Barely four posts ago, I covered liberals claiming Trump was a pathological liar because they didn’t see any literal riots happening in California cities. Simultaneous with that claim is the arrest of a purported white supremacist cell in Los Angeles that specializes in orchestrating politically motivated riots. Charlottesville makes the news again! And perfectly timed for midterm elections, too. What a coincidence.
U.S. white nationalist leader, three others charged with inciting riots
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-white-nationalist-leader-three-others-charged-conspiracy-185306121.html
By Dan Whitcomb, 24 October 2018
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The leader of a California-based white nationalist group and three others have been charged with attacking demonstrators and conspiring to incite riots at political rallies across the state, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday,
Robert Rundo, 28-year-old founder of the Rise Above Movement, was taken into custody on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport.
Note, he was arriving at LAX from out of country. He was not attempting a flight from prosecution.
Two other members of the group, Robert Boman, 25, and Tyler Laube, 22, were arrested on Wednesday morning, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Aaron Eason, 38, remains at large.
“The allegations describe an orchestrated effort to squelch free speech as members of the conspiracy traveled to multiple locations to attack those who hold different views,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement.
Nick should check out this group called “Berkeley Antifa”. It’s probably the group he’s thinking of.
Rundo, Boman, and Laube are accused of attacking counter-protesters and two journalists at a March 25, 2017 “Make America Great Again” rally in Rundo’s hometown of Huntington Beach, California.
Regular readers may recall that Huntington Beach is one of the California cities vocally opposing the sanctuary state crimes of Sacramento. A quick quote:
https://gunnerq.androsphere.net/2018/03/30/battle-lines/
“Travis Allen, an assemblyman from Huntington Beach, said Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s warnings of prosecution and fines for voluntarily cooperating with the U.S. government were so egregious that federal officials should consider bringing charges of their own against the Democratic official.”
The prosecution of RAM might not only be a midterm election ploy, it may be a flanking attack on Huntington Beach gov’t for not toeing Sacramento’s party line.
Rundo, Boman and Eason are also charged with violence at a demonstration in Berkeley on April 15, 2017 and an “Anti-Islamic Law” protest in San Bernardino.
They are also charged with using the internet with the intent to “organize promote, encourage, participate or carry on riots.”
They used the Internet to participate in rioting? The organizing accusation is sketchy, too, because criminals don’t advertise their crimes in advance by getting city permits for them.
Rundo was ordered detained pending trial at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles earlier this week, Mrozek said. Boman, of Torrance, and Laube, of Redondo Beach, were still awaiting court appearances.
Sounds like they scheduled Rundo’s hearing for when they knew he’d be out of town. The following brackets are my personal comments:
Earlier this month, four other California men described by prosecutors as members of the Rise Above Movement . Benjamin Drake Daley, Michael Paul Miselis, Thomas Walter Gillen and Cole Evan White . were indicted on federal riot and conspiracy charges stemming from violence they were accused of instigating during last year’s Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Neo-Nazi sympathizers and counterprotesters clashed at that event [when the counterprotesters’ ally ordered the police to stand down] and President Donald Trump was criticized at the time for appearing to equate the actions of the white nationalists, who carried Nazi flags [one flag, IIRC], with those of counterprotesters. [relevance of this criticism?]
On Wednesday, Trump denounced the suspected bombs mailed to former U.S. President Barack Obama, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and other high-profile Democrats.
Yes, this is the same article. It switched midstream from “Neo-Nazi rioters indicted” to “Trump denies bombing all of his opponents immediately before his massive election win.” TDS for six more years.
.And I just want to tell you that in these times, we have to unify, we have to come together, and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America,” he said at a White House event.
Earlier this year, Rundo and two of the men charged in the Charlottesville case traveled to Europe to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday and to meet with members of other white supremacy extremist groups, according to prosecutors.
Is this an attempt at establishing an international conspiracy? Sheesh.
So, what’s this Rise Above Movement? I haven’t heard of them despite living in Commiefornia myself.
Gymbros in skull masks. Hmm, you never see Antifa go shirtless. Where are the guns? The tattoo sleeves of swastikas? The OK salute? Pepe? Neo-Nazis are called skinheads for a reason but these guys have hair.
Most of their social media stuff has been taken down but they appear to have operated openly on twitter, gab and youTube until recently.
I’ve seen scarier groups at the airsoft field.
“Ultraviolent Neo-Nazis wear masks to conceal their identities”
This must be the Ben Daley mentioned above. That’s not a Nazi slogan.
Same Mr. Daley. Okay, we’re getting fringe but I’m not seeing a smoking gun anywhere. I can see the news crews in the background of the left image so he’s got to be posturing, not making credible threats.
His ears are very, very pointed and backswept. In Chinese face reading, that means he’s had severe emotional trauma as a child. Divorced parents is very likely. His nose flange is also pronounced enough to opine on: the creased flange means he’s much more willing to offer help than to accept help. A group identity is common for such people because “helping the group helps myself” and they can appeal to the group’s ideals instead of straight-up begging.
RAM’s “Rise Above” brand of merchandise. Odd they don’t wear it themselves.
The only “Nazi” part of this picture is the sign on the traffic pole “Smash Alt-Right Nazis”. RAM is displaying a flag of the Christian crusades, which historically were defensive actions against unproved Muslim aggression… therefore appropriate in the context of the alt-Right, which is not any form of fascism.
For a terrorist Neo-Nazi racist white supremacist international organization of riotous evil, they posted a lot of public group photos and selfies.
Let’s look at the incidents RAM was allegedly involved in.
San Bernardino anti-Islamic law rally and counter-protests trigger violence
By Joe Nelson, 10 June 2017
A “protesters clash” photo from linked article. Looks like some tug-of-war going on. Antifa versus RAM. One of the participants is hiding his identity and the other is Mr. Daley of RAM.
A San Bernardino rally against Islamic law being implemented in the United States drew hundreds of protesters and counterprotesters Saturday near the site of the Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack, but also sparked violence and acts of vandalism, police say.
Sponsored by the nonprofit group ACT for America, the Inland March Against Sharia was one of numerous rallies held nationwide. Sharia is Islamic law as derived from the Quran and the traditions of Islam.
In San Bernardino, protesters gathered at the memorial to the terror attack victims on the southeast corner of Waterman Avenue and Orange Show Road; counterprotesters assembled on the opposite corner.
Sharia, the protesters say, oppresses women and is a gateway to radicalization and terrorism. Protesters fear the establishment of Sharia in the U.S., which they say would erode the Constitution and American values and culture
The demonstrations were meant to be peaceful. But emotionally charged language . as well as water . was hurled.
At one point, a group of protesters crossed the street and cut a path through counterprotesters, which erupted into a fracas that immediately drew a swarm of police officers who had guns drawn and batons at the ready.
.It.s my understanding that one of the groups crossed over with the intent to antagonize. We got officers involved,. said Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, who arrived at the protests shortly after the incident. .There was a little bit of shoving or something of that nature. We got folks involved pretty quickly and were able to break it up. There were no arrests that stemmed from the incident..
He said one officer was struck by a soda can, but the officer wasn’t injured. The person who threw the can was not identified, Burguan said.
Later in the day, three men were arrested on suspicion of vandalism for smashing out the windows of a car. Their names were not immediately available, but Burguan said the men were from San Diego, San Clemente and Torrance.
This doesn’t sound like a riot.
Protesters say Sharia is incompatible with American law. They say Sharia condones, among other things, genital mutilation, domestic violence and stoning.
This is true. Anybody who cares about the welfare of women opposes Sharia.
.It.s a religion where you have the potential to become radicalized. If you become radicalized, you commit jihad,. said Gregory Maximus, clad in a black bandana with white skull imprint covering the lower half of his face as he stood in line to buy snacks at a gas station.
The cashier told him he had to remove his bandana if he wanted to buy something.
Maximus complied.
Maximus said he was with a group calling themselves Rise Above, and that about 30 of them attended Saturday’s March Against Sharia demonstration.
Either Greg violated the sacred Omerta code for a 7-11 hot dog or these aren’t the professional troublemakers the FBI looking for. Although he did give the media a false name. I doubt his family name is “Maximus”.
Counterprotester Alex Sanchez, a business agent for Teamsters Local 896 in Los Angeles, said he was offended by ACT for America’s choice of location for their protest, the IRC, where on Dec. 2, 2015, 14 people, including 13 San Bernardino County public health employees, were fatally shot and 22 others wounded in a terrorist attack implemented by radicalized Muslim spouses Syed Rizwan Farook, a county health inspector, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. They were both killed in a shootout with police hours after the massacre.
Opposing RAM was a professional Teamsters agitator who was offended that they protested against Islam at the site of a Muslim terrorist attack. Here’s your professional troublemaker, prosecutors: Alex Sanchez of Local 896.
On to the Huntington Beach “riot”.
Pro-Trump Rally in Huntington Beach Turns Violent
http://laist.com/2017/03/25/trump_rally_violent.php
By Annie Lloyd, 25 March 2017
A pro-Trump rally in Huntington Beach Saturday morning erupted in violence, according to the LA Times. A man protesting the rally pepper sprayed a female organizer of the rally, after which other pro-Trump supporters tackled and punched him. Video of the fight shows the counter-protestor getting assaulted and running from pro-Trump supporters. Members of the rally followed him and other counter protestors with chants of “USA,” “America First,” and cries for them to “get out.” The counter protestor eventually fled and ran along Pacific Coast Highway before getting detained by California Highway Patrol officers. The other counter-protestors fled the scene.
Violence instigated by “counter-protestors”. What a surprise. I left in the video link; between 20-25 seconds, look for an Antifa goon in the top left corner. There seemed to be a shoving match of some kind prior to the twerp deploying pepper spray. But shrug, nobody is getting beaten by an ugly stick or anything. And this is being handled as Federal-level rioting?
Wow, there were a LOT of cameras at that event. It reminds me of the time I went to the Hollister motorbike rally and every other biker was an undercover cop.
The Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally is already notorious so I’ll leave off with this instead: Heavy.com has located the actual indictment of RAM and while I’m not a legal expert, it looks like amateur hour at the FBI.
Rise Above Movement: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Archived locally:
4. Title 18, United States Code, Section 2101, provides that “Whoever travels in interstate or foreign commerce or uses any facility of interstate or foreign commerce, including, but not limited to, the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television, with intent 1) to incite a riot; or 2) to organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot; or 3) to commit any act of violence in furtherance of a riot; or 4) to aid or abet any person in inciting or participating in or carrying on a riot or committing any act of violence in furtherance of a riot” shall be guilty of a federal offense.
This is the crux of the Federal case against the RAM members. As I’ve shown on this post, “riot” is a gross exaggeration of the incidents RAM members have been involved in, to say nothing of what its members intended.
PROBABLE CAUSE
10. Through open-source research by the FBI, it was learned that RAM maintained a publicly viewable Twitter page. RAM represents itself to be a positive influence on those who join their ranks, as evidenced in the following statement posted to their publicly viewable Twitter…
“Open-source research.” Yep, this elite FBI Special Task Force LEO got his incriminating evidence from publicly available, highly opinionated websites, just like I do at no cost to the taxpayer. Said incriminating evidence consisting of:
11 . Through Twitter and other social-media platforms, RAM promotes “clean living,” physical fitness and mixed martial arts (MMA) street fighting techniques. According to an article published to http://www.nocara.blacklogs.org on 7/06/2017, entitled “DIY Division: The Violent neo-Nazi Group Central to the California Alt-Right and Alt-Light Protest Movements,” DIY, which later re-branded itself as RAM, subscribes to “equal parts Identity Evropa’s flaccid identitarian discourse … and the fetishization of masculinity, physical fitness, and violence mixed with the shallow anti -corporate and anti -consumerist themes of the film Fight Club. Propaganda by the group .. . contains … fascistic themes of emasculated young white men needing to reclaim their identities through learning to fight and engaging in purifying violence.” Accordingly, the group regularly meets in public parks in the southern California area and trains in physical fitness, boxing, and other fighting techniques. The following photographs were obtained from RAM’s public Twitter page: [amateur kickboxers].
Seriously? A activist blog of no significance is the basis for a sealed grand jury indictment?
13. RAM and its members openly identify themselves on various social media platforms as “alt-right” and “nationalist” and frequently posts videos and photographs of its adherents engaged in vigorous physical training and mixed martial arts (MMA) street-fighting techniques in order to prepare to engage in fighting and violence at political rallies.
They prepare in broad daylight and public areas, physical and Internet both, for low-level terrorism?
14. …In this video, an individual believed to be DALEY can be seen attempting to kick and/or punch a counter protestor, while wearing a half-skull face mask consistent with those depicted in RAM’s group photo previously noted.
Because half-skull masks are very rare and not $5 apiece at the local army surplus store.
15. GILLEN was also present during last year’s unrest in Berkeley, California, and can be seen in the same video repeatedly punching a counter protestor who has fallen to the ground. GILLEN, in an apparent effort to prepare to engage in physical violence, has taped his fists in the manner of boxers or MMA style fighters, as evidenced photo above, right.
The picture is so grainy that I have no idea how the FBI can tell his hand is taped. Taping the hand doesn’t make your fist hit harder; it just makes wrist injury less likely. It’s a defensive preparation, like having a first aid kit. I’d tape up, too, if I was stupid enough to go to an Antifa rally, because a padded hand & forearm can deflect thrown objects with less danger of skin cuts.
By the way, none of the “counter-protestors” referred to in the indictment are named. The FBI built this major indictment by combing through social media for a preponderance of circumstantial evidence.
The FBI should be ashamed of this.
Drain the swamp already, Mr. Trump!
25. In other video footage from the violence, WHITE can be seen headbutting a
female counter protestor, while DALEY assists him in the assault. (Photo: below, left). The
headbutt results in a severe laceration. (Photo: below, right).
Nobody wins in a headbutt. If White was trained in martial arts then a headbutt is more likely to have been the female’s choice, not his. A couple cell phone pics doesn’t do much to establish who the aggressor is.
29. After returning to Southern California, Daley made various admissions about
committing acts of violence in Charlottesville and at other rallies in California.
But no actual statements. One would think an admission of interstate violence would be exactly what belongs in a request for an arrest warrant.
30. Based on the information set forth in this affidavit, I submit that there is probable
cause to believe:
31. On or about August 11 , 2017, Defendant BENJAMIN DRAKE DALEY, MICHAEL MISELIS, COLE WHITE, and THOMAS GILLEN traveled in interstate commerce from California to Charlottesville, Virginia, within the Western District of Virginia, with intent (a) to incite a riot, (b) to organize, promote, encourage, participate in, and carry on in a riot, (c) to commit an act of violence in furtherance of a riot, and (d) to aid or abet any person inciting and participating in or carrying on in a riot and committing any act of violence in furtherance of a riot; and during the course of such travel or thereafter performed or attempted to perform multiple overt acts, including but not limited to: inciting, promoting, encouraging, participating in, and carrying on in a riot, committing acts of violence in furtherance of a riot, and aiding and abetting other persons inciting and participating in and carrying on in a riot and committing acts of violence in furtherance of a riot, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2101 , 2.
Was the Unite the Right rally ever formally declared a riot? The police didn’t lose control, they were ordered away by the mayor.
Based on the forgoing, I request that the Court issue the proposed arrest warrant.
Respectfully submitted, *signed* Dino P. Cappuzzo, Special Agent/Task Force Officer, FBI, 27 August 2018
And then sealed two months until the midterm elections were nigh. At a bare minimum, the FBI should have waited to unseal until after the elections to prevent credible accusations of political shenanigans.
There’s a lesson to be learned here. You should already know not to go to these rallies. If you do go, and there’s a male personality type that honestly is compelled to go, then don’t wear skulls & other death imagery for a uniform and don’t brag about the combat you’ve committed in self-defense after the fact. It is very, very easy for such comments to be used against you by rogue law enforcement.
RAM will get through this unharmed if they rigorously lawyer up and remain silent. All the evidence thus far is circumstantial and taken from sources in which the victims don’t look or act like victims.