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You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Domestic Terrorism Open Thread: Good for Governor Northam

Domestic Terrorism Open Thread: Good for Governor Northam

by Anne Laurie|  January 16, 20209:47 pm| 83 Comments

This post is in: domestic terrorists, Enhanced Protest Techniques, Gun Issues, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat

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FBI caught Patrik Mathews. Member of 'The Base' Neo-Nazi terror network who snuck in from Canada.

Phew. https://t.co/7Krm7LpjAQ

— YYZedd (@Zeddary) January 16, 2020

… A sense of crisis enveloped the capital of Virginia on Thursday, with the police on heightened alert and Richmond bracing for possible violence ahead of a gun rally next week that is expected to draw white supremacists and other anti-government extremists.

Members of numerous armed militias and white power proponents vowed to converge on the city despite the state of emergency declared by Gov. Ralph Northam, who temporarily banned weapons from the grounds of the State Capitol. The potential for an armed confrontation prompted fears of a rerun of the 2017 far-right rally that left one person dead and some two dozen injured in Charlottesville, about an hour’s drive from Monday’s rally.

The unease increased after the F.B.I. announced the arrest on Thursday of three armed men suspected of being members of a neo-Nazi hate group, including a former Canadian Army reservist, who had obtained weapons and discussed participating in the Richmond rally. The men were linked to The Base, a group that aims to create a white ethnostate, according to the F.B.I.

For weeks, discussions about the rally have lit up Facebook pages and chat rooms frequented by militia members and white supremacists. Various extremist organizations or their adherents are calling Monday’s rally the “boogaloo.” In the lexicon of white supremacists, that is an event that will accelerate the race war they have anticipated for decades…

The rally on Monday, the holiday marking the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was initially organized to protest the Virginia Legislature’s proposed restrictions on gun purchases.

The organizer, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, is prominent in the state’s Second Amendment rights movement, donating tens of thousands of dollars to lawmakers over the years. Its president, Philip Van Cleave, refers to himself as an extremist but issued a statement saying the rally was meant to be a peaceful protest about gun rights.

In the past, its lobbying efforts were focused on loosening the state’s gun laws.

But with a new Democratic majority in the Legislature, the group has made it clear that Monday’s event will be focused on opposing sweeping gun control measures that could be enacted next week....

On Thursday, the House of Delegates and the Senate held their regularly scheduled sessions under tighter-than-normal security by the Capitol Police. The Senate approved several gun control measures, including a bill that limits people to buying only one gun each month.

Also Thursday, a circuit court judge upheld the governor’s temporary ban on weapons in the area around the Capitol from Friday until Tuesday…

The F.B.I. has grown increasingly concerned about The Base as it has worked to recruit more people. The group encourages the onset of anarchy, according to the Counter Extremism Project, an organization that tracks far-right extremists. Experts say that its founder, an American, appears to be living in Russia…

Of course not every ‘gun rights activist’ is a racist, nor is every racist an ammosexual — but is it surprising how much the two groups overlap?

I don't say this lightly but Virginia may have just seriously averted a white supremacist rampage worse than Charlottesville. And the risk may still exist. https://t.co/JT8evonqP7

— YYZedd (@Zeddary) January 16, 2020

Mathews was already a fugitive, his cover as a terror recruiter blown. He'd have only shown his face in Virginia for martyrdom. A damn good bit of manhunting by the FBI.

— YYZedd (@Zeddary) January 16, 2020

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Previous Post: « Election Year Open Thread: BIDEN 2020 – You’ll Come Around, Folks!
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Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    Chyron HR

    January 16, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    Oops, time for another lecture from Silverman about the overreaching gun-grabbers in Virginia.

  2. 2.

    chopper

    January 16, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    FBI caught Patrik Mathews. Member of ‘The Base’ Neo-Nazi terror network who snuck in from Canada.

    they literally call themselves ‘the base’. in arabic, that’s ‘al qaeda’. i mean, come the fuck on.

  3. 3.

    Mike J

    January 16, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    Heard about a recent case that said the lower receiver isn’t a gun so anti AR-15 laws couldn’t ban them. Doesn’t the fact they aren’t guns mean there’s no second amendment problem with banning all of them?

  4. 4.

    chopper

    January 16, 2020 at 10:02 pm

    i mean it would be like calling themselves ‘party of god’ or something. oy.

  5. 5.

    chopper

    January 16, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    @Mike J:

    makes sense. if it aint a firearm, right?

  6. 6.

    dimmsdale

    January 16, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    I’m not sure what the correct state response to these goobers actually ought to be, from a law enforcement and/or a psychological perspective, but I’d hope that Northam is getting the National Guard on deck. The prospect of a thousand or so strutting goobers being met by an equal number of fully equipped, combat-trained NG troops may be necessary to contain their “patriotic fervor”. If the state and local law enforcement don’t adroitly and expertly handle this crowd, THIS time, and blow it in any way, next time (and there WILL be a next time) could be very very bad.

  7. 7.

    rekoob

    January 16, 2020 at 10:08 pm

    As a native Richmonder who has been watching this unfold, I’m all the more thankful for our current leadership in the General Assembly. Governor Northam, for all his considerable failings, has correctly identified and dealt with the danger at hand.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    January 16, 2020 at 10:13 pm

    Hey, they can have their guns and they have their right to protest…but nobody gets to plan acts of violence much less carry them out.  F the nazis and F the white supremacists.  There’s FAR more of us than them, and we have the law on our side.

    As a nearly life-long Virginian, I’m encouraged.  As a life-long American, I’m thrilled.

    Dem politicians should take advantage of the moment and speak up (locally, statewide, and nationally) – more eloquently than my first paragraph, please, but same message.

  9. 9.

    Gravenstone

    January 16, 2020 at 10:16 pm

    @chopper: Trying to decide if ironic, or moronic.

  10. 10.

    Xenos

    January 16, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    1. This is how it usually plays out in Germany.  A neo-nazi cell will get established but will always obsessively start stockpiling guns, making pipe bombs, acting out their fantasies of building a terrorist army.  Stringent enforcement of weapons laws lets the government roll these groups up and put key members away for years at a time.  It really disrupts the ability of a new fascist movement to get off the ground.
  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    January 16, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    @Xenos: Looks like you mistyped your nym for the last comment? I released it and then deleted it because it appeared to be identical to this one.

  12. 12.

    John Revolta

    January 16, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    I’m so old I remember when it was Republicans who used to scream about “outside agitators” stirring up trouble for law-abiding citizens.

  13. 13.

    Kent

    January 16, 2020 at 10:24 pm

    If there are actually police out in force stopping and arresting anyone carrying weapons and violating the emergency order then these ammosexuals will keep a wide berth.  They don’t have the balls to actually start a real confrontation with real police.  Especially with a bunch of nervous SWAT team squads with itchy fingers.  And a bunch of them are walking around with various outstanding warrants, restraining orders, and other issues that will make them loath to wind up in handcuffs with their IDs being run through the system and their mug shots printed in the local paper.  That would no doubt lead to many of them being fired from their crappy service jobs when the outraged social media campaigns start up.

  14. 14.

    Martin

    January 16, 2020 at 10:24 pm

    @John Revolta: They still do. But ‘outside agitators’ aren’t Canadians, they’re brown people.

  15. 15.

    chopper

    January 16, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    @John Revolta:

    i’m so old i remember back when gun-fondling militia shitbag assholes sitting in a basement in michigan giving each other titty twisters weren’t the base of the republican party.

  16. 16.

    mario

    January 16, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    @Mike J: there you go. logic-ing again.

  17. 17.

    chris

    January 16, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    @John Revolta: @Martin: Canada would like to apologise for sending the terrorist. Sorry, eh?

    Poor dweeb had to go to the US because he’s not allowed to flaunt his manhood here. Other than cops and armoured car guards no one is allowed to carry a loaded gun on a public thoroughfare. And no one is allowed to carry a heavily restricted AR15 anywhere except at home or at a gun club.

    No, I don’t know how we defend ourselves.

  18. 18.

    JaySinWA

    January 16, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    @chris:No, I don’t know how we defend ourselves

    I seem to recall a documentary about that. “Canadian Bacon” I think.

  19. 19.

    Kent

    January 16, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    @Mike J: You are forgetting about the quantum nature of gun laws.  Like Schrödinger, cat, the weapon will simultaneously be a gun and not be a gun, depending on Justice Robert’s quantum state.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    @Chyron HR: Not for this.

    And you missed my point. I support what is being proposed in the VA legislature, but just as I supported the ACA, DACA, the JCPOA, etc, etc on the Federal level, there is going to be backlash to them. If Virginians and the country are lucky it will solely be through the political system and at the ballot box. And that was my point. If the Democrats in Virginia do this, they need to be prepared for the pushback and backlash. Because the 2nd Amendment absolutists don’t do nuance. It is a black and white issue for them, they have been heavily indoctrinated to their point of view, and that indoctrination is regularly reinforced.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    @chopper: Bless their hearts!

  22. 22.

    TomatoQueen

    January 16, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @rekoob: I’m glad to hear this. At times Northam appears to lack a bit of spine, among his considerable failings, but now it seems he’s ahead of the issue and acting on it, and entirely without the chest-pounding you’d expect from the other party.  Anything resembling another instance of Charlottesville  we must not have.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @Mike J: No, it means they can’t be regulated as firearms by the ATF. There have been several of these rulings in different cases around the country over the past several years. And in some cases the defendants have not been as lucky as the recent case. But this has been a problem far enough back that AG Lynch asked the ATF and Congress to work together for a legislative fix. The problem is actually in the legislative language, which then gets carried through the ATF codification into enforceable regulation.

  24. 24.

    JaySinWA

    January 16, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @Martin:

    But ‘outside agitators’ aren’t Canadians, they’re brown people.

    I’m pretty sure that definition applied to anyone of any color, local or not who was organizing locals for civil rights, unions, what ever. ’cause the local population was pacified and only caused trouble when agitated by outside influence, making them think stuff wasn’t nearly as hunky dorey as it was and promising pie in sky stuff.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:49 pm

    @chopper: The issue is that the way the Federal law that the ATF is working off of defines a gun cannot, if you’re being really nitpicky about it, include just the lower receiver of an AR pattern rifle. And that’s what these rulings basically state that the lower receiver, by itself, cannot be considered a firearm. So if you’re prohibited from owning a firearm, and you have a lower receiver, then you aren’t actually doing anything illegal because based on how the law the ATF is trying to enforce/have enforced, the lower receiver alone doesn’t qualify as a firearm.

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:53 pm

    @dimmsdale: The last thing you want is the National Guard on deck for this. The firearms blogs and sites and social and other digital media are full of garbage conspiracy theories that Northam has already mobilized the VA National Guard and that they have orders to confiscate firearms.

    Everyone is going to have to be very, very lucky to get through this event on Monday without something going very, very wrong. The guy who is organizing this thing, who is definitely a 2nd Amendment absolutist, has made a number of public appeals across a variety of mediums for everyone to abide by the law, to not bring their firearms, that they are assembling to peacefully lobby the members of the Virginia legislature, and that out of state “militia” and “patriots” should stay away. I’m not sure his appeals are going to work, but we’ll see what happens come Monday.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:56 pm

    @Kent: Give this a read, it is a reprint from somewhere else:

    https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/virginia-gov-northams-capitol-square-gun-ban-has-increased-the-chances-of-violence-on-monday/

    Notice the imagery the guy is referencing? And see what the commenters are mouthing off about?

  28. 28.

    joel hanes

    January 16, 2020 at 10:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Classify it as a melee weapon.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:58 pm

    @Martin: You’re not a native Floridian who has to deal with the snowbirds. They are definitely from outside and they are definitely agitating and aggravating. The Yoopers are even worse.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    @joel hanes: Other than throwing it at someone, I don’t really see how you could use it as a melee weapon.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    January 16, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    All of these stupid bastards think that their action is going to be the one that finally kicks off the “race war” they want, but none of them realize that it isn’t 1920 anymore and you just aren’t going to get white people forming lynch mobs at the drop of a hat anymore. It’s not a thing. It’s like expecting them to show up in a Model T and sporting a porkpie hat with a celluloid collar.

  32. 32.

    lurkypants

    January 16, 2020 at 11:04 pm

    @Kent: when I went in to work this morning, there were police and K-9 units from all around Virginia and the federal government staging at my workplace a couple of miles from the Capitol.

    Northam really fucked up with the blackface, but he has been doing a lot of work appointing governor’s commissions to identify inequities in the law for the legislature to address now that the lege is in Democratic hands.

    Also:  these shitheads are going to be PISSED when the legislature passes a law that lets municipalities decide on what to do with Civil War monuments.  Richmond is majority-minority, and the white suburbanites won’t get a say.

  33. 33.

    dimmsdale

    January 16, 2020 at 11:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, if state police, hwy patrol and local law enforcement are up to it, great. If not?

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    @dimmsdale: You hold them in abeyance and only use them if needed. You have them way in back, not out front.

  35. 35.

    Evil_Paul

    January 16, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I’ve seen some of the organizer’s comments about “we just want to peacefully gather.”  Don’t know whether he’s disingenuous or stupid.

    This movement he’s a part of?  The rhetoric they espouse?  It’s explicitly designed to set people on a collision course with the law and to make reasoned discussion all but impossible.

    Maybe this guy believes the bullshit line about how they’re all a bunch of law-abiding citizens minding their own business who are being forced to to take to the streets. If that’s the case, he’s in for a rude awakening.

  36. 36.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    January 16, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    Zaydoun™️ زياد أحمد الدعيج‏ @zaydoun
    Replying to @Zeddary

    Fun fact: The Base translated into Arabic is…
    wait for it….
    Al Qaeda القاعدة

    8:15 AM – 16 Jan 2020

    https://twitter.com/zaydoun/status/1217842813162967041 

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    @Evil_Paul: No argument from me. However, his calling for cooler heads, no matter how self serving, is the right thing to do. Would you prefer he be inciting to violence?

  38. 38.

    Evil_Paul

    January 16, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Hell no. I’m glad he’s at least paying lip service to peaceful protest. I’m just shaking my head at the naive tone.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 11:26 pm

    @Evil_Paul: Everyone is the hero in the movie that is their life.

  40. 40.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 16, 2020 at 11:31 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Only read the title to know that site and the author are full of shit. Northam’s ban is completely reasonable and if a bunch of gun freaks become violent, then it’s their own faults imo

    What’s your take on it?

  41. 41.

    Gex

    January 16, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    @Evil_Paul: I wonder if he’s naive or if he’s just disingenuous.

    It is definitely good he’s saying what he’s saying. But the selection of MLK Jr. day is a huge tell about what he’s about if you ask me.

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 16, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    @lurkypants:

    Also:  these shitheads are going to be PISSED when the legislature passes a law that lets municipalities decide on what to do with Civil War monuments.  Richmond is majority-minority, and the white suburbanites won’t get a say.

    Oh man, I didn’t even think about that! Virginia has a lot of Confederate monuments I’m sure. The so-called party of “small-government” is no longer going to be able to dictate, for the time being, what local municipalities can do with these monuments. As it always should’ve been. It’s absolute bullshit that any black person should have to walk/drive by monuments to white supremacy that a lot of the Confederate monuments from the early 20th century were; not to mention ones maintained by their tax dollars

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 11:37 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m not a lawyer. As of now a Virginia circuit court judge has upheld Northan’s declaration and ruled against the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League and the Gun Owners of America citing the Heller ruling. They’re going to try to get an emergency appeal going to the Virginia Supreme Court despite the long holiday weekend. I have no idea how the Virginia Supreme Court will rule.

    My take is that reasonable physical security actions are within Northam’s emergency declaration given the overt threats that had been made. But I’m also not a 2nd Amendment absolutist.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    January 16, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    @TomatoQueen: At times Northam appears to lack a bit of spine, among his considerable failings, but now it seems he’s ahead of the issue and acting on it,

    I’m not a Virginian, but having both houses to back them up on the tough issues has given many a politician increased strength in their convictions.  Voting (for Dems) matters!

  45. 45.

    Repatriated

    January 16, 2020 at 11:47 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The so-called party of “small-government” is no longer going to be able to dictate, for the time being, what local municipalities can do with these monuments. As it always should’ve been.

    VA is a Dillon’s Rule state, which means that all governmental entities below State level are subordinate to the State government and have basically no powers not granted them by the State.  (Many states have Home Rule provisions that enable limited autonomy for some counties and cities. VA isn’t one of them.)

    So if state law says the monuments can be removed, cities can’t prohibit their removal.  They can probably decide not to, unless explicitly directed otherwise, but that can’t be locked in indefinitely by local laws.

    Their “2nd Amendment Sanctuary” business is likewise  legally meaningless.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 16, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    My chili is done! The bottom caught a bit, as usual, but it is off the heat, out of the pot, and into containers cooling.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    January 16, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    @Evil_Paul: This movement he’s a part of? The rhetoric they espouse? It’s explicitly designed to set people on a collision course with the law and to make reasoned discussion all but impossible.

    It’s the classic abuser’s excuse:  I wouldn’t hit you, baby, if you didn’t go out of your way to provoke me!

    As domestic purveyors are finally discovering, this only works on a weaker victim, and when the abuser has the (overt or covert) support of the general authorities behind him.

  48. 48.

    Jay

    January 16, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    Three more members have been arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Murder.This is a big deal—there was apparently an actual alleged murder plot.https://t.co/pEcgRL71sk— bitte kein Rassismus (@EmilyGorcenski) January 17, 2020

  49. 49.

    Anne Laurie

    January 16, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Everyone is the hero in the movie that is their life.

    That should definitely go in the rotating-tag rota!

  50. 50.

    Jay

    January 16, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    Most dangerous part of fascist rallies is often *after* the rally, when fascists walk back to their cars, or start driving around (think Heather Heyer & Deandre Harris.) Understandable concern here that Northam's regulations ensure fascists will wander around like this all day https://t.co/NLmLxT4IQT— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) January 16, 2020

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 16, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    Throw the Nazi trash into Hudson Bay.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:00 am

    @Anne Laurie: I actually suggested: “there’s no time for pants!”, but it apparently didn’t make the cut.

  53. 53.

    Colleeniem

    January 17, 2020 at 12:01 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Sorry Adam. What are they there for, if not for this? They were activated for the Women’s march In DC

    Why do WE have to be the ones in a defensive crouch?

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    January 17, 2020 at 12:05 am

    @joel hanes:

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Besides, it is not a traditional weapon of my people, the Melées. (Sorry.)

  55. 55.

    Duane

    January 17, 2020 at 12:06 am

    Reading the comments and there’s an ad from Family Protective Services offering free t-shirts that say, “I stand for the flag- I kneel for the cross.” The damned idiots are everywhere.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @Colleeniem: Just because we normally do this badly and wrong, doesn’t mean we should. You want to deescalate as much as possible and if that fails, then you escalate cautiously. Mobilizing the National Guard for something like this is over-escalating from the get go. This is all going to be about managing risk and about how much risk Northam and other state officials are willing to tolerate.

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @Amir Khalid: No need to be sorry. You should be proud to be descended from living weapons!

  58. 58.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 17, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks, I was just curious what your take on the article was since you’ve commented on The Truth About Guns before, as well as your own security knowledge

  59. 59.

    Kent

    January 17, 2020 at 12:18 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    @Kent: Give this a read, it is a reprint from somewhere else:

    thetruthaboutguns.com/virginia-gov-northams-capitol-square-gun-ban-has-increased-the-chances-of-viol…

    Notice the imagery the guy is referencing? And see what the commenters are mouthing off about?

    Bunch of armchair warriors and keyboard commandos full of hot air.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  Our police forces have been so militarized over the past several decades that they are far more armed than the National Guard used to be back in the 1960s.  This is exactly why police forces have been armoring up all these years with surplus military equipment.  I’m sure they can more than handle what few handfuls of gun nut protesters actually show up to get themselves arrested.

    My guess?  To the extent that any of them show up it will be with a bunch of flags and signs with weapons conspicuously absent.  In other words, an ordinary vanilla protest.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:22 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They were nuts before the guy who founded the site sold it and went dark on digital and social media. And they’re even more nuts now. Especially the commenters. As for the guy who founded it, I can’t prove it, but I’m guessing he got caught in whatshername’s honey trap.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @Kent: Or they’ll just wander around armed, open and concealed carrying, outside the area covered by Northam’s declaration. Which will be a whole different type of trouble.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    January 17, 2020 at 12:24 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Maria Butina?

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @Mnemosyne: That’s her. TTAG had almost no coverage of her (there are three posts and one of them is just a picture from the second post), yet the founder of the site was wired into almost every part of the mainstream 2nd Amendment community, attended every major and minor function, and yet what is functionally zero coverage. And he just happens to sell the site and basically disappear from digital and social media just as that whole story breaks wide open? Coincidence like that takes a lot of planning.

  64. 64.

    Colleeniem

    January 17, 2020 at 12:34 am

    @Adam L Silverman: I still don’t understand the risk calculation. We know there are people highly armored and get up to kill, but we shouldn’t…because they will get worse? I know you understand the symbolic power of government affiliated law enforcers…so…can’t they be on the people’s side? The majority?

  65. 65.

    Jay

    January 17, 2020 at 12:37 am

    @Kent:

    tell Heather Heyer’s Mom that, or the families of the hundreds of the other victims.

    the purpose of the #101st Fat Fuck KKKeyboard KKKomando’s and their KKKamoflage KKKosplayers, is to “radicalize, “accelerate” “Lone Wolves” who arn’t actually Lone Wolves, provide online tactical “training” and basic but deniable real world training, for mass shooting events and targetted murders.

    They also create and nurture an online mob that harasses, threatens, doxxes, SWAT’s and makes house calls.

    And they are international in scope and “memberships”.

    They include thousands of members in Law Enforcement and the Military.

    And their “target” is not the Armed Forces of the State, but instead, idividuals and groups, from State and Federal Lawmakers, all the way down to participants in Libraries Drag Queen Story Hour events.

    They see themselves as “true Culture Warriors”.

  66. 66.

    Evil_Paul

    January 17, 2020 at 12:38 am

    @Colleeniem: At least with Canadian doctrine, the police have more non-lethal options in a crowd confrontation operation, so they should be front and centre. The Army’s basically a hammer in that everything looks like a nail to it. It’s most likely response to aggression will be lethal force, even if that force is disproportionate (see Kent State).

    Ideally the military would hang back, protect vital points to free up more cops, and let the police take point with the crowds. If things get too hot for them, THEN the army would roll in, because at that point you want speed, violence and aggression.

    This is all theoretical. I have no personal knowledge of how militarized the police in Virginia are, or how much nuance there may be in Virginia National Guard training.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    January 17, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @Colleeniem:

    what Adam is saying, is basic Law Enforcement has lots of strategies and tools to try to prevent any kind of critical mass event.

    calling on the National Guard should be the last, desperate choice.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @Colleeniem: I’m saying that if you know that using certain assets, in this case the National Guard, is going to set these people off and increase the likelihood of violence, then you use other assets if at all possible.

  69. 69.

    Jay

    January 17, 2020 at 12:53 am

    @Evil_Paul:

    theoretically, it should never get to even point A. Many of the “most dangerous in a crowd” participants already have unenforced State Warrants, or will have made sufficent threats online or otherwise, or will be in violation of State Laws.

    Most of these people can be easily arrested long before they get to the Rally site, or as the Rally is forming up.

    Sadly, because these participants are not Transgendered Radical Feminist Ecologists, or Moms 4 Housing, this will not be done.

    I fully expect that anti facist sites will be full of buddy buddy photos between LEO’s and the “worst of the worst”, along with lots of reports of assaults, vandalism and other violence, outside of the declared “gun free” zone.

    Andy Ngo and Keene Bexte will probably be there, creating more Nazi propaganda.

  70. 70.

    Kent

    January 17, 2020 at 12:56 am

    @Jay:  So OK, tell us what you want to see happen and how you want these folks dealt with. Do you want to turn the FBI into the American Gestapo or NKVD and have all these folks hunted down and locked in Gulags? Do you want us to “accommodate” them somehow by giving up on gun control efforts? What is Northam doing wrong and how would you like things to be done differently?

    I, for one, refuse to be cowed by a bunch of cos-play gun nuts. We have plenty of them out here in the Pacific Northwest too. But then I understand that might also be my “white male privilege” talking.

    But seriously, what do YOU think needs to be done? Aside from tighter gun laws which is exactly what this is all about in the first place?

  71. 71.

    cain

    January 17, 2020 at 12:59 am

    “the base” isn’t that a translation of “Al Qaeda”? So we got ourselves a white Al Qaeda eh? Fantastic.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @cain: Yep. Those of use who work on violent extremism have been laughing about it for months.

  73. 73.

    joel hanes

    January 17, 2020 at 1:18 am

    @Kent:

    I think Jay is off base.

    But I want to point out that it was perfectly possible for the local police, co-operating with the feds and state police, to track, infiltrate, and pre-emptively arrest people who were planning peaceful political protests around the 2008 Republican convention in Minneapolis.

    http://www.startribune.com/police-raids-enrage-activists-alarm-others/27703754/

  74. 74.

    Kent

    January 17, 2020 at 1:24 am

    @joel hanes: Exactly so.  Which is why I’m always reluctant to go too far down the road of increased surveillance and investigative powers.  Not to mention things like pre-emptive detentions.  We already have far too much coercive police power in this country.  What we lack are rational gun laws.

    I guess when it comes to Nazis, if the choice is hand-wringing or mockery I tend to fall on the side of mockery and derision.  But I suppose to some extent both may be in order.

  75. 75.

    Evil_Paul

    January 17, 2020 at 1:26 am

    @Jay:  Well, from the sound of it, they ARE arresting a bunch of the worst characters. That’s what’s happened in the article cited in the post. Three weirdos in particular (including one asshole traitor from up here in Canada) got arrested for alleged plots to commit violent attacks.

    Ideally, this is how they should do it: Monitor the various groups, pick off (as in arrest) the really dangerous ones before the event, confront the event itself with disciplined police presence, arrest any instigators and the violent, gather information on the rest.  As the rally ends, pool you information, improve your monitoring, make further arrests as needed.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

    Let’s hope it works out this way

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    January 17, 2020 at 1:38 am

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    There was a strong LAPD presence at the March for Our Lives, but the visible cops were all in ordinary uniforms and standing around chatting with people, not in riot gear. There were probably SWAT types who were surveying and patrolling rooftops, but they weren’t visible to the crowd.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    January 17, 2020 at 1:44 am

    @Mnemosyne: And that is a smart way to do it.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    January 17, 2020 at 2:06 am

    @Kent:

    prior to Charlottsville, anti extremist researchers and Community leaders, through their Social Media tracking of individuals and networks, provided the Law Enforcement communities, the City and the State Government, lists of documented violent extremists that were coming to Unite the Right and exactly what their plans were.

    Tiny Toese, was there, was one of the Organizers. At the time, he had 6 outstanding felony arrest warrants. He was not arrested, and a year and a half later, after constant pressure from the Community, the State finally got around to adding 3 more felony charges to the list of warrants.

    Tiny went to a bunch of the Patriot Prayer riots in Portland. There, the Portland Police Bureau, kindly advised Tiny how to come and go to the riot, how to act at the riot, to avoid being arrested at the riot.

    Tiny proceeded to rack up two more felonies in Portland, but left with a Police Escort.  Eventually the Portland Police Bureau was finally pressured into charging him.

    Tiny was finally arrested, released on bail, had a Court date, plead guilty to felony assault, got probation and community service, in January of 2020.

    US Law Enforcement still sees BLM and “Antifa” as a greater threat than Nazis, Soverigns and 2nd Amendment Absolutists, despite the fact that they are the #1 Cop killers in the US.

    They only take these international extremists seriously, when the come at the State, not when they are targetting vulnerable communities. Only after a mass murder of the vulnerable communities do they take action, and only against the perps, not thise who radicalized them, trained them and wound them up.

    Trad Wife, who recruited, radicalized and trained Dylan Roof, still walks free. If she was Muslim, she would be in Gitmo, but she’s a White Nationalist, so,…..

    Just as if “Broken Windows” had been applied to Wall Street rather than the Bronx, a lot of the current “name in the news”, would only be in the news for their parole hearings,

    if Law Enforcement applied “broken windows policing” rather than “boys will be boys” to these international extremists, events like Charlottsville would never happen.

    A common theme of anti-extremist doxxing, you see it over a hundred times a year is, “here is person X, they are a member of Y, here are the death threats they have made on Discord, Telegram, etc, here they are posing with their guns, ( bombs, other weapons), here is their felony record”,…….

    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t it a crime for a felon to be in posession of a gun?

    Maybe start there,……

  79. 79.

    Jay

    January 17, 2020 at 2:21 am

    @Evil_Paul:

    3 more members of The Base were also arrested for a murder plot today,

    And yet, Patrik Matthews was publically identified as:

    – an active duty Canadian Armed Forces Engineer with weapons and explosives training, in a role where he trained others, and a member and recruiter for the Base, his Discord “chats” were hacked, along with his co conspirators,  2 months before the Canadian Armed Forces could be “persuaded” to launch an investigation.

    – Private Information was laid, ( that’s when a Citizen goes over the heads of the Police, in this case, the RCMP) that eventually resulted in an investigation by the RCMP,  which quickly lead to a SWAT raid complete with MRAPs on his mothers house, and charges.

    – then he drove his truck to a point near the border, and joined up with other Base members in the US, because he was not being held, was not under survelliance, and had no conditions on his release.

    eenie,

    miny,

    mo,

    catch a Nazi by the toe,

    then let him go.

    I am afraid that due to sympathizers in Law Enforcement, until there is another Oaklahoma City event, ( unless they are targetting lawmakers), that rhyme will still apply.

  80. 80.

    AWJ

    January 17, 2020 at 4:51 am

    @cain: You’re quite literally correct. Some in the far right apparently have a sort of perverse “we approve of their methods but not their goals” admiration for Al Qaeda and ISIS. “White sharia” is a term some neo-Nazis have used to describe the regime they aspire to create.

  81. 81.

    NickM

    January 17, 2020 at 5:47 am

    It seems to me the gun rights fanatics that are showing up in Richmond are an armed right wing movement, not a gun rights movement. They share politics that  go way beyond an expansive view of the Second Amendment.

  82. 82.

    pluky

    January 17, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Richmond has a Monument Ave dedicated to multiple memorials of traitors.

  83. 83.

    low-tech cyclist

    January 17, 2020 at 11:03 am

    @chopper:they literally call themselves ‘the base’. in arabic, that’s ‘al qaeda’. i mean, come the fuck on.

    All their base are belong to us!

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