'Antifa' Is Literally Never Mentioned in the First Prosecutions of Protest Violence

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/antifa-is-literally-never-mentioned-in-the-first-prosecutions-of-protest-violence



Trump called them terrorists. Bill Barr claimed they are “instigating” violence at the protests. But antifa is not referenced in any of the 22 criminal cases from the protests.

William Bredderman
Researcher
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Nat’l Security Correspondent

Updated Jun. 05, 2020 3:34AM ET / Published Jun. 04, 2020 9:25PM ET

For all the implications by President Trump and Attorney General William Barr that “antifa” “terrorists” have hijacked protests against institutional police racism, none of the 22 criminal complaints representing the first wave of protest charges mention antifa in any way.

One case references anarchism as a motivating ideology, not anti-fascism. Another high-profile one in Las Vegas references the so-called “Boogaloo” far-right trend of provoking a race or civil war.

But the early charges do not indicate that antifascist motivations have provoked the violent activity that the Trump administration and its allies have spent the better part of a week attributing to it. With Barr at the helm of the protest response, the administration has tasked the FBI’s counterterrorism partnerships with state and local police, known as Joint Terrorism Task Forces, with finding “extremists” and “agitators” within the protest movement.

“What it definitely demonstrates is that antifascism is not a driving force in the current protest violence,” said Mike German, a retired FBI special agent who worked with the Los Angeles JTTF.

</snip>

Quelle surprise

[SamKnause]

1. Asshole Barr lied for 40 minutes yesterday.

He never mentioned White Supremacists.

It was not mentioned until a reporter questioned him about it.

He still did not refer to the 3 arrested by the FBI as White Supremacists.

You can not believe a word coming from this administration.

They are all EVIL fucking LIARS and fascists.

[oswaldactedalone]

2. Yes They Are

[sop]

3. The Antifa bogeyman is just another version of The Red Scare from the last century.

Communists were organized, they formed actual political parties and took over entire countries. Rightwing militias and white nationalist groups are pretty easy to surveil. Unfortunately, for politicians trying to foment fear-and-loathing of Antifa, prosecuting these shadowy, anarchic, masked street "terrorists" will be like nailing Jello to the wall.

NYC Antifa described the movement’s motives in an interview with The Nation: “Antifa combines radical left-wing and anarchist politics, revulsion at racists, sexists, homophobes, anti-Semites, and Islamophobes, with the international anti-fascist culture of taking the streets and physically confronting the brownshirts of white supremacy, whoever they may be.”

[NotAPuppet]

4. Republicans hijacked religion,

and now they want to turn anti fascism into a bad thing. I am a proud anti fascist, unlike Republicans who are apparently all proud fascists under Trump.

[Gothmog]

5. Who is surprised by this?

[dewsgirl]

6. K and R