Antifa / Proud Boys / BLM

Published 14 mins ago
PBS reporter faces backlash for telling Trump there's 'no evidence' that anarchists appeared at protests

Long article with tweets and video:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/pbs-yamiche-alcindor-trump-no-evidence-anarchists

How Antifa works:

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1267479754136928256

JUNE 4, 2020 / 9:12 AM / UPDATED 10 MINUTES AGO
Attorney General Barr says foreign groups, extremists stoking divisions in U.S. protests
Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday that foreign interests and “extremist agitators” tied to the Antifa movement have tried to exploit nationwide protests over the latest in a long series of killings of black men by white police officers.

Barr’s statements came three days after an internal intelligence assessment produced by the Department of Homeland Security and seen by Reuters found that most of the violence at the protests appears to have been carried out by opportunists, not organized extremists.

While Barr and Republican President Donald Trump have focused blame on Antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement, federal prosecutors in Las Vegas on Wednesday charged three members of the far-right “Boogaloo” movement with planning to cause violence and destruction during protests.

“We have seen evidence that Antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involving in instigating and participating in violent activity,” Barr said at a news conference.

Barr also defended his decision to forcefully push peaceful protesters back from the White House on Monday evening, saying rioting had gotten out of control over the weekend.

Clearing the protesters allowed Trump to stage a photo opportunity at a nearby historic church, where a fire set during the earlier mayhem did minor damage.

“We decided that we needed more of a buffer to protect the White House,” Barr said.

The attorney general has been criticized for his decision to use force on the protests over the death of George Floyd by calling in a wide range of federal agents to protect the White House and other landmarks after demonstrations in Washington turned violent.

The federal agents called in to protect the White House include riot-control teams from the federal Bureau of Prisons, who have been spotted in uniforms without badges or other identification, unlike other police officers.

Bureau Director Michael Carvajal said those agents typically do not wear identifying material on the job, and acknowledged he “probably should have done a better job of marking them nationally.”

In a letter to Trump, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called the presence of unidentified officers and U.S. military on the streets of Washington “alarming.”

The Democrat told reporters that her daughter, Alexandra, had been present when the federal agents acting on Barr’s orders cleared Lafayette Park near the White House of protesters.

“She thought she had tear gas in her eyes because she was incapacitated for a while and she called me after,” Pelosi said.

Barr said foreign groups are also using social media disinformation campaigns like those mounted by Russia during the 2016 presidential election to widen divisions in U.S. society.

“Some of the foreign hackers and groups that are associated with foreign governments are focusing in on this particular situation we have here, and trying to exacerbate it in every way they can,” he said.

Barr said federal agents have made 51 arrests so far for charges involving violence.

He said 114 law enforcement officers have been injured in protests in Washington and 22 have been hospitalized.

Authorities are investigating seven fires set in violent protests in Washington over the weekend, and one person has been arrested and charged, said Regina Lombardo, acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-barr/attorney-general-barr-says-foreign-groups-extremists-stoking-divisions-in-u-s-protests-idUSKBN23B2GI

Posted elsewhere:
____________________________________

TO: ALL MEDIA

PUBLIC STATEMENT FROM “ANTIFA” IN RESPONSE TO THE THREATS ISSUED BY UNITED STATES PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Dear Mr. Trump:

Let us be perfectly clear:

“Antifa” isn’t an organization. There’s no membership, no meetings, no dues, no rules, no leaders, no structure. It is, literally, an idea and nothing more. Even the claim of this author to represent “Antifa” is one made unilaterally for the purposes of this communication and nothing more; there is no governing body nor trademark owner to dispute the author’s right to represent “AntiFa.”

“Antifa” is a neologism constructed from a contraction of the phrase “anti-fascist.” The truth is, there’s no such thing as being “anti-Fascist.” Either you are a decent human being with a conscience, or you are a fascist.

The ostensible president of the United States has, today, openly declared that he is a fascist, and that he intends to turn the military power of the United States into a fascist tool.

Now there is no question, and we can stop pretending that this man represents anything but the worst in humanity, which his supporters embody.

And that is the only effect his words will have.

It will likely be no problem for LEO to identify the author of this document, who also has maintained the “AntiFa” page on Facebook since founding it in 2017.

The author of this document is unconcerned with that inevitability because neither that author, nor this document, has been involved in a crime of any sort in any way.

But, since both the “president” and the media insist on acting as though “AntiFa” is this big, scary organization, the author supposes it’s time for “AntiFa” to make a statement.

Thus:

“AntiFa supports and defends the right of all people to live free from oppressive abuse of power, whether that power is unjustly derived from wealth, status as an employer, or political popularity.

Particularly, AntiFa defends and supports the right of oppressed and marginalized people to protest, march, and engage in civil disobedience in pursuit of justice. While it is never our intent to engage in violent or destructive behavior, we cannot and will not take responsibility for telling people how they are allowed to be righteously outraged. We prefer and encourage non-violent action. We also understand that some people just aren’t feeling that nice anymore. Their feelings are entirely justified, and it is neither our role nor our privilege to tell them otherwise.

Mass civil disobedience is what happens when people say they’re hurting and whoever’s hurting them refuses to stop.

Stop hurting them. Fix your broken systems. Get real and meaningful psychological evaluations and background checks - police in some nations have to pass a more stringent test to carry pepper spray than any police department in the US, or the US military, have in place. As a direct and possibly deliberate consequence, our military and paramilitary personnel simply cannot be assumed to be fighting in the interests of the people of this country.

We’ve all seen the photos. This destruction and burning and looting is largely the behavior of outsiders; white people taking advantage of the situation both to enrich themselves by looting under cover of the protests, and to provide excuses for uncontrolled fascist elements within our military and police forces as plausible cover for killing more black, brown, and poor people without fear of sanction. The so-called “accellerationists” who have committed to ensuring that, any time a marginalized community stands up and demands justice, construct a narrative of criminality and destruction that white bigots and affluent oligarchs who benefit from our broken system to validate their bigotry and injustice retroactively. They are successful in this for two reasons: because people like you are easily manipulated in your banal, self-serving ignorance, and because people like you are more than happy to passive-aggressively reap the benefits of pretending to believe this destruction is the act of the oppressed.

This game has gone on for decades on an endless loop since the very dawn of the civil rights era, and we the people are saying ‘no more.’”

And that, “President” Trump, is your solution. No more. Get the dirt out of your law enforcement and your military. Get the dirt out of your government and administration. Ideally, resign now and take your VP and cabinet with you; Nancy Pelosi isn’t a great deal of improvement, but she’ll only be president for a few months.

You can’t arrest 100 million of us, sir, and you would be well-advised not to try. If you think that targeting and “making an example of” the author of this document will get you anywhere, you may rest assured that this author is more than prepared to allow his real name to be used as a rallying cry for justice and civil disobedience from coast to coast.

It is time for you and everyone who thinks like you to understand that whether black, red, brown, white, or any other color, Americans are done living in a nation of empty platitudes and broken promises.

Traditionally, this type of document is accompanied by a list of “demands.” Here are our demands:

-Universal single payer health care, without regard for citizenship status.
-Universal basic income WITH a federal job guarantee, under which the federal government becomes the “employer of last resort.” Involuntary unemployment is a function of profiteering by fascist capitalist oligarchs who are willing to sacrifice the lives of others for their own enrichment. It must end.
-The abolition of “right to work laws” which do exactly the opposite of ensuring anyone’s right to work.
-Publicly funded higher education.
-Robust and effective social welfare programs to include child care, education, employment training and counseling, parenting skills training, and life skills training including fiscal education.
-A requirement that functional proficiency in media, political, and economic literacy be demonstrated to graduate high school.
-The creation of a publicly funded non-partisan media source to serve as the primary source of government information, to be overseen and managed day to day by a coalition of well-known communicators, political scientists, and other experts in propaganda to strip ALL bias from official information before it is broadcast.
-Federal charges of treason filed against anyone willfully and knowingly attempting to minimize public perception of the impact and risks of the coronavirus.
-Reform of whistleblower laws to ensure they have teeth, and particularly to ensure that a whistleblower, acting in good faith, is not identified to the public, ever.

In the end, Mr. “President,” the simple reality is that “AntiFa” isn’t a thing. You can’t end it, you can’t arrest it, and you can’t silence it. Nor, in any decent nation, would the attempt even be made.

“Antifa” means “Anti-Fascism.” The only position that opposes that is fascism. In the end, there is no “organization” that you can “declare terrorists.”

You, sir, and yours, are the terrorists, and your victims are done putting up with it.

America is not, in spite of having an openly admitted fascist as “president,” a fascist nation. We’ve had wars about this. The fascists are 0-2.

Please, Mr. “President” - let’s not try to make it 0-3? Because it will never, ever be 1-2, and none of us wants to see the death toll from your attempt to make it so.

Currently, media and other actors wishing to contact this author may do so through the page. Should Mr. Zuckerberg, who has displayed plenty of authoritarian and fascist tendencies himself, decide not to host that page any longer, this document will be updated.

Best Regards,

“AntiFa.”

Published 2 hours ago
Lawyer: Landmark suit against Antifa is for 'all Americans who are threatened by these criminals'
By Yael Halon | Fox News

Journalist Andy Ngo sues Rose City Antifa for 2019 assaults carried out against him by the group in Portland, Oregon.

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon of the Center for American Liberty told "The Ingraham Angle" Thursday that she had filed the first-ever lawsuit against the far-left group Antifa to protect journalists and other Americans "who are threatened by these criminals."

Dhillon filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalist Andy Ngo after he was repeatedly attacked in 2019 while covering the violence incited by the group in Portland, Ore. On one occasion, the lawsuit claims, Ngo was beaten by a mob that continued to harass him as he attempted to walk away.

Dhillon told host Laura Ingraham that Ngo "continues to be stalked" and claimed the Portland authorities "continue to do nothing" to protect his safety.

"By the way, that includes the United States attorney who I spoke to at the beginning of the process," she said. "We waited several months and this is a job for law enforcement because ... law enforcement has the tools to go surveil and get warrants and all of that.

"It should have been law enforcement doing this action, not me," Dhillon said, "but because they refuse to do that, we cannot let Andy continue to live under these threats."

Dhillon said the suit, which includes claims of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of Oregon's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, is on behalf of every journalist who's felt threatened by the group.

"It is not just Andy," she said. "They attack every journalist who dared to attack them and make these so-called journalists back off."

Dhillon then turned her wrath on journalists who she says "are effectively a spokesperson for Antifa because of their liberal viewpoints."

"They protect them and make excuses for them and demonize Andy and other journalists who criticize them," she said. "And then they use those [Saul] Alinsky tactics to make Andy the enemy."

Earlier Thursday, Dhillion told Fox News the timing of the lawsuit was unrelated to the riots that have taken place across the country following the death of George Floyd. Her comments came as FBI Director Christopher Wray announced that Antifa was among the groups that are being investigated for acts of violence in various cities over the past several days.

"Andy is very brave and I'm proud to represent him," Dhillon concluded, "but this is on the behalf of all Americans who are threatened by these criminals, and it has to stop."

Do you have a link to the Boogaloo website??

Didn't think so.

The facts are that Antifa, like Boogaloos or Proud Boys are simply loose cannon anarchists.

Since you think they are not formal groups, serving legal papers on each and every one of them as individuals will tie up the courts for decades, and civil suits will bankrupt them all.

JUNE 5, 2020 / 12:49 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Explainer: Who are Antifa, the 'boogaloo' movement and others blamed in U.S. protest violence?
Ted Hesson | Reuters


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and his allies have sought to blame left-wing extremists for the violence and looting at U.S. protests over police brutality while local authorities and watchdog groups have pointed to the threat posed by right-wing movements.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters this week said most of the violence at protests appears to have been driven by opportunists. But the assessment also said there was some evidence that organized extremists were tied to violence or promoting it online.

WHICH GROUPS ARE BEING SINGLED OUT?

President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans have sought to blame the left-wing anti-fascist Antifa movement but have presented little evidence.

Liberal watchdog groups and some local authorities have warned that members of the anti-government “boogaloo” movement or white supremacist groups could infiltrate protests.

Federal prosecutors filed charges this week against three alleged boogaloo members accused of plotting to cause violence and destruction at Las Vegas protest.

WHAT IS ANTIFA?

Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is an amorphous movement whose adherents oppose people or groups they consider authoritarian or racist, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors extremists. Antifa aims to “intimidate and dissuade racists,” but its aggressive tactics including physical confrontations can create “a vicious, self-defeating cycle of attacks, counter-attacks and blame,” the ADL said.

The FBI has been increasingly concerned about violence perpetrated by Antifa at public events, according to a 2018 report by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress.

WHY IS ANTIFA SO WELL-KNOWN?

Antifa grew in notoriety following a 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, organized by white supremacists and white nationalists who clashed violently with counter-protesters. Trump drew criticism afterward when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” and blamed “many sides” for the violence. Trump specifically mentioned Antifa.

“You know, they show up in the helmets and the black masks, and they’ve got clubs and they’ve got everything,” Trump said of Antifa days after the rally.

Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said Trump was focusing on Antifa to redirect the conversation away from social and economic discontent in the United States at the heart of the protests.

“There just aren’t enough members of Antifa groups out there to do everything they’re being blamed for,” said Bray, a lecturer in history at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

WHAT IS THE BOOGALOO MOVEMENT?

The anti-government boogaloo movement embodies a militant ideology whose members believe the United States will enter into a second civil war, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. Boogaloo followers anticipate the government will attempt to confiscate people’s guns.

The boogaloo ideology itself is not white supremacist, but some white supremacist groups have embraced it, the ADL found.

“Whereas the militia movement (and) radical gun rights activists typically promote the boogaloo as a war against the government or liberals, white supremacists conceive of the boogaloo as a race war or a white revolution,” the ADL wrote in a November analysis.

Boogaloo groups have grown in popularity online in the past year. The Tech Transparency Project, a Washington-based tech watchdog group, found tens of thousands of people joined boogaloo-related Facebook groups over a 30-day period in March and April as stay-at-home orders took effect across the United States to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Project researchers found discussions about tactical strategies, weapons and creating explosives in some boogaloo Facebook groups.

WHAT ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND WHITE NATIONALISTS?

A small number of white supremacists and white nationalists have been spotted at recent protests, according to watchdog groups and media reports. The Nationalist Social Club, a neo-Nazi group, appeared to have had some presence at protests in Boston and Knoxville, Tennessee, the ADL said. Members of the far-right Proud Boys were seen at North Carolina and Oregon protests last weekend, according to media reports.

Nate Snyder, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security counter-terrorism official, said it is likely anarchists were among the protesters in recent days, but doubted they would pose a credible violent threat.

Temple thinks that no one runs Antifa. Maybe this will change his mind: