All Things American Xenophobia & White Supremacy

[AnBr]

"What's wrong with these people?"

[LFC]

We need to just call out the anti-CRT movement for what it is: Republican political correctness.

A Pennsylvania school district that had banned a list of anti-racism books and educational resources by or about people of color — including children’s titles about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. — reversed its nearly year-long decision this week after backlash and protests from students, parents and educators in the community.

The Central York School District had implemented “a freeze” last fall on a lengthy list of books and educational resources that focused almost entirely on titles related to people of color. The school district claimed the books on race and social justice, which some in the southern Pennsylvania community hoped would help bolster the educational curriculum following George Floyd’s murder and the racial-justice protests of 2020, were frozen, not banned, after some parents raised concerns about the materials.

The school board announced Monday it had voted unanimously to reinstate access to the books, district spokeswoman Julie Randall Romig confirmed to The Washington Post.

[LFC]

Oct 14, 2021 21:30:52 GMT LFC said:

Texass strikes again. Sounds like presenting the so-called other side of the history of the Holocaust is a feature for these people rather than a bug.

The backpedaling came pretty quickly. I guess it's just another case of social justice warriors shutting down "the controversy" as they continue to indoctrinate our children.

A Texas school district attempted to walk back a scandal late Thursday after teachers were told in a meeting to present “both sides” of the Holocaust. “During the conversations with teachers during last week’s meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history,” Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter wrote on Facebook. “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.”

[LFC]

Ahmaud Aubrey's three murderers are going on trial in Georgia. TPM has an explanation of citizen's arrest laws both historically and as they stand today. Some of this is downright scary. Here's where South Carolina stands. Gee, why do you think laws like this might have passed?

Citizens may have more authority to use force than law officers, too, depending on state law.

In South Carolina, a citizen can use deadly force to effect the nighttime arrest of someone who has any stolen property in their possession or, more problematically, someone who “flees when he is hailed” if the circumstances “raise just suspicion of his design to steal.”

If an officer in South Carolina did the same, he would likely run afoul of state law or the Fourth Amendment, which the Supreme Court has held requires probable cause “that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury.”

Let the vigilantes / plaid shirts loose and let them take care of the "problem." Other than the violence aspect (for now) it's the same extra-judicial tactic being employed by Texass in their abortion ban.

[jackd]

Hard to understand why vigilantes under these types of statutes wouldn't be considered "state actors" for purposes of the 4th Amendment other than the politilization of the Supreme Court.

[LFC]

A number of residents in Charlottesville are suing the white supremacist groups for intentionally setting up, in a premeditated fashion, the elements required for the violence that occurred during the Unite the Right White rally.

As hundreds of white supremacists prepared to descend on Charlottesville in 2017, they hashed out logistics in private chat groups. They suggested a dress code of polo shirts during the day and shirts with swastikas at night. They worried about mayo on sandwiches spoiling in the August heat. And they swapped tips on how to turn ordinary objects into lethal weapons, according to messages cited in court papers.

Such detailed planning is central to a lawsuit filed by nine Charlottesville residents who allege physical harm and emotional distress during the deadly “Unite the Right” march and rally, where a torch-carrying mob chanting “Jews will not replace us!” awakened the country to a resurgence of far-right extremism. After four years of legal wrangling, a civil trial begins Monday in a federal courtroom in Charlottesville, where a jury will decide whether the organizing of the rally amounted to a conspiracy to engage in racially motivated violence.

“Defendants brought with them to Charlottesville the imagery of the Holocaust, of slavery, of Jim Crow, and of fascism,” the plaintiffs say in the complaint. “They also brought with them semi-automatic weapons, pistols, mace, rods, armor, shields, and torches.”

The planners’ messages, part of a leaked trove from the group-chat platform Discord, are laced with slurs against Black and Jewish people, along with violent fantasies of cracking skulls and driving into crowds. One meme showed “John Deere’s New Multi-Lane Protester Digestor,” a made-up vehicle to steamroll opponents — a macabre forecast of the car-ramming attack that would kill 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer and injure at least 19 others.

Because only a handful of participants faced criminal charges, the plaintiffs’ lawyers say, the civil suit is one way to correct what they call a lack of accountability that paved the way for other extremist violence, including the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The racist, bigoted imagery on display in Charlottesville in August 2017 — a shock to much of the nation at the time — is now regularly spotted at right-wing gatherings throughout the country.

“One message of this case is that these events — like Charlottesville, like Jan. 6 — they’re not these spontaneous, flukish events that just happen,” said Karen Dunn, a prominent trial lawyer serving as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “There is an enormous undercurrent of planning, of intent and of purposefulness that we all need to wake up to.”

Suing two dozen white supremacists and hate groups means that virtually everything about the trial is unusual. The judge has ordered litigants not to discuss the extraordinary security backdrop to the trial; personal security is the top expense for the plaintiffs. Potential jurors will be asked their opinions on, for example, Black Lives Matter and antisemitism. Court exhibits will include vile messages that come from more than 5 terabytes of evidence. To make their case, the plaintiffs’ attorneys are dusting off a Reconstruction-era statute that was designed to protect newly emancipated Black people from the Ku Klux Klan.

Then there are the defendants, some of the most notorious racists in the country, including: Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi figure who was a featured speaker at the rally; Andrew Anglin, who publishes the hate site the Daily Stormer; and Matthew Heimbach, a white-nationalist leader with ties to far-right factions in Eastern Europe. Defendant Christopher Cantwell, who has referred to the “supposed Holocaust” and quoted Hitler in court documents, was dropped by his own attorneys in part for allegedly threatening a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Some of the defendants are expected to testify, but court documents show that many have been uncooperative, failing to comply with court orders. One defendant, Jeff Schoep, former commander of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, said his cellphone “accidentally” fell into the toilet, making it impossible to recover potential evidence, the plaintiffs complained in court filings.

[LFC]

Another racist asshole.

According to People Magazine, actor Micah Beals, who had a minor role on the sitcom "Parks and Recreation," has been charged for allegedly vandalizing a statue of George Floyd in New York City.

"Beals allegedly rode by the statue on a skateboard and threw gray paint on its face and base on the morning of Oct. 3, police said. A previous tweet from the NYPD included footage from the incident," reported Katie Campione. "As an actor, Beals is known under his stage name: Micah Femia. He has appeared in one episode of Parks and Recreation, as well as an episode of CSI: NY. His other credits include several short films, along with the feature film Pop Star."

After the incident, Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned the crime as "reprehensible" and directed the Hate Crimes Task Force of the New York State Police to investigate.

[LFC]

Another violent, racist attack.

A hate crime investigation is underway in Indiana after a city councilman's house was set on fire, WTHR reports.

Connersville City Councilman Tommy Lee Williams, Jr., who is Black, and his family were not at home at the time of the fire, but their two pets perished in the blaze. Police say a racial slur was spray painted in the back porch of the home.

"This one is particularly shocking," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, "obviously, because of the murders of the animals involved, and the fact that the person explicitly painted the N-word on the councilman's house, leaving no doubt about why this happened. It's an utter act of cowardice, but sadly, not shocking in this day and age."

.

[LFC]

The Charlottesville Nazis continue to be sad, pathetic, self-important, whining little crybabies in court.

A white supremacist dubbed the “Crying Nazi” is causing chaos at the Unite the Right trial, hijacking the proceedings to press his personal conspiracies about antifa.

Midway through neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell’s contentious appearance in court on Monday, a lawyer interrupted with an objection.

“I understand he is pro se,” attorney Alex Conlon said, referring to the fact that Cantwell is representing himself, “but this is not a podcast.”

Cantwell—who does indeed host a podcast—is among more than a dozen far-right figures being sued this month for their alleged roles in orchestrating violence at Unite The Right, the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Some of those defendants, including Cantwell, are representing themselves in court, after being dropped by their attorneys. That means Cantwell—who earned the nickname the “Crying Nazi” after video emerged of him blubbering ahead of his arrest—and co-defendant Richard Spencer have been able to speak at length during the trial, leading to chaotic outbursts.

Already, Spencer has confused two famous Black authors, while Cantwell has relitigated old conspiracy theories and used the n-word.

I guess this is what the "master race" looks like.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 2, 2021 16:14:09 GMT LFC said:

The Charlottesville Nazis continue to be sad, pathetic, self-important, whining little crybabies in court.

A white supremacist dubbed the “Crying Nazi” is causing chaos at the Unite the Right trial, hijacking the proceedings to press his personal conspiracies about antifa.

Midway through neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell’s contentious appearance in court on Monday, a lawyer interrupted with an objection.

“I understand he is pro se,” attorney Alex Conlon said, referring to the fact that Cantwell is representing himself, “but this is not a podcast.”

Cantwell—who does indeed host a podcast—is among more than a dozen far-right figures being sued this month for their alleged roles in orchestrating violence at Unite The Right, the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Some of those defendants, including Cantwell, are representing themselves in court, after being dropped by their attorneys. That means Cantwell—who earned the nickname the “Crying Nazi” after video emerged of him blubbering ahead of his arrest—and co-defendant Richard Spencer have been able to speak at length during the trial, leading to chaotic outbursts.

Already, Spencer has confused two famous Black authors, while Cantwell has relitigated old conspiracy theories and used the n-word.

I guess this is what the "master race" looks like.

What else have they got?  Nothing, so they repeat their delusions in an attempt to keep themselves convinced and hopefully bring some jurors along with them.

[LFC]

It's sickening to realize that this thread along with the threads for voter suppression, the assault on facts, and the Republican Party losing its mind could all be merged under the Republican fascism thread. They are all tentacles of the GOP's fascist movement.

Here's a young mind that has been warped and twisted by these "patriots" to the point of turning him to racist violence. Who knows what garbage has been pouring into his head.

A Texas teen is facing felony arson charges for allegedly setting fire to an Austin synagogue on Halloween night.

Franklin Barrett Sechriest, 18, was arrested Wednesday by criminal investigators with the Austin Fire Department. Sechriest was identified thanks to surveillance footage from the parking lot of Congregation Beth Israel before, during, and after the blaze, showing the license plate number of his Jeep—which led cops to Sechriest’s home in San Marcos, Texas, where lives with his mother, Nicole, according to a warrant for Sechriest's arrest obtained by The Daily Beast.

The fire caused approximately $25,000 worth of damage to the temple, it states.

Sechriest was booked into the Travis County Jail on Wednesday at 6:20 p.m., according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. He remained jailed on $100,000 bond, which he had not yet posted as of Thursday morning, a sheriff’s office official confirmed.

And here are the types of shitbags that eat this stuff up and encourage rudderless white males (it's almost always white males) to do something they think gives meaning to their lives.

Some hours after the fire was set at the synagogue, members of the Goyim Defense League, a noxious group of neo-Nazis the ADL describes as “a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs,” livestreamed a swastika burning in the Austin area.

“Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world,” says one. “I pronounce this a lighting of the white race… This is the eternal swastika… Praise Yahweh!... Fuck the kikes!”

“Fuck the kikes, praise Yahweh,” another attendee calls out.

Goyim Defense League leader Jon E. Minadeo of Petaluma, California, said he was there. Minadeo, 38, is an “actor and writer” who appeared in Curveball, a 2011 romantic comedy in which his character decides to finally propose to his girlfriend but discovers she has been having an affair with his best friend.

Minadeo, who launched his own line of Adolf Hitler t-shirts earlier this year, told The Daily Beast the swastika burning was “absolutely not” associated with the synagogue fire.

In a tense phone conversation, he claimed Sechriest was not affiliated with the Goyim Defense League, and claimed the group doesn’t condone violence “on Jews or any other group of people.” He described the loosely-connected syndicate as “an online thing for trolling people,” adding, “People come together when we do activism.”

In another video posted on Halloween, titled, “Happy Halloween KIKES! HEIL HITLER,” Goyim Defense League members sing, “Everybody wants a Jew-free world,” to the tune of the 1985 Tears for Fears hit, “Everybody Wants to Rule The World.”

“We’ve never, ever done anything violent towards Jews,” Minadeo insisted, saying the group was simply “burning the flag of what we believe is the synagogue of Satan.” He then became upset about being pilloried previously in the media, which he decried as being “run by Jews,” and complained that he couldn’t get a fair shake with any reporter who is Jewish or sympathetic towards the Jewish religion.

Minadeo previously posted anti-Semitic videos online under the pseudonym “Handsome Truth 5,” until he was banned from YouTube for “multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech.” In August 2019, after posting flyers in Santa Rosa, California claiming that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks, his true identity was revealed when a notice was published in a local community newspaper announcing that a Jon Minadeo II had registered a business with the Sonoma County Clerk called Handsome Truth Enterprises.

[LFC]

Once again we have a Republican going after somebody for being Jewish. Racism and bigotry is simply in their DNA.

GOP Ohio Senate Candidate Digs Heels In Rank Anti-Semitism

Mark Pukita, a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, doubled down yesterday on a campaign radio ad that questioned primary frontrunner Josh Mandel’s Jewish faith for courting Christian evangelicals.

• The ad accused Mandel of being a “phony caricature.”

• Pukita defended the ad, arguing that all he did was point out that his opponent was Jewish. “Everybody should know that though, right?” he asked.

[pnwguy]

I'm all for granting their wish for Gitmo, especially if some rogue CIA agents want to waterboard them.

news.yahoo.com/capitol-riot-suspects-theyre-force-195816578.html

Maybe someone in an adjacent cell gave them a copy of MLK's Letter From Birmingham Jail to read, and it triggered them.

[LFC]

And this is why the history of racism in America needs to be taught in our schools.

The Department of Education is cracking down on a Texas school district accused of racial and gender discrimination. The federal agency’s civil rights division sent multiple letters to the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, notifying it of the investigations, a district spokesperson confirmed to NBC News. The district had been accused of not stopping often racist and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including a viral video of white students chanting the n-word at a party. The district developed plans to combat racism and increase diversity, but conservative parents have resisted the effort and claimed the movement was designed to promote critical race theory. The district had come under hot water last month after an official told teachers to give lessons surrounding the Holocaust a “both sides” approach before walking back the statement.

[LFC]

Ahmaud's Aubery's murderer speaks out. This is likely a pretty standard right-wing view on the situation and it should scare the hell out of anybody who might encounter these armed nutjobs. Bold is mine.

The younger McMichael is the first defense witness to testify for the trio, who all allege they were trying to perform a citizen’s arrest on Arbery in connection with suspected break-ins in the area. On the stand, McMichael insisted that crime in Satilla Shores had become a “common occurrence” and that the whole neighborhood was on edge. McMichael claimed his truck had been broken into so many times that he started leaving it unlocked.

But he said he wasn’t terrified about the crime spike because of his past law enforcement training in the Coast Guard. He added that his training focused on how to de-escalate situations, and claimed that one strategy was to point a gun at a suspect to defuse a situation.

“If you pull a gun on someone...from what I’ve learned that usually caused people to back off or realize what’s happening. Compel compliance,” McMichael said, an idea that prosecutors are sure to drill down on during cross-examination.

De-escalate by being just some asshole pointing a gun at somebody? That's madness. Compliance? To some f***ing untrained but heavily armed vigilante who wants to play cop? F*** THAT!

Here we have an admission that they were emotionally unstable the moment they stepped out of the house.

Travis McMichael told jurors on Wednesday that he was in the living room trying to get his son down for a nap when his father walked in “in an almost frantic state.” He said his dad told him that “the guy that’s been breaking in down the road just ran by the house. Something's happened.”

Here we have 3 white men pulling up to a lone black man, telling him to stop, with one jumping out of the car brandishing a shotgun. I wonder what the reaction of any of the 3 would be if that happened to them and those in pursuit were black.

During the chase, Gregory McMichael told police he yelled at Arbery, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you” before eventually pulling up alongside him. His son then got out of the car. According to the McMichaels, Arbery “began to violently attack Travis and the two men then started fighting over the shotgun, at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot.”

Senior Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski said during opening statements that during the chase, Gregory McMichael also yelled, “Stop, or I’ll blow your fucking head off” to Arbery.

And here we have the Zimmerman / Rittenhouse defense. Without any authority or real training whatsoever you threaten somebody with a firearm and then when they try to defend themselves you murder them with your gun and cry self defense. Also I see no "stand" for Stand Your Ground. This was an active pursuit.

Prosecutors allege that Glynn County police officers arrived at the scene several minutes after the shooting, at which point Gregory McMichael insisted that his son “had no choice,” but to shoot Arbery, seemingly setting up the defense that his son was invoking his right to open fire under the state’s so-called Stand Your Ground law, which allows Georgians to use deadly force if they believe they are risk of bodily injury or death.

I wouldn't be shocked at all if they all walk away free men. It is, after all, Georgia.

[LFC]

DeSatanist's press secretary is blaming the Jews. For what, ask? Does it really matter?

Just a few months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary got called out by the Associated Press for “abusive behavior” toward a reporter, she’s at it again—but this time with a notorious antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Amid a flurry of tweets mocking pandemic-related restrictions, Christina Pushaw singled out the Republic of Georgia for its new policy requiring citizens to hold a “Green Pass” in order to enter public establishments like restaurants and theaters to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic. (The passes do not require that one be vaccinated; those who have recovered from the virus and can provide proof of a negative COVID test can also use the passes.)

While the system largely resembles similar measures put in place worldwide, Pushaw appeared to employ some deeply revolting (and flawed) logic to suggest the system is part of a nefarious Jewish plot.

“Georgia decided to enact a ‘Green Pass’ system (biomedical security state). Immediately after that, the Rothschilds show up to discuss the attractive investment environment in Georgia (lol). No weird conspiracy theory stuff here!” she wrote Tuesday.

Pushaw attached a screenshot of a tweet from the Government of Georgia as supposed evidence of the Rothschild family having their hand in the country’s COVID response. The tweet said that the Georgian prime minister had, in fact, met with the managing director of Rothschild & Co.—but that meeting was way back in June.

The Rothschilds have long been used as a kind of antisemitic boogeyman to fearmonger about Jewish families secretly controlling the world and global banking. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) put forth perhaps the most batshit conspiracy theory ever when she argued in a now-infamous 2018 Facebook post that “lasers” in space owned by the Rothschilds might be to blame for California’s deadly forest fires.

She has decided not to dig in but has instead opted for the "it was just a joke" defense followed by "I'm not a racist."

As Pushaw’s tweet was met with mounting outrage Wednesday, she said the comment was really “an attempt at sarcasm that could have been misinterpreted.”

“‘The Rothschilds’ feature prominently in conspiracy theories, and I felt that the government of Georgia—like other governments—is intentionally feeding existing conspiracy theories around vaccine passports so that they can dismiss anyone who opposes vaccines passports as a ‘conspiracy theorist,’” she told The Daily Beast.

It was not immediately clear how the Georgian government’s “Green Pass” initiative is “feeding existing conspiracy theories.” Pushaw deleted the tweet in question after being asked to clarify it, though she told The Daily Beast she took it down when she realized “how it could be perceived,” insisting that she is “completely opposed to anti Semitism and would never want to inadvertently fuel anti Semitic tropes.”

[LFC]

Can somebody please spare some time, money, and gifts to the poor, poor white supremacists in prison including those whose only supposed "crime" was killing some black people or Jews, not actual human beings?

Just over a year ago, the Global Minority Initiative, a self-described prison relief charity, started mobilizing people online.

Their mission? To “deliver charitable support for a group of inmates who need it the most... to ensure that none of them become lost and alone in a profoundly inhumane system.”

The GMI’s main focus is on encouraging people to donate to inmates’ commissary funds, write them letters, and send them gifts like books. Its site features a simple yet comprehensive guide on how to do so, and fields donations itself. On social media, the group posts a prisoner’s profile every day, urging people to reach out to them. Every “Ramen Wednesday,” they ask their followers to “eat ramen in solidarity with our guys,” and to “send ramen to our guys in support.”

All of this may seem innocuous—many groups provide similar services to incarcerated individuals to mitigate the brutal realities of life in America’s absurd carceral system.

But here’s the catch: The GMI is run exclusively by and for white nationalists, who they believe are one of America’s few truly oppressed communities. (Their name references this bogus perceived marginalization.) They list information for, and claim to be in contact with, dozens of people associated with neo-Nazi groups like Atomwaffen Division, arrested in association with major racist events like the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally, or accused or convicted of individual hate-fueled crimes.

Notable listees include convicted mass murderer Dylann Roof and alleged Tree of Life synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers, lawyers for whom did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

As cases against Capitol insurrectionists progress, a few of the white nationalists who took part in that attack may appear on the list as well. The GMI said it would not speak to The Daily Beast for this story. But when asked on social media a few weeks ago about an individual allegedly involved with the insurrection, a GMI organizer noted that they will put anyone their community flags to them on their list if they believe that individual’s “arrest, conviction, and/or sentencing [was] likely biased on account of [their] pro white sentiments.”

[goldenvalley]

Jurors in Charlottesville case learnt decode the secret slang of white supremacists:

The jury in a federal courtroom listened as a longtime researcher of far-right movements parsed the style guide of the infamous neo-Nazi website, the Daily Stormer.

“The tone of the site should be light. Most people are not comfortable with material that comes across as vitriolic, raging, nonironic hatred. The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not,” according to a guide section titled “Lulz” — an acronym for laugh out loud. Continuing with a derogatory term for Jews, it read, “This is obviously a ploy and I actually do want to gas k---s. But that’s neither here nor there.”

This evidence, introduced in an ongoing civil trial against organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, appeared to highlight a sinister strategy expert witness Pete Simi was trying to teach the jurors: the ways in which white supremacists employ humor to shield their calls for violence, in an effort to render them legally ambiguous.

Here's some secret stuff:

The plaintiffs’ attorneys have called in experts to help the jury understand what is sinister about the numbers 1488 — which refer to “14 words,” a popular white supremacist slogan, and “Heil Hitler,” because "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet. They have translated the phrase “RaHoWa,” which may sound like gibberish to outsiders but among hate groups stands for “racial holy war.” And they explained how a question that seems innocuous — “Did you see Kyle? — is actually a play-on-words for the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil.”

Now that they traffic online in social media these folks have to be more guarded in how they say things plus they need to social media to spread to those who are curious and perhaps sympathetic.  As the style guide suggests "don't scare them away" until they are more fully committed to the cause.

[LFC]

White supremacy is alive and well among Florida prison guards and the state seems to be just fine with it. That must make for a great working environment for everybody else.

In June, three Florida prison guards who boasted of being white supremacists beat, pepper sprayed and used a stun gun on an inmate who screamed “I can’t breathe!” at a prison near the Alabama border, according to a fellow inmate who reported it to the state.

The next day, the officers at Jackson Correctional Institution did it again to another inmate, the report filed with the Florida Department of Corrections’ Office of Inspector General stated.

“If you notice these two incidents were people of color. They (the guards) let it be known they are white supremacist,” the inmate Jamaal Reynolds wrote. “The Black officers and white officers don’t even mingle with each other. Every day they create a hostile environment trying to provoke us so they can have a reason to put their hands on us.”

Both incidents occurred in view of surveillance cameras, he said. Reynolds’ neatly printed letter included the exact times and locations and named the officers and inmates. It’s the type of specific information that would have made it easier for officials to determine if the reports were legitimate. But the inspector general’s office did not investigate, corrections spokeswoman Molly Best said. Best did not provide further explanation, and the department hasn’t responded to The Associated Press’ August public records requests for the videos.

Some Florida prison guards openly tout associations with white supremacist groups to intimidate inmates and Black colleagues, a persistent practice that often goes unpunished, according to allegations in public documents and interviews with a dozen inmates and current and former employees in the nation’s third-largest prison system. Corrections officials regularly receive reports about guards’ membership in the Ku Klux Klan and criminal gangs, according to former prison inspectors, and current and former officers.

Still, few such cases are thoroughly investigated by state prison inspectors; many are downplayed by officers charged with policing their own or discarded as too complicated to pursue.

“I’ve visited more than 50 (prison) facilities and have seen that this is a pervasive problem that is not going away,” said Democratic Florida state Rep. Dianne Hart. “It’s partly due to our political climate. But, those who work in our prisons don’t seem to fear people knowing that they’re white supremacists.”

The people AP talked to, who live and work inside Florida’s prison system, describe it as chronically understaffed and nearly out of control. In 2017, three current and former Florida guards who were Ku Klux Klan members were convicted after the FBI caught them planning a Black former inmate’s murder.

[LFC]

I still wouldn't be shocked if he got off (it IS Georgia, after all) but it looks more and more like Arbery's murderer has failed to testify in his own defense very well.

Over the course of two days and hours of testimony inside the Glynn County courtroom, Travis McMichael testified that he shot Arbery out of fear for his and his father's lives after they spent five minutes chasing Arbery in a pickup truck. The chase ended with Travis McMichael firing his shotgun at Arbery three times at close range.

Dunikoski peppered Travis McMichael about the multiple opportunities for him to have stopped chasing Arbery through the defendants' Satilla Shores neighborhood and avoided the deadly confrontation.

For example, Travis McMichael could have made sure his father had called 911 before going after Arbery, they could have let him run away while by Bryan's house, or stopped at the times where they lost sight of him, she said.

The McMichaels argue they were attempting a citizen's arrest on Arbery who had been captured several times by security cameras in a neighbor's home that was under construction. They have described their response that day as a reaction to a neighborhood on edge because of property crimes.

“So you're telling this jury that a man who has spent five minutes running away from you, you're now thinking is somehow going to want to continue to engage with you – someone with a shotgun – and your father, a man, who's just said, 'Stop or I'll blow your f****** head off,' by trying to get in their truck?'" Dunikoski asked.

“Yes ma'am," Travis McMichael answered.

And something I didn't realize was that they actually attempted to assault Arbery with a truck. I thought they were just trying to block his movement but the guy in the second truck tried to hit him 4 times.

Travis McMichael detailed what he believed was happening in conflicts between Arbery and Bryan's Chevy Silverado.

Bryan told police that four times during the pursuit he attempted to run Arbery into a ditch, but the McMichaels have denied coordinating with Bryan, who recorded the end of the chase with his cell phone.

“Do you want this jury to believe that it's Mr. Arbery who's the aggressor with the black truck?" Dunikoski said. “Not the black truck trying to run him off the road to help you?"

But Travis McMichael said he was unaware of what was occurring as Arbery appeared to be “attacking" the truck as both came into his vision.

“I didn't see the truck trying to run him off the road," he responded.

The prosecution seems to believe they have a strong case.

On Friday, CBS News reported that William "Roddie" Bryan, the man who allegedly helped box in Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery and filmed as Gregory and Travis McMichael pursued and fatally shot him, asked prosecutors for a plea agreement — and was soundly rejected.

The cherry on top? The defense attorney "went there."

The defense attorney for one of the men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery compared the prosecution to a "public lynching."

Attorney Kevin Gough, who is representing William "Roddie" Bryan Jr. in the trial, complained that Black protesters outside the Georgia courthouse were a violent mob seeking vigilante justice.

"This is what a public lynching looks like in the 21st Century," Gough said.

"Just because they haven't put a gallery up, they haven't put a podium up outside with a hangman's noose on it doesn't mean that this isn't a trial, despite the best efforts of this court, that this isn't a trial that's been affected by mob violence of a woke-left mob," Gough continued.

"Whether people realize that they participated in that or not -- I like to think that the vast majority of people outside this courthouse really have no interest in anything but justice -- I want to believe that, from a lot of people out there I think that's true, but the perception is reality," Gough added, "and the media have fed that perception and created a reality, whether it's true or not, just like other people, to create a false narrative and the falsity of that narrative is very apparent in the trial of this case. That becomes the reality, That is what a mob-dominated trial looks like in the 21st century, and we're asking for a mistrial."

[LFC]

[AnBr]

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/14/kyle-rittenhouse-proud-boys-bar/

[LFC]

Cough up the cash, scumbags.

A federal jury in Virginia has awarded millions of dollars in damages to plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The jury found the defendants, a group of high-profile white nationalists, liable for four of six claims against them. The jury was deadlocked on the other two claims.

[LFC]

The judgement against the violent and deadly Unite the Whites Right rally got hit harder than I realized. Of course most of it won't be collected but it's still an eye opening figure and big future warning for those d-bags with something to lose.

A federal jury in Virginia has awarded more than $25 million in damages to plaintiffs in a lawsuit against organizers and participants in the 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The suit was brought by a group of nine plaintiffs who suffered an array of physical and mental injuries at the racist rally, which they alleged were the result of a conspiracy to commit racial violence in Charlottesville.

The jury’s decision affects some of the most prominent white nationalists in the United States, including defendants Richard Spencer, Matthew Heimbach, Jason Kessler, and others. Defendant organizations included the League of the South, Identity Evropa and the Nationalist Socialist Movement.

Around half of the damages were decided against James Alex Fields, Jr., who attended the Unite the Right rally and later drove his car into protesters.

The decision from the jury, after weeks of intense testimony in federal court, “sent a clear message: violent hate won’t go unanswered,” said Amy Spitalnick, executive director of the group supporting the plaintiffs in the case, Integrity First for America.

Jurors found the defendants liable for four of six claims against them.

The jury was deadlocked on the other two claims, which pertained to federal civil rights law: No decision was reached on whether rally organizers engaged in a conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence in violation of the federal Ku Klux Klan Act, nor whether they had knowledge of such a conspiracy and failed to prevent it from taking place.

But defendants were deemed liable on the third claim, an alleged violation of Virginia’s civil conspiracy law. Each individual defendant in the suit was ordered to pay $500,000 in punitive damages, and each defendant organization was ordered to pay $1,000,000.

On the fourth claim — the alleged violation of the state law prohibiting racial, religious or ethnic harassment or violence — five defendants were ordered to pay $200,000 each in punitive damages. Two plaintiffs were awarded $250,000 each in compensatory damages, as well.

[goldenvalley]

The three citizens' arresters were found guilty.

 I doubt this will put a stop to vigilantism. What are the firearms for if not to use them to protect property, right?