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Old 06-10-2020, 09:14 PM   #1
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So the local friendly Antifa...

So the local friendly Antifa (that does not exist, thanks Spence) have apparently "appropriated" a sizeable section of Seattle, Gone Full On Lord of the Flies, and have declared it the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, A/K/A the CHAZ.


There is speak of armed factions and "warlords". If this wasn't so disappointing it might be more comical. Gawd I hope nobody gets killed.



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Old 06-11-2020, 04:31 AM   #2
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they've done a FABULOUS job decorating the place.....

also...


"CNN's Angela Rye called for statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to come down Thursday on the network."

"Pelosi wants 11 Confederate statues removed from Capitol"



we should tear down all of our monuments and statues, hell all of our government buildings ....then we could start all over.... make everybody happy

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Old 06-11-2020, 04:42 AM   #3
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Yep, here’s your Antifa...

11:06 pm, Jun. 10, 2020
CHAZ protesters spend the night organizing a concert and movie night

Capitol Hill protesters — or denizens of the new "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" — spent another night by the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct listening to speakers, sharing food, dancing and creating colorful street art.

A small concert popped up at one intersection during the night, featuring funk/hip-hop band Marshall Law, a group based in Seattle. A cardboard sign was propped up in front of the band's makeshift stage. It read: "Defund the police, fund the community, free all protesters."

"What we're doing here — it's for a purpose," one of the band members said after the show, according to a livestream of the event.

After Marshall Law wrapped up their performance, it was time for another movie night.

On Tuesday night, the group rolled out a large projector and watched Ava DuVernay's "13th," a documentary that focuses on the racial injustice of the country's criminal justice system. On Wednesday, they screened "Paris is Burning," which features drag queens living in New York City during the mid-to-late 1980s.
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Old 06-11-2020, 04:51 AM   #4
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watching movies, eating popcorn and spray painting other people's property...sounds like a great night out on the town
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Old 06-11-2020, 05:02 AM   #5
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it sounds like they are really having fun...I think I'd just wait and see where this goes....maybe send Discovery Channel in there with some cameras, this would be great reality tv...

"The city government has not developed a strategic response to the takeover of Capitol Hill. According to one Seattle police officer with knowledge of internal deliberations, the city’s “leadership is in chaos” and “the mayor has made the decision to let a mob of 1,000 people dictate public safety policy for a city of 750,000.” The officer said that Chief Best had dispatched high-ranking police officials to the autonomous zone to establish a line of communication, but the officials were immediately sent away by armed paramilitaries at the barricades. “The tide of public opinion is on the side of the activists and they’re pushing the envelope as far as they can,” said the officer. “It’s not hyperbolic to say the endgame is anarchy.”

Politically, the Seattle City Council has already begun to champion the protesters’ demands. Socialist Alternative councilwoman Kshama Sawant declared the takeover a “victory” against “the militarized police force of the political establishment and the capitalist state.” Three councilmembers have signaled support for a 50 percent reduction in the police budget, with additional councilmembers likely to support a similar policy in the coming weeks. Sawant also opened Seattle’s City Hall—which had been closed by the mayor—to protesters, who immediately occupied the building.

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone has set a dangerous precedent: armed left-wing activists have asserted their dominance of the streets and established an alternative political authority over a large section of a neighborhood. They have claimed de facto police power over thousands of residents and dozens of businesses—completely outside of the democratic process. In a matter of days, Antifa-affiliated paramilitaries have created a hardened border, established a rudimentary form of government based on principles of intersectional representation, and forcibly removed unfriendly media from the territory."
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Old 06-11-2020, 06:12 AM   #6
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this is truly awful....no mother should have to worry that her darling child's skull will be crushed by a statue/monument while in the process for defacing and dismantling that statue/monument in the quest for social justice.....there should be a law against statues/monuments....



https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ginia-n1229706
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Old 06-11-2020, 06:33 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by scottw View Post
they've done a FABULOUS job decorating the place.....

also...


"CNN's Angela Rye called for statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to come down Thursday on the network."

"Pelosi wants 11 Confederate statues removed from Capitol"



we should tear down all of our monuments and statues, hell all of our government buildings ....then we could start all over.... make everybody happy
There should be no Confederate Statues in Washington DC. But when do they come for Washington and Jefferson?

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Yep, here’s your Antifa...

11:06 pm, Jun. 10, 2020
CHAZ protesters spend the night organizing a concert and movie night

Capitol Hill protesters — or denizens of the new "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" — spent another night by the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct listening to speakers, sharing food, dancing and creating colorful street art.

A small concert popped up at one intersection during the night, featuring funk/hip-hop band Marshall Law, a group based in Seattle. A cardboard sign was propped up in front of the band's makeshift stage. It read: "Defund the police, fund the community, free all protesters."

"What we're doing here — it's for a purpose," one of the band members said after the show, according to a livestream of the event.

After Marshall Law wrapped up their performance, it was time for another movie night.

On Tuesday night, the group rolled out a large projector and watched Ava DuVernay's "13th," a documentary that focuses on the racial injustice of the country's criminal justice system. On Wednesday, they screened "Paris is Burning," which features drag queens living in New York City during the mid-to-late 1980s.
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Awwww cute. Bunch of little commies and Democratic Socialists creating little points of order while waiting for vegan meat substitutes and soy deliveries while the PortaPotty company says Eff No we ain't going there.

Meanwhile, what about the people that live in those areas and just want some level of normalcy and fairness.

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Old 06-11-2020, 06:35 AM   #8
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Meanwhile, what about the people that live in those areas and just want some level of normalcy and fairness.
^^^^^^


ummmmm....."change is hard"....and "this is American democracy".....and apparently their Constitutional rights have been suspended by the mob till further notice
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Old 06-11-2020, 06:43 AM   #9
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^^^^^^


ummmmm....."change is hard"....and "this is American democracy".....and apparently their Constitutional rights have been suspended by the mob till further notice
Which constitutional rights are being violated?
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Old 06-11-2020, 06:46 AM   #10
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#^&#^&#^&#^&ing idiots.... Not one of them were there or choose to remember when first responders rushed into the Towers on 9/11, or any building when lives were at risk, nor the necessary response when the Marathon bomber went on their killing spree... Yep, just defund them. The lefties can scold them into behaving.

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Old 06-11-2020, 06:51 AM   #11
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Which constitutional rights are being violated?
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really?...
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Old 06-11-2020, 07:29 AM   #12
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JR - you were right it's coming, way sooner than i thought.

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Old 06-11-2020, 08:11 AM   #13
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Tweety's trying to keep you scared, it's all he has left to run on.
After a week of trying to "police" the protesters, the decision was made to let them protest and not have police present.
So far it has been trouble free and it won't last long.

President Donald Trump addressed Seattle's protests on Twitter Wednesday evening, calling for Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan to "take back" their city from the "anarchists." If they don't, he threatened, he will.

Durkan tweeted back within the hour: "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker. #BlackLivesMatter."

Inslee also responded with a tweet saying, "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state's business. 'Stoop' tweeting."

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Old 06-11-2020, 08:20 AM   #14
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Tweety's trying to keep you scared, it's all he has left to run on.
After a week of trying to "police" the protesters, the decision was made to let them protest and not have police present.
So far it has been trouble free and it won't last long.

President Donald Trump addressed Seattle's protests on Twitter Wednesday evening, calling for Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan to "take back" their city from the "anarchists." If they don't, he threatened, he will.

Durkan tweeted back within the hour: "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker. #BlackLivesMatter."

Inslee also responded with a tweet saying, "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state's business. 'Stoop' tweeting."
Much of this predates "Tweety" , 'course if you read the news, this all started second week of November, 2016.

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Old 06-11-2020, 08:24 AM   #15
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JR - you were right it's coming, way sooner than i thought.
What, John mischaracterizing things to fit his own paranoia? He’s been doing it for a while.
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Old 06-11-2020, 08:40 AM   #16
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Yep, here’s your Antifa...

11:06 pm, Jun. 10, 2020
CHAZ protesters spend the night organizing a concert and movie night

Capitol Hill protesters — or denizens of the new "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" — spent another night by the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct listening to speakers, sharing food, dancing and creating colorful street art.

A small concert popped up at one intersection during the night, featuring funk/hip-hop band Marshall Law, a group based in Seattle. A cardboard sign was propped up in front of the band's makeshift stage. It read: "Defund the police, fund the community, free all protesters."

"What we're doing here — it's for a purpose," one of the band members said after the show, according to a livestream of the event.

After Marshall Law wrapped up their performance, it was time for another movie night.

On Tuesday night, the group rolled out a large projector and watched Ava DuVernay's "13th," a documentary that focuses on the racial injustice of the country's criminal justice system. On Wednesday, they screened "Paris is Burning," which features drag queens living in New York City during the mid-to-late 1980s.
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All fun and games until the utility bills come due, and they shut off water, gas, and electricity.

Then, no movies, no hot meals or showers, phones die, wifi dies. I'm sure they'll all still get along swimmingly though.

Mad Max movies always have a happy ending
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Old 06-11-2020, 08:50 AM   #17
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Durkan tweeted back within the hour: "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker. #BlackLivesMatter."


And take your bunions with you.

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Old 06-11-2020, 08:59 AM   #18
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All fun and games until the utility bills come due, and they shut off water, gas, and electricity.

Then, no movies, no hot meals or showers, phones die, wifi dies. I'm sure they'll all still get along swimmingly though.

Mad Max movies always have a happy ending
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look on the bright side...so far it's mainly woke sanctuary cities tearing themselves down...will be fun to see these mayors and governors begging for federal funds to help clean up the mess

you have to hear the back and forth between the Chicago mayor and the Alderman that was released....unbelievable...the news report cut out the part where the Alderman described what was going on in his neighborhoods





should be a class action lawsuit suing the City and it's officials for not protecting their citizens

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Old 06-11-2020, 09:33 AM   #19
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Much of this predates "Tweety" , 'course if you read the news, this all started second week of November, 2016.
Actually I think it started July 4th 1776 but don't worry, now Tweety is on top of it.

I'm still waiting to see all the antifa arrests or maybe his "S.S." is rounding them up and sending them to GITMO.

Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. “A walk in the park”, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!

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Old 06-11-2020, 09:42 AM   #20
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All fun and games until the utility bills come due, and they shut off water, gas, and electricity.

Then, no movies, no hot meals or showers, phones die, wifi dies. I'm sure they'll all still get along swimmingly though.

Mad Max movies always have a happy ending
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There's also business owners saying they are being extorted by civilians with guns, telling them they have to pay a fee to operate in the anarchy zone. And homeowners having to show id to enter their homes.

I'm actually just learning about this story. Hard to believe it's not an SNL skit. The lesson here, is that if a bunch of anarchist babies don't like something, if they hold their breath long enough, the state will surrender?

So can I just not pay my state income tax in CT, with no consequences?

"they shut off water, gas, and electricity"

I'm guessing the city will tell the utility companies to just leave the power on for free. Whatever these idiots want.
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Old 06-11-2020, 09:48 AM   #21
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There's also business owners saying they are being extorted by civilians with guns, telling them they have to pay a fee to operate in the anarchy zone. And homeowners having to show id to enter their homes.
Link!
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Old 06-11-2020, 10:52 AM   #22
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pete makes vaild point if antifa was so prominent. Where are the arrest? BARR even sent in DEA agents William Barr’s DOJ gives DEA authority to conduct “covert surveillance” of protesters: its suggested it was an attempt to smear the pot smoking protesters..

Seems Nixon did something similar
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Old 06-11-2020, 12:55 PM   #23
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Link!
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-p...sses-extortion

Why do you ask for a link? If you saw video of this happening, you'd spin and deny anyway
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Old 06-11-2020, 01:00 PM   #24
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armed guard at the entrance to the "CHAZ" anarchy zone. What could go wrong?
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Old 06-11-2020, 01:00 PM   #25
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https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-p...sses-extortion

Why do you ask for a link? If you saw video of this happening, you'd spin and deny anyway
shut up...this is just an attempt to smear the peaceful protesters who are donating their valuable time to re-decorate that area of the city...
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Old 06-11-2020, 01:16 PM   #26
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What Faux news said
“We’ve heard, anecdotally, reports of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area. This is the crime of extortion. If anyone has been subjected to this, we need them to call 911,” Assistant Chief of Police Deanna Nollette said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in the rest of the world
On the streets next to a police precinct in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, protesters and officers spent a week locked in a nightly cycle of standoffs, at times ending with clouds of tear gas.

But facing a growing backlash over its dispersal tactics in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, the Seattle Police Department this week offered a concession: Officers would abandon their precinct, board up the windows and let the protesters have free rein outside.

In a neighborhood that is the heart of the city’s art and culture — threatened these days as rising tech wealth brings in gentrification — protesters seized the moment. They reversed the barricades to shield the liberated streets and laid claim to several city blocks, now known as the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.”

“This space is now property of the Seattle people,” read a banner on the front entrance of the now-empty police station. The entire area was now a homeland for racial justice — and, depending on the protester one talked to, perhaps something more.

What has emerged is an experiment in life without the police — part street festival, part commune. Hundreds have gathered to hear speeches, poetry and music. On Tuesday night, dozens of people sat in the middle of an intersection to watch “13th,” the Ava DuVernay film about the criminal justice system’s impact on African-Americans. On Wednesday, children made chalk drawings in the middle of the street.

One block had a designated smoking area. Another had a medic station. At the “No Cop Co-op,” people could pick up a free LaCroix sparkling water or a snack. No currency was accepted, but across the street, in a nod to capitalism, a bustling stand was selling $6 hot dogs. It was dealing in U.S. dollars.

At gatherings on Wednesday, protesters held discussions about their priorities, listening to speeches. There was no violence or looting, and the city’s fire chief wandered around the area talking with protesters about their needs and a collaborative path forward.

I'd give it a couple of weeks at best and someday long before Covid-19 it will be gone.

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Old 06-11-2020, 01:24 PM   #27
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armed guard at the entrance to the "CHAZ" anarchy zone. What could go wrong?
Considering a white nationalist already drove through a crowd there I'd think a little protection would be in order.
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Old 06-11-2020, 01:41 PM   #28
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Inciting a riot. Hurling a Molotov cocktail. Plotting to sow destruction. Those are some of the most serious charges brought by federal prosecutors against demonstrators at protests across the country in recent weeks.

But despite cries from President Trump and others in his administration, none of those charged with serious federal crimes amid the unrest have been linked so far to the loose collective of anti-fascist activists known as antifa.

A review of the arrests of dozens of people on federal charges reveals no known effort by antifa to perpetrate a coordinated campaign of violence. Some criminal complaints described vague, anti-government political leanings among suspects, but the majority of the violent acts that have taken place at protests have been attributed by federal prosecutors to individuals with no affiliation to any particular group.

Even so, Attorney General William P. Barr has blamed antifa for orchestrating the mass protests, which broke out in cities and towns across the country following the death in police custody of George Floyd. “There is clearly some high degree of organization involved at some of these events and coordinated tactics that we are seeing,” Mr. Barr said. “Some of it relates to antifa, some of it relates to groups that act very much like antifa.”

Mr. Trump has sought to expand and exploit accusations against what he has called the involvement of “radical leftists” in the protests. At one point the president said that antifa would be declared a “terrorist organization,” although it is not a single organization nor does any American law allow using that designation against a domestic group. On Tuesday, the president suggested on Twitter, without providing any evidence, that a 75-year-old Buffalo protester hospitalized after being knocked down by the police, could be “an ANTIFA provocateur.”

Mr. Trump and other Republicans have also sought to raise campaign funds off the unsubstantiated accusations. “Stand with President Trump against antifa!” read a banner advertisement on Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign website this week.

Marjorie Green, a congressional candidate in Georgia, produced a campaign ad showing her armed with an AR-15 military-style rifle and threatening antifa activists. “You won’t burn our churches, loot our businesses or destroy our homes,” she said.

Asked why the myriad criminal complaints do not single out antifa, Mr. Barr said on Fox News this week that preliminary charges do not require linking suspects to a particular group, adding that there was, “a witches’ brew of extremist groups that are trying to exploit this situation on all sides.”

F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors have pursued charges aggressively against rioters, looters and others accused of wreaking havoc during the demonstrations. Law enforcement officials have relied on a variety of federal statutes to make arrests, including conspiracy to commit arson, starting a riot, civil disorder and possession of a Molotov cocktail.

The most serious case that has emerged in federal court involved three men in Nevada linked to a loose, national network of far-right extremists advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government. They were arrested on May 30 on charges of trying to foment violence during Black Lives Matter protests.

Given the sheer volume of thousands of arrests nationwide in recent weeks, officials cautioned that many investigations remain in the early stages with investigators still trying to determine affiliations. In addition, state and local court documents are far harder to search comprehensively.

However, interviews with several major local police departments and a review of hundreds of newspaper stories about arrests around the country revealed no evidence of an organized political effort behind the looting and other violence.

“We saw no organized effort of antifa here in Los Angeles,” said Josh Rubenstein, the spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Asked in an interview about the involvement of antifa or other extremists groups in Minneapolis, Medaria Arradondo, the chief of police, said, “As I sit here today, I have not received any sort of official information identifying any of the groups.”

In the one example where antifa is mentioned, local police in Austin, Texas, said members of the Red Guards, a Maoist organization, were involved in organizing the looting of a Target store. The Red Guards have been associated with antifa protests in Austin in the past, but local activists said they were largely estranged from the group.

While anarchists and anti-fascists openly acknowledged being part of the massive crowds, they call the scale, intensity and durability of the protests far beyond anything that they might dream of organizing. Some tactics used at the protests, like the wearing of all black and the shattering of store windows, are reminiscent of those used by anarchist groups, say those who study such movements.

In Portland, those affiliated with Rose City Antifa said they have supported the continuing protests. But the city’s antifa actions have long involved a wide range of people, some who dress in black apparel and face coverings and others who show up in everyday clothing to decry far-right extremists and police militarization. There has also been various far-left activities in Seattle, including people who have spray-painted anarchist symbols on public property.

Antifa has roots in the Occupy Wall Street protests of a decade ago and the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in the 1990s. During Mr. Trump’s inauguration, antifa activists marched in Washington vandalizing businesses and at one point setting fire to a limousine.

Over the next several months, its followers disrupted events hosted by right-wing speakers like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulous. When the far right fought back, organizing its own public protests, anti-fascist activists met them on the streets in what often turned into violent confrontations, culminating in the bloody rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Va.

Anarchists and others accuse officials of trying to assign blame to extremists rather than accept the idea that millions of Americans from a variety of political backgrounds have been on the streets demanding change. Numerous experts called the participation of extremist organizations overstated, as well.

“A significant number of people in positions of authority are pushing a false narrative about antifa being behind a lot of this activity,” said J.M. Berger, the author of the book “Extremism,” and an authority on militant movements. “These are just unbelievably large protests at a time of great turmoil in this country, and there is surprisingly little violence given the size of this movement.”

In July 2019, Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency “considers antifa more of an ideology than an organization.”

In Las Vegas, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court said the three suspects called themselves members of the “boogaloo,” which is described as a far-right movement “to signify a coming civil war and/or fall of civilization.”

At an initial protest, the three strapped on bulletproof vests, grabbed their rifles and waded into the crowd, hoping to provoke clashes between protesters and the police, according to court papers. One taunted police officers, yelling in their faces, while a second chided protesters “that peaceful protests don’t accomplish anything and they needed to be violent,” the complaint said.

When that failed, they plotted to blow up an electric substation along the route of the demonstration in the hope that would prompt more violence between police and protesters, according to the complaint. They were arrested after preparing Molotov cocktails from gasoline and lemonade bottles before a march.

Robert M. Drascovich Jr., an attorney for one of the accused, Stephen T. Parshall, 35, said his client denied all the charges.

Individuals associated with the boogaloo movement have been out in force at countless demonstrations in the past few years, clad in their distinctive combat dress and armed with rifles. They often claim that they appear armed in public to underscore their commitment to Second Amendment rights, or to protect local businesses.

But online, boogaloo discussion groups overflow with racist statements and threats to exploit any unrest to spark a race war that will bring about a new government system.

In Denver, police seized a small arsenal including three assault rifles, numerous magazines, several bullet proof vests and other military paraphernalia from the car trunk of a self-professed “boogaloo” adherent headed toward a protest, a man who had previously live-streamed his own support for armed confrontations with police.

After a demonstration in Athens, Ga., on May 31 ended with the National Guard being called in and tear gas fired to clear protesters away from the gates of University of Georgia, Chief Cleveland L. Spruill wrote a lengthy memo spelling out his concerns around extremist involvement in the protests.

Given the volatile mix of protesters, including armed men, he said, he feared a repeat of Charlottesville. Some participants called such fears overblown given the overall peaceful tenor of the protest.

In New York, police briefed reporters on May 31, claiming that radical anarchists from out of state had plotted ahead of the protests by setting up encrypted communications systems, arranging for street medics and collecting bail funds.

Within five days, however, Dermot F. Shea, the city’s police commissioner, acknowledged that most of the hundreds of people arrested at the protests in New York were actually New Yorkers who took advantage of the chaos to commit crimes and were not motivated by political ideology. John Miller, the police official who had briefed reporters, told CNN that most looting in New York had been committed by “regular criminal groups.”

In Austin, Texas, court documents said several members of the Red Guards participated in burglarizing a Target store, including a woman who streamed the event on Facebook Live, encouraging people to come “even if you do not want to loot,” one affidavit said.

Although the court documents identified the Red Guards as part of the city’s anti-fascist umbrella organization, several Austin activists described the group as either defunct or estranged from one another because of their penchant for troubling acts like laying a dead cat on the doorstep of a business involved in a gentrification dispute.

Kit O’Connell, a longtime radical leftist activist and community organizer in Austin, said that shortly after Mr. Trump’s election, the group took part in anti-fascist protests in the city against a local white supremacist group and scuffled separately with Act for America, an anti-Muslim organization.

“They’ve been an influence at the protests but they’re not in charge — no one’s really in charge,” Mr. O’Connell said.

Carl Guthrie, a lawyer for Samuel Miller, one of those charged with burglary, denied that his client had any connection to the Red Guards. He called such accusations “a transparent, incendiary attempt to distract from the problems plaguing our society — systemic racism and state-sponsored murder.”

Experts on extremism said the few suspects arrested with overt political goals fall under the broad category of “accelerationists,” groups that hope to exploit any public unrest to further their own anti-government goals.
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Old 06-11-2020, 02:26 PM   #29
Jim in CT
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Originally Posted by spence View Post
Considering a white nationalist already drove through a crowd there I'd think a little protection would be in order.
Which is why we have something called the police. But because a statistically insignificant number of them are bad, and because your side will say or do absolutely anything for political advantage, they have been demonized, convincing simple-minded snowflakes that cops only represent a threat that's best to avoid.

The police is probably the only urban institution in the country that works. And now we're going to minimize that. That'll help blacks.

Nine unarmed blacks were killed by police in all of 2019. Nine. 18 blacks were murdered in Chicago on one recent day, May 31. Twice as many as were killed by cops in a year. Sure, by all means, let's start riots over the miniscule threat, and ignore the much more serious threat, because the serious threat pays no political dividends to you, and that's what this is all about, obviously.
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Old 06-11-2020, 02:38 PM   #30
Pete F.
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Sorry to tell you but there is a problem with cops and low income or lower caste people

KEITH ELLISON: Well, you know that the police are now and have always been in place to maintain the legal/social order. If that’s a just social order, that’s one thing. If it’s one based on slavery, Jim Crow segregation, capital, and Big Business abusing labor, then the police have always played this role where they are the ones who sort of maintain that social hierarchy.

I grew up in Michigan, and people there have a strong memory about how it was police and policelike forces that put down strikes, how police and parapolice forces were the ones who maintained the racial hierarchy.

When John Lewis, who’s a member of Congress, got arrested for challenging segregation, he was arrested by a police officer, right? So they maintain a legal status quo and a social/cultural order and always have.


It’s important to understand you can’t look at the police in isolation. A lot of times we do that because what they do is so flagrant. I mean, the knee on the neck, right? Or the shooting of [African American youth] Laquan McDonald, where [Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke] wrote in his report that [McDonald] attacked him with a knife, when he was so clearly assassinated on the street. Same thing with Walter Scott [an unarmed African American man killed by a police officer in South Carolina], who was running away and was shot.

The question is, why do these cases so often result in either no charge, no grand jury bill of indictment like in the Mike Brown case [in Ferguson, Mo.], no conviction, hung juries? I mean, we all saw what happened to Philando Castile—live on Facebook—who was shot down by Officer Jeronimo Yanez [in Falcon Heights, Minn.], and yet there was no conviction in that case. It’s just almost impossible to imagine it wouldn’t have resulted in a conviction, but it didn’t. Or what about Freddie Gray? Perfectly healthy, they throw him in that [Baltimore police] van, and he comes out dead, and next thing you know, all these officers are charged, and yet no one is held accountable for the death of Freddie Gray.

There’s got to be some element of complicity and culpability on behalf of the system that sends the officers out there.

Frasier: Niles, I’ve just had the most marvelous idea for a website! People will post their opinions, cheeky bon mots, and insights, and others will reply in kind!

Niles: You have met “people”, haven’t you?

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