The pardons en masse of Jan6 insurrectionists demonstrates a pattern of emboldening violent extremist groups and undermining the rule of law and law enforcement.
NPR reported on the background of many of those pardoned here: Criminal records of Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump include rape, domestic violence. The Proud Boys thanked President Trump and vowed revenge for their imprisonment.
Trump’s decision to release even the most violent figures, including those associated with organized militias, is also consistent with his history of providing support and legitimacy to armed right-wing extremists. Subsequent events, including the firing of Department of Justice prosecutors and a possible purge of Federal Bureau of Investigations agents who handled January 6 investigations, raise questions as to the extent Trump is willing to go to punish his perceived opponents.
Chillingly, The Washington Post has reported that FBI agents in the Washington field office were told “to prepare for the White House to publicly release the names of the agents who worked on the two Trump criminal cases,” which could set the stage for harassment or even violent reprisals against rank-and-file agents.
Beyond the immediate implications of these actions, there is reason for substantial concern about the longer-term effects on the rule of law, political violence, and extremism in the U.S.
NBC News reports, Trump responds to the violence in Charlottesville by saying "There were very fine people on both sides." Sociologist Peter Simi explains how this can seriously embolden the hate groups.
Vice explains how Trump's comments on Charlottesville are different than comments on other opinions he has and how the white supremacist groups perceived the comments as positive. In other words, even one wants to excuse the intent of Trump's comments, the effect was undeniably to embolden white supremacists.
Insurrection Jan 6 2021(detailed here)
The events at the Capitol on 1/6/21 were unprecedented to say the least. However, my first thoughts were not surprise or horror, but, (like this stoy from GQ) more of a feeling of "Oh, it finally happened." These events have been building for years and it was only a matter of time, but since the 2020 election, it has been in plain sight. Especially as a sociology teacher who studies race, masculinity, violence, social class and protest, I have been worried about these sorts of events for years. In fact, the day after Trump's election in 2016, I warned about this.
Here is a compilation of videos posted by Adam Kinzinger documenting the violence
Washington Post compiled a detailed article of the warnings of violence before the Jan 6
Here is a Propublica compilation of videos downloaded off the website Parlor.
From the New Yorker, this video is a reporter's firsthand footage.
Here are the events from a British journalist embedded with the protesters.Here is a video of the events from CNN.Here is an explanation from Vice of symbols at the coup.From PEW, an analysis of Americans reactions to the insurrection.
NYTimes documents the role the Proud Boys played on Jan6.
Portland 2021
Some may claim that the Insurrectionists are akin to the BLM protests, but that is a false equivalency, explained here.
- In 2004, when he was 20 years old, Tarrio was convicted of theft.
- In 2012, Tarrio was indicted for his role in a scheme to rebrand and resell stolen diabetic test strips.
- Tarrio attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
- Tarrio helped organize the End Domestic Terrorism rally held in Portland, Oregon, on August 17, 2019.
- On December 12, 2020, Tarrio and the group set fire to a "Black Lives Matter" banner they seized from Asbury United Methodist Church, a historic Black church.[4][37] Asbury United Methodist, along with three other churches, were vandalized that night, and more than three dozen people were arrested.
- After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Tarrio was arrested by D.C. police and charged with misdemeanor destruction of property and with two counts of felony possession of illegal high-capacity ammunition magazines
- Classmates later described him as an "aloof, angry guy" who was a talented boxer and who frequently got into fights.
- According to Vice News, in the years before his arrest, many of his Facebook friends reported that he was posting increasingly racist and extremist content
- Pezzola was present at a violent pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on December 12, 2020.[10]During extensive street fighting in the aftermath, four people were stabbed, two police officers were injured, and 23 people were arrested.
- Pezzola "ripped away" an officer's riot shield, and in a "video that has been widely distributed,[15][16] used it to smash through a window on the exterior of the Capitol building,[17] making him the first rioter to breach the building.
- investigators executed a search warrant of Pezzola's home.[19] They seized a thumb drive that contained instructions on the manufacture of homemade firearms, explosives, and poisons.
- In 2007, he was stationed at Fort Bragg when arrested for domestic violence.
- In the 2010s, Biggs was arrested in Austin, Texas, for assaulting a peace officer while drunk
- Biggs has repeatedly posted homophobic and misogynisticcontent since at least spring 2012;[6] his Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended for posting threatening messages.
- By 2019,[7] Joseph Biggs was an organizer of the Proud Boys, a neofascist[16] "far-right,[17][11][18] all-male group of self-described 'Western chauvinists'"[17] which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.
- Biggs was an organizer[7] and the main promoter of August 2019's End Domestic Terrorism rally in Portland, Oregon.
- organized and promoted the End Domestic Terrorism rally; was found jointly culpable for an over-$1 million judgment for trespass and vandalism at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church
- Biggs exhorted for Proud Boys to "turn out in record numbers [...] We will be blending in as one of you ... We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you. The only thing we'll do that's us is think like us!
- Used encrypted social media channels, to communicate with other members: "trying to get our numbers. So we can plan accordingly for tonight and go over tomorrow's plan. [...] info should be coming out [...] we have a plan".
- Biggs spoke privately with Ryan Samsel, who immediately thereafter was the first person to breach the security perimeter.
- Biggs was one of the first to breach the building itself at about 2:13 p.m., 20 seconds behind Dominic Pezzola
- Biggs and other Proud Boys were wearing walkie-talkies to allow real-time communication,[18] and Biggs was recorded on video saying of the breach, "This is awesome!"
- U.S. Capitol Police Officer testified that it was Biggs who started "turning the tables" on a handful of police officers and as they faced off with a crowd of Proud Boys and others on Jan. 6, 2021. She said Biggs, using a megaphone, led the rioters in the face off with police at a bike rack at the Peace Circle.
These are also the same Proud boys who were part of the violence in Portland and Charlottesville.
- the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described the group as "heavily armed extremists with a conspiratorial and anti-government mindset looking for potential showdowns with the government
- According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group is anti-government and extremist.
- Founded by Stuart Rhodes in 2009.
- reported to have taken inspiration from the notion that Adolf Hitler could have been stopped if German soldiers and police had refused to follow orders.
- encouraged his supporters to reject Joe Biden as the incoming president.[23] Rhodes spoke of a need to take up weapons to prevent Biden's inauguration and launched a campaign to persuade then-President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and deploy the military and the Oath Keepers as a militia.
- Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and warned that not doing so would lead to a "much more bloody war".
- traveled to Washington, D.C., where they armed themselves with firearms and tactical gear.
- Rhodes personally spent US$20,000 to purchase "a small arsenal
- Four days after the attack, Rhodes attended a meeting where he was recorded as saying: "My only regret is that they should have brought rifles... We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I'd hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost.
Racist things he has said:
http://fortune.com/2016/06/07/donald-trump-racism-quotes/
Racist examples:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83
Things he has said to incite violence:
https://www.vox.com/21506029/trump-violence-tweets-racist-hate-speech
http://mashable.com/2016/03/12/trump-rally-incite-violence/#7dyFC5Ojriqt
https://x.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1812549233796432187
Republican candidates who use violence to promote their candidacy:
https://x.com/bobcesca_go/status/1812595780173099195
Trump suggested shooting protesters:
https://x.com/David_Leavitt/status/1808133015312208348
Map of all of the places he has incited hate:
http://americasvoice.org/trumphatemap/
Teachers worry about bullying because of President-elect:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-effect-4-more-years_us_582394c3e4b0d9ce6fc0a6db?
Medium.com reports racist incidents across the U.S. on day 1 after the election:
https://medium.com/@seanokane/day-1-in-trumps-america-9e4d58381001#.oks4t85dv
Racist incidents on twitter on Day1 after the election:
https://twitter.com/i/moments/796417517157830656
Middle Schoolers chant "build a wall" in their cafeteria:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/middle-schoolers-chant-build-the-wall?utm_term=.xjbYdqYKG#.gxL7on71W
KKK plans to hold a rally to celebrate.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article113915898.html
David Duke, KKK leader continues to support the president elect:
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/93526394/?client=safari
Below are articles detailing violence against police by white supremacists. This violence goes back to at least 1990:
an article that detailed the tragic deaths of 15 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty during violent confrontations with domestic extremists in the 10 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Since the publication of that article, an additional 40 law enforcement officers have been murdered by domestic extremists, a significant increase. The deadliest year was 2016, in which eight officers were murdered, followed by 2009, with seven deaths. Individuals who were either members of white supremacist groups or who subscribed to white nationalism were responsible for nine deaths, as were individuals who held antigovernment beliefs... neo-Nazi prison gangs (7), sovereign citizens (6)
June 8, 2014: Assassination of Las Vegas Police
Jerad and Amanda Miller, a married couple who are white and American citizens, scouted a diner in Las Vegas. When they observed two police officers eating there, they fatally assassinated one officer in the back of the head with a handgun, then shot the other in the throat. Both Millers then killed the second officer by shooting him multiple times after he attempted to fire back.[10] Afterwards, they dragged the officers' bodies out of their booth and covered one with a yellow Gadsden flag and a swastika. They pinned a note on the other body, which read: "This is the beginning of the revolution." They also stole both officers' guns and ammunition. During the restaurant shooting, the Millers loudly declared to other patrons that it happened to be the start of "a revolution".
"White supremacist and other far-right extremist groups have killed 51 police officers since 1990, according to a report published by the Anti-Defamation League last week. Left-wing extremist groups, including black nationalists, killed 11 during the same period.
In 2017 alone, black nationalists and other leftists killed no police, while white supremacists and anti-government extremists fatally attacked a police officer and two corrections officers, the report said."
NY Times 2018 US Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism; Now They Don't Know How to Stop It.
White supremacists and other far-right extremists have killed far more people since Sept. 11, 2001, than any other category of domestic extremist. The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism has reported that 71 percent of the extremist-related fatalities in the United States between 2008 and 2017 were committed by members of the far right or white-supremacist movements.
Federal authorities said he went to Oakland with the express purpose of killing police and using the protests as cover.
"To be clear, Carrillo elected to travel to Oakland to conduct this murder and take advantage of a time when this nation was mourning the killing of George Floyd. There is no evidence that these men had any intention to join the demonstration in Oakland," FBI Special Agent John Bennett said in a statement. "They came to Oakland to kill cops."
Trump’s pardons immediately upended the biggest single prosecution in U.S. history and signaled a broader reversal that threatens to create a more permissive climate in which extremists could regroup, weaken the FBI’s independence and revive old debates about who counts as a terrorist, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials and national security experts.
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