Boogaloo Bois, Alt-Right, et al: Perfect Storm Brewing Open-Carry vs. Law and Order

Boogaloo Bois in KY Heavy-Armed & Waiting for What

(Trouble or Photo Op - What else Could It Be)

More Boogaloo Bois

(Standing up against or far what)

Alt-Right (Note the Flags) 

(What Could Possibly Go Wrong)

This added to the following post (my oops):

The FBI, DHS, and most major networks say Antifa was NOT involved on looting and rioting this past weekend – highlights from here (Insider):

• The FBI reports that they have “no intelligence indicating that Antifa” was involved in violence over the weekend related to protests following the death of George Floyd.
• Trump, AG Barr, and several Republican lawmakers have blamed Antifa for violence linked to protests that took place (May 31).
• According to an internal FBI situation report, the bureau's Washington, DC, field office says it: “Has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence in the violence that took place that day.”
• The FBI and other government agencies warn that far-right white supremacist groups (Alt-right, White Supremacists, et al) will use the protests to incite violence and attack federal agents.
• FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that most of the FBI's domestic terrorism investigations involve white supremacist groups (VOA news). 

Original Post from here: “Boogaloo Bois” rundown from the Insider 
[formerly the Business Insider] now just Insider:

 

·         White men wearing Hawaiian shirts and wielding rifles keep showing up at police brutality protests across the U.S. 

·         Known as the “Boogaloo Bois” (named after the title of a cult 1980’s film), these open-carry people are a part of a loosely organized and largely libertarian militia group that is centered on anti-government rhetoric while professing a new Civil War is coming.  

·         Started on forums and organized in private groups online, often associated with far-right extremist politics, the group has created confusion by attending recent protests.

·         On May 30, three men who follow the Boogaloo Bois movement were arrested in Las Vegas for filling up gas canisters and making Molotov cocktails (re: Fed prosecutors). 

·         Extremist researcher Alexander Reid Ross said: “When we see these far-right groups manifesting in the streets and saying that they're with the protesters, we're just seeing another instance of the far right attempting to jump into and perhaps derail a left wing, or rather a broad mass protest movement.”

My note: The full story on these lunatics – my choice of words because in my view they do not stand for American values, democracy, law and order, justice, or equal rights except on their terms – and, that is not what the nearly 245 years foundation of our history is all about or has advocated all those years, either) key points from the article are below as protesters expressing anger and frustration of police brutality and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis are coming across armed men in Hawaiian shirts in TX, MN, NC, and KY and they have largely flummoxed local officials and onlookers. 

Online, where almost all of their organization occurs, members have created numerous groups and pages under various names to avoid censorship from tech platforms. 

They are dedicated to gun worship, has no firm central organization, and only has a loose collection of shared values, but has seemingly become activated by the anti-police protests, which many of them appear to largely agree with given their disdain for most forms of policing and oversight.

Their presence has been frightening for other protesters and local governments, who have reason to be suspicious of their intentions and ideologies. 

1.  On May 30, three Boogaloo Bois were arrested in Las Vegas after filling up gas canisters and making Molotov cocktails, according to federal prosecutors, who say they were picked up on terrorism-related charges.

2.  On May 29, guns were confiscated from some Boogaloo Bois in Denver.

3.  In April, a TX Boogaloo Boi was arrested after stating his intent to hunt and kill a police officer during a livestream.

They are decentralized and largely without a firm power structure, meaning that their ideological identity isn't as homogeneous as other militia or political movements like QAnon, which follows a specific set of conspiracy theories.

Alexander Reid Ross, a researcher who tracks white nationalism and a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR), calls the Boogaloos: “A rebranding of sovereign citizen style libertarian-right militia organizations.” 

A central tenant of Boogaloo groups is to encourage preparation for the impending Civil War, and orient members towards anti-police and anti-authority. 

Ross concludes: “Their opposition is not merely to Trump or to racist police, but to the sort of overarching authorities of federal government, and especially federal policing. Those overlaps have been fairly common for a long time among right-wing libertarians.” 

Put simply, most Boogaloo Bois are preppers with a sincere hatred of the federal government.

Federal Police Standing the line in DC

(Waiting for all Hell to Break Loose)

In a recent report, researchers from Middlebury College's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) said the group “Is seen as the breaking point where government oppression is finally met with revolutionary violence from armed citizens.” 

While racism isn't an inherent part of the Boogaloo Bois ideology, some members use Neo-Nazi symbols at protests, including the skull balaclava, suggesting that white nationalists have identified with aspects of the loose movement. 

There is certainly overlap between the groups, as many white nationalists and neo-Nazis believe in an impending “race war, which is a similar concept to the civil war that Boogaloos say they're preparing for.”

Despite the overlap between white supremacy and far-right ideologies and the Boogaloo Bois, many Boogaloo posts online have disavowed racism and anti-gay rhetoric in their conversations. 

In a May 27 post on the Boogaloo Bois Facebook page, an administrator of the page wrote: “Many times as we've addressed our lack of tolerance for racism here I feel like we've neglected to take a stand for the LGBTQ community within this movement.”

Still, researchers into extremist movements warn against accepting these claims of progressive or left wing values as representations of the group as a whole. As the protests over police brutality and Floyd's death continue to spread across the U.S., the Boogaloos' presence have caused confusion and fear among protesters, with many calling them white supremacists, and with governments pointing to them as outside instigators.

 

My 2 cents: Continue the full article and much more at the story link.

A key part of this is to see groups like in the photos above heavily armed and in public. Here is a reference to those so-called “Open Carry” laws in our country which in all honesty I think are totally insane and with one simple question in that regard: Why? 

Are we returning to the lawless “Wild Wild West” days … this is very worrisome by any standard and I honestly wonder how can any court sustain it is beyond my comprehension and more so in these very troubling times.

Here is excellent link on “Open Carry” laws (from the Giffords Law Center) – yes, named after former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) who was shot in the head in 2011 while making public speech – the man involved in that details here – that incident is a cause to remember)

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.