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So much has happened over the last two weeks, it can be hard to process the collection of emotions: pain, sorrow, rage, + joy. But as we look back one year after #Charlottesville, there is still a large hole in our discussions of these events, primarily: the role of the police.
Over the coming days, many of us will be asked a similar question by loved one, friends, + co-workers: "Why do the police protect the Nazis?" "Why did they attack one side in Portland, + not the other?" While it is easy to resort to bumper sticker answers, the truth is complex.
The recent piece from @ACInvestigates + @ProPublica begins to scratch the surface. In their recent doc, they talk with an ex-FBI agent who rightfully concludes that coddling by law enforcement acts as a green light for the far-Right to engage in violence in a variety of settings.
Read 22 tweets
I am 100% in favor of mocking the nazis and the stupid gear they wear to marches like we saw this weekend in #Berkeley and #Portland. But it's important to remember that costumes have been used by groups like the KKK to encourage people to minimize the very real threat they pose.
The reconstruction era KKK used costumes & stupid names like "Grand Wizard" intentionally, in the same way today's far-right extremists use "irony" to make their dangerous ideology seem like a big joke. While the KKK was murdering people, most of society saw them as pranksters.
Some historians also believe that costumes worn by the KKK served the function of making their violent acts seem almost like performance art — a spectacle to watch, rather than a political movement. The same could be said of today's far-right movement.
Read 5 tweets
The only thing that stopped #Portland from being next #Charlottesville was several centimetres of helmet. Police sent two people to the hospital for head injuries in attacks justified by claims of non-existent "thrown projectiles" in order to protect the heavily armed far-Right.
This was carried by police who for months have used the same tactic - shoot one side to allow the other to escape. In this case, Proud Boys, who for months have attacked citizens walking on the street, were allowed to march and attack more people.
The Portland police are also on record saying that Patriot Prayer is "more mainstream" (guess Kek flags, people who attended Unite the Right, and shirts celebrating mass murderers are mainstream now) despite the ongoing links between far-Right violence and out right killers.
Read 7 tweets
The far-Right wants Joey Gibson of #PatriotPrayer to reforge a 'big-tent' fighting force to return their movement to where it was before #Charlottesville. There's only one problem - Gibson surrounds himself with groups that took part in #UniteTheRight. itsgoingdown.org/unite-the-righ…
After the death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, the far-Right was in a state of disarray. Predictably, many attempted to use conspiracy theories and fabricated lies to explain what had happened as a "setup" to "silence conservatives," or instead, as a "Soros" false-flag.
Leading the pack was Alex Jones + like with Sandy Hook claimed that Charlottesville was false flag. He stated: "I thought Trump’s response was great…we know that Soros has been planning this..and like trying to create provocative events...the whole thing looks staged to me…”
Read 28 tweets
A couple quick findings from @ru_rbc's bombshell report on Russian social media operations during the US election: meduza.io/en/news/2017/1…
1. The social media accounts run by Russia's troll factory reached some 30 million people each week during the height of the 2016 campaign:
2. About 100 unwitting Americans were paid to help stage some 40 events across the U.S., organized by these Russian social media accounts:
Read 18 tweets

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