Monthly Archives: September 2021

A federal judge on Wednesday set a hearing to hear a request for release from lawyers of a Proud Boys member who allegedly took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly set the hearing for Friday after lawyers forDominic Spaz Pezzola, 43, argued that his imprisonment is making it difficult for them to consult with him and to review potentially relevant evidence, Reuters reported.

AttorneySteven Metcalf said Pezzola's mother and common-law wife were willing to put up a family house to secure bail.

Pezzola, who is from Rochester, N.Y., was arrested in January on charges ofunlawful entry, destruction of government property and obstruction of an official proceeding. According to theU.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, Pezzola broke into the Capitol using a stolen riot shield andallegedly expressed a desire to kill Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiNorth Dakota Republican latest House breakthrough COVID-19 case Pelosi sets Thursday vote on bipartisan infrastructure bill Cheney says a lot of GOP lawmakers have privately encouraged her fight against Trump MORE (D-Calif.) and then-Vice President Pence.

He was later charged with conspiracyrelated to the incidentalong with other members of the far-rightProud Boys.

It is alleged that Pezzola and[William Pepe] took actions to evade and render ineffective the protective equipment deployed by Capitol Police in active riot control measures, including actions to remove temporary metal barricades erected by the Capitol Police for the purpose of controlling access to the Capitol Grounds, and the stealing and purloining of property belonging to Capitol Police," the Department of Justice said in January.

Michael Scibetta, a lawyer who was representing Pezzola in January, said Pezzola'slogical thinking was that former President TrumpDonald TrumpCheney says a lot of GOP lawmakers have privately encouraged her fight against Trump Republicans criticizing Afghan refugees face risks DeVos says 'principles have been overtaken by personalities' in GOP MORE hadinvited us down."

The boss of the country said, People of the country, come on down, let people know what you think, saidScibetta, referring to the "Stop the Steal" rally that precededthe Capitol attack.

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Federal judge to hear case of Proud Boy alleged Jan. 6 rioter seeking release from jail | TheHill - The Hill

American white supremacist Robert Rundos last known whereabouts was Bosnia and Herzegovina, after he was kicked out of Serbia by local authorities back in March. Hes claimed to be on the no-fly list and has boasted that, as a result, it took him a few months to make his way from the U.S. to Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, hes waiting to find out if the Supreme Court will hear his last-ditch appeal to avoid jail time for federal rioting charges.

Though nobody knows where Rundo is, his latest pet projecta network of far-right, locally-operated MMA groups dubbed Active Clubsare cropping up in the U.S. and beyond.

Through his new organization, Will2Rise, Rundo has sought alliances with more-established outfits like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front by appealing to their glorification of masculinity, youth, white nationalism, and violence.

Two centralized Telegram channels for Will2Rise and Active Club gives Rundo and other leaders in the movement the platform to tout their highly-stylized, neo-fascist aesthetic through propaganda videos and images, many of which are generated through their own media outlet Media2Rise.

The main active club channel cross-pollinates propaganda from nationalist fight clubs around the world, such as images of muscled white men with their faces covered, doing pull-ups, boxing, or graffitiing white nationalist slogans or symbols. The channel also helps direct subscribers toward smaller, locally-focused channels that facilitate real-world meet-ups.

In Rundos own words from a blog post on Media2Rise, he wants Active Clubs to awake[ing] the racial bonds between kin through engaging in shared fitness activities, sweating, and bleeding together. He complains that Boy Scouts no longer teach boys to be men, and that fitness centers like the YMCA are far removed from white neighborhoods.

Rundo hopes to lure new recruits through the promise of belonging to something. This isnt unusual for extremist groups, explained Cynthia Miller-Idriss, author of the book Hate in the Homeland, and director of American Universitys Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, who points to some of the slogans featured on T-shirts sold via the Will2Rise website.

Messaging that comes across in these nationalist expressions are also about aspirational qualities like solidarity, honor, courage, trust, loyalty, and brotherhood, said Miller-Idriss. I think thats a really important part of why people are attracted to these movements. People think it's just because of hate, but often they are attracted to the idea of being part of something.

For years, Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, has been a mainstay of the far-right in Europe, and Rundos made no secret of his admiration for key players in that scene. Hes close friends with Russian neo-Nazi football hooligan Denis Niktin, who co-runs Media2Rise and owns a neo-Nazi lifestyle brand White Rex. The two men record a podcast, broadcasted via their outlet, in which they cover the highs and the lows, from underground MMA events to FBI house raids. (When authorities searched Rundos home in 2018, they found a large framed portrait of Adolf Hitler.)

Experts say theres reason to be concerned about Rundos new strategy. He appears to have learned from some of the mistakes made through the Rise Above Movement (RAM), a white supremacist street-fighting gang that he founded in 2016 in Southern California. Like Active Clubs, RAM was building on the European far-rights emphasis on physical fitness and hyper-masculinity. Members of the group traveled at least once to train with the neo-Nazialigned Azov Battalion in Ukraine.

On multiple occasions, RAM members showed up at protests in California and at the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville with their faces uncovered and brawled with leftists, which left Rundo and others open to criminal prosecution. With charges looming against Rundo and three other members of RAM in 2018, the young white supremacist fled to Central America, where he was later arrested by the FBI, and brought back to the U.S.

A judge dismissed the charges the following year, concluding that their activities were protected by the First Amendment. This year, a federal appeals court reinstated the charges. (He was briefly wanted by authorities, and then he bought time by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, who have not ruled on whether they will hear his case.)

Whereas RAM was a group, there is the claim of plausible deniability in the active club movement model, said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a terrorism researcher at the Counter Extremism Project. Rundo can tell people to go out and organize, train, and spread propaganda, but he is not necessarily the functional leader of active clubs around the country.

In a blog posted to his site, Rundo himself says he hopes to achieve a brush-fire effect by encouraging supporters to mobilize others in their communities and form their own Active Clubs. The system and media will waste tons of energy and resources to put out one small fire as another catches a spark elsewhere, he wrote. Even if the system and their dogs manage to put out one fire, it will lead to minimal results because these clubs are generally small and local, helping to shield it from infiltrators and broader law enforcement actions.

Whats more, when Rundo first created RAM, the modern far-right was still in its nascent stages. Five years later, right-wing extremism has spilled over into the mainstream. White supremacists, anti-vaxxers, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and MAGA devotees have commingled on alternative social media platforms like Telegram and Parler, or at protests against COVID-19 restrictions or the 2020 election results. Groups like the Proud Boys show up to mainstream political events and are cheered by the people there. And while bloody brawls between ideologically opposed groups may have made the national news back in 2016, these days casual political violence is just another weekend pastime in America.

A new report by Advance Democracy Inc., a public-interest research group, looked at how Rundo, through his media outlet, was hoping to tap into a broader base of possible recruits in the U.S. When the right-wing Parler app went offline in January, supporters of former President Donald Trump flocked to Telegram en masse, creating a feeding frenzy for the far-right extremists who already had an established presence on that platformRundo included.

Rundo seems to be attempting to expand his reach. Rundo has indicated that he sees many white, male Trump supporters as potential new recruits into militant white nationalism, due to the disillusionment and persecution they feel under the current U.S. administration and mainstream cultural climate, Advance Democracy Inc. wrote. Media2Rises content is already being shared by channels on Telegram which appear to cater to a highly conservative U.S. audience.

Experts say that Rundo also seems to understand how he can exploit divisions within the far-right spectrum, build coalitions, and reach a broader pool of potential recruits.

This kind of coalition-building is not surprising to me. Because Rundo appears to be trying to build a broad decentralized movement and not a single group, it makes sense to try to involve other groups that might have a presence in specific regions, said Fisher-Birch. Its troubling in that it means there are more potential recruits for this movement.

For example, Rundo has been playing to the punch-happy, explicitly white supremacist wing of the Proud Boys who seem to be growing increasingly frustrated with their leaders obsession with optics and hunger for political legitimacy. Though, on the face of things, the Proud Boys have remained very active by inserting themselves into local politics, one large Telegram hub thats linked to the Proud Boys, Western Chauvinist, has been promoting Active Club content and meet-ups.

(Fisher-Birch notes that its not clear whether any bona fide Proud Boy members have joined active clubs, though he wouldnt be surprised if that were the case. However, joining an active club could put Proud Boys at risk of violating their Constitution and Bylaws laid out in a 2018 document: They are not allowed to be part of organizations that promote the supremacy of any one race over another.

Researchers who have monitored Western Chauvinist, whose admins claim to be high-ranking Proud Boys, say the channel has become more brazenly white supremacist over the past year. The channel currently has over 50,000 subscribers. (The admins did not respond to a request for comment.)

The other key alliance Rundo has made is with Patriot Front, which emerged as a splinter faction out of its neo-Nazi predecessor Vanguard America in the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Patriot Front caters to white men under the age of 35, and the group thinly disguises its white nationalism through red-white-and-blue Americana. Theyre prolific propagandists; their fliers and stickers have been documented in all 50 states plus D.C. (with the exception of Hawaii). While Proud Boys are known for being sloppy, swilling beer, and getting into fistfights, Patriot Front could be considered their more uptight, affirmably white nationalist, cousin. Patriot Fronts rare public appearances are usually meticulously crafted: Members mobilize like a small army, with their faces completely covered, seemingly with the sole purpose of getting videos and photos that they could later turn into propaganda.

Somewhere between the Proud Boys and Patriot Front (with a sprinkling of other smaller groups, such as Nationalist Social Club) sits Rundos Active Clubs.

Its not clear how big the clubs are, or how many have cropped up. Fisher-Birch has identified at least seven in the U.S. and one in Canada, plus affiliated groups in Europe and Australia, and notes that, like any extremist group, their propaganda will overstate their size and effectiveness.

The other notable aspect of Will2Rise and the Active Club trend is its aesthetic. In videos posted around his media site, Rundo doles out advice for budding white supremacists for how to make their lifestyle seem appealing and enviable to others, like keeping fit and eating healthy.

The Active Clubs rely heavily on symbolism and code as a way to draw in potential recruits and other adherents. Like other modern far-right groups, the active clubs eschew Klan hoods and swastikas for a slightly more nuanced aesthetic, which is best defined by the merch sold via Will2Rises website. Some of the T-shirts incorporate symbols associated with RAM or Nitkins brand White Rex, or color schemes associated with either the Proud Boys or Patriot Front.

The clothing relies on in-group slogans and iconography, like the use of XIV symbolizing the fourteen words (a white supremacist mantra), or WWII fascist slogans, rather than explicit use of white supremacist logos, said Fisher-Birch. The idea is that those who wear Will2Rise gear wouldnt appear out of place at an MMA event, hardcore show, or skate park.

Another T-shirt sold via the website features an image of a recording screen, and on it, a masked man throwing a Molotov cocktail while cars burn behind him. The text on the T-shirt reads No Face, No Case.

Theres nothing coded about that, said Miller-Idriss. Thats just flat-out legal advice. That to me is striking to see the overt recommendation to cover face, in what seems to be a direct attempt to offer supporters of the movement free legal advice.

Though Rundo has stayed mum on his current whereabouts, hes offered some hints through podcasts. During a podcast recorded by a far-right group in New Zealand, he talked about how it was easier to stay off the radar in Eastern Europe because renters can often lease an apartment through a verbal agreement with a landlord instead of having to turn over the extensive paperwork thats generally required in the U.S. He said that hed traveled around somewhat, attending various events in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Hungary.

In that podcast, the host remarked that they were surprised the government hadnt come looking for him yet. I would have thought theyd be wasting time and resources, like hunting you down, they said. These days, Rundo says, he avoids flyinghe claims hes had at least two experiences where local intelligence officers were waiting to meet him as he got off the plane.

(Disclosure: Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, was a co-founder of VICE in 1994. He left the company in 2008 and has had no involvement since then.)

Follow Tess Owen on Twitter.

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A White Supremacist Is Organizing Fight Clubs Across the US - VICE

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Hack reveals details of those behind Proud Boys and other far-right websites - Bend Bulletin

TheEast Naples man suspected of participating in the U.S. Capitol riot in Januaryis now being representedby a Tampa attorney, replacing the high-profile lawyer who had taken over the case in March.

Christopher Worrell,50, was arrested after FBI agents executed a search and arrest warrant at his home on March 12.

The prosecution claims Worrell assaulted a line of law enforcement officers with pepper spray gel outside the U.S. Capitol building during the riot in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6.

On Friday, a joint stipulation for substitution of counsel motion beforeJudge Royce C. Lamberth in U.S. District court in Washington D.C., was filedlisting Attorney Alex Reed Stavrou, Sr., of Tampa as Worrell's new lawyer, replacing Attorney John Pierce.

Previously: Lawyer for SWFL man arrested in connection with US Capitol riot reportedly hospitalized with COVID-19

And: Attorney: East Naples man arrested in connection to US Capitol riot at risk of COVID

The motion said Pierce, who's status has been unclear lately, would have no further responsibilities in the Worrell case.

Pierce had been representing17 of the more than 500 people charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.Pierce was said to possibly be ill with COVID-19, on a ventilator and unresponsive, according to a notice filed by the prosecution in Worrells case.

But arecent story in USA Today said Pierce, the lawyer for more than a dozen people charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, informed judges in Washington, D.C., that he's been released from a 12-day stay ina Los Angeles-area hospital and would be back on his cases soon.

AnNPR reporter tweetedthat Pierce said he hadnot been vaccinated against COVID-19, and doesn't expect to be, and wouldn't be "elaborating further on my personal medical issues."

Pierce first became famous as the lawyer forKyle Rittenhouse, after the teen was charged with fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.Rittenhouse fired Pierce in February.

Stavrou, who did not respond to a request for comment Saturday, is the third attorney for Worrell. His first attorney,Landon Miller, was terminated from the case in March and Pierce took over representation.

Despite concerns over Pierce's whereabouts, the prosecution continued to file motions including opposition to revokingWorrells pretrialdetention. The motion filed by Worrells defense team wasa reply to the prosecution's opposition to revoking the detention order.

More: D.C. Judge orders East Naples man with Proud Boys ties to remain jailed through trial

The motion from Worrells defense team said he should be releasedpendinghis trial because he is not getting proper treatmentfor hisnon-Hodgkins lymphoma or his broken handwhile at the mens correctional treatment facility.

Federal prosecutors said that was not true and listed dates for Worrell's cancer biopsy.

According to a motion filed by federal prosecutors on Sept. 16, "25 pages of Mr. Worrells medical records, which contain those records that have been entered since August 12, 2021. The records indicate that Mr. Worrell has now received the two biopsies that he complained of not having received in his original motionthe same biopsies he previously declined to attend. ... He is in fact routinely receiving care for his lymphoma, including at world-class outside hospitals with specialties in cancer care."

Federal prosecutors said Worrell received care for every ailment hebrought to the attention of the D.C. Jail staff.

"His emergency motion to revoke the detention order should be denied as meritless," the motion said. JudgeLamberth has not yet ruled on the motions.

Bruce Vielmetti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA Today, contributed to this story. Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun:MichaelBraunNP (Facebook),@MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com. Proud member of Local#3108 TNG-CWA Southwest Florida News Guild.

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Third attorney takes over U.S. Capitol riot case of East Naples man with Proud Boys ties - Naples Daily News

On January 18, protestors marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, stopping only to break into song and dance. But when they reached City Hall Park in Manhattan, they were met by police officers clad in riot gear.

Officers flooded the streets and ordered everyone to clear the roadway. Protesters obliged, but moments later, officers in the NYPDs Strategic Response Group (SRG) charged at the marchers. They pushed, pummeled, and dragged protesters into the street. By the end of the night, 28 people were arrested.

For more than a year, the NYCLUs protest monitors have witnessed and documented incidents like this across New York City. A clear pattern quickly emerged: When SRG arrives on the scene, officers escalate situations and injure New Yorkers who are exercising their First Amendment rights.

To protect the safety and First Amendment rights of New Yorkers, the unit must be disbanded.

Formed in 2015, the SRG is a rapid-response unit with a budget that ballooned within a year of its founding from $13 million to $90 million.

Despite the Departments initial claims that the SRG would engage in counterterror work, the NYPDs public description of the unit does not include counterterrorism. In fact, nearly every policing activity the SRG performs is already carried out by other NYPD agencies. The only unique role the SRG seems to fill is its heavy specialization in the suppression of protest.

During the 2020 racial justice protests, 1,300 officers were added to the SRGs command and the units brutalization of protestors came into full view. The NYPD is facing numerous lawsuits related to the departments treatment of protesters during last years protests. In many of these lawsuits, the SRG is front-and-center.

On June 4, 2020, the SRG descended on demonstrators in Mott Haven before the 8pm curfew. With demonstrators unable to escape, SRG officers brutally beat, zip-tied, and arrested 263 protesters, medics, and legal observers. Sixty-one people were injured.

The incident prompted a Human Rights Watch report that details the violent police attack, describing SRG and NYPD officers beating trapped protesters with batons, fists, and feet; deploying pepper spray at point-blank range; and using their bicycles as weapons. The report declared the NYPD's conduct "intentional, planned, and unjustified."

Between May 2020 and July 2021, NYCLU protest monitors witnessed 40 instances of police arresting non-violent protesters. Monitors documented 24 incidents of kettling, a violent and controversial tactic used to trap and arrest protestors, and 39 instances of use of force, including use of bicycles as weapons, batons, and pepper spray. The SRG was present and participating at all but one of these incidents.

The SRG is known for its propensity to turn non-violent protests into brutal police crackdowns. The voluntary unit attracts officers seeking more action, who often have long records of misconduct. But the SRGs pattern of violence is not just the behavior of a few bad actors. Members of the unit are trained to crush protest especially protest for racial justice with force.

The SRGs Field Force Operations manual includes guidelines for mass arrests, sound cannon deployment, and tactical formations like encirclement. Described as a formation utilized to take a group of people into custody, encirclement is functionally identical to kettling.

In the Bike Squads manual, the SRGs bias is laid bare. Protest groups are divided into two categories: peaceful and violent. Examples of violent protestors are BLM movement, Occupy Wall Street, and Anti-Trump Demonstrators.

These biased SRG trainings help explain the units disparate policing of protests. For example, in 2018, the SRG allowed the Proud Boys to march without a police escort and backed away when members of the white supremacist group attacked counter-protesters. They then escorted Proud Boy founder Gavin McIness to his car.

Our protest monitors have consistently observed that right-wing, white supremacist and pro-police groups almost always protest without any SRG interference. In contrast, Black Lives Matter protests are consistently policed, brutalized, and arrested by the unit.

The SRG has a history of racial bias and misconduct. The NYCLUs database of New York Citys Civilian Complaint Review Board filings shows that SRG officers receive an abnormally high number of misconduct complaints compared to non-SRG officers. Of officers who were named in at least one complaint while in the SRG, the median number of complaints since 2000 is six. The median number of complaints received since 2000 for all officers in the database is three.

The SRG also has a pattern of targeting people of color. The NYCLUs database shows there have been 455 complaints filed against SRG officers between 2015 and 2021. Of those complaints that included a victims race, the impacted individual was a person of color 91 percent of the time. Sixty-six percent of victims were Black, 21 percent were Latinx, and nine percent were white.

In the fight to divest, disempower, and demilitarize the police, we have to start by removing the units that do the most harm. We should begin by putting an end to the SRG itself.

The NYPD with SRG officers enforcing its will effectively decides who has the right to protest in New York City. That decision should not rest with the NYPD or any police department.

The SRG should be disbanded and its tactics must not be recreated under another name. The units $90 million budget meanwhile, should be reinvested in ways that help, rather than harm New Yorkers.

Disbanding the SRG is a critical step in protecting the First Amendment and removing the specter of violence from protest.

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Why We Must Disband this Protest-Busting NYPD Unit - nyclu.org