Internet

White Supremacist Sentenced To 25 Years For Maryland Hate Crime Shooting Of Black Man

A Maryland judge on Wednesday sentenced white supremacist Brandon Higgs to four decades behind bars for charges related to the 2018 shooting and wounding of a Black man, with part of the sentence suspended. John Magee, the prosecutor for the Baltimore County state’s attorney’s office, told HuffPost that the judge in the case suspended 15 years of the sentence during the ruling, meaning Higgs will likely serve 25 years behind bars, plus five years probation. The 26-year-old former Navy cryptologist was found guilty in January of first-degree assault, attempted voluntary manslaughter, hate crimes and related firearms charges stemming from the 2018 shooting in Reisterstown, a suburb of Baltimore. “He’s got a long time to think about the shit he did,” Elvis Smith, the man Higgs shot, told HuffPost after leaving the sentencing hearing Wednesday morning. “So I’m happy.” The shooting received national attention because of the heinous nature of the crime, and because private online chat logs obtained by anti-fascists showed Higgs was active in organized white supremacist groups and had expressed a murderous hatred for Black people, particularly those in the Baltimore area. (…) As Higgs awaited trial, where he pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges, anti-fascists uncovered comments Higgs had made in private neo-Nazi chat groups, including a group for people planning to attend the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The comments, some of which are quoted below, included racial slurs. “I decided I’m going to create my own group called Baltimore Animal Control and buy those dog patrol poles with the snare at the end and wrangle niggers with it,” Higgs wrote in one post. “Also want to leave bear traps in Baltimore city with buckets of KFC chicken,” he wrote in another. Higgs also referred to Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who in 2015 massacred Black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, as “St. Roof” on the message boards. At his trial earlier this year, Higgs appeared in court in a red prison jumpsuit, his tattoo of a yellow identitarian lambda ― a white nationalist symbol ― visible on his arm. Court records show that since being found guilty in January, Higgs has also been charged with multiple misdemeanors he allegedly committed while incarcerated, including one charge of possession of narcotics with the intent to distribute.

via chicagoceusader: White Supremacist Sentenced To 25 Years For Maryland Hate Crime Shooting Of Black Man

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Es dauerte keine Woche: Spiel von Rechtsextremen fliegt aus dem Steam-Store – #noIB

Es schien verrückt, wie ein Scherz mit unschöner Pointe, die statt Lachern betroffenes Schweigen untermalt mit Grillenzirpen erntet. Die rechtsextreme “Ein Prozent”-Bewegung und das ebenso rechte Künstlerkollektiv “Kvltgang” veröffentlichten ein eigens entwickeltes Game auf der Spieleplattform Steam, wir berichteten. Gamerinnen und Gamer protestierten im Voraus auf Reddit, meldeten sich bei der Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (BpjM). Die habe aber aufgrund des Zensurverbots mit einer Prüfung abwarten müssen. Doch ehe die BpjM dazu kam, hatte Steam das Spiel bereits entfernt – das Konto der Verantwortlichen löschte die US-Plattform gleich mit. Grund für den Widerstand sind nicht nur die Beteiligten, sondern auch die Inhalte des Spiels. So steuert man unter anderem den Sprecher der rechtsextremen Identitären Bewegung Martin Sellner und bekämpft dabei das “Globo Homo”-Regime. Ein Spielbösewicht sieht zudem dem ungarischen Milliardär George Soros sehr ähnlich, der zum Feindbild von Rechtsextremen sowie Antisemiten gehört. Außerdem ist das Spiel von diffamierenden Bildern durchzogen. In einem Level taucht etwa auf dem Völkerschlachtsdenkmal, einer bei Rechtsextremen beliebten Landmarke, eine antiziganistische Karikatur einer Roma-Frau auf. Auf Twitter und Reddit äußerten sich einige Menschen, darunter auch Gamerinnen und Gamer, gegen die Veröffentlichung, forderten von Steam, das Spiel gar nicht erst in den Store zu nehmen.

via watson: Es dauerte keine Woche: Spiel von Rechtsextremen fliegt aus dem Steam-Store

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#Revealed: pro-#Trump activists plotted #violence ahead of #Portland rallies – #schauhin #terror

Patriots Coalition members suggested political assassinations and said ‘laws will be broken, people will get hurt’, leaked chats show- Leaked chat logs show Portland-area pro-Trump activists planning and training for violence, sourcing arms and ammunition and even suggesting political assassinations ahead of a series of contentious rallies in the Oregon city, including one scheduled for this weekend. The chats on the GroupMe app, shared with the Guardian by the antifascist group Eugene Antifa, show conversations between Oregon members of the Patriots Coalition growing more extreme as they discuss armed confrontations with leftwing Portland activists, and consume a steady diet of online disinformation about protests and wildfires. At times, rightwing activists discuss acts of violence at recent, contentious protests, which in some cases they were recorded carrying out. At one point, David Willis, a felon currently being sued for his alleged role in an earlier episode of political violence, joins a discussion about the use of paintballs.
Where other members had previously suggested freezing the paintballs for maximum damage, Willis wrote: “They make glass breaker balls that are rubber coated metal. They also have pepper balls but they are about 3 dollars a ball. Don’t freeze paintballs it makes them wildly inaccurate” [sic.] Willis did not immediately respond to voice and text messages sent to his listed cellphone number. Another prolific poster is Mark Melchi, a 41-year-old Dallas, Oregon-based car restorer who claims to have served as a captain in the US army. Melchi has been recorded leading an armed pro-Trump militia, “1776 2.0” into downtown confrontations in Portland, including on 22 August. At several points in the chat he proposes violence in advance of those confrontations, and appears to confess to prior acts committed in the company of his paramilitary group.

via guardian: Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies

https://twitter.com/jason_a_w/status/1308859080648396801
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#Toronto – Man charged in stabbing death of #mosque caretaker followed hate group online – #terror

Guilherme ‘William’ Von Neutegem, 34, is accused of stabbing 58-year-old Mohamed-Aslim Zafis outside mosque. The man charged with stabbing a volunteer caretaker to death at a Toronto mosque shared what appears to be content from a satanic neo-Nazi group in social media posts, according to an organization that tracks online extremism. The revelation comes amid calls for the killing to be investigated as a hate crime, something the Toronto Police Service is considering at this time. Guilherme “William” Von Neutegem, 34, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis.

via cbc.ca: Toronto – Man charged in stabbing death of mosque caretaker followed hate group online

siehe auch: ‘Random’ Murder of Muslim Man Linked to ‘Neo-Nazi Death Cult’: Report. A man charged with the “random” killing of a Toronto man has several online connections to Order of Nine Angles, a group an expert described to VICE News as a “neo-Nazi death cult.” (…) However, as first reported by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), social media pages connected to Von Neutegem point to a connection to the Nazi-affiliated group known as the Order of Nine Angles or O9A/ONA. Evan Balgord, the Executive Director of the CAHN, described O9A to VICE News as “a neo-Nazi death cult.” “It is kind of concerning that the Toronto Police didn’t draw any connection here,” said Balgord. “Putting aside O9A is not something a lot of people know about, there were other examples of neo-Nazi imagery on his Instagram account. This includes the black sun, which is about as unmistakable (of an) neo-Nazi identifier as a swastika is.” CAHN put out an article of their findings on Friday night. A Toronto Police spokesperson told VICE News they will “not be commenting” on if they’re investigating the connections between Von Neutegem and the neo-Nazi group or if they are planning on investigating the murder as a hate crime.

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Lawyers Eye Neo-Nazi Website Founder’s Assets for $14M Award

Whitefish realtor Tanya Gersh won a lawsuit against Andrew Anglin after he launched an anti-semitic ‘troll storm’ against her in 2016. Attorneys for a Montana real estate agent are eyeing the assets of a neo-Nazi website operator to collect a $14 million court judgment against the man for an anti-Semitic online “troll storm” that he orchestrated against the Jewish woman and her family, court filings show. More than a year has passed since a federal judge in Montana entered a default judgment against Andrew Anglin, the Daily Stormer’s founder and publisher. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the Ohio native has failed to pay any of the monetary award to Tanya Gersh. Gersh’s attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center say they intend to identify any of Anglin’s assets that could be used to satisfy the judgment. Trying to seize Anglin’s assets will be “time-consuming and extremely complex” given his lack of cooperation and history of holding assets in cryptocurrency rather than more traditional forms, law center lawyers wrote in a filing last month.

via flatheadbeacon: Lawyers Eye Neo-Nazi Website Founder’s Assets for $14M Award

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Facebook Sued Over Kenosha Killings

“If Facebook won’t change their M.O., then a judge needs to tell them to enforce their own standards.” When 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse killed two Black Lives Matter protesters (and wounded a third) in late August in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he instantly became a hero among white nationalist circles, in which the Second Amendment is sacrosanct. On Wednesday, Rittenhouse and the members of the armed militias that supported him, including the Kenosha Guard and Boogaloo Bois, were named in a federal lawsuit brought under the post-Civil War Reconstruction amendments that aimed to establish Black equality. The suit also names what it alleges was the militia groups’s most prominent enabler: Facebook. All of the parties, the complaint contends, helped deprive Kenosha Black Lives Matter protesters of their First Amendment right to assemble, thus violating the Black Lives Matter activists’ 14th Amendment right to equal protection. Attorneys Jason Flores-Williams and Jennifer Sirrine filed the case in the Eastern District Court of Wisconsin, which covers Kenosha. Along with a handful of protesters harassed by the militia groups, the plaintiffs include Hannah Giddings, the life partner of 26-year-old Anthony Huber, who was gunned down by Rittenhouse while trying to disarm the teenager. According to the complaint, the Kenosha Guard, Boogaloo Bois, and Facebook all partook in a conspiracy that resulted in Huber’s death (thus causing harm to Giddings) and deprived the other plaintiffs of their ability to peacefully protest. (…) In order to recruit foot soldiers for the August 25 protest, the Kenosha Guard created an event page on its Facebook account. Titled “Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property,” the posting summoned “patriots willing to take up arms … and defend our City from the evil thugs.” Over 450 Facebook users alerted the platform’s moderators that the Guard’s violent rhetoric violated the company’s policies. According to BuzzFeed News, four Facebook moderators deemed the Guard’s posts “non-threatening.” In Flores-Williams’s view, Facebook’s actions subsequent to the event — shutting down the Guard’s account and admitting to what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called an “operational mistake” in not heeding the 450 warnings — amounted to a recognition it behaved with negligence. “Facebook’s negligence enabled the conspiracy here,” said Flores-Williams. He maintains that “this is not a First Amendment issue. It’s a matter of responsibility on the part of Facebook.” “I would love to see Facebook change their moderation policies and for them to take accountability. One way to do that would be for them to make the moderators work directly for the company instead of outsourcing them,” added Sirrine.

via theintercept: Facebook Sued Over Kenosha Killings

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#Ermittlungen wegen #Drogenkriminalität: #Razzia bei der #Polizei #München – #polizeigewalt #polizeiproblem #thinwhiteline

Die Staatsanwaltschaft ist am Mittwoch gegen 21 Polizisten vorgegangen. Ihnen werden Drogendelikte und die Verfolgung Unschuldiger vorgeworfen. Um sechs Uhr in der Früh rückten sie aus: 19 Staatsanwälte, 70 LKA-Ermittler und rund 100 Polizisten des ­Polizeipräsidiums München und der Kriminalpolizeiinspektion Augsburg. Dazu kamen als Unterstützung noch Spezialeinsatzkommandos aus Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Württemberg und Hessen sowie etliche Spürhunde. Wohin es geht, hatten die meisten der Beamten erst kurz zuvor erfahren. Denn der Großeinsatz war, wie die Behörde am Mittwoch mitteilte, ebenso rekordverdächtig wie heikel. Schließlich sind es die eigenen Kollegen, gegen die ermittelt wird. 21 Beamte des Münchner Polizeipräsidiums und 17 weitere Verdächtige hat die Staatsanwaltschaft im Visier. Vor allem Drogendelikte werden ihnen vorgeworfen, einzelnen der Beschuldigten wird sogar die Verfolgung Unschuldiger vorgeworfen. (…) Zu den genauen Tatvorwürfen gab die Staatsanwaltschaft vorerst nichts bekannt. Nach Informationen der Deutschen Presse-Agentur soll ein großer Teil der Beschuldigten selbst Drogen konsumiert und sie untereinander weitergegeben haben. Besonders schwer wiegt der Vorwurf der Verfolgung Unschuldiger. Zwei Polizisten sollen zwei Personen wahrheitswidrig vorgeworfen haben, Widerstand gegen Polizeibeamte geleistet zu haben. Gegen die beiden seien daraufhin Ermittlungsverfahren eingeleitet worden und sie kamen vor Gericht. Die Verfahren wurden gegen Zahlung einer Geldbuße eingestellt.
Ermittlungsgruppe „Nightlife“ Bei weiteren Beamten steht zudem der Verdacht eines sogenannten dienstlichen Verwahrungsbruchs und der Strafvereitelung im Amt im Raum. So habe ein Beamter eine geringe Menge beschlagnahmtes Kokain an sich genommen. Kollegen, die dies mitbekommen hätten, seien jedoch weder dagegen eingeschritten, noch hätten sie die Tat zur Anzeige gebracht. Die Ermittlungen werden seit Juli 2020 von der eigens eingerichteten Ermittlungsgruppe „Nightlife“ im LKA geführt. Der Umfang des bereits vor der Razzia vom Mittwoch sichergestellten Materials ist enorm: 20 Mobiltelefone, 1,6 Millionen Chatnachrichten, eine Million Bild- und 25.000 Videodateien. Ins Rollen gebracht hat die Ermittlungen schon 2018 die Aussage eines Drogendealers, der zwei Polizeibeamte beschuldigte. Der Kreis der Verdächtigen wurde dann jedoch immer größer. Einige Polizisten sind zwischenzeitlich bereits vom Dienst suspendiert worden.

via taz: Ermittlungen wegen Drogenkriminalität: Razzia bei der Polizei München

Bag of cocaine.jpg
By <a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SimmeD” title=”User:SimmeD”>SimmeD</a> – <span class=”int-own-work” lang=”en”>Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link – symbolbild

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