Historical lookback for this post: During a Trump-Biden debate when Trump was asked point blank by the moderator, Chris Wallace (Fox News), to condemn militia groups and discourage violence. Trump had pushed to disavow white supremacist groups like The Proud Boys, responded to Wallace looking into the camera and saying: “Proud Boys: stand back and stand by.”
Then
Trump quickly added: “But I’ll tell
you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.” His comments
caused an immediate firestorm
I note for everyone: Those in the military and law enforcement know
that “stand back (or stand down) and stand by” has several meanings, e.g., to stand
at ease; not at attention; be ready in act in an instant on command, order, or instructions.
“Stand down” also can mean the military will pause other normal activities
to focus on addressing extremism and white nationalism within its ranks and other
critical problems and not on normal daily tasks, etc.
The FBI had labeled The Proud Boys as a far-right domestic
terrorist group that is a threat that espouses racism, anti-Semitism, and
Islamophobia.
Just recently, Canada designated The Proud Boys as a
terrorist group, just like ISIS or Al-Qaeda – that would allow local
authorities to seize their property and deny them entry into Canada.
Reuters reported (February 3) that prosecutors are
weighing charges against members of various far-right groups under the Federal
law usually reserved for organized-crime cases, known as the Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act).
The post today with this headline from
Bloomberg news:
“Proud Boys’ Plotting Emerges as U.S. Paints Picture of Capitol Riot Plan”
The Proud Boys
gathered tactical supplies and raised money on the internet before storming the
U.S. Capitol.
The Oath Keepers
held military-style training sessions in Ohio and planned a communication
strategy for the riot.
A month after the siege, evidence has steadily emerged of
ominous preparations for the day’s events by pro-Trump extremists as
prosecutors build cases that could lead to long prison terms for seditious
conspiracy or racketeering – and even have threatened the survival of far-right
groups that participated in the insurrection.
Ethan Nordean, 30, a
leader of the Seattle branch of The Proud Boys, was charged for his role in
leading a crowd of his followers past police officers guarding the building. For
prosecutors investigating the origin of the January 6 attack what Nordean said
online before the riot started may be just as significant as his conduct at the
Capitol on that day.
In late December, Nordean began soliciting donations of
“safety & protective gear” and “communications equipment,” according to
court records, and he wrote on the far-right social media site Parler, before it
was shut down that: “Things have gotten
more dangerous.”
Nordean’s posts shows according to prosecutors that they “were
planning in advance to organize a group that would attempt to overwhelm police
barricades and enter the United States Capitol.
The DOJ echoed that claim in a series of conspiracy
indictments alleging that nationalist groups plotted to invade the building
weeks before Congress gathered there on January 6 to certify the November 3,
2020 election results.
The growing evidence of military-style preparations doesn’t
bode well for those right-wing activists, said Alan Rozenshtein, a former
legal adviser at DOJ’s national security division.
Rozenshtein stated:
“It’ll start the process of flushing out
the true nature of The Proud Boys, The Boogaloo Boys, and The Oath Keepers. These
groups will be shown to be what they are, which is paramilitary militia groups
that a free democratic society cannot tolerate. They will be disbanded one way
or the other.”
Brian Levin, who runs
the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State
University, San Bernardino said: “Those
types of actions could pose an existential threat to the Proud Boys. You can
decapitate these groups in a variety of ways. Nobody wants to be a member of a
group that’s under investigation.” He concluded: “We are going to see a
reduction in activities of some of these larger, over-the-top groups, and
unfortunately see an increase in activities of more fragmented loners, duos and
cells who dine from a buffet of grievance and anger. The threat is not the
groups. The threat is the significant divisions and pressure that exist in this
country.”
So far, prosecutors have charged more than 175 rioters,
including one of the leaders of the Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs, as well as members of the Oath Keepers and other loosely organized extremist groups like the Three Percenters. The DOJ unveiled a
conspiracy indictment against a Proud Boy leader that zeroed in on the group’s
apparent preparations for the riot.
Prosecutors say a key goal of the groups: “Was to stop,
delay, and hinder the certification of election results.”
According to the indictment, Nicholas Ochs, the founder of the Proud Boys chapter in Hawaii,
used the internet to raise funds to pay for his travel to Washington, working
alongside Nicholas DeCarlo of Texas.
The charging documents said that DeCarlo and Ochs conspired with other people
“unknown” to the investigators, suggesting that the case could broaden in the
coming weeks.
Investigators have also traced the origins of the riot to
social media posts on Parler, which was a popular tool for right-wing activists
and since shut down. The charging papers in Nordean’s case documented a series
of comments he posted in the weeks leading up to the rampage that
hinted he was planning a violent attack. He
wrote on January 5: “If you are a
patriot, you will be targeted and they will come after you. Funny thing is that
they don’t realize...we are coming for them.”
The DOJ’s most detailed account of how far-right groups
planned for the Capitol siege came in an indictment of three members of the
Oath Keepers also charged with conspiring to block certification of the
election.
Prosecutors said that on November 9, 2020, Jessica Watkins, an Oath Keeper from Ohio,
arranged a military-style “basic training class for members, telling one member: “I need
you fighting fit by innaugeration day” (Note: She misspelled inauguration).
Watkins also encouraged fellow Oath Keepers to download Zello, a walkie-talkie app that she said
the group used for its “operations,” according to the indictment. At the riot,
prosecutors say, Watkins and other members of the Oath Keepers communicated
using Zello as they moved through the Capitol.
The charging documents do not focus exclusively on the
practical steps that some rioters took to prepare for the siege. Prosecutors
also appear to be laying groundwork for a broader reckoning with the ideologies
of extremist right-wing groups.
David Sklansky, a
professor of law at Stanford University said: “The beliefs of the Oath Keepers figure in the prosecution’s theory. They
argue that if you know the purposes of the group, it helps to understand what
it was that the particular defendants were agreeing to do.”
In Congress, lawmakers meanwhile re debating possible
legislation to address those ideologically motivated attacks, including a new
domestic terrorism law that would direct more resources toward investigations
of militia groups and other threats. But even a vigorous domestic-terrorism
prosecution targeting the leadership of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers would
be unlikely to curb right-wing extremism in the U.S.
My 2 cents: These new domestic militia groups are truly a threat to
our democratic state and process for law and order and equal protection under
law … they have an utter an complete disregard for any norms all the while
professing they are the only ones working to preserve and protect our democracy
– nothing could be further from the truth. If anyone is harmful to society, surely
it’s those groups listed above.
The Proud Boys seem to be Trump’s favorite group based on all the
evidence thus far.
Thanks for stopping by.
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