Monthly Archives: August 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. In the months since the siege at the U.S. Capitol in January, federal investigators have looked closely at the Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist group at the forefront of the riot. Agents have pried into the groups encrypted messages, pored over video footage of their exploits and built criminal cases against at least two dozen members.

The authorities in Canada have joined in the crackdown, designating the group as a terrorist organization, a move that allows the government to seize assets in that country.

The groups leader, Enrique Tarrio, was sentenced by the local district court in Washington on Monday to five months in jail for possessing high-capacity rifle magazines a few days before the siege and for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner after a separate pro-Trump rally descended into violence in December.

But despite the intensifying scrutiny, an organization that built itself as a band of brothers ready for violent confrontation over what its members see as an assault on Western culture shows no sign of going away. Members have begun regrouping online and joining rallies.

On Saturday, several Proud Boys participated in a demonstration against measures to control the coronavirus in South Carolina one of many forays the group is making into local politics. Then on Sunday, dozens of activists wearing the groups yellow-and-black colors rallied in Portland, Ore., where they fought in the streets with antifascist counterprotesters, shooting paintball guns and smashing windows. One arrest was made after gunfire broke out.

The event had been billed as a rally to unite right-wing groups, but it prominently featured the Proud Boys, a group whose members have espoused misogynistic, Islamophobic, antisemitic and anti-immigrant views. The rally on Sunday developed into a protest over the incarceration of the rioters who set siege to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

With supporters coming from California, Washington State and as far away as New York, the event showed that the Proud Boys were prepared to continue engaging in the kind of public violence that first attracted a law enforcement crackdown.

The Proud Boys were established during the 2016 presidential election and gained substantial momentum through the tenure of President Donald J. Trump, who famously called upon them to stand back and stand by; their members were afforded a certain degree of leniency by law enforcement agents who at times favored the group in its conflicts with antifa and other leftist protesters.

That changed after Jan. 6, when a mob of about 100 Proud Boys and their supporters pushed past security barriers at the Capitol and, prosecutors say, took a leading role in helping the larger throng of pro-Trump protesters violently breach the building. Members of the group were at the tip of the spear, court papers say, among the first rioters to shatter windows, break down doors and confront the police inside. The F.B.I. has further learned that both before and after the Capitol attack, two Proud Boy leaders spoke of riling up the normies the ordinary people in the crowd.

In the wake of the riot, the federal authorities brought the full weight of their powers to bear on investigating the organization. F.B.I. agents have executed search warrants in New York, California, Florida, Missouri and Washington State. Prosecutors culled through hundreds of private messages on apps like Telegram and social media platforms like Parler. Investigators have targeted leaders of the Proud Boys in particular, arresting chapter presidents from Honolulu, Seattle, Philadelphia and the Winston-Salem area in North Carolina.

Among the targets of the federal crackdown have been Proud Boys from the Pacific Northwest, which has a long history as a base for right-wing extremist groups. One of them, Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Wash., has been labeled by federal authorities as one of the leaders of the Capitol attack. Federal agents also arrested two brothers Matthew Klein and Jonathanpeter Klein for their roles at the Capitol.

Both Mr. Nordean and the Klein brothers were entrenched in the Proud Boys world of conflict long before Jan. 6. Mr. Nordean became one of the groups most prominent figures after he knocked out an antifa activist in Portland during a protest in 2018. The Kleins appeared at other events in Oregon, according to prosecutors, including one last year in which the police stopped a truck because it appeared that the men in the vehicle might have been preparing for violent conflict. Matthew Klein, one of the people in the vehicle, was cited for unlawful possession of firearms.

During an event last summer in Salem, the state capital, a group of right-wing demonstrators including several wearing Proud Boys apparel chased a smaller group of counterdemonstrators, hitting them and firing paintballs. The Proud Boys later celebrated one of the attacks in video posted online.

Although the Proud Boys have long been among Mr. Trumps most ardent backers, the events of Jan. 6 caused some in the group to reassess their support for the former president. Mr. Nordean later told his colleagues, in a group chat obtained by the F.B.I., that he felt betrayed by Mr. Trump for having encouraged the Proud Boys to believe that great justice was on the horizon but never following through on the promise.

Ive followed this guy for 4 years and given everything and lost it all, Mr. Nordean wrote in the chat. Trump, you left us on the battlefield bloody and alone.

Since the Jan. 6 riot, the Proud Boys Pacific Northwest chapter, which includes groups in Oregon and Washington, elected to break from the national organization and its national chairman, Mr. Tarrio, according to a court declaration filed by Daniel Arellano, the president of the groups Seattle chapter. That move came even as Mr. Tarrios history as a federal informant was suddenly exposed, damaging his standing among many of his peers.

But throughout the turmoil, Mr. Tarrio, who lives in Miami, has managed to maintain his grip on power despite a handful of competitors challenging his authority.

Mr. Tarrios personal troubles deepened on Monday with the news that he would be spending a little more than five months in jail.

The sentence was handed down a day after the Proud Boys latest violent foray in Portland. They gathered on Sunday in a retail parking lot, raising an American flag and hoisting a banner referring to people arrested because of the Jan. 6 riot as political prisoners.

After antifascist demonstrators arrived on scene, the Proud Boys pursued them with batons, Mace, improvised fireworks and paintball guns. Lets go, shouted one of the Proud Boys leaders as the group went off in pursuit of the antifascist activists, who also used violent tactics during the confrontation and at one point attacked a journalist documenting the scene.

At a nearby middle school, several Proud Boys surrounded a counterdemonstrator seated in a truck. One of them entered the truck and began beating the man.

Later, about 10 miles away in the citys downtown, a man was arrested after he exchanged gunfire with antifascist demonstrators, according to a police report and a review of video footage from the scene. No one appears to have been struck.

The man who was arrested, Dennis G. Anderson, a 65-year-old Gresham resident, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm, and the Portland Police Bureau said it was looking for one or more additional people who may have fired a weapon.

Mr. Tarrio has claimed that support for the group has only grown since Jan. 6 and said he expects the Proud Boys will probably focus less on large public events for the foreseeable future. Instead, he said, along with supporting those being charged with crimes in the Capitol siege, he is exploring a run for office and wants to help Proud Boys get elected around the country.

People think we are just going to go away, Mr. Tarrio said in an interview on Monday. We are not. Like it or not, we are here to stay.

Stephen Piggott, a researcher who monitors right-wing extremism for the left-leaning nonprofit Western States Center, fears that to be true. They havent waned in their commitment to commit acts of violence, he said.

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting.

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Members of the Proud Boys Face Charges Amid Crackdown - The New York Times

Responding to the skirmish that broke out between far-right Proud Boys and far-left antifascists Sunday in Portland, Oregon, the city's police chief said he deliberately kept police presence away from the scene, the Associated Press reported.

Chief Chuck Lovell said he considered the "legal restrictions" when responding to protests, the history of police fanning the fire and a staff shortage within the Portland Police Department.

After a year of consistent and often violent unrest in the city, the department now employs 145 fewer officers. A team of 50, who were specialized in crowd-control and responding to the ongoing protests, resigned after one of their team members was indicted on criminal charges.

Lovell said that based on this information, he chose not to "place officers in an extraordinarily unsafe position between groups of people who are highly motivated to confront one another."

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

For nearly 30 minutes, armed protesters from the opposing groups clashed last weekend in the streets, business parking lots and school grounds of a diverse neighborhood in northeast Portland.

Cars attempted to drive by Sunday as fireworks exploded in the road and there were confrontations between people in helmets and gas masks and armed with baseball bats, paintball guns and chemical spray.

Noticeably missing was the Portland Police Bureau.

Before the skirmish, the latest in a saga of political conflict that has plagued the city for years, officials said people shouldn't expect to see officers trying to intervene or keep the sides apart.

But the lack of intervention by law enforcement has left residents feeling "terrorized and abandoned" and local and state leaders frustrated, in addition to further hurting the image of the Police Bureau that has struggled to find its footing in the city.

"As soon as the fighting began and spilled out into the neighborhood, the police should have come in and stopped it," said state Senator Michael Dembrow, a Democrat who represents a large swath of the Parkrose community where the confrontation took place. "I've heard from a number of Parkrose residents who felt exposed and betrayed by the lack of police presence. They have every reason to feel that way."

Portland is no stranger to differing political groups fighting in the streets. Nearly a year ago, a caravan of Donald Trump supporters drove through the city and were met with counterprotesters. Altercations broke out between the groups and a right-wing protester was fatally shot.

Far-left antifascists gathered at Portland's Tom McCall Waterfront park early Sunday afternoon waving Black Lives Matter flags. About 8 miles (13 kilometers) away at an abandoned parking lot in the diverse Parkrose community, Proud Boys gathered and listened to speeches decrying the antifascist movement and calling for the release of those arrested during the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6.

"I will say that the decision by the Proud Boys to rally in Parkrose was reprehensible on a number of levels. They chose to take their hate-filled rally outside of downtown, the usual site of protests and demonstrations, and move it to one of Portland's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods," Dembrow said.

The clash between subsets of the two groups interrupted traffic around 4 p.m. on a busy thoroughfare in the Parkrose neighborhood, and crept into business parking lotsforcing at least one gas station to close earlyand onto Parkrose High School property. At least one video, shared online by a Portland Tribune reporter, showed a family with young children running to their car to escape the clash.

After 30 minutes of fighting, the two sides separated on their own.

The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that Portland police were monitoring the fight from a plane. In addition, as of Wednesday police had made only one arrest related to the clashes and demonstrations.

But, even as group membersmany of whom officials said were from out of town or out of stateleft the area, residents were left reeling by the violent events.

Michael Lopes Serrao, superintendent of the Parkrose School District, said he felt "heartbroken for the community" knowing some of his students and their families watched the violence from their homes. Community members were left picking up trash and remnants of paint, glass and bear mace the following days, he said.

"It's confusing at best, and frustrating for many who live here. East Portlanders traditionally have felt more ignored by the city in general, so I believe this only exacerbates that concern," Lopes Serrao said. "Why would you ignore one of the areas of the city that has been historically underserved. If Portland is about equity, then we should be elevating this community and protecting its vulnerability."

The idea that the lack of police presence hurt the department's already negative image was reiterated by Michael Dreiling, a professor of sociology for the University of Oregon.

"If the police department is trying to manage their image, refusing to show up and enforce the law, when far-right extremists show up and instigate violence, is not a good way to do it," Dreiling said.

However, in the days following the clash, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Lovell said they stood by the police bureau's approach and said it "contained" violence between the groups.

"With strategic planning and oversight, the Portland Police Bureau and I mitigated confrontation between the two events," Wheeler said. "And minimized the impact of the weekend's events to Portlanders."

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Portland Police Chief Chose Not to Put Cops at Proud Boys, BLM Protests That Erupted Into Fight - Newsweek

Tear gas is released into a crowd of protesters during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, January 6, 2021.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Seven U.S. Capitol Police officers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing former President Donald Trump, far-right "violent extremist groups" and others of being directly responsible for the deadly invasion of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The lawsuit was filed against more than two dozen people and entities, including Republican operative Roger Stone and the far-right Proud Boys group. It alleges the defendants conspired to stop Congress from confirming President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory "through the use of force, intimidation, and threats."

Their actions violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, which isintended to protect against political violence and intimidation, and other laws, the lawsuit alleges.

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"Defendants' unlawful efforts culminated in the January 6 mass attack on the United States Capitol and the brutal, physical assault of hundreds of law enforcement officers," says the officers' legal complaint.

"Many Defendants in this case planned, aided, and actively participated in that attack. All Defendants are responsible for it," according to the lawsuit.

The complaint says the seven officers were "violently assaulted, spat on, tear-gassed, bear-sprayed, subjected to racial slurs and epithets, and put in fear for their lives" as they defended the Capitol from a mob of Trump supporters.

Their legal action marks at least the fourth lawsuit against Trump related to the Capitol riot and the second to be filed by members of the Capitol Police force.

In February, the NAACP and House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sued Trump, his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, another extremist group, alleging they conspired to incite the riot.

The next month, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., filed his own lawsuit against Trump and Giuliani, as well as Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., accusing them of being "wholly responsible" for the mob's destruction. All three men spoke to crowds of Trump's supporters at the "Stop the Steal" rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, when Congress at the nearby Capitol was set to convene to confirm Biden's victory.

In late March, Capitol Police officers Sidney Hemby and James Blassingame filed a lawsuit blaming Trump for the injuries they suffered, and continue to suffer from, due to the invasion. They are each seeking more than $75,000 in compensatory damages.

"As this lawsuit makes clear, the Jan. 6 insurrection was not just an attack on individuals, but an attack on democracy itself," saidDamon Hewitt,president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is representing the officers in the case filed Thursday.

"It was a blatant attempt to stifle the votes and voices of millions of Americans, particularly Black voters," Hewitt said in a press release.

The officers in a joint statement said their jobs have become "infinitely more dangerous" after Jan. 6.

"We want to do what we can to make sure the people who did this are held accountable and that no one can do this again," they said in the statement.

Trump was impeached in the Democrat-led House in January on a charge of inciting the riot, with 10 Republicans supporting the measure. He was acquitted in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote was required for conviction.

But questions about Trump's role in the attempted insurrection have hardly faded in the wake of his acquittal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., formed a select committee to investigate the attack after Senate Republicans shot down an attempt to form an equally bipartisan, "9/11-style" commission. Trump could be called to testify as part of that probe, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said last month.

On Wednesday, the select committeeissued expansive requestsfor records from numerous federal agencies, as well as the Trump White House, as part of their review.

Meanwhile, a Capitol Police officer who shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to break into the Speaker's Lobby was cleared by the USCP after an internal probe.

The officer, whose identity has not been officially disclosed, will reveal himself for the first timein a televised interview set to air Thursday evening on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

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Capitol Police officers sue Trump, Roger Stone, Proud Boys and others over Jan. 6 invasion - CNBC

A gunfight in Portland, Oregon, last week is intensifying concerns over escalating violence during contentious rallies in the city, as far-right demonstrators and anti-fascist counter-protesters have repeatedly faced off.

The Portland police bureau charged a 65-year-old man from Gresham, Oregon, over a gunfight in the citys downtown during violent clashes on Sunday. Authorities say Dennis Anderson drew a concealed handgun and shot at a group of anti-fascists who were trying to expel him from the area. At least one of the anti-fascists shot back, according to authorities, with seven shots exchanged between the two sides.

Proud Boys and members of other far-right groups regularly open-carry handguns during protest, and the shootout fueled the growing concern about the presence of firearms at rallies taking place across the US.

But other violent incidents in Portland on Sunday showed how participants have also increasingly adopted less lethal, but still dangerous, technologies as weapons for political street fighting.

On Sunday afternoon, about 200 Proud Boys and members of other far-right groups clashed with a smaller group of anti-fascists near an abandoned Kmart in the citys outer north-east. The confrontation became a running street battle, with participants fist-fighting and attacking each other with pepper spray.

The two camps also resorted to other tactics they had deployed during previous demonstrations. Anti-fascists threw fireworks, repeating a tactic that some leftwing protesters have long used in contentious events in Portland and beyond. Similar munitions were used in several confrontations with police during Portlands long string of protests last summer, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At one point on Sunday, a firework thrown by an anti-fascist exploded in the forecourt of a gas station, raising alarm on all sides of the confrontation.

Some Proud Boys, on the other hand, were carrying airsoft guns, replica firearms that fire pellets with compressed air and are usually used in recreational combat games or combat training.

Those weapons, along with paintball guns, first made an appearance during clashes in August 2020, when a group of far-right brawlers used them to shoot gas-propelled pellets at a far larger group of leftwing protesters. A Guardian investigation at the time showed that participants had planned for weeks to employ the devices in a way that maximized their destructive impact.

Since then, the weapons have been used at every Portland protest where far-right groups have showed up, including on 29 August 2020, when passengers in vehicles participating in a pro-Donald Trump truck convoy shot pedestrians with the devices.

Hours after those vehicle attacks, Jay Danielson, a supporter of Patriot Prayer, a far-right street protest group that made high-profile incursions into Portland throughout the Trump era, was shot dead by a self-identified anti-fascist, Michael Reinoehl. Reinoehl himself was later shot dead by police in Lacey, Washington.

Although airsoft and paintball guns are unlikely to kill, medical researchers say that they pose a significant risk of injury to eyes, heads, and other extremities. There were an estimated 10,080 emergency room visits attributable to non-powder guns including airsoft and paintball guns across the US last year, according to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.

The use of airsoft and paintball guns, just like any weapon, can be prosecuted when they are used to threaten others. Earlier this month, a Portland resident was arrested for pointing an airsoft weapon at a journalist, under a statute that penalises the misuse of dangerous or deadly weapons. But they are not subject to any specific federal or state laws, and nor are they covered by firearms laws.

The weapons legal status, as well as their non-lethality, have made them an attractive option for extremist groups in and outside of the US, said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington Universitys program on extremism.

Lewis argued that the Proud Boys were likely to continue to use the weapons in Portland and anywhere where there was a lax local response to the groups activities from law enforcement.

On Sunday, the absence of police during the confrontations raised questions about whether authorities in the city were willing, or able, to stop the violence.

The Portland police bureau (PPB) chief, Chuck Lovell, announced in repeated statements in advance of the unpermitted rally that protesters should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart.

The tactic gave rally-goers and counter-protesters free rein, while employees of businesses located near the fracas told local media that they felt abandoned by law enforcement.

The concerns over the events in Portland come as a new report by two national non-profits, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled) and Everytown for Gun Safety, showed that over the last year and a half, armed demonstrations, at which individuals other than law enforcement officers were carrying firearms, were nearly six times as likely to turn violent or destructive compared with unarmed demonstrations.

Researchers did not determine whether the presence of firearms provoked violent acts, or if participants tended to arm themselves ahead of events that were likely to be violent, said Dr Roudabeh Kishi, a researcher for Acled.

But while it can be hard to tell the chicken from the egg, she added, guns may heighten tensions and intimidate protesters who arent accustomed to seeing them.

Additional data from Acled highlighted the scale of violent protests in Portland.

Between 1 January 2020 and 30 July 2021, Portland saw 128 demonstrations that were violent and/or destructive, amounting to 31% of the total number of demonstrations in the city in that period. This was more than 10 times higher than the national average of 3% of demonstrations becoming violent or destructive.

In the same time period, Portland saw 21 armed demonstrations about 4% of all armed demonstrations across the country in that time. Fourteen of those or 67% turned violent or destructive in that period, whereas only 16% of armed demonstrations did in the country as a whole.

Kishi cautioned that it was important to consider the context in Portland, adding that an aggressive, militarized response to the demonstrations last summer helped push some peaceful protests into violent or destructive riots.

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Portland gunfight fuels alarm over growing use of weapons at rallies - The Guardian