Public safety officials battling dozens of deadly wildfires on the West Coast have also found themselves battling online misinformation.

Some rumors claimed that antifa, a broad coalition of left-wing activists, was behind the fires, which have killed at least 33 people. Others said law enforcement had arrested several arsonists associated with the movement and that Black Lives Matter activists shot at firefighters.

Police departments, fire officials and journalists have all debunked those claims. But that hasnt stopped the flow of misinformation about the wildfires, which span from California to Washington.

"ANTIFA is now carrying chain saws, and cutting down utility poles, and starting more fires," reads a Sept. 13 text post, which has been shared more than 3,300 times. "Is there any doubt that we have a war on our hands now?"

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We reached out to the original poster for their evidence, but we havent heard back.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Downed power lines are thought to have played a role in multiple wildfires on the West Coast. But strong winds, not antifa, are to blame.

The claim in the Facebook post may stem from some comments at a Sept. 10 meeting of the Clackamas County commission, which were later unscrupulously reported by conspiratorial websites like the Hal Turner Radio Show.

During the Zoom meeting, the commission, which governs an area southeast of Portland, Ore., spoke with Capt. Jeff Smith of the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office. Smith told commissioners that the office had received reports about "extremist groups" that were "suspected antifa."

"This is more specific to the Estacada (Ore.) area reports and sightings of people armed with chainsaws and the goal was to fall telephone poles in hopes of starting further fires," he said.

Smith also said the sheriffs office had received reports of people staging full tanks of gas around the county to start more fires.

"But this is some media thing it hasnt been confirmed," said Jim Bernard, chair of the commission.

"No, that part has not," Smith responded. "But the antifa part there have been reliable sightings and reports. Not confirmed, but I mean, it's pretty specific: being armed with chainsaws falling telephone poles in the hopes of starting further fires."

Later in the meeting, when pressed on the source of his information about antifa sightings in Clackamas County, Smith said he heard it from a "sergeant on the street."

"I don't know who his informants are at this time," he said.

We reached out to the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office for more information, but we havent heard back.

We cant verify whether a sheriffs sergeant in Clackamas County did or didnt receive reports about people trying to down power lines and start more fires.

The Clackamas County Sheriffs Office has issued statements debunking rumors that it arrested arsonists suspected of setting fires nearby. It also put a patrol deputy on administrative leave after a video surfaced showing him making obscene comments about antifa activists starting fires in the area.

"As soon as I was made aware of this incident, I moved swiftly to place this deputy on leave while we investigate," said Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts in a statement.

Multiple police departments and fire officials across the state say theres no evidence that political extremist groups are to blame for dozens of fires burning on the West Coast. The FBIs Portland field office has also debunked the rumors.

"FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon," said Special Agent in Charge Loren Cannon in a Sept. 11 statement on Twitter. "With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue."

Investigators say some fires were set deliberately, such as one near Eugene, Ore., that burned hundreds of acres, another in Phoenix, Ore., and a small fire in Puyallup, Wash. But extremist groups are not thought to be connected to them, and arson appears to be the exception among causes for the wildfires, not the rule.

So what is causing the wildfires? All evidence points to a mix of weather, downed power lines and fires set by people trying to enjoy the outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Many of the fires currently burning in Oregon are still under investigation, so I dont have confirmation of cause," said Joy Krawczyk, a public affairs manager for the Oregon Department of Forestry. "That being said, I havent seen or heard anything that indicates that the statewide wildfires were battling are the result of a coordinated, politically-driven arson campaign."

The Facebook post is inaccurate. We rate it False.

Read more here:

No evidence for rumor that Antifa cut down utility poles to start fires on the West Coast - PolitiFact

Alyse Galvins campaign communication director has recently published a list of Black Lives Matter-related websites where people can donate funds to bail out rioters who have been arrested across the nation.

Bridge Galvin, who goes by Bridget Claire online, shared the list in a Google document. Its called Dismantling Racism Resources. It has bail information for cities across America, from Seattle and Portland to Orlando.

See the Google Document Dismantling Racism Resources here.

Bridgets mom, Alyse, is running against Congressman Don Young, a known friend of public safety professionals.

As rioters burn down neighborhoods, terrorize drivers and cafe patrons, set fire to churches, deface statues of George Washington, and assassinate police officers in cold blood, Galvins campaign communication lead professional promotes groups that will bail out Black Lives Matter and Antifa terrorists and put them back on the street.

Congressman Young was recently endorsed by the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association.

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'Antifa Alyse' has you covered with this bail list for Black Lives Matter rioters - Must Read Alaska

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Wildfires have long been weaponized by climate deniers wanting to sow political division. But this week, the blazes consuming the West Coast became part of an election cycle culture war when claims that antifa started wildfires in Portland went viral. Theres no evidence that antifa started any wildfires, but conservatives on social media ran with the claim anyway, spreading it far and wide in Facebook groups and on YouTube.

Its unclear how the conspiracy theory originated, but its first big boost appears to have come courtesy of RT (formerly Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet known for mixing news with Russian propaganda.) RTs signal boost came in the form of an article that smashed together separate pieces of information about policing in Portland and the wildfires, insinuating a nefarious (and non-existent) link between the two.

Antifa are thrilled to hear this: Portland police ask protesters not to start blazes amid statewide wildfire emergency, read a RT headline from September 9th. The story focused on how the Portland Police Department was imploring protestors not to use fire during their demonstrations since fire danger is very high right now. While the facts of the story are technically true, RT goes out of its way to connect the current wildfire crisis with antifa, by eliding dates, and wrongly conflating incidents. The Sheriffs call for protesters not to use fire came on September 9. The last time protestors set large fires during a protest was on the evening of September 6, lasting into the early hours of the next day. Regardless, RT used video from that night of the 6th (without noting the date the footage) as the primary art for the story.

The headline is also misleading. Portland Police never said Antifa are thrilled to hear this. That quote was in a tweet from Andy Ngo, a right-wing propagandist who has been associated with the violent far-right group, Patriot Prayer.

Taken together, RT insinuates that antifa, the disparate and splintered group of antifascists, was a catalyst for the wildfires. No such evidence exists. But while they signal-boosted that false claim, RT didnt invent it from whole cloth. By the time Russian state medias post came out, rumors about antifa intentionally starting wildfires had already spread in online forums like Reddit and Facebook for at least a day.

The most viralpost supporting the conspiracy theorythat followed RTs article was Law Enforcement Todays now-altered article, initially titled Sources: Series of wildfires on the West Coast may be coordinated and planned attack.Law Enforcement Today changed it to Arson arrests made across the west coast as fires rage on, and appended an editors note, but not before it went viral, further feeding the online right-wing ecosystem.

A day after RTs post, American right-wing websites like The Post Millennial,the rights attempt to create a millennial Breitbart, and the conspiracy-laundering Gateway Pundit, ran their own misleading stories about an alleged arsonist who set a strip of grass in a highway median ablaze in Washington state. The Gateway Pundit initially published an article with the headline Antifa Radical Arrested for Arson in Washington State on Friday, even though there was no reason to believe that the arson suspect had any ties to antifa (it later quietly removed antifa from the headline.) The Post Millennials story was only slightly less misleading, blaming the arson on a BLM activiston the grounds that his Facebook account showed him attending one Black Lives Matter protest. The publication also claimed he led the gathering. A video shows him at the front of a protest, but theres no evidence that he organized it.

Matt Binder, a journalist who writes a newsletter on misinformation and who noticed RT trying to link antifa to wildfires, noted that this is how Russian political interference often works.A lot of the coverage of the Russia stuff always sort of pushes the idea that Russia is creating narratives and then spreading, he explainedover the phone. Thats not what happens. They see the stuff already happening online, and then they just help push it.

Thats potentially what happened in this case. Antifa wildfire rumors started online, and then RT helped provide the framing to give the idea more credence, before more cavalier, domestic right-wing sites blew the conspiracy out of control.

Read more:

Right-Wing Conspiracists Linked Antifa to the Wildfires. Then They Got a Big Boost From Russian Media. - Mother Jones

Facebook said Saturday it would take down erroneous posts claiming anti-fascist activists have been maliciously sparking wildfires in Oregon and other Western states.

The announcement came after multiple organizations, including the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Oregon, issued warnings on social media about the false rumors, and another sheriff's department placed a deputy on leave after he was seen on video suggesting fires were being started by antifa adherents.

There is no evidence Oregon's fires were caused by arson from far-left activists.

"We are removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups," Facebook spokesman Andy Stone tweeted. "This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public."

The Clackamas County Sheriff's deputy placed on administrative leave Saturday had been tasked with "ensuring that residents knew of the wildfire hazards" when he was captured on video speaking about arson fires, officials said.

Sheriff Craig Roberts apologized for the unidentified deputy's alleged actions.

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"The Sheriff's Office mission is to provide calm and safety especially during unprecedented times such as these," he said in a statement. "I expect nothing less of our deputies, and apologize to all in our community."

Authorities have arrested one person, Michael Bakkela, 41, in connection with one of Oregon's 38 actives wildfires, which have caused at least 10 deaths. He is accused of sparking up brush as the Almeda Fire in Phoenix, Oregon, was already burning, Jackson County Sheriff's officials said Friday.

Oregon's fires have charred more than 879,000 acres, according to state data.

Authorities have also had to contend with residents setting up road blocks in Multnomah County, where sheriff's deputies have urged residents to leave the law enforcement up to them.

"Deputies have contacted several groups of residents in Corbett who have set up checkpoints and are stopping cars," the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office tweeted Friday night. "While we understand their intent is to keep the community safe, it is never legal to block a public roadway or force other citizens to stop."

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office has issued warnings about false rumors swirling on social media.

"Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON," the office said on Facebook Saturday.

"THIS IS NOT TRUE!," it continued. "Unfortunately, people are spreading this rumor and it is causing problems."

A firefighters union in Washington said on Facebook recently that the platform was "an absolute cesspool of misinformation right now."

Facebook's Stone said the effort to remove such content could save lives.

"This is consistent with our past efforts to remove content that could lead to imminent harm given the possible risk to human life as the fires rage on," he said.

Dennis Romero writes for NBC News and is based in Los Angeles.

Phil Helsel contributed.

Read more here:

Facebook to take down false reports of antifa arson in Oregon - NBC News

Amid a wildfire emergency, 911 dispatchers in Douglas County are overrun with people claiming six members of Antifa set fires.

MEDFORD, Ore. A rumor about six "members of Antifa" setting fires in southern Oregon has been debunked by multiple law enforcement agencies this week, but that hasn't stopped the fake news from spreading on social media and by word of mouth.

More than 900,000 acres are currently burning in Oregon, with tens of thousands of Oregonians evacuated from their homes this week.

It appears the rumor began with a doctored Facebook post from the Medford Police Department Wednesday, claiming arrests were made in connection with a string of fires.

The rumor appeared to have taken a life of its own in nearby Douglas County, where the sheriff's office reported the county's 911 dispatchers were "being overrun with requests for information and inquiries" on the unsubstantiated arson and arrests.

This is a made up graphic and story. We did not arrest this person for arson, nor anyone affiliated with Antifa or...

"THIS IS NOT TRUE! Unfortunately, people are spreading this rumor and it is causing problems," the sheriff's office wrote. "Do your part, STOP. SPREADING. RUMORS! Follow official sources of information such as local emergency response websites and pages, government websites and pages and local reputable news outlets."

While some of the wildfires burning across the state may have been intentionally set, including the Almeda fire in Ashland under investigation as arson, fire officials say the rumor that Antifa started this is not true.

On Friday, the FBI released a statement that extremists did not start the Oregon wildfires.

"FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue," the FBI said in the statement. "Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control. Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources."

Multiple viewers have also contacted KGW -- online and in-person -- about these rumors.KGW News canVerify there is no truth to these rumors that Antifa planned and started these wildfires.

Do you have something you want us to Verify? Let us know. Email us at Verify@kgw.com

Excerpt from:

VERIFY: No, Antifa did not start the wildfires in Oregon - KGW.com

Rumors that fires consuming thousands of acres across the West are being deliberately set by antifa or other groups were spreading on social media Thursday like, well, wildfire. And they may be just as hard to extinguish.

Officials with the Washington State Patrol and the state Department of Natural Resources said they fielded calls all afternoon about online reports claiming antifa was starting fires. Theres nothing to indicate thats true, they said.

Some of the rumors point to the arrest of a man in Puyallup Wednesday who allegedly started a fire in grass in the median along state Route 167.

Jeffrey A. Acord was booked into that citys jail on a misdemeanor charge of reckless burning after being arrested by the state patrol.

The fire was put out relatively quickly.

We are unaware of any political affiliation he may have, said Chris Loftis, communications director for the patrol. He made no political statements.

Acord posted video of the fire on Facebook while he was standing on the side of the road with law enforcement officers. He was wearing a black ball cap with FBI on it. He told officers he spotted the smoke while he was driving toward the area looking for a camera he had lost, and called 911 to report the fire.

He was released from jail at 1:43 a.m. Thursday after posting bail. He was arrested again at 3:13 a.m. after a gas station near the jail was burglarized and the incident was captured on a security camera.

He was booked into Pierce County jail on a felony burglary charge. The prosecutor is studying whether to upgrade the reckless burning charge to a felony, said Capt. Jason Visnaw, a public information officer for the Puyallup Police Department.

Visnaw said he couldnt confirm or deny whether Acord has ties to any group.

What his political affiliations are is not really a priority for us right now, Visnaw said.

Rumors of antifa starting fires in Oregon were also disputed by law enforcement officials in Molalla a city south of Portland where residents were evacuated as two fires were merging and in Douglas County, an area south of Eugene with at least four fires burning, Portlands KOIN-TV reported.

Read the original here:

Rumors of blazes started by antifa spreading as fast as fires - The Spokesman-Review

OKANOGAN Investigators haven't said whether they believe the Cold Springs Fire was an accident or arson. But Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley sayshe's pretty sure of one thing: It wasn't started by antifa members.

There are many rumors about how the fire started Sept. 6, the sheriff said Saturday.

People have claimed to see a car driving away from the site where it started or have said that antifa started the fire.

There are plenty of people out there, Im hearing, that theyre presenting information like they saw something. And when you start going, (theyre like), Oh no, so-and-so told me who heard it from so-and-so, Hawley said.

Hawley said he has not seen any social media videos or pictures of anyone starting the fire. If it existed, hes fairly certain hed have seen it by now. But anyone with information should contact the Sheriffs Office at (509) 422-7200.

If somebody does have that and you talked to someone, wed be more than happy to have them come talk to us and show us that video, Hawley said.

It is unlikely that members of antifa started the fire, he said. For one thing, terrorist organizations usually claim ownership, which no one has, he said. AndOkanogan County is not exactly a prime target, he added.

The bang for your buck for terrorism, in Okanogan County I dont think youre quite getting that, Hawley said. It disrupts our community, but youre not disrupting a national scene.

The sheriff said investigators are collecting evidence into the death of Jamie and Jacob Hylands son, in case the cause of the fire is determined and it turns into a criminal case. Detectives can't go back and reassess the scene if it does turn out to be arson, he said.

The Sheriffs Office does not have anyone in custody in connection to the wildfire and the investigation is continuing, he said.

Were still just starting into this investigation, collecting the information we can from the scene where the family was injured, Hawley said.

The state Department of Natural Resources is leading the investigation into the cause of the fire and the Sheriffs Office and Colville Tribal Police are working with them.

Continued here:

Sheriff says its unlikely antifa started Cold Springs Fire - wenatcheeworld.com

POUGHKEEPSIE Six individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter (BLM) along with a young man carrying an ANTIFA flag protested Monday afternoon in Poughkeepsie.

Justin Ret was one of the protesters standing next to a red banner with the letters ACAB on it. When asked about it, he said it stands for All Cops Are Bastards.

Standing near Hulme Park at the corner of Market and Church Streets, the group was offering a series of chants, including Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, Stop Police Brutality.

According to Ret, the group obtained the required permit from the city to host the rally. We understand that police are overworked, said Ret who noted that police are required to perform several different duties with little to no oversight. He also stressed the need to defund the police. Police unions are the reason their budgets are bloated.

Kevin Van Wagner, President of the City of Poughkeepsie PBA, the union representing the officers addressed the groups concerns Monday afternoon. Im glad people are starting to realize that we are overworked, said Van Wagner, adding Were also understaffed.

The union president took issue with the claim that collective bargaining agreements are the reason that police budgets are bloated. Thats an uninformed argument by someone that hasnt done their research. We are hearing more and more arguments to defund the police but nobody can say where the cuts are supposed to come from because police budgets are at a bare minimum now.

Van Wagner also stressed that his members, through the PBA and the Police Athletic League (PAL) do a tremendous amount of community outreach on their own time, using money raised by both the PBA and PAL. Were out in the city doing more than waving flags our members are out here making a difference every day.

Read this article:

Antifa and BLM protest in Poughkeepsie - Mid-Hudson News

Emergency services in the US are fighting misinformation along with raging wildfires as people spread unsubstantiated social media posts blaming coordinated groups of arsonists from both the far left and far right for setting the blazes.

The FBI said it had investigated several claims and found them to be untrue, while officials in Oregon and Washington state turned to Facebook to knock down the competing narratives.

Some posts blamed far-left antifa activists and others claimed the far-right group the Proud Boys was responsible for fires which have killed at least 24 people across Oregon, Washington and California.

"I am physically and emotionally exhausted. We've been working really hard to protect people's lives and homes," firefighter Matt Lowery wrote on the Facebook page for the East Pierce Fire & Rescue union south of Seattle.

"I also want to address an issue that keeps coming up, even from some of the public that we are talking to while working. It is hot, dry, and fire spreads quickly in those conditions. There is nothing to show it's antifa or Proud Boys setting fires. Wait for information."

The Mason County Sheriff's Office urged Washington residents to stop spreading rumours as isolated incidents of apparent arson led to widespread, unfounded claims that antifa agitators were conspiring to start fires along the West Coast.

Antifa is short for anti-fascists, a range of far-left militant groups that oppose white supremacists.

"Though some agencies have made arrests related to arson recently, they appear to all be separate individuals, however as with many incidents, it will be an ongoing investigation in each jurisdiction," the agency wrote on Facebook.

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While some arson arrests have been made, it is not yet clear how all the scores of fires in Washington state and Oregon started.

Officials say high winds and dry conditions have made them worse in a region with a cool, wet climate that has historically protected it from intense fire activity.

Both Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Washington Governor Jay Inslee have called the wildfires "unprecedented" while California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the deadly, record-shattering fire season across the US West should end all debate over climate change.

Left and right-wing groups have clashed during protests in the region, particularly in Portland, Oregon, where a caravan of US President Donald Trump's supporters drove cars through the liberal city last month.

An antifa supporter shot and killed a member of a right-wing group and was himself fatally shot by Washington state authorities a week later.

The FBI said it worked with local authorities to investigate claims that extremists set wildfires and found them to be false.

"Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away from local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control," an FBI statement said.

"Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources."

Officials in Oregon also debunked claims of widespread arrests of people affiliated with the Proud Boys or antifa.

The surge of misinformation in the United States comes after a similar experience in Australia during the bushfire season in late 2019 and early 2020.

The ABC found suspicious accounts amplified incorrect claims that arson was the overwhelming cause of the fires.

One area of misinformation on Twitter was the hashtag #ArsonEmergency, which a Queensland University of Technology researcher found was attracting a "suspiciously high number of bot-like and troll-like accounts".

Among the unsubstantiated claims, some posts wrongly asserted that hundreds of arsonists had been arrested, and that some of the fires had been started deliberately by left-wing and environmental activists.

Misleading photos and inaccurate fire maps were widely shared, including by international celebrities.

In June, the royal commission into the bushfires heard that while social media and community noticeboards were the most effective communication methods during an emergency, they could also be used to quickly spread misinformation.

In general, experts recommend using trusted media outlets, checking multiple sources and avoiding sharing content without a clear attribution.

AP/ABC

More here:

Posts on social media are blaming antifa and the Proud Boys for the US wildfires. Firefighters, police and the FBI say it isn't true - ABC News

Raised in a good German family, 20-year-old Luisa (Mala Emde) is now in open revolt, part of a different breed of good family. Shes a first-year law student and ardent antifa warrior, determined to defeat a resurgent wave of neo-Nazis in her town. Her parents are part of a local hunting group and like to hang up their kills in the woods but Luisa is now veggie and wants no part of that world. A pity, says her dad. You were always our best shot.

This years Venice film festival has been notably lacking in big studio films and this has freed up space for the occasional rogue interloper or narrow-eyed insurrectionist. And Tomorrow the Entire World, by the German writer-director Julia von Heinz, blasts on to the Lido to tell us about harsh reality and the current field of conflict; a terrain thats at once under our very noses and impossibly removed from the sunny tourist haunts of Venice. The tale drifts and falters when I wished it would have hit home with more conviction, but that may be partly the point. The struggle is endless, unwinnable. Everybody is compromised.

Were in the city of Mannheim, although it could be any number of others. Von Heinzs drama unfolds in a no mans land of underpasses, kebab shops and unclaimed ground. Its a place of doorstep drinkers and bus-shelter smokers, a place to be fought over by left and right alike. In class, Luisa learns that the German constitution allows for pre-emptive action to be taken against non-democratic groups. But who makes that call? Who decides which group is which? It depends which end of the telescope youre looking down.

On TV, for instance, the newsreader refers to clashes between rightwing protesters and leftwing protesters and the blithe moral equivalence the reductive even-handedness of the comment immediately sticks in the craw. But, in the case of P31, Luisas antifa collective, it may not be entirely wide of the mark. The group is led by Noah Saavedras preening, macho Alfa (the name is a little too on-the-nose), who appears to have little interest in ideology and idealism beyond the opportunities they provide to pick fights or get laid. Alfa, by and large, is in antifa for the thrill, and his unconvincing relationship with Luisa is probably the films weak link.

Or perhaps what Von Heinz is showing is a crucial changing of the guard: the way in which a new arrival such as Luisa for all her baggage and privilege can redirect the movement back to its core principles. Tellingly, this is a film full of flawed men. Theyre either playing the role of a pound-shop Che Guevara, like Alfa, or living a lonely hermits existence like Dietmar (Andreas Lust), a legendary 90s radical whos now gone to ground. The women, by contrast, are the tales true believers.

After a scuffle with skinheads, Luisa and Alfa get their hands on a cheap burner phone. This in turn leads them to a Nazi rally by the rail tracks and a mysterious lock-up garage outside town. Proceeding along its stealthy course, Von Heinzs tense, well-textured film treads a chilly, liminal country. Its activists are bundled in fleeces and scarves, warming themselves around matches and rollies, like soldiers in the trenches of a new kind of campaign. When a pigeon beats its wings inside a darkened multi-storey, it sounds for all the world like a grenade going off.

Continue reading here:

And Tomorrow the Entire World review German antifa drama skewers left and right - The Guardian

Deborah Bloom / Getty Images

Gabriel Trumbly, a Portland videographer who has spent roughly 90 of the past 100 days capturing the protests, wanted to take footage of the forest fires raging in Oregon. So on Wednesday night, the 29-year-old Army veteran set out with his partner, Jennifer Paulsen, 24, to see what was happening near her childhood home of Molalla, a town of 9,000 people known for its annual rodeo, the Buckeroo. Fires surrounding the town were so intense they had prompted a level 3 GO NOW warning to evacuate.

Little did they know when they arrived that Trumbly and Paulsen's presence would spark national rumors that far-left activists were starting fires across the West Coast.

After parking their car on the side of a road, the couple pulled on gas masks and shot video of towering flames. As they worked, they encountered people who had rigged a garden hose to a water tank in the bed of a truck and were trying to put out a fire in the driveway. Trumbly and Paulsen briefly spoke with them, as well as a driver who asked them if they needed any water.

Trumbly and Paulsen, both of whom spoke to BuzzFeed News by phone from Portland on Thursday, said the interactions seemed normal. They said the fire was moving quickly, so they didnt stay long in Molalla. We thought it was getting a bit dangerous, so we left, Trumbly said.

But shortly after they left, Paulsen began checking Twitter and Facebook to see news about the fires. She noticed that residents were sharing information about their car, including detailed descriptions of its appearance and license plate. The posts claimed they were members of antifa, an amorphous collection of left-wing groups that the president has called a terrorist organization, who had come to Molalla from Portland to commit arson.

Authorities in Oregon have struggled for days to fight apocalyptic wildfires that have burned over 800 square miles, forced thousands to evacuate their homes, and killed at least three people. Now they are also fighting a wave of rumors spreading on social media that the blazes were set by left-wing activists linked to the Portland protests.

The panic in Oregon appeared to stem from a woman in a Facebook group called Molalla NOW, meant for locals to share information about community events.

The post, which Trumbly shared a screenshot of on Twitter, claimed he and Paulsen had started a fire and misidentified them as two guys wearing gas masks and press vests. It quickly garnered hundreds of reactions and replies.

It blew up with comments! Paulsen said. People were saying, Send people out with guns! It said we were antifa.

Paulsen, who graduated from Molalla High School, even knew some of the people in the group. Now she and Trumbly were being hunted by a group of armed men on the towns streets.

BuzzFeed News was unable to identify the armed men, but a spokesperson for the Molalla Police Department confirmed their presence by phone and two Portland-based freelance reporters who visited the town on Thursday posted photographs of what they said were three armed men who threatened them.

A vague Facebook message by the Molalla Police Department posted Wednesday evening fed suspicion among the rumor- and fire-stricken residents.

To those of you still in and around town, please report any suspicious activity (strange people walking around/looking into cars and houses/vehicles driving through neighborhoods that don't belong there) to 911 immediately, the MPD post read.

Make them dig a grave then shoot them, read one of the posts calling for them to be shot.

Concerned about dozens of similar posts, Trumbly called the Molalla Police Department around 1 a.m. to clear things up, he said.

He said an officer told him several calls had come in since he and Paulsen left Molalla about antifa members being seen in the town and a group of armed men patrolling the streets.

But it wasnt until early Thursday morning that the police department updated its post.

EDIT/CLARIFICATION: This is about possible looters, not antifa or setting of fires, the updated post read. There has been NO antifa in town as of this posting at 02:00 am. Please, folks, stay calm and use common sense. Stay inside or leave the area.

Paulsen, who graduated from Molalla High School, even knew some of the people in the group. Now she and Trumbly were being hunted by a group of armed men on the towns streets.

While police in Washington did make an arson arrest yesterday, it was long after the fires began spreading, and in a different state.

Besides the Molalla Police Department, the Medford Police Department, the Douglas County Sheriffs Office, and the Jackson County Sheriffs Office have published appeals on their Facebook pages in the past 24 hours for the public to stop spreading false information connecting antifa to the Oregon fires.

Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON, wrote the Douglas County Sheriffs Office.

Acknowledging the incident, a Molalla Police Department hotline operator told BuzzFeed News Thursday that the department has gotten calls about antifa arsonists and more [...] Weve gotten calls about everything and anything. The operator also confirmed reports on social media of armed locals patrolling the towns streets.

Its certainly hindering our ability to do our job more effectively.

Lt. Mike Budreau of the Medford Police told BuzzFeed News that his department had been inundated with unsubstantiated reports about members of antifa and the Proud Boys, a right-wing group. Its been problematic and it takes time away from us when we're dealing with not only these fires, we have missing people, missing pets, he said. Its certainly hindering our ability to do our job more effectively.

The narrative was quickly seized upon by provocateurs. Right-wing website the Biggs Report claimed that antifa members were starting fires throughout the Pacific Northwest. Possible ANTIFA Member Arrested For Starting Fires In Washington State, said the post. A Washington state volunteer firefighter service linked to that story on Facebook, receiving 56 shares before the platform removed it.

At the same time, the Biggs Report, founded by a former InfoWars contributor, attempted to knock down rumors of their own, posting a second story that purported to debunk claims that members of far-right group the Proud Boys had started fires of their own. The Boys Did Nothing Wrong! said the story.

The group, which the FBI has labeled extremist and having ties to white nationalism, shared both stories on its Telegram channel.

The antifa narrative was also encouraged by a failed Republican Senate candidate in Oregon. His tweet was retweeted over 8,000 times and a screenshot of it spread on pro-Trump Instagram channels. It was also pushed by a Trump supporter affiliated with conservative nonprofit students organization Turning Point USA in Seattle. Her tweet went viral. These fires are allegedly linked to Antifa and the Riots, she wrote.

The rumor has been posted to virtually every social media network, including TikTok and the anonymous messaging board 4chan.

Despite the rampant misinformation, some people were attempting to clarify the situation.

Ok we gotta clear this up now, said one person on Facebook alongside a Bureau of Land Management announcement of area closures. Blm does NOT stand for Black lives matter in this in reference to the fires.

They are ones who manages the lands and watch for fires ect, the person continued. I think the acronym is causing confusion making people assume its antifa before factchecking. local radio refer to them as blm too but means the government program not the protests.... thats where our hysteria is coming from.

Paulsen said the ordeal has spooked and shocked her. I know these people or I know their families, and theyre treating me like Im an outsider, even though thats where I went to high school. Thats where my parents live, Paulsen said. They were writing [on Facebook], Shoot now, ask questions later. You dont want your house catching on fire.

For the record, Trumbly and Paulsen said they are not members of antifa, although they are against fascism.

Sep. 11, 2020, at 14:23 PM

Correction: The name of the website Biggs Report was misspelled in a previous version of this post.

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When They Came To An Oregon Town To Take Pictures Of The Fires, Armed Locals Thought They Were Antifa Arsonists - BuzzFeed News

The U.S. Justice Department must stop the nationwide unrest caused by the Black Lives Matter movement, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik told Fox & Friends Weekend.

Bottom line is, this has to stop, he said. The Justice Department has to go after Black Lives Matter, after Antifa and put an end to this.

The anti-police movement is only worsening in some cities as two deputies were shot in California andprotests raged in New York City over the weekend, shutting down the George Washington Bridge. Kerik said city and state officials must step in andre-administer law and order.

VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS PUSH TO EXPAND POLICE DECERTIFICATION LAW

Every one of them are responsible for allowing this stuff to happen, he said. Blocking vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic is a crime. Resisting arrest is a crime. Obstructing justice is a crime. Assault on cops is a crime. Every single person on that bridge should have been arrested. Period.

Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during the 100th consecutive day of demonstrations in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Kerik drew a parallel from todays movement to those of the 1970s and 1980s -- mentioning groups like the Black Liberation Army andBlack Panther Party where the same leaders responsible for assassinating almost two dozen police officers over 10 years are still involved now.

And a majority of the American public and organizations that are pushing to elevate BLM must be educated on the reality, Kerik added.

I think you have to educate the American public because they're stupid, he said. They have no conception of what the organization stands for. They have no conception of who the leaders are, how they were inspired, what they believe. They have no idea. So the bottom line is you have to educate the American public on what reality is.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

This is an anti-government, anti-police Marxist movement that people are supporting because they're ignorant, he said.

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Bernie Kerik says DOJ must put an end to BLM, Antifa: This is an anti-government movement - Fox News

A Black Lives Matter protester confronts Trump supporters as they rally in the street outside the Justice Center in Portland, Ore., on August 22, 2020. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa US

Chad Wolf, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, appeared Monday on Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Carlson asked why the heads of Antifa and Black Lives Matter hadnt been charged under, for example, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for what Carlson alleged was their responsibility for riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Wolf replied that the Department of Justice was looking into it. Ken tells us again (for, like, the millionth time) why its not RICO, but there are other statutes under which the Trump administration could seek to bring charges or otherwise harass the leaders of these movements. Speaking of federal investigations, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wants someone to look into the protesters who surrounded and accosted him and his wife as they left President Trumps convention speech. What crime does Rand Paul think was committed here? Is there a situation where screaming at someone can cross a legal line?

Plus: the latest on the Flynn case, whether the House can subpoena former White House counsel Don McGahn, Manhattan DA Cy Vance is still trying to get those Trump financial documents, and is it legal for the Centers for Disease Control to ban the evictions so as not to spread Covid-19?

Read the rest here:

Did Antifa and BLM do the RICO? - KCRW

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

You are the progressive Democratic mayor of an American city. You have done everything right in that you have adopted the most recent trendy and politically correct liberal stands on community issues. You have demoralized and reduced funding for the police force, declared support for street demonstrations, and spoken out for social justice. Why then, is a mob of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa activists besieging your house and demanding your resignation?

Suddenly, the horrible realization hits you: You have been cancelled for showing insufficient revolutionary zeal. You have joined the ranks of loyal fellow travelers who have become expendable in virtually every radical leftist revolution.

Joseph Stalin perfected the cancel culture even though he used different terms. Those who disagreed with him or showed insufficient revolutionary zeal became unpersons. Any mention of them was purged from official records, history books, and their photos were airbrushed out. If they were prestigious enough to have statues erected in their honor, the monuments were removed. It has taken the American radical left quite a while to feel powerful enough to formerly adopt a cancel culture.

Some leftists made it easy to be cancelled. The public moral depravity of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffery Epstein required their public liquidation from the ranks of the woke. Other victims have merely made seemingly innocuous mistakes; but the far left is unforgiving as Garrison Keillor, Al Franken and Ellen DeGeneres have found. All made careers of slavishly toeing the progressive line, but each found that one aw sh*t can cancel a thousand atta-boys.

To give the radical left its due, it is an equal opportunity hater. The cancelled mayors of Rochester, New York, and Chicago are African-Americans, and both are women. That did not save them from the wrath of the BLM and Antifa activists who now dictate what passes for political acceptability among the far left.

Unlike the old Soviet Union, which occasionally allowed public self-confession in show trials, the American left does not accept remorse for sins whether real or imagined as penance.

A Washington, D.C., college professor recently confessed to posing as African American. Despite voicing public remorse for her deception and her voluntary self-cancellation, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah piled on accusing the now former professor of performing the ultimate act of White privilege. How this masterpiece of Orwellian illogic got past her editors remains a matter for conjecture, but Ms. Attiah reflects the prevailing winds of progressive intellectualism.

All of this leads us to Joe Biden, who is probably one gaffe away from being cancelled by his very reluctant supporters in far left of his party. Like the mayors, Mr. Biden has been to the extent that he believes anything a loyal progressive for over a half century, but his record is too moderate for the Bernie Sanders wing of the party and certainly not radical enough for the revolutionaries among BLM and the Antifa crowd; they are holding their noses and supporting the ticket reluctantly.

What passes for moderates among the Democrats and their supporters are becoming increasingly concerned that the violent behavior of the far left will swing the election to Mr. Trump. They are urging former vice president to take a strong stand against violence, which will almost certainly get him cancelled by the far left and lose much support from BLM. Unless his handlers carefully control him, he is almost certain to alienate either the moderates or the radicals.

Mr. Bidens running mate, Kamala Harris, is also on shaky ground with the radical left for her performance as a San Francisco prosecutor, but her seemingly supportive comments regarding violence on the Colbert show have alarmed Democratic moderates.

At this point, the thin thread holding the Democrats together is their desire to get rid of Donald Trump. How they will govern or what the party now stands for is increasingly opaque. If there are debates, Mr. Trump and Mike Pence will ask Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris hard questions regarding their views on mob violence; and that will further exacerbate the Democratic Party divide.

The radical left is not in a forgiving mood these days, and the possibility of its members cancellation of either Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris or both is probably keeping Democratic Party operators awake nights. The U.S. Marines have an old saying that goes: To err is human, to forgive is divine; neither of which is Marine Corps policy. The way things are going, BLM and Antifa are poised to make the Marines look like pussycats.

Gary Anderson lectures on Alternative Analysis at the graduate level.

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Will Antifa and Black Lives Matter cancel the Biden-Harris ticket? - Washington Times

As Im sitting in a doctors waiting room in Memphis, a television set hanging from the ceiling plays a Fox News program whose host warns of antifa heading to a town near me.

But what exactly is antifa? Im a news junkie, and I barely have a clue.

These menacing insinuations mirror the way the term antifa is used in right-wing media not with precision or even sincerity, but as an incantation or curse. And they are obsessed with it.

The word stands for anti-fascist, and it appears to have originated in Germany in the 1930s and then resurfaced again in the 1970s. With the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, small organizations with that name have cropped up in a few American cities. But, for the most part, labelling protesters as members of antifa or, as Trump likes to say, professional anarchists is often either a red herring or a false flag operation used to frighten gullible citizens.

In early June, for example, a fake Twitter account pretending to be from antifa called for violence. It turned out to be a scam orchestrated by white nationalists.

Antifa, as a code word used to rile up fear and paranoia, has been lobbed especially at Black Lives Matter activists. Trump and Attorney General William Barr have repeatedly said that demonstrators leading the protests for racial justice are antifa, even though independent analyses by National Public Radio and the The New York Times of federal arrests of protesters dont actually show anyone with these connections.

Trump and Fox News are tireless promoters of such scare tactics. On August 31, when the President was interviewed by Fox host Laura Ingraham, he suggested that Democratic nominee Joe Bidens campaign was being run by a secret cabal of people youve never heard about, people that are in the dark shadows. These menacing insinuations mirror the way the term antifa is used in right-wing media not with precision or even sincerity, but as an incantation or curse. And they are obsessed with it.

Indeed, Fox News might as well change its name to the Antifa Network, because over the past few years, according to a Lexis-Nexis search conducted in early August, its broadcast the word 520 times, versus just 24 for CBS, 37 for ABC, and 66 for MSNBC. In one July 2019 episode of Laura Ingrahams program alone, she or her guests said the word 59 times.

As the presidential election in November draws near, its clear that conservatives are using the myth of antifa to pander to their base. But is it working?

To some extent, yes. According to a Rasmussen poll in June, almost half of respondents say antifa should be considered a terrorist organization, even though most of them probably couldnt tell you what it is, stands for, or wants.

Victor Klemperer, a Jewish professor of French literature who survived the Nazi regime, wrote in his book The Language of the Third Reich that a foreign word impresses all the more the less it is understood.

Perhaps that explains the strange buoyancy of antifa in right-wing media outlets. But whatever the reason may be for its popularity, the purpose is clear.

Political language, as George Orwell wrote in 1946, is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

In much of the country, antifa is mostly wind. And its hot-air blowers are the kind of demagogues that history knows all too well.

This column was produced for the Progressive Media Project, which is run by The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.

September 3, 2020

11:22 AM

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What Is Antifa? Mostly a Myth - Progressive.org

President Donald Trumps latest outlandish conspiracy about a person he refuses to name having firsthand witnessed a commercial flight full of thugs and looters clad in black uniforms with gear may seem ripped directly from an unhinged relatives Facebook page. But before this bizarre theory was being pushed by the president, another GOP lawmaker was spouting a nearly identical story.

Speaking to pro-Trump outlet Breitbart News over the weekend, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) brought up the protests outside the presidents RNC speech at the White House last week, which featured demonstrators heckling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and other attendees as they exited onto the D.C. streets.

Were lucky, the other nightI was there at the White House the other night, Nunes fumed. We are damn lucky that no one was killed. That was really, really close to somebody being killed.

The congressman then went on to relay a story that matches closely the tale the president spun to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday.

So, these people that descended on Washington, D.C., most of them were not local, Nunes declared. In fact, I flew in with a bunch of them where I got on a plane in Salt Lake City where I had to commute through and I saw maybe two dozen BLM people.

Nunes continued: The irony is they were all white people, they werent even Black, but somebody was paying for those people to go therethey were coordinated, paying for that, and then what they did was they were not protesting. This is not protesting when you block the exits of the White House.

Neither Nunes office nor the White House returned a request for comment. But the congressmans interview with Breitbart represents a type of missing puzzle piece to the mystery of just where Trump got the idea of an antifa plane packed with geared-up looters.

In his interview with Ingraham, the president seemed to add his own details to the story he may have heard bubble up in Trumpworld, suggesting the activists wore matching uniforms and were ready for battle.

We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city and on the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that, Trump exclaimed. They are on a plane.

Adding that the matter was under investigation right now, the president insisted that they came from a certain city and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention.

He went on to allege that there were a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage.

Reporters asked the president on Tuesday morning if he could expand on the plot of people gathering on a plane, prompting Trump to insist hed heard the rumor from a prominent person.

I can probably refer you to the person and they could do it, Trump said. I would like to ask that person if it was OK. The person on the plane said there were about six people like that person or more less and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, rioterspeople looking for trouble.

The person felt very uncomfortable on the plane, he added. It is a person you know. Ill see whether or not I can get that person to speak to you. This was a firsthand account of a plane going from Washington to wherever and Ill see if I can get that information for you. Maybe they will speak to you, maybe they wont.

Nunes has been extremely churlish with non-conservative media for years now, not only refusing to speak to many news outlets but also filing lawsuits over negative stories about him (he has also threatened to sue The Daily Beast). His lawsuits targeting Twitter over anonymous parody accounts, however, have repeatedly been dismissed by federal judges.

NBC News reported on Tuesday that the presidents story about a plane loaded with thugs flying in from out-of-town to cause damage was similar to a debunked viral Facebook rumor that warned of antifa activists being transported in groups to terrorize suburbs. The post claimed at least a dozen males got off the plane in Boise from Seattle, dressed head to toe in black, warning Idaho residents to be ready for attacks in downtown and residential areas.

Nunes wasnt the onlyor even the firstpro-Trump Republican lawmaker to claim that hordes of well-funded, violent left-wing agitators were shipped in specifically to attack the RNC. After he was accosted by protesters following Trumps speech, Sen. Paul speculated on Fox & Friends that the demonstrators were paid to be in Washington.

My feeling is there is interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines, huffed Paul, who also called for an FBI investigation. They flew here on a plane, they all got fresh new clothes, and they were paid to be here. It is a crime to do that and it needs to be traced.

Following Trumps Ingraham interview, which sparked immediate online mockery, the Trump campaign shared a clip of Pauls Fox appearance, seemingly as evidence to back the presidents story.

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Devin Nunes May Be Trump's 'Person' Who Witnessed the Antifa Plane 'Firsthand' - The Daily Beast

Social media posts imply Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supports or is supported by anti-fascist group Antifa because the URL antifa.com redirects to joebiden.com. As of this fact checks publication, antifa.com does redirect users to joebiden.com, but this is not proof of a connection among the two.

Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

One viral post with over 67,000 shares is visible here . It reads, if you go to Antifa.com, it takes you directly to joe bidens webpage....whats that tell ya...try it yourself. Other popular examples can be seen here and here .

Several top officials from the Trump administration, including U.S. Attorney General William Barr, have blamed Antifa and other agitators for taking over the protests in U.S. cities. It is not clear how many, if any, of the protesters participating in demonstrations across the country are from Antifa, which experts say is not an organization but rather an amorphous movement (here).

Whois.net, a website that displays public information related to domain ownership (www.whois.net/), says that antifa.com is registered to NameCheap, Inc., a domain registration and web-hosting platform (www.namecheap.com/).

By using Internet Archives Wayback Machine (here: rb.gy/d2scrf), the earliest snapshot available where the page redirects to JoeBiden.com is August 8, 2020 (here: rb.gy/hsfyr5). The previous snapshot, from July 24, 2020 leads to a page titled We Are Antifa: Join Us & Take Action, and describes messages typically associated with the group (here: rb.gy/nwh30s). This site links to a YouTube channel (here) and a Twitter account that is now suspended (twitter.com/AntifaWebsite).

Mashable, a culture and tech news outlet, explained the ease with which any domain owner can forward visitors on to other websites: The owner of a domain name can redirect their domain name toanywebpage [] Its an easy process that just requires that you type in the URL you want your domain to redirect to in your registrars administration panel. (here)

Mashable explains, Could it still mean Joe Bidens campaign runs the domain? It could. But it could also mean that the Trump campaign or someone supportive of it did the same just to cause a little controversy. They add, It could also just be the work of a troll, a comedy group, or even someone just looking to add value to the domain when they look to sell it. Essentially, The point is the redirect on its own doesnt mean anything. (here)

While this could have been put in place by the Biden campaign, it would make little sense for them to have done so. Biden has condemned violence from the right and the left (here). Biden also said, following the shooting of Jacob Blake, that protesting police brutality is absolutely necessary, but burning down communities is not. (here)

Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is an amorphous movement whose adherents oppose people or groups they consider authoritarian or racist, often using aggressive tactics, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors extremists(here).Horizontalin natureand largelylacking official organization, it is unclear how Antifa is funded, if at all (here).

Its horizontal nature and lack of clear leadership makes it impossible to confirm the claims or officially contact Antifa as a group. One Facebook page called Antifa International (here) told Reuters in a statement it didnt believe the group is getting involved with the elections because Antifa doesnt support any politician. A Twitter account called Antifa Checker (twitter.com/AntifaChecker) that says it filters true from false information about Antifa online told Reuters it believed Antifa.com was registered by a troll at some point.

Partly false. While antifa.com does redirect to Joebiden.com, there is no evidence of a connection between the two.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media postshere.

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Fact check: Antifa.com does redirect to Joebiden.com, but this is not proof of a link between the two - Reuters

Criminal Antifa and other agitators, including Desmond David-Pitts, tried to burn down the East Precinct. (Video surveillance)

The Trump administration is going to war with Antifa activists and other agitators wreaking havoc in Seattle. Theyre charging the criminals in federal court.

Weeks ago, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr said they would charge violent extremists, as city leaders in Seattle and elsewhere turn a blind eye. The administration wasnt kidding.

Under the Department of Justice, two suspects were just charged by the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington. Both suspects were involved in two separate riots last week in Seattle.

Desmond David-Pitts, a 19-year-old from Alaska, was arrested and federally charged with arson for setting fire to the East Precinct on Monday, Aug. 17. U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran says the arson was organized, [and] pre-planned.

Investigators were able to identify David-Pitts because of his decision to wear bright pink pants while committing the crime. No one has ever accused these criminal activists of being bright. After the arrest, he confessed to the arson.

Around the same time, criminal rioters used quick-dry cement to seal shut the door to the precinct. The intent was to trap the officers inside as the building burned.

David-Pitts now faces up to 20 years in prison.

Sami C. Horner, 19-years-old from Tacoma, participated in a Seattle riot on the night of Wednesday, Aug. 19. Hours after Mayor Jenny Durkan told MSNBC that Seattle does not have problems with lawless mobs, a lawless mob destroyed businesses on Capitol Hill.

Horner was caught smashing windows of a bank branch. When officers arrested him, they found a Molotov cocktail in his backpack. He also had a walkie-talkie.

The Molotov cocktail falls under the legal definition of an incendiary device. Now Horner finds himself charged federally with unlawful possession of a destructive device. He faces up to 10 years in jail.

Horner reportedly identifies as anti-fascist on Twitter, where he actively amplified violent Antifa groups responsible for much of the violence weve seen on the streets of Seattle and Portland.

President Trump has routinely offered federal law enforcement assistance to Democrat-run cities. Unfortunately, almost all pretend theres little to no violence (while now, suddenly, also stupidly saying the violence is happening in Trumps America).

If hes not able to send in law enforcement, his administration can prosecute to send a message. And they are.

If youre going to protest, thats one thing, U.S. Attorney Moran tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. But if you step outside the lines, the federal government, with federal charges and federal prosecutors, are going to be there to catch you.

David-Pitts and Horner are the most recent charges, but not the only ones.

Moran has previously charged Isaiah Thomas Willoughby with arson at the East Precinct and Margaret Aislinn Channon for arson after setting five Seattle Police vehicles on fire. Devinare Antwan Parker was charged with possessing a destructive device after bringing an improvised firearm to a protest, which he threatened to use against police.

Rantz: Activist mob caught destroying another Seattle business

Moran cautions these agitators against breaking the law because the likelihood that they will be apprehended is quite high.

Given the information available online, its not just been easier to track down the criminals, but its also been easier to collect data on Antifa and other kinds of agitator organization.

Were obviously very interested in sort of the intelligence side of it, Moran explained. Who are these people? Are they organized? How are they organized? Where they organized? So that, obviously, is if you can disrupt a criminal enterprise, thats a large part of the portfolio of the U. S. Attorneys office. At the same time, we dont want to just be blindsided and not react to charges that may be a one off.

And Moran isnt done.

There will be more cases to come. I can assure you of that, Jason.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to thepodcast here. Follow@JasonRantzonTwitterandInstagramor like me onFacebook.

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Rantz: Trump goes to war with organized Seattle Antifa and agitators - MyNorthwest.com

Elizabeth Neumann, former Assistant Secretary for Threat Prevention and Security Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, tells Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff that right-wing extremists pose a far greater threat to national security than antifa. According to Neumann, during her time in the Trump administration, she regularly received briefings on right-wing threats but says, "Nobody ever once told me: You know who we gotta watch out for? That antifa."

[RUMBLING]

DANIEL KLAIDMAN: You are an expert on this subject. It's what you did when you were at the Department of Homeland Security. What is the biggest domestic terror threat or threat of violence? Is it Antifa and groups like that, or is it right wing extremism?

ELIZABETH NEUMANN: [INAUDIBLE] right wing extremism. And that's global. That's-- our counterparts overseas started saying the same thing in 2017, 2018. They were coming to us in the counter-terrorism community at the US and saying, hey, you guys are the exporters of this. Can you get your hands around this so it stops being a problem in our countries? You know, it is-- three years of intelligence briefings and, you know, seeing a lot of interesting stuff, nobody ever once told me, you know who we got to watch out for? That Antifa. They are gonna cause some big problems.

Now, look, Antifa's been around for a while. They do cause damage to property. They are a threat that local law enforcement and state law enforcement do have to deal with. I don't want to suggest that we don't need to protect property. Of course, we do. Having the right to own property is a extremely American ideal. And it's wrong that they are doing that.

But when you're looking at what is a federal government job versus a state job and a local job, Antifa tends to be in that lower grade of threat because they're primary-- historically, the things that they've done have been violence against property people. Meanwhile, we have had more people killed by white supremacists in the last four or five years in this country than all of the other threats including radical Islamic jihad ideology combined. So if you're just looking at how many people have died, and you think that's the threat that we want to spend our resources on preventing, it is the right wing extremism. It is not Antifa.

[RUMBLING]

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Right-wing extremists far greater threat than antifa, says former DHS senior official - Yahoo! Voices

Far-left activists from Antifa flooded a Portland neighborhood on Saturday, threatening residents of a building with promises to burn it down.

The Post Millennial editor-at-large Andy Ngo, who testified before Congress about the far-left group, posted a clip of the riot with quotes of what Antifa militants were saying.

Were gonna burn your building down.

We know where you live.

As Antifa have taken to Portland residential areas to riot, theyve also assaulted & intimidated residents there, Ngo wrote. Tonight, they threatened those who looked out the window.

The incident follows the federal governments pull out of Portland, which has prompted far-left activists to move on to other parts of the city beyond the federal courthouse, where congregated every night for the past two months.

During Saturdays protest, Antifa also attempted to set fire to a police building.

In a statement, the Portland Police Department wrote that protesters arrived with support vehicles that allowed them to illegally block other vehicle traffic before heading to the Portland Police Association Office on North Lombard Street.

People within the crowd committed crimes when they erected a fence, pushed dumpsters into the street to block traffic, set a dumpster on fire, vandalized the PPA office with spray paint, and destroyed security cameras, the police said.

Police added that people within the crowd broke the window to the PPA building, entered it and committed crimes of criminal mischief, burglary, and attempted arson.

Police were forced to declare a riot in order to disperse them, but were met with a hostile crowd who threw paint balloons and glass bottles at police officers.

The hostile crowd also tried to injure officers by shining green lasers into their eyes, which is a crime in Oregon. Three officers suffered injuries. Two were transported to an area hospital by police vehicle and later released, stated police.

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Antifa threatened to burn down Portland apartment building, set fire to police office - The Post Millennial