftwing, largely because in the 1960s, influential black nationalist groups like the Black Panther party were anti-capitalist and considered part of the New Left.

Making that categorization is less straightforward today, some researchers acknowledge, since some prominent black nationalist organizations express homophobic, misogynistic and antisemitic views, values that set them in opposition to the current American left.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior fellow at the ADLs Center on Extremism, noted that Gavin Eugene Long, who staged an attack on police in Baton Rouge, had ties to black nationalism and was also part of an offshoot of the sovereign citizens movement, an anti-government ideology that is typically categorized as rightwing.

In several of the high-profile leftwing attacks included in the CSIS list the only fatality was the perpetrator. A mass shooting attack on a group of congressional Republicans during a baseball practice outside of Washington DC, in 2017 left the Republican congressman Steve Scalise seriously injured, and three other people shot.

The gunman, James Hodgkinson, 66, was the only one killed in the attack. Hodgkinson had deliberately targeted Republicans and had expressed disgust with Trump.

Many of the other leftwing attacks or plots in the CSIS database, including by anarchists, environmental groups and others, resulted in no deaths at all. Often, leftwing plots, particularly by animal rights activists, have targeted businesses or buildings, and their primary weapons have been incendiaries designed to create fires or destroy infrastructure not kill people, said Jones, the researcher who led the creation of the data set.

The one deadly anti-fascist attack listed in the database occurred in July 2019, when Willem von Spronsen, a 69-year-old white man, was shot dead by police outside an Ice detention center in Tacoma, Washington. Authorities said von Spronsen had been throwing molotov cocktails, setting flares, that he set a car on fire and that he had a rifle. Local activists told media outlets they believed he had been trying to destroy buses parked outside the facility that were used to transport people who were being deported.

Von Spronsen, who had previously been arrested at a protest outside the detention center, was involved in a contentious divorce, and both a friend and his ex-wife had described him as suicidal. In a letter he wrote to friends before his death, Von Spronsen called detention centers concentration camps and said he wanted to take action against evil, BuzzFeed News reported. I am antifa, he reportedly wrote.

No one was harmed in the attack except Von Spronsen, according to media reports.

Researchers who monitor extremist groups at the Anti-Defamation League and the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said they, too, were not aware of a single murder linked to an American anti-fascist in the last 20 to 25 years.

Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said some leftwing groups were known for more radical and violent tactics in the 1960s, adding: Its just not the case today.

Mark Pitcavage said he knew of only one killing, 27 years ago, that might potentially be classified as connected to anti-fascist activism: the shooting of a racist skinhead, Eric Banks, by an anti-racist skinhead, John Bair, in Portland, Oregon, in 1993.

Given the discrepancies between the deadly toll of leftwing and rightwing violence, American law enforcement agencies have long faced criticism for failing to take the threat of white supremacist violence seriously, while at the same time overstating the risks posed by leftwing protesters. After a violent rally in California in 2016, law enforcement officers worked with neo-Nazis to build criminal cases against anti-fascist protesters, while not recommending charges against neo-Nazis for stabbing the anti-fascists.

Antifa activists have been the targets of domestic terror attacks by white supremacists, including in a terror plot early this year, in which law enforcement officials alleged that members of the neo-Nazi group the Base had planned to murder a married couple in Georgia they believed were anti-fascist organizers.

Antifa is not going around murdering people like rightwing extremists are. Its a false equivalence, said Beirich.

Ive at times been critical of antifa for getting into fights with Nazis at rallies and that kind of violence, but I cant think of one case in which an antifa person was accused of murder, she added.

The new CSIS database only includes attacks through early May 2020, and does not yet list incidents connected with the massive national protests against police violence after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, including the killings of two California law enforcement officers by a man authorities say was linked to the rightwing boogaloo movement.

Today, Jones said, the most significant domestic terrorism threat comes from white supremacists, anti-government militias and a handful of individuals associated with the boogaloo movement that are attempting to create a civil war in the United States.

Daily interpersonal violence and state violence pose a much greater threat to Americans than any kind of extremist terror attack. More than 100,000 people have been killed in gun homicides in the United States in the past decade, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US police officers shoot nearly 1,000 Americans to death each year. Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be shot by the police as white Americans, according to analysis by the Washington Post and the Guardian.

But the presidents rhetoric about antifa violence has dangerous consequences, not just for anti-fascists, but for any Americans who decide to protest, some activists said.

Yvette Felarca, a California-based organizer and anti-fascist activist, said she saw Trumps claims about antifa violence, particularly during the George Floyd protests, as a message to his hardcore supporters that it was appropriate to attack people who came out to protest.

Its his way of saying to his supporters: Yeah, go after them. Beat them or kill them to the point where they go back home and stay home afraid, Felarca said.

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Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years - The Guardian

On deaths of officers

This is in regard to the murders of two fine McAllen law enforcement officers, Officer Edelmiro Garza Jr. and Officer Ismael Chavez Jr. We had just gone through the 22nd anniversary of our 24-yearold sons and Border Patrol Agent Susan Rodriguezs murders that week!

Deja vu all over again!

Art Salinas

San Antonio

Protect the food

In the interest of protecting my family and the people of the Rio Grande Valley, I like many others have patronized fastfood chains as this offers us the opportunity to eat without having to mingle with other folks.

Heres my beef: In the last several days I have encountered two different fast-food chains where some employees would wear their masks while they were in an area ofthe restaurant where the customers were. The second they walked into the kitchen area or the order pick-up area, they pulled their masks down.

This is where food is being prepared and handled. Hundreds of customers eat this food.

One bad apple here can do a lot of damage to a community.

And this is not a blanket accusation; I did say some.

Owners and managers, please cover this subject with your employees and let them know that it is a huge mistake to underestimate the intelligence of the buying public.

Jos C. Coronado

Mission

Thoughts on Antifa

Jesus Rodriguez and possibly others have written about Antifa. My understanding is that they claim to be antifascist; however, they are a loose group of individual anarchists who want to berid of all government.

There is little formal organization, but groups of them have been around for nearly 100 years.

This information is readily available on the internet.

Some have been arrested, jailed and prosecuted. However, finding the exact groups and individuals funding them has been difficult and no legal proof has been determined. Most of these anarchists attach themselves to other groups to be able to create violent reactions in the name of other groups.

Currently, they have attached themselves to another group of radical organizations called Black Lives Matter; one of its organizers claims to be Marxist trained.

Antifa has no known identifiable leadership.

Most of the peaceful protestors support that a Black persons life does matter, but are not members of the radical core of Black Lives Matter.

Many Antifa members are unemployed collegeeducated radicals whowere radicalized by leftist, radical college professors.

They just want to end all government services and cause trouble. There are some members who have jobs; currently a couple of lawyers have been arrested for arson and assault on police officers.

By the way, the 75-year-old man pushed and knocked down by police has been arrested several times during protests. President Trump labeled him an ANTIFA Provocateur.

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LETTERS: On deaths of officers; Protect the food; Thoughts on Antifa; Group critiqued - Monitor

WASHINGTON -- Citing recent protests in Portland and across the country, Sen. Ted Cruz scheduled a hearing next Wednesday on political violence carried out by members of the leftist group known as antifa.

Cruz has defended President Donald Trumps deployment of federal agents to Portland, Ore., and his threats to send more officers to Democratic bastions like Chicago and New York City to curb unrest.

The protests began with demands to end police brutality and systemic racism. Trump has warned that mob rule is taking hold because local leaders have failed to crack down. Portlands mayor and other Trump critics say the show of force itself has inflamed tensions and prompted more violence and vandalism than would otherwise have taken place.

Antifa is fundamentally against free-speech and is using peaceful protests as a cover and an excuse to engage in violence and other criminal actions, Cruz said in a Thursday statement announcing the hearing. We are seeing this most clearly in Portland right now, as criminals are trying to burn down the federal courthouse. The hearing will highlight how Antifa and other anarchists are hijacking peaceful protests and engaging in political violence that is not only criminal, but antithetical to the First Amendment.

The Texas Republican chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. He titled the hearing The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence.

Antifa is not an organized group, though Trump has threatened to ban it. The name stands for anti-fascist and its a loose network of left-wing militants that conservatives blame for inciting violence.

Cruz has engaged in a weeks-long campaign against antifa via social media and conservative talk shows, emerging as a top defender of Trumps tactics.

Since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, protesters have taken to Portlands streets for more than 50 consecutive days demanding police reforms. Antifa supporters are often part of the crowds.

The deployments come as Trump attempts to refocus his reelection message to one of law and order. A string of recent polls shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading in almost every battleground state.

You wont be safe in Joe Bidens America, reads one recent Trump campaign ad.

Videos of unidentified federal officers whisking away protesters in unmarked vehicles have prompted accusations of authoritarianism. Cruz and other supporters have celebrated the deployments as overdue steps to protect federal property and halt rising violent crime rates.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined protesters Wednesday night, and ended up being tear gassed by federal officers. He called the tactic an egregious overreaction and has demanded that the federal forces exit the city.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Thursday that he has opened an investigation into the use of force by U.S. marshals at protests in Portland and Washington, D.C. U.S. Park Police and others used pepper spray to clear the park across from the White House for Trumps photo op at a nearby historic church on June 1.

Horowitzs office will work with the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate all federal agents deployed to the protests.

Were seeing violence and police cars being firebombed, police officers being murdered, and violent mobs within our cities, Cruz said Wednesday on Fox News. But even worse, in the face of that, were also seeing Democratic politicians, Democratic mayors, Democratic governors whove somehow made the decision its in their political best interest to allow the mob to carry out their violence.

Cruz used the appearance to promote a bill allowing lawsuits against local governments for wrongfully denying police protection in the situation of a riot.

Cruz cites autonomous zones -- short-lived protest camps free of police presence that have popped up in Seattle, Richmond, Va., Philadelphia and New York in recent weeks. While the zones are generally peaceful, criminal mischief is common. Seattle police shut down that citys autonomous zone July 1 after two teens were shot dead nine days apart.

Texas Democrats have voiced outrage over the federal intervention, arguing that it has only escalated problems.

Invading American cities without the authority to do so is un-American, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, tweeted Monday.

Last weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted that Trump and his storm troopers must be stopped, complaining that unidentified officers were kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.

Cruz shot back.

Arrests are not kidnapping, he said Monday on the Mark Levin Show. And violent antifa protesters who are assaulting people, who are firebombing police cars, who are murdering police officers they are not simple, peaceful protesters.

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Cruz calls hearing on antifa and political violence as Dems denounce Trumps show of force against - The Dallas Morning News

RICHMOND, Va. -- The chief of police believes members of Antifa and the Boogaloo boys were part of the hundreds of people who marched to Richmond Police Headquarters Saturday night during a demonstration in support of protesters in Portland, Oregon. That group continued marching leaving a path of destruction that included windows shattered at restaurants, businesses and a Virginia Commonwealth University dorm.

"We have identified some individuals who have been seen with the Boogaloo boys and some Antifa groups around the area," Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. "The majority of those individuals who were there last night were Caucasian."

Smith also said that he believed some in the crowd were Antifa-influenced.

"And some of the individuals that we encountered were from outside of Richmond, Virginia, and some of the surrounding area," Smith noted.

Smith said an online flyer for the Richmond Stands with Portland demonstration, which had been circulating for days and called for violence, did not originate in Richmond."

"We know that the origin of the flyer came from outside of Richmond," Smith said. "There are some people who are still inside some of these organizations that will still give us information. And that's how we know it came from outside of Richmond.

Officials said the six men arrested Saturday night were not charged in the vandalism and destruction in several Richmond neighborhoods. (Two of those suspects were charged with felonies: assault on a law enforcement officer; possession of a firearm while rioting.)

PHOTOS: Rioters leave path of destruction across Richmond

When asked when those responsible for the destruction would be held responsible, Smith said police are "utilizing a lot of video to identify people."

Smith had this message to the owners of businesses, like Graduate Richmond, the Village Cafe, Chipotle, Noodles & Company, Panda Express, Rick's Pizza and SWEAT in the Fan, were damaged.

"We still stand with them and we hope that they continue to stand with us," Smith said. "And know that we are not necessarily laying down on this -- we're not. What we are doing is doing vigorous investigations to identify these individuals to hold them accountable for everything that they did."

The chief and the mayor later thanked the 200 Virginia State troopers who helped with the demonstration as well as the Richmond police officers who worked during their vacation or days off.

Mayor: White supremacists marched under Black Lives Matter banner

Mayor Levar Stoney opened his remarks by thanking peaceful protesters with organizations like Black Lives Matter after what he called "24 consecutive days of peaceful protests." He also thanked the police and fire departments for their response Saturday night.

"You know, here in Richmond our standard for protest is that all groups walk away safe," Stoney said. "But protesters having expressed their discontent, and the officers having supported that peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. That's not what happened last night."

Stoney said the violence "hurt many people in the Richmond community, both through the threatening of lives and the destruction of property. And simply put, that is unacceptable in the City of Richmond. Unacceptable."

Projectiles like rocks and batteries were thrown at police officers, Stoney said. and bricks were lobbed at firefighters trying to douse a city dump truck that was set ablaze by someone in the crowd.

"That could have led to a very, very deadly event," Stoney said.

The mayor blamed white supremacists "marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter" for corrupting the peaceful social justice movement.

"We've spoken on many occasions about those who've chosen a more violent route to express their discontent, and what that does for the overall movement towards social justice," Stoney said. "Last night that reared its ugly head right here in the City of Richmond... We saw some violent actions, violent protests, spearheaded by white supremacists. And frankly, it was disgusting. Disgusting. As they held plywood shields that read, BLM, these folks toured areas of damage downtown, The Fan, breaking windows, tagging private property with hateful language."

Stoney said Saturday's riot aimed to undermine the month of peaceful, community-driven protest in Richmond.

"As I began with, I want to send a thanks to the BLM protesters on the ground who decried the white supremacists once they were identified. I'm thankful to you for drawing the line and sticking up not just for the sanctity of your movement, but also the safety of your fellow Richmonders that you marched alongside as well," Stoney said. "I'm thankful to the officers who were on duty last night for contending with the change in expectations for them. Change is always hard, but now it is the time for that change -- and if you're on our team, you know that."

The mayor said vigils and basketball games are "far more common than the mess we saw last night."

Police want videos

The police chief urged anyone with video of the riot, including the media, to turn send it to Crime Stoppers to help investigators.

"And we will be more than happy to review that footage to help us identify who these rioters were," Smith said. "You capture things that we may not have seen or individuals we may not have seen."

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000 or at http://www.7801000.com. The P3 Tips Crime Stoppers app for smartphones may also be used. All Crime Stoppers methods are anonymous.

RELATED COVERAGE:

This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can submit a news tip here. If you see breaking news, and can do so safely, shoot a photo or video and send it to CBS 6. You can also upload photos to our Facebook page or email pics@wtvr.com from your phone.

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Police chief believes Antifa, Boogaloo boys were at Richmond riot - wtvr.com

I recently found a flier lodged under my car windshield wipers. It read, Antifa meeting at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month and gave me an address. Come alone, as this is top secret, the flier noted at the bottom. It told me that when I got to the secret location, Id have to knock six times and give a password to be allowed entry.

I looked around, wondering if the person who left it on my car was watching me.

I was curious. For the last few years, President Trump, along with a family member who gets her news from Facebook, has claimed antifa is a terrorist group responsible for all the violence in America. Antifa is blamed by some for causing the recent race riots in my city of Minneapolis and others around the country, so I decided to check out the meeting and this is what I learned.

Antifa has roots in Germany and throughout Europe dating back to the 1920s. This came as a surprise since I keep hearing its a new, very organized group that came up from the underworld and magically showed up in Charlottesville in 2017.

Antifa really isnt an organization. Instead, its this insane belief that fascism, nazism and white supremacy is bad. Were you against Hitler and the German forces in World War II? Congratulations you too are antifa. Your free T-shirt and membership card will arrive in the mail in six to eight weeks.

People with the antifa mindset also have this crazy idea that health care should be affordable, all races are equal and woman should be gasp equal to men.

Did you know those who identify with antifa also believe police brutality is wrong and that some cops are bad people?

When it comes to the LGBTQ movement (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer), antifa believes they should have the same rights as straight people. The nerve!

Antifa terrorizes young minds with this wild notion that hate of any kind is bad. They work to instill secret weapons of knowledge, including real facts and history, to show why facsism is bad.

Antifa believes people of all backgrounds can coexist and live in harmony as long as they wait for it listen to each other.

While theyve been labeled a terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan has not. Seems odd, huh?

Is it Ant-e-fuh or Aunt-e-fuh? I still dont know and nobody could really tell me.

Yes, there is a secret handshake but I cant tell you what it is because I took an oath to never share it with anyone who isnt antifa.

Will I go back to another antifa meeting? Probably not since weeknights are hard for me. I prefer spending time with my family and I like to go to bed by 10 p.m.

Oh, and also because there are no antifa meetings.

Rachel Brougham is the former assistant editor of the Petoskey News-Review. You can email her at racheldbrougham@gmail.com. You can also find her on Twitter @rachelbrougham and Instagram @rachbrougham.

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OPINION: Rachel Brougham I went to an antifa meeting and this is what I learned - Petoskey News-Review

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Letter to the editor: BLM, antifa treasonous radicals - TribLIVE

Images of Border Patrol agents in military-style tactical gear grabbing protesters off the street inPortland, Oregon, have drawn condemnation from Democratic lawmakers, who have described the teams as secret police. For immigration advocates like Kaji Doua, a senior pastor at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City, there is nothing secret or particularly new about them.

As the co-chair of the New Sanctuary Coalition, an immigrant rights organization, Doua knows what its like to have the weight of the Department of Homeland Security come down on you she has a growing stack of internal DHS documents, produced in ongoing litigation surrounding the agencys surveillance of her and dozens of lawyers, journalists, and asylum advocates who were targeted in a sweeping DHS spying operation during the 2018 midterm elections. We were perceived to be radicals, Doua told The Intercept. A lot of white people turned away because it wasnt them, but now that its them in Portland, everybodys like, Oh, this is crazy.

The surveillance was just one politicized DHS operation among many that have taken place under the Trump administration. The same Border Patrol tactical teams currently on the ground in Oregon were also deployed to provide muscle and a visible show of strength for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting a crackdown on New York and other so-called sanctuary cities earlier this year. During the enforcement blitz, an ICE officer dressed in tactical gear was spotted knocking on doors in a Bronx apartment building with a rifle propped against his shoulder. In Brooklyn, a team of ICE officers shot a man in the face while attempting to make an arrest. As The Intercept reported in March, the escalated enforcement came as New York City was becoming the global epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic and led to the filling of local jails, which in turn became hot spots for Covid-19.

We were raising the alarm about it, Doua said. It feels like weve been screaming into a vacuum.

Long beforeDHS deployed masked paramilitary agents to the Pacific Northwest, the agency was directing its intelligence efforts against opponents of the presidentspolicies on the southern border, citing the coordinated circulation of public information, tweets, and potential vandalism as a precursor to extremist violence and domestic terrorism.

Long beforeDHS deployed masked paramilitary agents to the Pacific Northwest, the agency was directing its intelligence efforts against opponents of the presidentspolicies on the southern border.

In the summer of 2018, when the Trump administration was taking children from their parents by the thousands in an effort to ward off asylum-seekers at the southern border, a New York City-based data artist designed a tool for scraping LinkedIn that would collect and share information thatICE personnel had posted about themselves online. Alarm bells went off inside DHS.

Multiple incidents of doxing of DHS personnel and facilities could result in actualized violence against DHS employees by violent extremist actors, the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis warned in a June 29, 2018 intelligence note, describing the actors in question as individuals vehemently opposed to purported or perceived DHS actions regarding immigration policy.

While protests against the administrations family separation policy were massive, widespread, and diverse, the note went on to say that the current publicity surrounding federal immigration policy most likely will resonate with anarchist extremists or individuals who self-identify or subscribe to anti-fascist (ANTIFA) anarchist extremist ideology. The DHS intelligence office reported with medium confidence that if any criminal acts were to be conducted by these domestic terrorists, these acts would most likely be limited to destruction of critical infrastructure.

The intelligence note is among a trove of law enforcement documents that were recently hacked and posted online under the title BlueLeaks. The leaked documents reveal several instances in recent years of DHS and its subagencies circulating warnings about a dangerous anarchist or antifa element constituting a domestic terrorist threat. The documents bolster past reporting that has repeatedly demonstrated the agencys targeting of leftist opponents of the Trump administrations immigration and border policies, which set the stage for the federal law enforcement campaign the president is now seeking to take nationwide.

The materials are particularly noteworthy in light of recent events in Portland, in which DHS has cited the actions of violent anarchists as a justification for its show of force on the citys streets, pointed to doxxing as the reason that agents names are hidden from the public, and where the same DHS office that has hyped a threat from the left is now overseeing the intelligence work driving arrests on the ground.

The Intercept sent DHS a list of questions for this story, including clarification on how the agency is determining the political ideology of individual protesters accused of violence on the ground in Portland earlier this month, for example, acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf issued a press release blaming violent anarchists for 70 incidents of lawless destruction and violence in Portland (nearly all of the incidents involved graffiti or property destruction). The agency did not respond.

When considering the Trump administrations actions in Portland, its impossible not to recall the Department of Homeland Securitys targeting of activists and civil society organizations on the border for surveillance and criminal investigation, said Brian Griffey, a researcher at Amnesty International. In 2019, Griffey was the lead investigator on a report that documented how DHS engaged in a sweeping, multi-year campaign targeting human rights defenders, attorneys, and journalists working on the border. To label these political activists terrorists, its just the same in my mind as how they labeled activists and immigration lawyers on the border as criminals and smugglers, he said.

Having previously conducted human rights research in eastern Ukraine, Griffey has found himself increasingly concerned with the direction the administration now appears to be taking. A lot of whats happening here seems incredibly familiar, he said. From little green men, to the encouragement of far-right protesters to stage armed demonstrations outside Capitol buildings in regional areas. As we get into election season this is a recipe for trouble if they dont roll back the rhetoric and stop threatening civil society.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrest an undocumented Mexican immigrant during a raid in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on April 11, 2018 in New York City.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

There is no legal definition of a sanctuary city. For the Trump administration, the term has typically meant ostensibly liberal jurisdictions where local law enforcement has pulled back on some element of cooperation with ICE though ICE still operates in those cities, and in places like New York,a low-level brush with the New York Police Departmentcan still lead to deportation. President Donald Trump has repeatedly identified such jurisdictions as his political enemies. The federal law enforcement posture that has garnered so much attention in the past month is largely an extension of that view and is being rolled out alongside a reelection effort framed around the notion that leftist activists and political leaders are in cahoots to destroy the country.

As Doua and Griffey noted, much of whats happened in recent weeks, from the DHS operations themselves to the units involved to the governments characterization of the perceived threat, would be familiar to anyone whos had a close eye on the border in recent years.

On January 17, 2018, a specialized Border Patrol unit conducted a raid on a humanitarian aid station in the unincorporated border community of Ajo, Arizona. Scott Warren, a geographer and volunteer with the faith-based organization No More Deaths and several other humanitarian groups was arrested along with two young undocumented men from Central American who were attempting to cross one of the deadliest stretches of the Sonoran Desert. A Border Patrol agent who later admitted that he did not know how to secure a warrant for a wiretap had conducted a multi-month investigation into the aid facility. The U.S. Attorneys Office pursued the case aggressively, hitting Warren with two federal felony counts of harboring and one count of conspiracy. He faced up to 20 years in prison. The office brought nine other federal cases against No More Deaths volunteers accused of leaving jugs of water for migrants crossing the desert on public lands.

Trump administration prosecutors spent two years trying to lock Warren away. When the first trial ended in a hung jury, they brought another. The second jury returned a verdict of not guilty after just two hours of deliberations. Throughout Warrens ordeal, prosecutors alleged that No More Deaths and groups like it were effectively a border-wide anarchist conspiracy network aimed at breaking U.S. immigration laws.

Warrens case was among the first clear signs that the Trump administration was willing to devote considerable resources to aggressive and politically symbolic law enforcement activity in matters related to the presidents border agenda.

While Warren was able to avoid time behind bars during his brush with the Trump administrations politicized brand of border law enforcement, others were not so fortunate.

On August 3, 2018, ICE agents in Texas arrested 18-year-old Sergio Salazar at an Occupy ICE encampment in San Antonio, Texas. As The Intercept reported last year, Salazars tweets landedthem on the radar of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which forwarded the posts to an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Antonio that included ICE personnel. Federal authorities surveilled Salazar and the Occupy ICE encampment for weeks. Tactical agents in masks not unlike those in Portland visited the camp at night. One day after Salazars protections against deportation under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals expired, an ICE team moved in and placed them under arrest. In an evidence packet ICE compiled to support Salazars deportation,which Salazar shared with The Intercept, DHS argued that the recent high school graduates social media revealed their affiliation with the Anarchist Extremist Group ANTIFA. Salazar was locked up for 43 days before being deported banished, in their words from the only country they had ever known.

While much of the country was reacting in horror at the family separation policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection was reporting an increase in social media threats targeting DHS personnel.

The BlueLeaks documents show that Salazars case was referenced in a report circulated by a law enforcement fusion center in Colorado the following year: On 03 August 2018, an 18-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient was arrested by the FBI after posting instructional videos for making bombs to kill ICE agents. He also posted several anonymous messages online against ICE agents. Salazar was not arrested by the FBI nor were they ever charged or accused of a crime. The source of the fusion centers reporting was an article published by the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization with longstanding ties to Trumps top immigration architect, White House adviser Stephen Miller the Southern Poverty Law Center includes the organization among its designated hate groups.CISrejects the characterization.

The author of the CIS post was Todd Bensman, a former senior intelligence analyst at the Texas Department of Public Safety who, according to biographies on CISs website and his own, had a supervisory role at DPS that frequently involved sharing intelligence with JTTFs and ICE at the time that DPS shared Salazars tweets with FBI. Bensman left DPS for CIS the month of Salazars arrest, where he proceeded to writemultiple articles and posted a video about the national security threat that people like Salazar posed, drawing comparisons to ISIS propagandists who become the targets of hellfire missiles overseas because their incitement has proven so mortally effective.

Bensman told The Intercept he was aware of Salazars case during his tenure at DPS, but that he went to great pains to compartmentalize his work in law enforcement from the public facing reporting he produces at CIS. Though he believes federal law enforcement would not have devoted the resources to the Salazar case that it did absent a serious threat, he acknowledged that he did not have access to the case file ICE presented laying outits purported evidence to support that claim. If there was exculpatory information about that investigation, I certainly would have written about it, Bensman told The Intercept.

Salazars life was upended entirely by the investigation Bensmans previous office set in motion. From an apartment in Mexico, they wrote: Despite the hateful behavior and writings of the DHS and its employees against a teenage me, I still believe a better world is possible and still hold in my heart a vision of a world where migration is not criminalized or regulated through violence.

The BlueLeaks documents show that on June 22, 2018, while much of the country was reacting in horror at the Trump administrations family separation policy, and Salazar and their friends were occupying the ICE facility in Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection was reporting an increase in social media threats targeting DHS personnel. The threats included advocating violence against ICE officials and destruction of government property, the release of DHS officials personally identifiable information (PII), and the release of DHS facility locations.

For the most part, DHS facility locations, like the details government employees post on their LinkedIn pages, are publicly available information. CBP acknowledged that while doxxing itself may be constitutionally protected, the government would continue to monitor incidents of doxing where there is a reasonable belief that the doxed information could lead to violent domestic extremist activity. In a preview of what would become a Trump administration talking point regarding the recent protests, CBP warned that anarchist extremists have previously exploited constitutionally protected events to engage in violence against police. The agency listed nearly a dozen indicators of planned criminal or violent domestic extremist activity, which included preoperational surveillance of government buildings, symbols of capitalism, or symbols of corporate globalization and possessing anarchist signs.

Some of these behavioral indicators involve constitutionally protected activities, CBP noted. These indicators, therefore, only support a reasonable suspicion of violent activity when considered in conjunction with additional, supporting facts.

In the months after the alerts were issued, the Trump administration shifted into election mode, zeroing in on migrant caravans making their way north from Central America to rally the presidents base for the 2018 midterm elections.

Central American migrants run away from tear gas thrown by the Border Patrol after they tried to cross from Tijuana to San Diego, as seen from Mexico on Jan. 1, 2019.

Photo: Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images

When the caravans reached Tijuana at the end of the year, they were met with tear gas lobbed over the border wall by DHS officers and agents. Last February, The Intercept revealed that the agency had embarked on a sprawling, binational intelligence-gathering operation run by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement focused on journalists, immigration attorneys, and asylum advocates in the area. Targets of the program were routinely interrogated by DHS personnel when crossing into San Diego, in some cases for hours at a time. Multiple lawyers and photojournalists were barred from traveling internationally. Members of the press were forced to turn over their notes, cameras, and phones while plainclothes U.S. border officials pumped them for information about activists working with the caravans.

A month after The Intercepts investigation, NBC San Diego obtained a cache of documents, leaked by an ICE whistleblower, showing that DHS had built a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. The program featured the lead DHS border and immigration enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI, and it fell under the umbrella of Operation Secure Line, the Trump administrations border surge of military units during the midterms initially dubbed Faithful Patriot. Doua was among the immigrant rights advocates included in the database. In a section of Douas classified DHS file titled Target Significance, CBPs San Diego Intelligence Unit wrote, Possible connection to recent ANTIFA movement along the southwestern border.

There were 59 of us in the Operation Secure Line targeting database that basically tied all of us to so-called antifa, Doua said. I have no idea what that is.

The DHS border spying revelations prompted a bipartisan letter to the head of CBP from Sens. Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassleylast Marchdemanding answers. The border enforcement agency initially dismissed the matter then, four months after the story broke, admittedthat U.S. and Mexican authorities had indeed engaged in a cross-border intelligence operation. In October, the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of asylum advocates caught in the surveillance program, accusing CBP, ICE, and the FBI of First and Fourth Amendment violations. The governments powers are not limitless, the complaint read.

In July of last year, Willem Van Spronsen, a 69-year-old, self-identified anarchist, who went by the pen name Emma Durutti, was shot dead by police while allegedly carrying a rifle and throwing lit objects at vehicles used at a privately run ICE jail in Tacoma, Washington. The incident is the most serious escalation of force involving leftists challenging DHS to date. Other reported threats that federal authorities have investigated in recent years appear far shakier.

Last May, the FBI circulated a report, later leaked to Yahoo News and included in the BlueLeaks cache, titled Anarchist Extremists Very Likely Increasing Targeting of US Government Entities in Arizona, Increasing Risk of Armed Conflict. As Yahoo News noted in its coverage, which included interviews with individuals included in the document, almost all of the evidence cited in the report involved nonviolent protest activity. The reporting came just months after the San Diego Union-Tribune broke the news that the Trump administrations targeting of journalists and advocates at the border may have been linked to a bizarre FBI investigation in which an alleged Mexico-based cartel associate known as Cobra Commander was suspected of trying to sell guns to antifa in order to stage an armed rebellion at the border.

Like many of the materials that have emerged from the Blue Leaks trove, DHS documents concerning antifa suggest that the agency struggles to identify real threats in a world rife with internet jokes. In July 2019, for example, CBP alerted personnel about a social media user who had compared immigration agents to the gestapo and written kill all ICE agents, and an Antifa member who had written the following: I have perfected an acid that you can mix into milkshakes that will still taste refreshing and creamy but give you 3rd degree chemical burns hit me up. CBP followed the milkshake intel with a list of precautions to reduce the risk of targeting or attack.

The antifa-anarchist boogeyman that has haunted the minds of the nations border and immigration agencies for the past three and a half years has now gone national. According to a leaked DHS document obtained by Lawfare, the same office of intelligence and analysis that described anti-fascist (ANTIFA) anarchist extremists as domestic terrorists in 2018 is now collecting intelligence for federal law enforcement operations in Portland.

The president, accompanied by Barr and the heads of DHS and the FBI, announced that ramped-up federal law enforcement will be coming to several other cities around the country.

Just days after George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis and a local precinct went up in flames, Trump declared that he would designate antifa a terrorist organization. Highlighting antifa by name, Attorney General William Barr announced that the nations JTTFs, the same federal task forcesinvolved in Salazars deportation, would be called upon to identify criminal organizers and instigators whose role in hijacking the nationwide protests amounted to domestic terrorism. According the attorney general, the FBI is currently pursuing more than 500 such investigations. Incidentally, instigator, along with the word antifa, was one of the markers used in the secret DHS database of advocates on the border.

We shouldnt be looking at DHS in isolation from DOJ, Faiza Patel, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told The Intercept. Historically those two agencies have been engaged in turf battles, but it does seem that they are working pretty much in tandem here.

As The Intercept reported earlier this month, an official Trump Super PAC has pointed to the administrations antifa crackdown to raise money for the presidents reelection campaign. This is a political move, Patel said. The feds dont normally respond to graffiti when the local police say they can handle it. In a press conference on Wednesday, the president, accompanied by Barr and the heads of DHS and the FBI, announced that ramped-up federal law enforcement will be coming to several other cities around the country.

When the White House began pushing DHS into New York as part of the sanctuary city crackdown earlier this year, an underground network of advocates organized a rapid response system for identifying ICE activity in immigrant communities. Experiences like that are now informing how immigration advocates interpret and respond to the present moment, Doua explained. Its very concerning to us, but it doesnt feel all that different to me yet, she said. To the extent that there have been any radical shifts in the past few weeks, she said, its the fact that white people are starting to care.

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Before Portland, Trump's Shock Troops Went After Border Activists - The Intercept

In an apparent disturbing escalation in violence, after the 61st consecutive day of protests in Portland, Antifa have been accused of throwing real explosives, not fireworks, at federal agents.

Approximately 1,000 protesters took to the streets of Portland on Monday evening, including parents and veterans groups, all of whom were teargassed in something that has become a nightly tradition.

Daily footage from the city shows that neither side is backing down and, in the latest disturbing escalation, accusations that members of the protest group have begun throwing actual explosive devices at authorities have been made online, complete with eyewitness video purporting to show the explosives in action.

Until now, demonstrators have peppered the assorted federal agents with Roman candles and display rockets, but tensions and ensuing violence have increased night on night as video from the besieged city shows.

The arrest of one female protester on Monday night drew further criticism of the federal agents, leaving them facing accusations of using heavy-handed tactics.

The Justice Department also shared photos of materials seized from protesters throughout the unrest, which included several bottles of bleach, which can be used in the manufacture of explosives.

The protesters in Portland initially rallied against police brutality and racism after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, but recently the protests have evolved into a tit-for-tat escalation in violence between the protesters, assorted agitators in their midst, and the federal agents ostensibly deployed to restore order in a controversial move by US President Donald Trump.

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These are not fireworks: Antifa accused of throwing real explosives at feds in apparent major escalation in Portland - RT

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel / Flash 90

About a month ago, Ken Abramovich, the chairman of the American Friends of Likud and head of Save the West, pondered whether it was possible for the race riots that began in the US following the brutal murder of George Floyd to arrive in the Jewish state. At that time, the BLM and Antifa riots had already started to spread from America to England, Greece, Mexico, Germany and a variety of other countries. However, Dr. Mordechai Kedar could not contemplate that any Jewish Israeli would ever bring that sort of violence to our country, for it is anathema to Israeli culture.

As journalist Lara Logan exposed, Antifas mission statement includes 1) liberation will be won by any means necessary; 2) We will destroy the state, the police, military, corporations and all of those who run the plantations; 3) We will live in dignity in a world without prisons; 4) Systems of punishment will be abolished. There will be no law to enforce, no money to protect. 5) Revolutionary justice will be determined by those who are oppressed; 6) There will be no government. No person or group will have power over another. 7) Communities will make decisions about where they live and will make sure that everyone has what they need to live a dignified life; 8) Land is not property. It is alive, communal and must be protected. 9) Alongside international comrades, we will destroy all borders for the free movement of people everywhere; 10) Militant networks will defend our revolutionary communities. Liberation begins where America dies. Why would anyone Jewish want to support that, especially given the fact that Antifa has committed so many anti-Semitic acts of violence in America?

But in recent days, more and more violence has been registered in the daily demonstrations against the Israeli government. Matt Peleg, CEO of Im Tirtzu, stated in an exclusive interview: A quarter a million walk down Rothschild in September and not a window was broken in the past. But now, there are stones being thrown on shops and homes. Furthermore, a topless woman stood on top of a statue of a menorah, waving Antifa imagery. This makes one ponder, has Antifa tactics taken over what was until recently a peaceful protest movement, seeking justice for those who suffered economically during the pandemic?

Although there is no evidence of a direct connection between the Israeli Black Flag protesters and Antifa or BLM, Peleg argued that they have nevertheless imported the symbols, the flag and the same attitude from abroad, acknowledging that doing such things is not typical Israeli behavior: The New Israel Fund is active in the demonstrations via Standing Together, Zazim and other groups. They are always coming to every demonstration that is against the government. They also go after soldiers in Judea and Samaria. These same types of people have now come to Balfour and committed acts against the menorah. They also waved Palestinian flags and yelled out crime minister.

Im Tirtzu was not active in front of those demonstrations in the beginning, for it is legit to be against the prime minister, Peleg stressed. We are a democracy. But when you do something against the menorah, attack reporters and taxi drivers, and attack shops, Im Tirtzu will be there for to do something against the menorah is dangerous. Today, there are two demonstrations. One is Antifa-like radicals and one is by the right-wingers. We called upon the two camps to sing Hatikva together at 10:50pm at night, for they need to finish at 11pm. Some of the left-wingers were saying that they would not sing Hativka, even though we are close to Tisha BAv. This should tell you how much the radical left has taken over the protests.

Following the coronavirus pandemic, prominent Middle East scholar Dr. Mordechai Kedar believes that Israeli society is now divided: There are those who consider the state as the fulfillment of the Jewish dream to come back to Zion and to renew the Jewish sovereignty over the Jewish forefathers land. For them, Israel is a dream fulfilled. They also suffer from the coronavirus economic crisis, but they are at home, trying to make a living one way or another. The other side of Israeli society who does not share the same dream view the state as a supplier of bread and amusement (nightclubs, pubs, restaurants, beaches). Since for five months the state does not provide enough bread and all the amusement sites are closed, they run to the streets. Therefore, roughly saying with clear generalization that most of the demonstrators in the street are left-wing, while the people who do not demonstrate tend to be on the right side of the political map. It involves much politics and culture. You hardly see people with yarmulkes on their heads in these demonstrations.

The nude lady with the menorah resembles the cultural differences, Kedar added. The menorah symbolizes the Jewish dream, especially in front of the Knesset. She gets on top of the menorah and strips her body to show that for her the amusement is more important than the Jewish dream. Sitting on the menorah topless shows her scale of priorities in life. Interestingly, the very idea of a woman striping as a form of protesting against the state originated in Portland, Oregon, with a woman known as Naked Athena stripping in front of police officers during an Antifa protest, while doing ballet poses nude in front of the cameras. Prior to that, nude protests have a long tradition in the West, from Lady Godiva to the Hippies to the Iraq War protests to the Yellow Vest and Femen protests in France: It is the fashion today for women to expose themselves in order to cause attention to their cause.

While some commentators on the left have praised the topless woman standing on top of the menorah as a Lady Godiva-like feminist icon, posing naked in front of numerous spectators does nothing to enhance the status of women in Israel. It does not assist the country in battling increased incidents of domestic violence and rape within the family heading into another potential lockdown. It does not help any of the social workers in addressing the needs of battered Israeli women during the pandemic. It does not help rape survivors psychologically cope with the potential of another lockdown. All it does is objectify women as sexual objects, rather than portray females as thinking and feeling intellectual beings, who have an opinion to express.

Therefore, her action adversely affected the status of women in Israel, just as Antifa, the anti-Semitic movement that she glorified, offers no real solutions to the Israeli people struggling economically and psychologically with the pandemic. Therefore, adopting Antifa tactics, symbols and ideology harms any Israeli who seeks to speak out against the present economic disaster and seeks true solutions for the nations problems. For this reason, the fact that these economic demonstrations have been taken over by the radical left is a great tragedy for each Israeli who loves the country yet opposes another lockdown.

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Has Antifa finally Arrived in the Jewish State? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

Like many Americans, Republicans in Congress have a hard time coming up with a plan to fight back against antifa and the outraged mob that has terrorized communities across the country. The main goal of these rioters is to defund police departments. It is so insane that it is hard to respond with anything more than confused laughter. But the conservatives in the House and Senate have the right idea to defund the defunders.

Let us back up from the cable news hysteria and remember an important point. Police departments are the main reason we have the government. When you look at it, the government has a monopoly on the legal use of force. Its emissaries are paid to commit premeditated violence if needed to enforce laws. Police officers are those emissaries who carry guns and swear to use them only to enforce laws written by the people.

Yet the party of big government has become so drunk on its wokeness that its members want to eliminate the most basic core functions of the government, such as fighting crime, enforcing the laws, and protecting public safety. Defunding the police is somewhat like watching a football game without referees. Someone must call penalties or the contest will descend into a brawl. There would be more injuries than points.

This principle can be doubly applied when you talk about criminals. What exactly is supposed to deter murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and sexual predators from openly plying their trade if there is no one to stop them? If your city council defunds the police department, and you see a robbery taking place, who do you call? If criminals break into your house, what are you supposed to do? The activists have no answers.

The best they have is to replace police officers with social workers. They seem to not know that the reason adults become criminals is because the authority structures of family and society have failed. When that happens, the heroic efforts of social work are incapable of fixing the problem. What are social workers supposed to do with armed bank robbers or drug cartel hit squads? Should they sing Imagine by John Lennon to them?

But it is much worse than that. After all, we have seen a glimpse of what life would be like without police in Seattle and Portland. In Seattle, a mob took over a neighborhood, turned that into an autonomous zone, created physical barriers, and declared it an independent state not subject to the city or state. The local government told law enforcement to stand down. What followed was weeks of violent chaos until the mayor ceded.

The situation was perhaps even worse in Portland. The occupiers were not just trying to establish an autonomous zone outside of the authority of the city and state. They actively worked to destroy the legitimate authority of their community. They attacked residents, threw bottles at police officers, and set fire to several buildings. The liberal politicians in charge here have mostly sided with the mob. They are more outraged over President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden hits Trump's 'law and order' message: He's trying to 'scare the devil' out of people Pelosi bashes Barr after testimony: 'He was like a blob' and 'henchman' for Trump Schumer: Trump should want COVID-19 deal to help GOP election chances MORE trying to restore order than the violent mob destroying their city.

These liberal politicians also seem to want to defund police departments. If cities and states are crazy enough to throw their people to the wolves, the Constitution might give them the right to be crazy, although when it involves federal laws and property, the federal government has legitimate reasons to intervene. But if these cities and states refuse federal support, then the rest of us should not have to subsidize such lunacy.

Congress must ensure we have serious leaders. Lawmakers cannot simply lock their doors and hide. They must take action. When Congress passes spending bills for next fiscal year, it has to deny federal law enforcement funds to city councils and state legislators that seek to defund the police. If the rioters want to risk the lives of their fellow citizens to be cool, make them do it on their own dime. It is time to defund the defunders.

Jim DeMint is the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute. He is a former senator from South Carolina, sits with the White House economic recovery task force, and is the author of Saving America From Socialism.

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Time to defund the defunders | TheHill - The Hill

Minnesota Attorney General and former Congressman Keith Ellison spoke in favour of defunding police, using the example of rape as a reason why.

During an interview with PBS' Yamiche Alcindor, Ellison said that he does not believe women should contact the police after a sexual assault.

He said "If you're a woman who has been the victim of a sexual assault, and the assailant has ran away, wouldn't you rather talk to somebody who is trained in helping you deal with it, what you're dealing with as opposed to somebody whose main training is that they know how to use a fire arm. Right?"

Ellison's reasoning is that the assailant is gone, so the main problem for the woman who has been raped is to figure out how to deal with it, not to apprehend the rapist. Sexual assault victims, he believes, should instead get in contact with "someone who is trained in helping you."

Where rape is concerned, Ellison does not advocate for use of justice, but instead for some kind of mental health approach to deal with the rape victim. But back in May, Ellison was interested in bringing the law to bear on restaurants intent on keeping their businesses operational.

In May, Ellison filed suit against Kris Schiffler who owns Shady's restaurant as well as operating restaurants in other Stearns County, Minnesota locations. The attorney general's office referred to this area as "a COVID-19 hot spot," according to the Star Tribune.

Ellison is in favour of using law to shutter businesses, but not to apprehend rapists.

Ellison openly supports Antifaa far-left organization that has wreaked havoc across the country, using the death of George Floyd as an excuse for chaos and mayhem. President Trump announced his intention to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.

Ellison is in favour of lawlessness for women who are victims of violent crime, but not for restaurants that want to stay operational.

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Minnesota Attorney General in favour of using law to shutter businesses, but not to help victims of rape - The Post Millennial