Gewalt

#Capitol #rioter plotted to sell stolen #Pelosi #laptop to #Russian #intelligence

Riley June Williams was turned in to the FBI by former “romantic partner,” according to court documents. A Pennsylvania woman accused of being one of the Capitol rioters told a former “romantic partner” she planned to steal a laptop computer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and sell it to Russian intelligence, court documents revealed Monday. Riley June Williams was on the run, charged with disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds with the intent to disturb a session of Congress and other charges after her former flame turned her in. “Williams is not in custody,” a federal law enforcement officials told NBC News on Monday afternoon.
William’s ex, who was described in Special Agent Jonathan Lund’s charging document as W 1 (witness one), called the FBI and told them she “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.” (…) Pelosi deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, confirmed in a Tweet that Pelosi’s laptop was stolen from the conference room on Jan. 6 but that it was “only used for presentations.” The FBI said they spoke with Williams’ mother on Saturday and she allegedly said, “she recognized her daughter inside the U.S. Capitol Building and that her daughter had taken a sudden interest in President Trump’s politics and “far-right message boards.”

via nbcnews: Capitol rioter plotted to sell stolen Pelosi laptop to Russian intelligence

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Nach Krawall am Reichstag rund 30 Ermittlungsverfahren

40 Verdächtige hat die Berliner Polizei bislang ermittelt. Vorgeworfen wird ihnen vor allem Landfriedensbruch, aber auch Widerstand und andere Delikte. Rund vier Monate nach der Besetzung der Reichstagstreppe bei einer Demonstration in Berlin ermittelt die Berliner Polizei gegen 40 Verdächtige. Das Landeskriminalamt führe 31 Ermittlungsverfahren, sagte ein Polizeisprecher. Mehr als die Hälfte davon seien Verfahren wegen Landfriedensbruchs. Es könnten noch mehr Verfahren werden, da die Ermittlungen andauerten. Zuvor berichtete das Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. Demnach werde Verdächtigen auch Gefangenenbefreiung, Verwendung von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen, besonders schwerer Landfriedensbruch, Widerstand gegen Vollstreckungsbeamte, Bedrohung, Beleidigung und Verstoß gegen das Versammlungsgesetz vorgeworfen. Die innenpolitische Sprecherin der Grünen-Bundestagsfraktion, Irene Mihalic, sagte dem Redaktionsnetzwerk: „Es ist gut, dass zumindest einige der Beteiligten identifiziert werden konnten und Strafverfahren laufen. Ich hoffe, dass es zu Verurteilungen kommt.“ Die Ermittler sollten aber auch auf mögliche Vernetzungen schauen.

via handelsbltt: Nach Krawall am Reichstag rund 30 Ermittlungsverfahren

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„White Power“: Rechtsextreme in ganz Osteuropa bejubeln #Kapitol-Stürmung – #terror #capitol #azov

Beobachter auf der ganzen Welt waren fassungslos, als sie sahen, wie ein gewalttätiger Mob das US-Kapitolgebäude in einem verzweifelten, gewaltsamen Versuch stürmte, um die Präsidentschaftswahl zu kippen und eine zweite Amtszeit für den scheidenden US-Präsidenten Donald Trump zu sichern. Beobachter auf der ganzen Welt waren fassungslos, als sie sahen, wie ein gewalttätiger Mob das US-Kapitolgebäude in einem verzweifelten, gewaltsamen Versuch stürmte, um die Präsidentschaftswahl zu kippen und eine zweite Amtszeit für den scheidenden US-Präsidenten Donald Trump zu sichern. Aber Kommentatoren von der extremen Rechten des politischen Spektrums in Osteuropa und auf dem Balkan, feierten die Stürmung. Um ihre Solidarität mit den US-Randalierern zu bekunden, schwenkten viele während des orthodoxen Weihnachtsfestes am 7. Januar die Flaggen der rassistischen Konföderierten Staaten von Amerika. Serhiy Korotkikh, ein Führer der ukrainischen Asow-Bewegung, begrüßte die US-Unruhen offen rassistisch, berichtet Radio Free Europe (RFE) weiter. „Die Weißen haben endlich beschlossen zu handeln und übernehmen das Kapitolgebäude“, schrieb er auf dem Kurznachrichtendienst Telegram. Das Regiment Asow (ukrainisch Полк Азов) ist eines von etwa 80 paramilitärischen Freiwilligenbataillonen, die im Ukraine-Konflikt gegen prorussische Separatisten im Osten des Landes kämpfen. Asows neonazistischen Verbindungen sind unumstritten. Ihr offizielles Symbol ist die Wolfsangel—ein häufig verwendetes Nazi-Symbol. Im Jahr 2010 sagte der Gründer des Bataillons, Andriy Biletsky, dass die Ukraine „die weißen Rassen der Welt in einem letzten Kreuzzug … gegen die von den Semiten geführten Untermenschen anführen“ solle, berichtet Buzzfeednews. Die Anziehungskraft für Neonazis reicht weit über die ukrainischen Grenzen hinaus. Europaweit rekrutiere Asow Neonazis für den Kampf an der Front – insbesondere aus der National Socialist Black Metal-Szene, einer musikalischen Subkultur, deren personelle Verstrickungen mit dem internationalen Neonazitum nur wenig bekannt sind.

via nex24: „White Power“: Rechtsextreme in ganz Osteuropa bejubeln Kapitol-Stürmung

siehe auch: ‘We Know What To Do’: Far-Right Figures Across Eastern Europe Applaud U.S. Capitol Violence. Veterans of the Azov Battalion and activists and supporters of the Azov civil corps march on Ukraine’s Independence Day in Kyiv on August 24. A leader of the group welcomed the U.S. unrest in openly racist terms. Observers around the world were stunned to see a violent mob storm the U.S. Capitol building in a desperate, violent bid to overturn a legitimate presidential election and secure a second term for outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump. But commentators from the far right of the political spectrum in Eastern Europe and the Balkans were in many cases encouraged by what they saw. Many took time away from marking the Orthodox Christmas holiday on January 7 to signal their solidarity with the U.S. rioters, many of whom waved flags of the racist Confederate States of America. Andreas Umland, who has written extensively on political extremism around the world, wrote on Facebook that Trump was not as ideologically driven as many rightist figures around the globe. “Terms like ‘fascist’ do not sound quite right for him, as they assume a minimal degree of ideological information which Trump simply lacks,” Umland wrote. “Still, he is beloved by the far right — not only in the United States but across the world.” Anton Shekhovtsov, a lecturer at the University of Vienna who specializes in neo-Nazism and other extremist movements in Russia and elsewhere, agrees, saying that Trump fit in among “contemporary right-wing populisms in Europe” that are “based on a combination of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism.” “Not only do they operate within the framework of democracy,” he wrote in an essay on the Eurozine website, “they also claim that they are better democrats — an antiestablishment idea resonating with many a disaffected voter.”

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#Capitol #Rioter Threatened to Shoot His Kids If They Snitched: Feds

Guy Reffitt, a member of a Texas militia group, was among at least five others arrested or charged in the Capitol attack on Monday. The FBI on Monday announced charges against more alleged Capitol attackers, including a Texas member of a far-right militia. Feds have previously unsealed criminal charges against dozens of people accused of storming the Capitol in a pro-Trump riot on January 6. Newly named among them are Nicolas Moncada, who was arrested by the FBI’s New York office, and Guy Reffitt, a Texan. Reffitt was allegedly a member of the militia group “Texas Freedom Force,” and threatened to shoot his children if they became “traitors” who turned him in. Reffitt, the Texas man busted for his alleged involvement in the attack, also had extremist ties, the FBI said. Reffitt attended the riot in a helmet outfitted with a camera, and what appeared to be a tactical vest, according to pictures included in court filings. According to prosecutors, Reffitt was part of the Texas Freedom Fighters, a militant group that lobbies to protect Confederate symbols, and has spent the past weeks on Twitter accusing the left of being the real rioters. Reffitt allegedly admitted to his family that he’d participated in the attacks, telling the family that “we” (likely the TFF, according to a criminal filing) had “stormed the Capitol.” He also allegedly told family that he’d brought a gun with him to D.C. Reffitt’s children allegedly were “disturbed” by his “extreme” statements. When they expressed alarm, he allegedly told them that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors…traitors get shot.” His wife provided information on the fight to investigators. Moncada, 20, is a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Gothamist reported. Like others arrested in the attack, Moncada allegedly live-streamed his actions in the Capitol, and posted on Instagram about participating in “the storm,” a term popular with fans of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. A Staten Islander, Moncada appears to have supported a bar on the island that notoriously defied COVID-19 restrictions before temporarily closing after its owner was accused of hitting a sheriff’s deputy with his car.
Moncada is the latest of several men arrested in New York in connection to the riots. In a statement, the FBI said he was “now in custody for his role in assaulting the U.S. Capitol while our representatives were inside performing their Constitutional duties.” Another arrest affidavit, unsealed Monday, accused Freeport, New York man Thomas Fee of storming the Capitol. Fee was reported by an acquaintance after Fee’s girlfriend posted on Facebook about his attendance at the Capitol, according to the affidavit. The acquaintance allegedly texted Fee, who sent back a picture and a video of himself inside the Capitol rotunda. In the video, Fee allegedly described himself as being “at the tip of the spear” in the attack. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, officials announced the arrest of Craig Bingert, whose face had been plastered on FBI “wanted” posters for his alleged participation in the riots. Bingert, who reportedly turned himself in to law enforcement on Sunday, is accused of rushing a police line at the Capitol and shouting “fuck the police.”

via daily beast: Capitol Rioter Threatened to Shoot His Kids If They Snitched: Feds

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Why is #discrimination against American #Roma ignored?

A community of one million people has been left out of the US’s belated national reckoning with racism. It’s time to change that. Last year brought a dramatic and belated national reckoning with racism in the United States. But with conversations focused on the major targets of American racism – African American, indigenous and Latino populations – many have overlooked discrimination against a much smaller minority in the US: American Roma. Many Romani people arrived in the US between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, amid a wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The prominent Romani scholar, Ian Hancock, argues that many Romani Americans are descendants of Romania’s enslaved Romani people, who were freed in 1856. But there is evidence that Romani people had been in the US for centuries beforehand, with early records documenting Roma people being shipped to British plantations in Virginia in the 17th century, following a 1661 act of parliament permitting their deportation. Today, there are close to a million Romani people in the US, with the largest clusters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and Portland. The community continues to experience acute prejudice today, as it has done for decades. (…) Romani Americans have long been rated as having the lowest “social standing” among ethnic groups in the US. In two polls conducted in 1964 and 1989 on the social standing of ethnic groups in the United States, Americans rated Romani people, along with Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, as having a lower social standing than a fabricated ethnic group, the “Wisians”. Clearly, centuries of racism against Roma in Europe have infected attitudes to transatlantic Roma immigrants and their American offspring. A 2020 study entitled ‘Romani Realities in the United States’, by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and Voice of Roma (an American non-profit organisation), documents widespread anti-Roma discrimination. Almost 80% of the 363 Romani Americans who took part in the study reported that Americans discriminate against people of Romani heritage. (…) Such racial slurs levelled at Romani Americans are common. Some 68% of those interviewed by the FXB Center said they had been called names that made them uncomfortable, listing 108 slurs including: “sweet-potato [N-word]”, “dirty gpsy”, “Chicken thieves! Where’s your crystal ball? Where’s your wagon?”, “Dirty blooded, half breed”, “gpsy scum vagabond”, “gpsy trash”, “monkey, dirty gpsy”, and “the g*psies are here; hide your kids”. The extent of everyday discrimination and anti-Roma hatred in the US is alarming.

via opendemocracy: Why is discrimination against American Roma ignored?

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Kyle Brewster, Convicted in 1988 Killing of Mulugeta Seraw, Fought at Jan. 6 Pro-#Trump Rally in Salem

On his Facebook page, Brewster admitted to attending the capitol rally. He carried a can of hornet- and wasp-killing pesticide, which he sprayed at the left-wing crowd during the clash. Among the right-wing protesters brawling outside the Oregon Capitol on Jan. 6 was a Portland white supremacist who aided in the most notorious hate killing in recent Oregon history. Kyle Brewster, 51, was one of three racist skinheads who attacked a group of Ethiopian immigrants in Southeast Portland on Nov. 13, 1988. While Brewster fought with a 28-year-old airport bus driver named Mulugeta Seraw, his fellow white supremacist Ken Mieske repeatedly swung a baseball bat into Seraw’s skull. Mieske kept hitting Seraw while Brewster, then 19, kicked him with steel-toed boots. Mieske was convicted of murder and Brewster was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in Seraw’s death. Released from prison in 2002, Brewster went back behind bars in 2008 for violating his parole by associating with members of the white supremacist group Volksfront. While finishing his term, Brewster was convicted of assaulting a prison guard. Except for a few social media posts supporting President Donald Trump, Brewster then remained out of sight until the past year.
But on Jan. 6, as Trump loyalists stormed Congress, Brewster joined Proud Boys and other right-wing figures at a rally in Salem. A WW correspondent says he observed Brewster brawling with leftist counterprotesters in a melee on the Capitol lawn. Brewster was also photographed donning a respirator mask and carrying a can of hornet- and wasp-killing pesticide, which he sprayed at left-wingers during the clash. Amid the fighting, Brewster and at least three other right-wing brawlers allegedly tackled a single counterprotester and briefly beat that person. Brewster emerged from the dog pile with a bleeding head wound. He attempted to pursue the retreating counterprotesters, but was pulled back by several of his pro-Trump cohorts before troopers with the Oregon State Police ran out from the Capitol building to separate the two sides.

via wweek: Kyle Brewster, Convicted in 1988 Killing of Mulugeta Seraw, Fought at Jan. 6 Pro-Trump Rally in Salem

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Nach rassistischer Attacke in Berlin-Kreuzberg – #CDU-Bezirkspolitiker tritt als #Ausschussvorsitzender zurück – und schiebt Verhalten auf Alkohol – #schauhin #konsequenzgezogen

Ein Berliner Bezirkspolitiker soll einen Imbiss-Mitarbeiter in Kreuzberg rassistisch beleidigt, bedroht und schließlich sogar angegriffen haben. Nach Tagesspiegel-Informationen handelt es sich um den CDU-Verordneten Harald Sielaff, der Mitglied der Bezirksverordnetenversammlung (BVV) in Tempelhof-Schöneberg ist. Der Mitarbeiter der “Asia Food & Sushi Bar” am Mehringdamm, der Ziel der Attacke war, erkannte den 55-Jährigen sofort auf einem Foto, das der Tagesspiegel ihm am Montag vorlegte. BVV-Kreise bestätigten die Personalie ebenfalls. Sielaff reagierte auf eine Rückrufbitte des Tagesspiegels zunächst nicht. Am frühen Abend dann bedauerte Sielaff den Vorfall und schob sein Verhalten auf den Konsum von Alkohol. In einer persönlichen Erklärung erklärte er zudem seinen sofortigen Rücktritt als Ausschussvorsitzender: „Zu den gestrigen Geschehnissen möchte ich wie folgt Stellung nehmen: Rassistische Äußerungen und beleidigende Pöbeleien haben nach meiner Überzeugung in unserer Stadt nichts zu suchen. In meinen 55 Jahren, habe ich mich immer für einen demokratischen Umgang mit allen Menschen eingesetzt. Die gestrigen unter Alkoholeinfluss stattgefundenen Ereignisse tun mir persönlich leid und ich habe mich auch persönlich beim Imbissbetreiber für die Unannehmlichkeiten entschuldigt. Ich weise mit aller Entschiedenheit die Anwendung von Gewalt und rassistischen Äußerungen meinerseits zurück”, schreibt Sielaff. Und weiter: “Ich werde in der juristischen Aufarbeitung dieser Angelegenheit aktiv unterstützen. Da ich nicht mehr frei von Zweifeln meiner Tätigkeit als Ausschussvorsitzender für Bürgerdienste und Ordnungsangelegenheiten agieren kann und ich den Ausschuss nicht belasten will, trete ich mit sofortiger Wirkung als Ausschussvorsitzender zurück.”
Der Vorfall trug sich am Sonntagnachmittag gegen 16.30 Uhr zu, berichtete die Polizei am Montag. Wie der 41-jährige Angestellte dem Tagesspiegel sagte, hatte der CDU-Politiker bestellt und sollte gerade sein Essen bekommen, als er plötzlich eine Flut von Beschimpfungen geäußert habe. Unter anderem soll Sielaff gebrüllt haben, in der “Bundesrepublik Deutschland” seien “Chinesen” nicht erwünscht. “Sie leben in einer Diktatur – warum sind Sie jetzt hier?” Zudem soll er den Imbiss-Mitarbeiter, einen Vietnamesen, dazu aufgefordert haben, Aufenthaltsdokumente und Betriebsunterlagen vorzuzeigen, wie die Polizei weiter mitteilte. Als Mann sich weigerte, soll der Angreifer eine Plastikflasche vom Tresen genommen und sie in den Innenraum geworfen haben – dabei löste sich der Deckel und die süß-saure Sauce traf Gesicht und Kleidung des Opfers. [Das Neueste aus Ihrer Nähe: In unseren Leute-Newslettern berichten wir wöchentlich aus den zwölf Berliner Bezirken. Die Newsletter können Sie hier kostenlos bestellen: leute.tagesspiegel.de] Eine Zeugin alarmierte umgehend die Polizei und erstattete Anzeige. Die Polizisten überprüften den 55-Jährigen. Er gab dabei an, Alkohol getrunken zu haben, und händigte den Ausweis seiner Bezirksverordnetenversammlung aus. Die Polizei ließ ihn wenig später gehen, ermittelt wird nun wegen Beleidigung und Sachbeschädigung.

via tagesspiegel: Nach rassistischer Attacke in Berlin-Kreuzberg CDU-Bezirkspolitiker tritt als Ausschussvorsitzender zurück – und schiebt Verhalten auf Alkohol

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