April 13, 2021

‘White Lives Matter’ rallies flop as hardly anyone shows up

The poor turnout underscores how the country’s unpopular and disorganized extremist movements have been driven underground. In semi-private, encrypted chats, neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists planned rallies in dozens of cities Sunday to promote their racist movements and spread their ideologies to larger audiences.  Hyped by organizers as events that would make “the whole world tremble,” the rallies ran into a major problem: Hardly anyone showed up.  The “White Lives Matter” rallies, the first major real-world organizing efforts by white supremacists since 2018, were planned on the encrypted app Telegram after many aligned groups were alleged to have taken part in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S Capitol. The poor showing underscores how the country’s unpopular and disorganized extremist movements have been driven underground by increased scrutiny from the media, law enforcement agencies and far-left activists who infiltrate their private online spaces and disrupt their attempts to communicate and organize.  Few “White Lives Matter” marchers showed up Sunday, but anti-racist and anti-fascist groups gathered just the same. In Raleigh, North Carolina, a small crowd of antifa and anti-racist protesters gathered at the park where the “White Lives Matter” march was planned. They marched around downtown behind a large white sign that read, “WE ACCEPT YOUR SURRENDER.” The lackluster events were documented by livestreams and photos posted to Twitter. In Philadelphia, activists tweeted photos of a counterprotest picnic with pizza and Tastykake snacks. In New York City, over a dozen counterprotesters stood seemingly unopposed across the street from Trump Tower, where a “White Lives Matter” rally was expected.

via nbcnews; ‘White Lives Matter’ rallies flop as hardly anyone shows up

siehe auch: Racists try to organize ‘White Lives Matter’ rallies around nation, but fall flat on their faces. A single man wearing a neo-Nazi “Siege” skull mask showed up to demonstrate at the “White Lives Matter” rally in New York City outside the Trump Tower. “Well that was pitiful,” wrote a would-be participant in a racist “White Lives Matter” protest in Norfolk, Virginia, in a nearly-empty Telegram channel devoted to the event. Among her fellow far-right ideologues, it was a common sentiment. The events, planned at over a dozen locales around the country this past weekend, were intended as a kind of rallying point for white nationalist and far-right groups of varying stripes, but instead turned out to be almost a complete bust, with only tiny handfuls of marchers showing up in most locations. The largest turnout was in Huntington Beach, California, where several dozen “pro-white” marchers were met by several hundred counterprotesters. Indeed, the weekend’s events turned out mainly to be large draws for antifascists and Black Lives Matter protesters and their supporters. At one of the events—in Raleigh, North Carolina—the small crowd of counterprotesters who turned out encountered no one else at the park where the event had been planned. So they wound up marching around the city’s downtown behind a large white sign reading: “WE ACCEPT YOUR SURRENDER.”

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Counter-terrorism detectives raid Brisbane homes investigating neo-Nazi connection

Three properties have been raided by counter-terrorism detectives after neo-Nazi graffiti was spotted in Brisbane’s south. Counter-terrorism detectives have raided three properties after racist neo-Nazi graffiti was spotted near a playground in Brisbane’s south. It will be alleged a footpath at the Calamvale District Park was spray painted with racist material, while a neo-Nazi banner was hung from a nearby tree in early February. Officers from the Counter-Terrorism Investigation Group seized a number of items after carrying out three warrants in Brisbane’s southern suburbs on Friday, but no charges were laid. Investigations are ongoing as police issued a warning to anyone engaging in racist depictions. “Everyone in Queensland has a right to feel safe, to not feel threatened or victimised, and the Queensland Police Service remains committed to supporting people across our culturally diverse society,” it said. “The Queensland Police Service urges anyone who feels threatened or fearful by the actions of others to contact police.”

via news.com.au: Counter-terrorism detectives raid Brisbane homes investigating neo-Nazi connection

siehe auch: Police raid Queensland home in relation to Neo-Nazi graffiti. Police have raided multiple Brisbane homes after racist and neo-Nazi sayings were hung and spray painted at a local park. Officers allege the footpath at Calamvale District Park was spray painted with racist material, and an offensive banner was hung between trees between February 3 and 4. An investigation was launched and a number of items of interest were seized by police when three search warrants were executed on Brisbane’s southside on Friday.

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Exclusive: Huntington Beach neo-Nazi who punched Asian man has a history of racist violence

Two men who were involved in a 2005 hate crime were among the dozen people arrested at a “White Lives Matter” rally held at the Huntington Beach Pier in southern California on Sunday. A much larger group of counter-protesters gathered in Huntington Beach in response to the rally, which was organized on the social media app Telegram. Far-right activists showed up alone or in small groups over the course of the afternoon, and were almost immediately surrounded by counter-protesters. During one altercation, a man with a swastika tattoo on his arm can be seen in video posted by various live-streamers attempting to walk away from the counter-protesters. One of the counter-protesters, who is Asian, can be heard in the video calmly saying, “If you’re strong enough to stand for your beliefs, then speak to me.” After the two men bumped chests, the man with the swastika tattoo shoved the other man and punched him in the face, next to a police car and surrounded by a scrum of live-streamers. The police have identified the assailant as Andrew Nilsen, a 38-year-old resident of Huntington Beach who is charged with fighting in public. Triet Tran, the man who was punched, was also charged with fighting in public. It is unclear why Tran, a 36-year-old resident of Santa Ana, was charged. Although insistent that Nilsen explain his far-right beliefs, video from at least two sources shows no instance of Tran putting his hands on Nilsen. In a video published on Twitter by television producer and news live-streamer Andrew Kimmel, Tran can be seen prior to the altercation walking backwards with his hands clasped behind his back as Nilsen advances towards him.

via rwastory: Exclusive: Huntington Beach neo-Nazi who punched Asian man has a history of racist violence

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The Air Force just let in a white supremacist that a Google search could have caught. Yes, seriously.

Enter “Shawn Michael McCaffrey” into Google and it doesn’t take long for his white supremacist beliefs to show up. In fact, the first search result is a link about his history of posting extremist views on social media and farther down is a link documenting his membership in the white nationalist group Identity Evropa. Google searches may not be the best way of evaluating a person’s character, but they’re at least worth a follow-up question, especially if you’re an Air Force recruiter determining whether McCaffrey is qualified to wear the country’s uniform and be responsible for its security. But those follow-up questions appear to have never been asked, since the 28-year-old McCaffrey is currently an airman first class in the service, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in an email to Task & Purpose. “We were recently made aware of this allegation, and Air Force officials are looking into it,” she said. “We were not aware of the allegations during the enlistment process. No further information or details of this allegation can be released until the facts involving this allegation are fully reviewed.” McCaffrey’s beliefs and his membership in the Air Force were first reported by HuffPost on Saturday in a damning article revealing McCaffrey’s widespread espousal of white supremacist, anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic beliefs. Among the airman’s many extremist posts, tweets, videos and other activities are the following, according to HuffPost:
Helped organize the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017. Featured prominently in propaganda material for Identity Evropa. Attended a conference held by Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer in Washington D.C. shortly after the election of former President Donald Trump. Performed white-supremacist insider jokes at an anti-Trump protest. Hosted a podcast called “The Weekly Sweat” where he and other white nationalists lambasted Jews, women, LGTBQ people and Muslims, and interviewed at least five major figures in the white supremacist movement. Said ‘fuck the troops’ in a March 2020 episode of the online alt-right show “The Killstream”. Said “it seems like every Marine is gay” in a “Weekly Sweat” episode where he also said “I really hope we get into a war soon so you fucking faggots have to go defend sand and die and have all your friends die.”. Shortly after he became Secretary of Defense in January, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin called for a military-wide stand-down to address extremism. But nobody stopped McCaffrey from pledging the oath of enlistment on Jan. 26, HuffPost reported.
As part of the accession process, Air Force recruiters ask questions about criminal activities and extremist activities and associations and use national and local criminal background checks to scan for extremist ties in potential recruits, according to Stefanek. But background checks will detect a person’s extremist ties only if they have been charged with a crime related to their beliefs, according to HuffPost, which means a recruit like McCaffrey would have passed those checks. So what are we to make of this? The military talks a big game about how extremism is a threat to readiness, but recruiters appear to have few tools to screen potential recruits for links to extremist groups or behavior before they join up. Yet McCaffrey isn’t the only one. A Pentagon report released in February cited more than 20 examples of service members and veterans who were either members of white supremacist groups or unaffiliated white supremacists. Separately, Task & Purpose has compiled a list of nearly two dozen current and former Marines who have been involved in extremist activity since 2017, such as two Marine veterans arrested in October for allegedly planning to kidnap Michigan’s governor.

via taskandpurpose: The Air Force just let in a white supremacist that a Google search could have caught
Yes, seriously.

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Argentinian Journalist Exposes Antisemitic, Neo-Nazi Groups in Latin America

Argentinian journalist Julio López recently discovered a Spanish-speaking hate network by creating a computer program that scans websites for hate speech. A journalist and hacker by trade, López originally sought to search for groups like QAnon, wondering if there were similar groups in Argentina. His study unexpectedly uncovered a secret network of alt-right, Nazi groups in Latin America that perpetuate conspiracy theories related to Jews. “I found out there are groups like QAnon in Argentina—there are many—and they’re large and have done a tremendous job” infiltrating the web, López told JNS. After creating computer code utilizing terminology that is considered hate speech, his program scanned thousands of sites, exposing a “breeding ground” for hate that he says is experiencing a “boom.” “The first one I found had a YouTube channel with 220,000 subscribers, 3,000 hours of video and over 24 million views,” he explained. “They were recording on a TV studio to replicate regular media content.” The channel, named TLV1 to pose as a legitimate Israel-based news site TLV1Radio, violated YouTube community standards and was eventually taken down for inciting hate. Conspiracy theories perpetuated, according to López, such as “theories like the Andean plan for Jews to merge a nation into Patagonia, and the idea of a new order governed by key positions that are occupied by Jews”; ideas about “a superior race and the male man as the center of the family”; as well as portraying Jews as “immigrants who steal jobs.” This particular YouTube channel, he explained, spanned multiple countries including Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Spain, and had linked Facebook groups in order to reach the maximum number of people. It operated for three years before López’s advocacy got YouTube to shut it down. “However, Facebook allowed their groups to stay open while YouTube banned them; therefore they still had the power to regroup,” he said. A second group that López found was “more militarized and had more than 80,000 subscribers, wore black and used Nazi fonts and icons … recruiting young people and nurturing them with these ideals. We also found hundreds and hundreds of Telegram channels and satellite groups on Facebook, just waiting to regroup and take action.” According to López, a self-proclaimed “tech geek who loves media and happened to end up with a microphone in front of me”—López hosts the most listened to radio show in the country, “Lanata Sin Filtro”—his algorithm also uncovered hate speech in the network towards the LGBTQ community, women and reproductive rights, and other minorities, and calls to disobey the state. He said Argentine media originally refused to broadcast his findings (which López said occurred out of fear of the sites losing financial partnerships with Facebook and Google) until pro-Israel NGO Fuente Latina secured him an interview on CNN Español and other major news networks.

via algemeiner: Argentinian Journalist Exposes Antisemitic, Neo-Nazi Groups in Latin America

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