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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even the good ones?

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

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

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

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

The call-and-response continues.

"All cops are brave!"

"Especially when they're wearing white hoods!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"USA! USA!

"BLM! BLM!"

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

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

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

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

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

What?

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

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

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

To quote the homeless guy: What a mess.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thats why legislation is so important, advocates say.

Dan Quarts bill strikes the right balance, said Greco.

(Edited by Emily Crockett and Blake French.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News outlets can misconstrue protesting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adam Duvernay|Register-Guard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eugene police declared a riot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Groups face off after Thurston protest march

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

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

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

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

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

A Springfield police spokesman said those allegations are baseless.

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

Springfield police arrested one counterprotester for assault that night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more here:

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

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

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

READ MORE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Infiltration of Law Enforcement by Racist Extremists - Fair Observer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See original here:

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

Proud Boys Alan Swinney, Andrew Duncomb make appearance at the pro-police rally.

Dozens of people lined Highway 26 in Sandy Tuesday evening, Aug. 4, waving flags while shouting support for local police and the re-election of President Donald Trump.

The event was originally promoted as a show of support for local enforcement, meant to honor Sandy Police and other local officers on what would have been National Night Out.

While the majority of the 50 to 60 people who attended brought signs saying they "back the blue" or displayed American and thin blue line flags, there also was a large presence in support for President Trump, either waving Trump flags, wearing Trump 2020 hats and/or chanting their support.

Several motorists traveling on Highway 26 honked in support.

Sandy Backs the Blue co-organizer Dixie Bailey said two minor incidents occurred during the event. One person in a passing car mooned the demonstrators and another man showed up in his underwear to "try and make us look bad," Bailey said.

Some passersby made crude hand gestures or shouted "F*** Trump!" or "Black Lives Matter," while those in attendance responded with "Four more years," "Trump, Trump, Trump," "He's your president, snowflake" or "All Lives Matter."

"I felt like the (flag) wave went really well," Bailey said. "We all really enjoyed supporting our local (law enforcement officers). I was extremely grateful to see so much community support."

Two men came from out of state Texas and California and showed support of the pro-police group Sandy Backs the Blue.

One was Andrew "Black Rebel" Duncomb, who was reportedly filming the unrest in downtown Portland on July 25 at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center when he was allegedly stabbed by a protestor who Duncomb said identifies as being part of the "antifa" movement, a loose coalition of left-leaning protesters who oppose fascism.

Duncomb said activists had alerted others to his presence and identity before he confronted one of the men who'd been following his group. He said he was stabbed in the back during that incident.

After that experience in Portland, Duncomb said he feels more welcome in Sandy. He followed his "fellow patriot" Alan Swinney to a previous Sandy flag wave.

"I think in small communities like this, (these events) encourage people to fight back and take this country back," Duncomb said. "We are under attack. I can't even walk downtown Portland without being attacked."

Swinney expressed similar sentiment, saying "America is under attack and we need to try to do something to stand up for it."

Both men have been linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right organization described as a hate group by members of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

According to the ADL's website:

"The Proud Boys represent an unconventional strain of American right-wing extremism. While the group can be described as violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic, its members represent a range of ethnic backgrounds, and its leaders vehemently protest any allegations of racism.

"Their founder, Gavin McInnes, went so far as to file a defamation lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center when the SPLC designated the Proud Boys a hate group. In McInnes' own words, the Proud Boys are a 'pro-western fraternity,' essentially a drinking club dedicated to male bonding, socializing and the celebration all things related to western culture. In reality, the Proud Boys bear many of the hallmarks of a gang, and its members have taken part in multiple acts of brutal violence and intimidation."

Aside from the Proud Boys, a few other out-of-towners came to support Sandy Backs the Blue.

One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, came from Gresham for the event. She said she is moving to Sandy soon and is "excited to get into a community that doesn't support hate and violence."

"Gresham claims it's not a city that values hate," she said. "I'm totally insulted they're flying the terrorist Black Lives Matter flag. I came out here to back the blue. I have all the respect in the world for the police."

Another woman, Cindy, who refrained from giving her full name, came from Rhododendron to "show support for my country, support for my president and support for the police."

While dozens came out to the event, Juli Hager, co-organizer of the Sandy Backs the Blue, said she had hoped to see members of the local anti-racism group, the Sandy STAND UP Movement, there.

Bailey said in an earlier interview that the event was open to all, was to be "non-political" and that leaders of the STAND UP Movement had been invited.

STAND UP leaders told The Post they'd informed their members of the event and made attending the flag wave an individual member decision.

"I wish the other group would come out," Hager said as the flag wave was kicking off. "To have people at odds doesn't sit well with me."

"I chose not to go because I did not want to stand alongside Proud Boys and those supporting them in this community," Sandy STAND UP co-organizer Lindsay Polk said. "It goes against what I (we) are trying to change in Sandy."

Sandy STAND UP co-organizer Tracy George echoed Polk's comments, saying "I did not go personally because with the presence of (Proud Boys). It did not feel like a safe situation to put myself or my children in."

Other members of the STAND UP group have expressed similar concerns about the Proud Boys' presence in Sandy.

For more information about the group, visit their Facebook page.

You count on us to stay informed and we depend on you to fund our efforts.Quality local journalism takes time and money. Please support us to protect the future of community journalism.

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Proud Boys show at Sandy 'Back the Blue' rally - Pamplin Media Group

Shortly after someone threw a makeshift explosive devices at protesters in Southeast Portland early Saturday morning, a man wearing dark clothes and carrying a military style helmet with night-vision goggles was videotaped near the area.

Multiple people say the man in the video appears to be a retired U.S. Navy SEAL and former Central Intelligence Agency contractor who has worked in Afghanistan and spoken out on social media against the nightly Portland demonstrations.

Protesters gathered at Laurelhurst Park before marching to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Southeast Portland on May 31, 2020.

Jonathan Levinson / Jonathan Levinson

No one was injured in the small explosions, but the attack suggests a new, dangerous dynamic. For the past 73 days of protests against systemic racism and police violence, there has been a continuous fear that right-wing demonstrators would become involved, leading to violence. Now, it appears that may have happened.

In a livestreamed video filmed during protests demanding the police be defunded or abolished, roughly a dozen protesters are seen gathered in Southeast Portlands Laurelhurst Park. Some people shout toward a darkened wooded area and point flashlights, calling for someone to come out of the woods. An object then lands near protesters and explodes into a bright light and a plume of smoke.

Protesters shout and call after a person who is not visible in the video. In a later video, a protester shows a second unexploded device that appears to be a pipe containing a bag of black powder.

Demonstrator Scott Keeler told OPB he followed a person after the incident. Keeler posted a video of the interaction online and said he had seen the person in the video in the park after the explosions had gone off.

Keelers video shows a man dressed in dark clothing and carrying a ballistic military style helmet with night vision goggles attached to it.

The man walks away from the person shooting the video and paces between vehicles parked in a residential neighborhood. The person shooting the video shines a flashlight in the mans eyes.

Hey, you want to stop, Keeler says.

Look man, Im not the guy you want to fuck with, the man with the helmet says.

Ok, then why are you throwing bombs at people? Keeler asks.

I dont know what youre talking about, the man answers. But Im not that guy you want to fuck with.

It is not clear if the man in the video had anything to do with the device that exploded in Laurelhurst Park. But multiple people told OPB the man in the video resembles Louis Garrick Fernbaugh, a retired Navy SEAL who said in court documents he is a former contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency and that he held a top secret security clearance. In a 2018 Clackamas Review op-ed, Fernbaugh also said hes held a security clearance his entire adult life.

In a mid-July post on LinkedIn during the height of federal policing on Portland streets, Fernbaugh boasted he had infiltrated ANTIFA during previous nights of protests and offered to help other people opposed to the protests do the same.

A July 2020 LinkedIn comment by Garrick Fernbaugh claims he "infiltrated ANTIFA" during protests in downtown Portland. Fernbaugh, a retired Navy SEAL and former CIA contractor, was seen leaving the Laurelhurst park carrying a ballistic helmet and night vision goggles after someone threw a makeshift explosive at protesters.

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Fernbaugh was a brand ambassador for Red Frog Team, a female-owned small business that teaches gun safety to women, according to the companys owner.

The company ordered a cease and desist a year and a half ago for any affiliation with him, said Shannon Monihan, Red Frog Teams owner, because there were issues and I needed that person not affiliated with this company.

At OPBs request, Monihan reviewed the video of the moments after the Laurelhurst Park explosions. She said the man captured on camera in the area is Fernbaugh. .

Hes not affiliated with Red Frog, Monihan reiterated. Yes, thats Garrick Fernbaugh in the video.

Fernbaugh did not answer several calls made to phone numbers associated with his name or messages on social media.

Numerous photos and videos posted on social media of Fernbaugh appear to match the person in the video posted after the explosions. A former law enforcement official who recognized Fernbaughs voice on Keelers video said he was certain enough that its Fernbaugh that he planned to contact the FBI. A former acquaintance who has known him for several years also confirmed that it is Fernbaugh in the video.

Im about trying to make the world a safer, better place at the end of the day, and reutilize some of these skill sets that we have that can help make that happen, Fernbaugh said in a February 2019 interview on the Military Wire podcast about the security work hes done since leaving the military.

In an affidavit filed in connection with his 2013 divorce proceedings, Fernbaugh said he is a government consultant and worked overseas for months at a time, returning to Happy Valley during his time off.

I work in a highly dangerous field and am constantly in danger in an effort to provide for my family, the affidavit reads.

A 2014 trial memorandum submitted by his soon to be ex-wife said they separated in March 2013 because of domestic violence.

Given the sensitive nature of his work as a government independent contractor, Wife never reported any incidents to law enforcement, the memorandum says. Until now, she has agreed to keep the details of his abusive behavior out of the court file in order to preserve his employment.

The confrontation between the man identified as Fernbaugh and Keeler points to a potential danger that has long existed in Portland demonstrations: conflicts between activists on the left and groups or individuals with right-leaning politics who oppose them. For the last several years, members of groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer have traveled to Portland and, at times, attacked protesters.

Give me a Fing break, the political violence has been going on for more than two years already, Fernbaugh wrote in a 2018 Facebook post, after explosive devices were sent to CNN and Democratic politicians by a Florida man.

Fernbaugh went on in the post to claim leftists sought a second civil war, repeating a commonly cited conspiracy theory about billionaire investor George Soros.

Soros is known to have paid ANTIFA to instigate rioting and create chaos that has caused millions in damage across numerous cities, but especially Portland, OR, Fernbaugh wrote.

A 2018 Facebook post by Garrick Fernbaugh after explosive devices were sent to CNN and Democratic politicians by a Florida man. Fernbaugh, a retired Navy SEAL and former CIA contractor, was seen leaving the Laurelhurst park carrying a ballistic helmet and night vision goggles after someone threw a makeshift explosive at protesters.

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A spokesperson for Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said the office is aware of the improvised explosive detonation in the video at Laurelhurst Park, but referred questions regarding any investigation to the Portland Police Bureau.

In a statement released Saturday evening, PPB said it received a 9-1-1 call at 2:38 a.m. Saturday reporting bombs going off at the park.

We dont have any witnesses who are willing to speak to us and we dont have any evidence, said PPB spokesperson Officer Derek Carmon. If someone has that device, wed love to have it.

The bureau has not confirmed information regarding any possible suspects in the case.

Conrad Wilson and Ryan Haas contributed to this report.

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Man seen in area of homemade explosive at Portland protest ID'ed as ex-Navy SEAL - OPB News

Shots were fired in downtown Chicago, as police clashed with police in Portland and Ferguson on the anniversary of Michael Browns death at the hands of a Missouri police officer.

Early Monday morning, hundreds of protesters smashed windows, stole from shops and clashed with police in downtown Chicago, following an incident on Sunday afternoon.

Shots were also fired at the police at one point and officers fired back, but nobody was injured in the incident, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The unrest that mainly took place in the citys Magnificent Mile shopping district begun just after midnight, and followed dozens of protesters clashing with police earlier in the day after officers wounded a man in Englewood, just 10 miles from downtown Chicago.

Residents were misinformed that the police had fatally shot a child, which led to an angry crowd forming in the neighbourhood on Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The incident in Englewood occurred on the sixth anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Mr Brown, who was killed by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on 9 August 2014. His death sparked weeks of protests and helped form the Black Lives Matter movement.

In July, it was announced that Mr Wilson will not be charged for Mr Browns death, and peaceful protests and memorial services were held in his honour on Sunday.

A small demonstration in honour of Mr Brown outside the police headquarters in Ferguson also turned ugly when riot place used batons and pepper spray to make a series of arrests.

At a separate protest in tribute to Mr Brown in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, at least eight people were arrested, as police appeared to use flash grenades and pepper sprayed a demonstrator.

Police clashed with protesters in numerous states in the US on Sunday, including in Portland, where a small group of demonstrators marched to the Portland Police Association building and blocked roads and started fires.

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Over the weekend, at least 33 people were arrested during protests in Portland, while two police officers were treated in hospital, as five others reported injuries.

Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place in Portland and the US as a whole for the last two months, following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Mr Floyds death sparked protests in every state in the US in opposition to police brutality against African Americans, and protesters in Portland have called for reform of the citys police department

Last month, the Trump administration deployed federal agents to the city after the federal courthouse had become a target of nightly violence.

Despite previously supporting protests, mayor Ted Wheeler called for violence to stop on Thursday after after some demonstrators started a fire outside the Police Bureaus East Precinct building.

Although they are not attracting the same crowds as they did in July when federal agents patrolled the city, some protests in Portland have become more violent in the last week, as other peaceful demonstrations continue separately.

In reaction to more violence over the weekend, president Donald Trump tweeted that Portland should use the National Guard to stop protesters.

He tweeted: Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard. The Mayor and Governor are putting peoples lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The Courthouse is secured by Homeland!

The National Guard was deployed in multiple states across the US during protests in June and July, but so far Portland has not used them, despite the Trump administration deploying federal agents to protect the courthouse last month.

On Sunday, during a pro-police rally in Seattle, Black Lives Matter protesters clashed with members of alt-right group the Proud Boys, outside Seattle City Hall.

The Proud Boys, which is a male only organisation with a history of white supremacy, clashed with anti-racism protesters after marching through a crowd of them who were there to demonstrate against racial inequality and police brutality.

Punches were thrown as protesters were injured on both sides, and one Black Lives Matter protester was pepper-sprayed by a member of the Proud Boys, according to KOMO News.

Louisville, Kentucky, also saw unrest over the weekend, as 12 protesters were arrested on Saturday as rubbish bins were set on fire and drivers were targeted by demonstrators, according to the Courier Journal.

Black Lives Matter protests coincided with other demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequality in Louisville in May, after Breonna Taylor was killed when police broke down her door in an attempted drug raid, and shot her eight times. No narcotics were found in her residence.

Police spokesman Lamont Washington confirmed that eight of the 12 arrested on Saturday were charged with felonies, while the other four were charged with misdemeanours.

This evening, protesters, during their march, blocked roadways, surrounded vehicles that tried to avoid the protest, shot paintballs (at) passing motorists, destroyed property at 4th Street Live while it was occupied with patrons, set trash cans on fire, and then continued to Jefferson Square, Mr Washington told the Journal.

Based off these actions, the assembly was deemed unlawful.

On Saturday, at a rally that demanded justice for Ms Taylor, Mr Browns father, Michael Brown Sr said that he was dying inside, according to the Daily Mail.

Speaking about Ms Taylors death, he said: I can only imagine what the family goes through every day when they wake up not seeing those smiles. No talk. No hugs, and added: Those things will definitely kill you from the inside out.

We might look OK in the face, but we dying in the inside.

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Shots fired as police clash with protesters in Chicago, Portland and Ferguson on anniversary of Michael Brown's death - The Independent

A 46-year-old man with ties to the conservative group Patriot Prayer posted $2,500 in bail and was released from jail last week pending trial on charges that he bashed a 31-year-old woman on the neck or head with a baton, fracturing her vertebra.

Ian Alexander Kramer had spent nearly a year in jail since his arrest on Aug. 7, 2019. With no trial date in sight because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Angel Lopez reduced Kramers bail from $269,000 to $25,000 during a July 27 hearing, according to the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office. On Wednesday, two days later, Kramer posted the necessary 10% -- or $2,500 -- and was released, according to jail records.

He is required to regularly report to a Close Street Supervision deputy who will keep tabs on him while hes out.

The prosecution objected. But a year is a long time for a defendant to await a trial on the charges Kramer faces: second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, rioting and other alleged crimes during a large clash between the left-wing group antifa and right-wing Patriot Prayer outside a Northeast Portland pub. Although a trial is currently scheduled for October, its likely that the date will once again be delayed and court officials estimate that it could be sometime in 2021 before Kramers case is heard by a jury.

Mr. Kramer has been in jail for nearly a year now, with no end in sight, defense attorney Dave B. Peters had argued, before the judge made his ruling.

Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and two other men -- Mackenzie Lewis and Russell Schultz -- are scheduled to go to trial at the same time as Kramer. They each face a single charge of rioting, and none have been kept in jail pending trial.

Court officials have deemed it unsafe to hold such a large trial -- with four defendants and sets of lawyers, plus a jury, witnesses, court staff and members of the public -- in one room as the coronavirus continues to spread unchecked.

Juan Chavez, an attorney representing the interests of the woman Kramer is accused of striking with the baton, said there isnt a strong legal argument to continue holding Kramer. But his client, Heather Clark, is concerned Kramer could be dangerous and that recent protests could tempt him to engage in violence once again.

Ms. Clark understands the moment that were in in the pandemic, but fundamentally we dont feel safe with Mr. Kramer being out in the streets during a moment of national uprising. ...Its not an unfounded fear.

Chavez referred to more than two months of nightly protests over racial injustice and police violence that have taken place in the core of downtown Portland. Chavez also noted that on Monday evening, police say a woman was stabbed by another woman during an argument or dispute, just as that nights protests were firing up.

Lopez, the judge, ordered Kramer to steer clear of any public protests while out on bail. Kramer also must refrain from all contact with Clark.

Kramer is accused of attacking Clark on May 1, 2019, during a large confrontation outside Cider Riot, a Northeast Portland pub that permanently closed last November. A crowd of antifa activists had gathered on the patio of the watering hole at the end of a day of May Day demonstrations. About 20 right-wing protesters, associated with both Patriot Prayer and the group Proud Boys, showed up on the street next to the patio and tensions flared.

Publicly posted videos show a chaotic scene, with shouting, swearing, brawling, drink-throwing and people using pepper spray or mace.

The former pubs owner has filed a $1 million lawsuit against Gibson, Kramer and a few other men for allegedly sparking the May Day melee and intentionally interfering with the pubs ability to conduct business.

Prosecutors say Kramer and others arrived at the establishment looking for a fight, and that Kramer was armed with mace and an asp baton. Prosecutor say video shows Kramer, who was wearing goggles and a helmet, striking the woman as she turned and started to walk away from the right-wing groups.

The woman immediately fell down unconscious on the street. This video captures the incident shortly after the 42-minute mark:

Kramer was arrested and charged more than three months later on Aug. 7, 2019.

During a hearing a few weeks later, Kramers defense attorney at the time, Jason Steen, said Clark was an aggressor just before she was struck because she ran across the street into a crowd of people who are associated with my client with her fists swinging.

During the hearing last August, Lopez, the judge, refused to lower bail from $269,000 -- explaining that Kramer presents a clear and present danger to the community. If convicted of the most serious charge against him -- second-degree assault -- Kramer would receive a minimum five years and 10 months in prison.

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

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Ian Kramer, accused of striking woman with a baton during Patriot Prayer-antifa clash, is released from jail - OregonLive

For Steven Garza, the Sundance-winning Boys State caps a tumultuous time.

Im starring in a movie, Garza, 19, marveled, and Im recovering from COVID!

Boys State documents an American Legion-sponsored weeklong citizenship project where 1,000 17-year-olds create a representative government over the course of a week

Three youths were chosen by directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine in advance so that on Day One they had their key characters in the developing story.

Steven has this incredible personal story of a bootstrap kid whose mother is an undocumented (Mexican) immigrant, Moss noted.

Indeed, Garzas mother worked at a gas station; hes the first in his family to pass freshman year high school.

Its almost like I have to succeed, he said. To have parents proud of you is one of the most amazing things you can hear in your life.

Garza, who enrolled in Navy Junior ROTC in high school, was keenly interested in politics. With 70 kids from our area, he went to Boys State orientation and was introduced to Moss the filmmaker and cinematographer Thorsten Thielow.

Jesse asked if I was interested to hang around after for a conversation. About 12 of us stayed back, me being reserved and quiet. Some of the kids were doing these fiery rants to get noticed.

Looking back, he wonders, Who knew why I was getting Jesses attention? We went out to eat so he could know me better. At the end of the interview he asked, Would you want to be a subject?

That was a month before. I had no idea of the scale of the documentary. When I showed up there were seven camera crews. I had a microphone, cameraman and a boom man with me from 7 in the morning until the end at night.

I wasnt expecting any of this. I thought this was a side project. Two years later its a Sundance-winning film. Its all surreal.

One sign the filmmakers knew what they were doing: All their choices figure prominently in the weeks political dramas.

It was a crazy journey, Garza mused. I had done local media with the March for Life (in high school) but Id never had a camera following me around.

So those scenes of me campaigning (in Boys State) were baby steps of not looking at the camera next to you.

Jesse said, Pretend were not there while putting the camera next to my face! I started laughing. But as the week went on, it just became natural. Theres Daniel (Carter) with the camera and his assistant with the boom stick.

The rest is here:

Teens take the lead in Boys State doc - Boston Herald

JERSEY CITY, NJ - Congratulations are in order for Jersey City resident Tatiana Cruz, named the New Jersey Youth of the Year by Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

A recent graduate of McNair High School, Cruz has been recognized for her leadership, service, academic excellence and dedication to livinga healthy lifestyle. As the New Jersey Youth of the Year, Tatiana will serve as an ambassador for all teens in the state. She will receive a $12,500 college scholarship $10,000 from Boys & Girls Clubs in New Jersey and $2,500 from Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Tatiana will go on to contend for the regional Youth of the Year and ultimately the national title.

Upon receiving the award, Cruz was completely blown away, "I was questioning it, honestly. I was like, Is this real? Did I hear my name correctly? I was about to cry. I was trying to hold back tears of joy.

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A member of the Boys & Girls Club for eightyears, she participated in many programs including Career Launch and Diplomas to Degrees. In addition, Tatiana held positions for her Clubs teen group dedicated to leadership and community service serving as Keystone Club President and Secretary. Other community service activities include her work with Brunswick Community Garden and Soul Studios Art Residency. Tatiana has received a number of honors including the Horatio Alger Scholarship semi-finalist, QuestBridge National College Match Finalist and the NJ Scholastic Art awards.

Tatiana has also been a member of Junior ROTC, a volunteer at the Jersey City Medical Center, and a participant in the Boys & Girls Clubs workforce development program, resulting in a paid internship at Best Buy. As a member of the Club she has joined a myriad of activities from college tours to art projects to attending the Youth Summit in Boston representing our Teen Tech Center. A few examples of Tatianas commitment to community and the world include being part of the Jersey City March for Our Lives Steering Committee and contributing illustrations to a reading primer created for a school in Rwanda.

Its amazing to be chosen. Im essentially the role model for club kids, and non-club kids," she said. "To be able to promote an organization that cares so much about social justice issues, promoting college career readiness- especially to minority kids.

Cruz graduated from McNair with 3.7 GPA. She will be attending Rutgers University majoring in Neuroscience, and her career aspiration is to be a Physician.

We are incredibly proud of Tatiana and all the Youth of the Year nominees, said Jim Clark, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Being named Youth of the Year is a lifelong honor. As the New Jersey Youth of the Year, Tatiana will serve as a spokesperson for Boys & Girls Club kids across the state who need more role models that they can admire and emulate.

This September, Tatiana will join other state winners to compete for the Northeast regional title and an additional $20,000 college scholarship. Six youth, including five regional winners and a military youth winner, will advance to compete for the title of Boys & Girls Clubs of Americas National Youth of the Year. The National Youth of the Year will receive an additional scholarship of $50,000.For more information about the Youth of the Year program, visit http://www.youthoftheyear.org.

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Jersey City's Tatiana Cruz Named Boys & Girls Club of America Youth of the Year - TAPinto.net

To Morris Leondar, the fire service has always been one big family.

At the Grapevine Fire Department where hes worked for nearly 26 years, the 55-year-old firefighter said he and his colleagues look out for each other like relatives, sometimes even mowing each others lawns.

So when his daughter Marissa Sauble joined the team on Wednesday, it felt natural to introduce one part of his family to another. But for the department, it was historic.

While Grapevine has had sets of brothers, fathers and sons, and a husband and wife, Sauble and Leondar are the first father-daughter combo to work there at the same time.

I started out my morning, my dad came and told me to have a good day when he was on his way home, 33-year-old Sauble said of her first 24-hour-shift. It was pretty great.

There are rotating shifts at Grapevine, and Sauble and Leondar arent working directly together. Still, Leondar said itll be fun to have the opportunity to stop and chat if she ever comes on duty at his station when hes leaving duty.

Sauble, a firefighter paramedic, is working at one of the stations Leondar was at when she was a child. She said some of her greatest memories were of dinnertime visits there, when she would climb in and out of the fire trucks, look at her heart rate on the monitor, and play with Domino, the departments Dalmatian.

I was always really proud of him growing up, said Sauble, who once borrowed Leondars gear to dress as a firefighter for Halloween. Career days were my time to invite him to school, to kind of show him off and say, My dads got a cool job, look at him!

Though she had confidence in his ability to be safe, Sauble said there was a period of time when she worried about the risks inherent in his profession, and she would wake up early and come downstairs to say goodbye before each of his shifts.

When Sauble decided to join the fire service, Leondar said he also had a temporary moment of concern. To Leondar, a driver-engineer and EMT, some tasks, like dive operations in the fire district's lake or highway work, can be more dangerous than fighting fires.

But Im not gonna hold her back from a career I know she loves, he said. And I know and trust that shes going to get trained way better than I got trained.

Leondar said Grapevine is a safety-conscious department and said that the process of becoming a firefighter in general has become much more rigorous.

Sauble, who attended her dads fire school graduation as a child, had her own ceremony this July. Father and daughter both attended Tarrant County Colleges Fire Academy, as part of Class 7 and Class 91, respectively.

Class 7, we only had like one classroom, one old fire truck, and a drill tower. And that was it, Leondar said. Theres a whole facility now that the school runs out of And these days, the [textbook] is probably three times as thick as it was when I went to school.

For Sauble, 9/11 was the factor that solidified her commitment to becoming a firefighter paramedic. She said she got serious after watching TV coverage in high school, beginning to take medical-related classes and asking her dad for a firefighting essentials book.

Meanwhile, Leondar said he initially joined the fire service simply because he was looking for a job. It only took about a year, he said, before he realized it was much more than just a career.

It gets in your blood, Leondar said. Its a passion for public service, and to help your fellow citizen. You cant make someone have that, it just is and mine turned out to be in the fire service.

He said he plans to retire in a few years, after hitting his third decade with the Grapevine Fire Department. But that doesnt mean the firefighting tradition in his family has to end.

Sauble said her two sons recently have begun telling her they also want to be firefighters. Although the boys are still young, Sauble said shes hopeful one will actually follow in her and her dads footsteps.

We may influence them a little, Leondar said with a chuckle.

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Grapevine Fire Department welcomes first father-daughter duo: I was always really proud of him - The Dallas Morning News

Last week I was in Brookings for the first time in a few years. I was there for my grandmothers funeral. After leaving the church, as we were on our way to the cemetery, with the fine officers from the Brookings PD leading the way and stopping traffic, my wife and sons and I saw something that humbled us and made us proud. There was a group of boys, young men, playing baseball at Medary Park along Eighth Street South. We didnt see an adult coach or any adult with them. But what we did see was 10 to 12 young men, facing the road, holding their ball caps in their hands, paying respect.

I am positive none of those young men knew who the funeral procession was for. Im pretty sure none of them had ever met my 97-year-old grandmother. Yet they stopped their practicing, turned and paid respect. It brought tears to my eyes that day, just as it is now as I type this.

If you were one of those young men playing ball on that field that day, I want to say thank you. If you are a parent of one of those young men, I want to thank you as well. With all of the other garbage happening in our country right now, all of the negative we see on the news, it was touching to see that kind of respect for someone these guys never knew. Be proud of the way these young men acted. Keep teaching them what you have been, it is working. They will continue to make you, your community, and our world proud.

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Be proud of our youth - Brookings Register

Program raising money for Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada affected from COVID-19 launches Aug. 15

NEWS RELEASEGOLF GIVES BACK*************************

TORONTO TheGolf Gives Backprogram is designed to engage and encourage youth participation in the game of golf. The goal of the program is to make golf inexpensive, funand to raise $500,000 towards helping the Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada that was affected from COVID-19.

In addition, theGolf Gives Backprogram is proud to offer 100 golf courses six sets of Cobra junior golf clubs in Ontario the opportunity to offer families to use to the Cobra junior golf clubs at no cost during their time at the golfing facility.

Locally, participating clubsinclude Shanty Bay Golf Club, Innisfil Creek andTangle Creek.

TheGolf Gives Backprogram, which launches Saturday, Aug. 15 in partnership with RBC, has created twounique initiatives to give back to the community:

1. Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada is the main beneficiary of theGolf Gives Backprogram from the fundraising efforts to the program.

2. Cobra junior golf program where our golf course partners across Ontario will be receiving 6 sets of junior golf clubs for families in those communities use during practice, during a round of golf, or at camps/lessons at those facilities. The program is being funded by asking people in the community to donate between $10 to $200, and be entered into our contest which includes the Grand Prize of a trip-for-2 to the Masters in 2021, prizes from Cobra Puma Golf, and other great partnering prizes. All of the proceeds for the program are being used to donate to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada and fund the Cobra junior golf initiative.

Be sure to check out our website to find where the local participating golf courses are located to bring your aspiring junior golfer to use the Cobra golf clubs, and support the COVID-19 relief fund atwww.GolfGivesBack.ca.

QUOTES

In these extraordinary times, kids and families need our support more than ever, says Rachael MacKenzie-Neill,VP of Marketing &Development, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. We are thrilled to be the recipient of this amazing initiative that gets kids active, makes sport accessible, and raises money that will help Boys and Girls Clubs continue to offer life-changing programs and services in communities across the country.

Cobra Puma Golf is proud to be part of this great golf initiative, give back to the various communities across Ontario, and helping provide the 6-sets of junior Cobra golf clubs to each of TTG Medias golf courses partners.We are hoping these Cobra golf clubs will provide all junior golfers within these communities a chance to enjoy their time at these golfing facilities, and spend more family time together outdoors having fun, getting exercise (especially with CV-19) and playing golf." Dwayne Boecker, Head of Golf, Cobra Puma Golf

"Its a true pleasure to be working on something so rewarding for both The Boys &Girls Clubs of Canada as well as all the kids in the communities where our golf courses are offering up these amazing sets of clubs. Theres so much fun to be had on a golf course for kids with both their friends and families. More than ever its nice to know you can get outside and have some laughs. Its a true pleasure to make sure all these kids and parents know they can get outside and that they have quality clubs available to try a potential lifelong sport for free." Joe Korman, Founder of TTG Media

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Golf Gives Back teed up this weekend at three area courses - OrilliaMatters

Jesse Brock, 50, is seen in a photo provided by his family. Brock died over the weekend trying to save two drowning teenage boys at McKinley Beach in Milwaukee.(Photo: Courtesy of Jessica Brock)

Jesse Brock was an everyday superhero, always helping people in need.

So when his daughter learned he tried this weekend to save two teenage boys drowning in Lake Michigan, she was not surprised.

"He's always cared more about others than he's worried about himself," Jessica Brock said."If anyone ever needed something, he would give them the shirt off his back. He was just that kind of person."

Brock, 50, died Sunday morning after being swept under the waves at McKinley Beach Saturday evening.

Brock saw twoboys swim out to a deep part of the water where they could not stand, then he saw them go underwater, according to reports released Monday by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office.

He helped to shore one 14-year-old boy caught in the current, then went back in to try to save the second. But even Brock, standing more than 6 feet tall, was no match for the strong current.

He and the second teen, 14-year-old Tony R. Bishop, were pulled under.

Tony died Saturday night after he was pulled from the water by Milwaukee Fire Department officialsin a rescue boat. They attempted CPR but were unsuccessful. The other boy was hospitalized.

Jesse Brock, 50, is seen in a family photo.(Photo: Courtesy of Jessica Brock)

Jessica Brock was devastated by the loss of her father, who she said was a joyous, constant presence in her life.

"He's always been my superhero, my own personal Superman," she said.

The twosaw each other last week, and Jessica remembers her father laughing and joking. He loved spending time with his three grandchildren, she said.

"We were everything to him," Jessica Brock said.

Brock raised his four children in Illinois and moved to Milwaukee within the last six months, his daughtersaid. He worked as a forklift operator.

His selflessness has been a lifelong trait.

In 1996, Brock saved two women and four young children trapped in a burning home in Ford Heights, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He helped them jump 15 feet to the grass below, according to a newspaper clipping his family saved.

"They're calling him a hero, but Jesse Brock said his actions were just common sense," the article begins.

Twenty-four years later, Jessica Brock is sure of her father's heroism.

"My dad is now and forever a hero," she said. "He died giving his life to try to help someone else, and I am extremely proud of him.".

The National Weather Service issued a beach hazard warning for Saturday afternoon and evening in Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties because of 3- to 5-foot waves caused by strong winds from the south along the Lake Michigan shore. But the swim risk in Milwaukee County was considered "moderate" by the weather service because waves were smaller in the 2- to 4-foot range.

Saturday's incident was the second drowning at McKinley Beach in less than a month. On July 18,J'Varius Bankhead, 19, drownedwhile trying to save two younger cousins from the water.

Milwaukee County Parks has not staffed lifeguards at McKinley Beach since 2005, according to department spokesman Luke Roman. Lifeguard positions therewere cut due to a tight budget and a lack of lifeguards.

In 2018, Bradford Beach Milwaukee's other major beach was staffed seven days a week, and in 2019 staffing was cut to five days a week.

And even then, lifeguards were only present until 5 p.m. The two teenage boys began struggling around 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the parks department closed deep-well pools for the summer, and it has not staffed lifeguards at any county beach.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman, who chairs the Parks, Energy and Environment Committee, sent a letter Monday to County Executive David Crowley asking for the county to hire lifeguards to staff Bradford and McKinley beaches for the remainder of the summer. He said he was "devastated" by the weekend's drownings.

He also called for larger, better signage at the beaches when they are closed and an emphasis on youth swim lessons next year.

"We have a risk that has been identified and we must be ... able to work out a solution," Wasserman told the Journal Sentinel."And the only solution is to have lifeguards."

Alison Dirr and Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow heron Twitter at @SCarson_News.

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Man who drowned trying to save teens in Lake Michigan is remembered as a hero - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By submitting a fake tip to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an Antifa activist allegedly blocked a British man from living with his wife in the United States, denying the start of their family for four years and counting.

Jack Buckby has spent most of his relationship apart and has yet to step foot on US soil since November 2016. Despite no criminal record, he received suspicious visa denials because of an allegation that falsely claimed he's a terrorist, Buckby told The Post Millennial in an exclusive interview.

"I have spent a very significant sum of money trying to rectify this," Buckby stated. "And lost four years of our life. I just want to be with my wife."

Buckby is a counter-extremism researcher who authored a book, Monster Of Their Own Making: How the Far Left, The Media, And Politicians Are Creating Far Right Extremists, describing his experiences in the British National Party in his youth and how the far- right recruit the young generation.

His wife, Martina Markota, is a victim of Antifa doxxing and cancel culture in her industry. She is a performance artist in New York City who was well-known by her stage persona, "Lady Alchemy." Using her real name, Markota publicly advocated for President Donald Trump during the 2016 primaries, appearing on The Gavin McInnes Show to express her support for Trump and detail how she survived as a conservative in the liberal arts scene.

Following Trump's presidential election, Markota was doxxed by NYC Antifa who published her address, her family's address, and described her as a fascist online. She was then fired from a theatre she had worked at for years, dropped by her agent, and canceled from independent gigs when left-wing performers would contact her clients and call Markota a Nazi.

To this day, Markota is regularly blacklisted from booking rosters.

Then in 2017, Markota was contacted by an FBI agent who told her that they had received a tip, alleging that she was then-engaged to a British man plotting to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. and that their engagement was a fraud for Buckby to obtain a green card.

The FBI informant is named, but Buckby and Markota have asked for her identity to remain anonymous to prevent her social media presence from gaining traction.

That same year, the named informant, also from the NYC arts world, admitted to the tip in her personal blog. In the post, she smears Markota, calling her "Portia" to avoid a defamation lawsuit she knowingly admits she's liable "[f]or legal reasons." Working alongside other burlesque performers who felt Markota had made them "extremely uncomfortable" and "unsafe" with her Republican views, the FBI tipper, a self-described "not so bitter divorcee" with too much time on her hands, sought to take down Markota.

"This was more difficult than you can imagine some days," the blogger wrote as she used her old camcorder and a laptop to capture episodes of The Gavin McInnes Show featuring Markota to show producers proof that the conservative performer was "espousing...anti-LGBTQ and racist views."

"The trickiest part was keeping my cats from meowing too much or walking through the shot," she continued.

She went on to admit that she contacted a local NYC-based Antifa group, switching her focus from Markota to McInnes.

"Portia gave me exactly what my friends wanted," she blogged. "The other performers were happy with what I was giving them but Portia didnt really interest me."

The Antifa group asked for evidence of McInnes inciting violence, but within a couple of months of inactivity, she realized that the organisation wasn't "a good fit."

"I wasnt about to sit through dozens of hours of toxic rants by McInnes for nothing," she wrote.

The blogger moved on to anonymously send a flash drive of footage with a one-page document to the FBI headquarters in NYC.

Then when McInnes was fired from his show on the newly-formed Blaze TV for his association with the far-right Proud Boys, she followed up with roughly 20 padded envelopes of similar contents, using the FBI address as the return address.

"I knew Gavin for many years and was associated with him during the early Proud Boys days. I wasn't happy with the behaviour of the group," Buckby urged.

But Buckby was still looped in with the Proud Boys leak, he alleged.

Within days of the FBI tip, Buckby said that he logged online to view his visa waiver status, but his account read "Travel Not Authorized."

Shortly after, Buckby arranged an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in London to obtain a tourist visa. After a long interview, his case was considered Pending Administrative Processing," to be decided after a 60-day background check. Buckby was ordered to leave. For now, his case was considered denied. Two years passed with no contact, decision, or explanation.

Luke Burke, a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Buckby: I have spoken to the FBI and to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and all I can say is that your name is being flagged for something in the [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] application system.

Then in December 2017, Iowa Rep. Steve King asked the U.S. Embassy in London for answers, noting that the "extremely long wait time" was "highly unusual."

King was told: Mr. Buckbys application is subjected to additional, mandatory administrative processingWhile administrative processing usually lasts up to 60 days, in some instances it can take significantly longer.

A year after the tourist visa application, a British member of European Parliament, Janice Atkinson, requested information on Buckby's behalf and received a similar response.

In 2018, Buckby applied for a journalist visa out of frustration to see if that would be accepted. He was denied because the tourist visa was still inexplicably in administrative processing.

Then Buckby decided to file a civil rights lawsuit against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.

"After two years of no response from the Embassy, and no answers to numerous politicians requesting information as to why I was being treated in such a mysterious way, I sued the United States government to compel them to process the visa," Buckby told The Post Millennial.

The suit was withdrawn once Buckby received an answer on his tourist visa, which was successfully processed but denied.

"Again, I meet all the criteria for a visa. I have never broken the law. I am a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen," Buckby emphasized.

Once the lawsuit ended, Buckby applied for a spousal visa, which is still ongoing. And for seven months now, Markota has not visited him in the United Kingdom due to the global COVID-19 shutdown.

Since, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar has assisted Buckby with his case.

Tom Van Flein, Gosar's chief of staff, wrote that his office has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and "ultimately had the matter reviewed to clear the Buckbys."

"What happened to them is a clear case of doxxing and bordered on the crime of swatting," Van Flein stated in an email to The Post Millennial.

Gosar's office determined that the false allegation had "harmed [Buckby's] ability to travel."

At no point was there ever any evidence of violence, threats or anything else that would violate U.S. laws that could even remotely warrant a travel ban," he wrote.

Van Flein noted that "[t]here was no reason for the extremely long delay" in reviewing the claim against Buckby "to which the bureaucracy unfortunately failed to vet, verify, confirm or reject."

Meanwhile, Markota's sister was diagnosed with leukemia and hospitalized. Not only was Buckby restricted from visiting his wife's family at a grave time, but Markota, a blacklisted performer, could not financially support her family when they needed it most.

There has been no mainstream media coverage on Buckby's case and "how Antifa worked to destroy our lives," Buckby exclusively told The Post Millennial.

To this day, Buckby is mocked by leftists online.

If Buckby's case is told by left-wing outlets, the FBI informant will be rewarded with the attention she craves and hailed as a hero, Buckby explained.

"She is desperately trying to get credit for hurting us and others, and is really clambering to be relevant," Buckby warned.

"But at the same time, we feel like we need to get this story out there to show how vindictive these people are," he continued.

"[The accuser] and her friends in Antifa and the NYC performing arts scene really believe they are fighting Nazis, but we are just a couple who want to be together and start a family," Buckby concluded.

The Post Millennial reached out the Antifa activist who told us that she did not name Buckby or his wife by name. She went on to say, "As far as Antifa is concerned, I'm a moderate Democrat who is against fascism and that's all you'll get out of me."

Original post:

Antifa activist submits false 'terrorist' report to the FBI, preventing a conservative couple from starting a family in the US - The Post Millennial