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Aug 5, 19

This Week in Fascism #21: When Antifascism Means Giving Blood

Welcome, fellow antifascists! This week, we’ve got a racist lawyer in Tennessee getting doxxed; Proud Boys in Chicago and Philadelphia exposed; a Tommy Robinson supporter catching a lifetime ban from McDonald’s; American Identity Movement leader Patrick Casey getting suspended from Twitter; plus, how you can help get a League of the South event cancelled.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

News

Alt-Right Shooting in El Paso

A Saturday shooting in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that left over 20 dead and 26 injured is being investigated as a hate crime, US Attorney for the Western District of Texas John Bash told a press conference shortly after the shooting. Injuries have been so bad that a call for people to donate blood was put out in order to keep up with demand. In some cases, entire families were injured, as the white nationalist shooter when isle by isle, shooting people with a high powered weapon.

In the shooter’s manifesto, posted on 8chan shortly before the shooting took place, he mentions that he specifically chose an immigrant community as a target: “Actually the Hispanic community was not my target before I read [Christchurch shooter manifesto] The Great Replacement…. Even if other non-immigrant targets would have a greater impact, I can’t bring myself to kill my fellow Americans.”

The shooter cited Hispanic immigration and job automation as the political and economic reasons behind his attack.

The far-Right wasted no time trying to blame antifascists for the attack, linking the assault to a conspiracy theory disseminated by Quilette editor and Patriot Prayer associate Andy Ngo, who claimed in a tweet that “Antifa is leading a ‘Border Resistance’ militancy training tour that will converge on a 10-day siege in El Paso, TX. The promotional image shows border enforcement officers being killed & government property fired bombed.”

Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller quickly picked up on the tweet, citing it in a story headlined “Antifa Plans Terror Campaign And Siege Of El Paso, Texas To Push ‘Border Resistance.'”

Far-right media personality Brenden Dilly had his Twitter account suspended for tweeting that law enforcement had confirmed that the attack was perpetrated by antifascists.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Texas Lieutenant Governor issued a statement, warning “antifa” to stay out of Texas.

Caroline Orr covered the conspiracy theory, and post-shooting push by the far-Right to shift the focus onto antifascists, for the National Observer, calling it a “disinformation campaign.”

The shooting happened just weeks after Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill seeking to designate antifascists as “domestic terrorists.” However, a 2018 report from the Anti-Defamation League found that every murder committed by a political extremist in 2018 had ties to the far-right.

Meanwhile, 2018 GOP Congressional primary candidate Paul Nehlen celebrated the shooting in his “Uncle Paul” Telegram feed, writing “Head shots are humane. Boogaloo on.” (“Boogaloo” is the term used by many on the far-right to describe the collapse of society, and the resulting civil conflict, typically a race war in their fantasies.)

This is the playbook of the far-right– blame the left for the violence they’ve committed, while celebrating that violence to encourage future mass shooters.

Doxxes

Monday, July 29, 2019: AIM Member Outed in North Carolina

Asheville Antiracism released an article on Nathan Charles Barker, a Confederate historical reenactor and member of the white nationalist American Identity Movement in Saint Pauls, North Carolina.

The American Identity Movement is the new name of Identity Evropa, which hastily rebranded after being infiltrated by antifascists and having nearly 800,000 internal messages leaked from their private Discord server.

In the leaked Discord chats, Barker used the handle Nathan_Barker.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019: Todd Gee, Racist Lawyer in Cleveland, Tennessee

Atlanta Antifascists released an article on Todd William Gee, a lawyer in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Deacon in the Church of Christ.

Under the Twitter handle TN_TomHagen (a reference to the lawyer from The Godfather trilogy portrayed by Robert Duvall), Gee spread alt-right propaganda, including quotes from Italian fascist philosopher Julius Evola and Romanian founder of the fascist Iron Guard, Corneliu Codreanu. (In April of this year, the hatchmark symbol of the Iron Guard was found spraypainted at the site of an arson at the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee.)

Under his Twitter pseudonym, Gee criticized his parents for adopting four African children, mocked his Black clients, and referred to local Assistant District Attorney Drew Robinson as a “Negro-Canadian illegal.”

You can contact the Union Grove Church of Christ via their online contact form, or by calling (423) 479-8307.

You can also contact the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility to inquire about Gee’s conduct as an attorney via their webpage.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019: American Identity Movement Member David Balabon of Austin, Texas

TX Fash Finder released a thread on David Balabon, an Identity Evropa member based in Austin, Texas. Balabon works as the Marketing Director of Momentum Token, a cryptocurrency company run by his father, Sam Balabon.

Balabon hosted Suidlander Simon Roche during a 2017 visit to Austin, Texas.

Chicago Proud Boy Doxxed

Chicago Antifa identified Jeff Schwier as “Carlos Von Ludwig,” a Proud Boy in Glenwood, Illinois.

The Proud Boys were designated as a hate group in the Spring of 2018 by the Southern Poverty Law Center for their anti-Muslim, anti-trans, and anti-immigrant ideologies.

The President of the Chicago Proud Boys is “Trigger Tom” Christensen, a member of neo-Nazi group Volksfront International. On the white supremacist Stormfront forums, he used the handle Whitepunx, where he posted 3-4 times per week from 2010-2012.

“Trigger Tom” got his nickname after claiming credit for shooting and paralyzing an antifascist in Portland, Oregon.

Friday, August 2, 2019: Proud Boy Goes From Zero to Doxxed

Emily Gorcenski identified Facebook user “Clayton Sinned” as Clayton Dean Dennis, a 2nd-Degree Proud Boy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after confirming his legal name via court records.

Bruce McClay, Firefighter Proud Boy in Havertown, Pennsylvania

AntiFash Gordon identified Bruce McClay, a Lieutenant at the Bon Air Fire Company in Havertown, Pennsylvania, and member of the Philadelphia Proud Boys.

The Philadelphia Proud Boys have recently escalated their violence, paying a midnight visit to the home antifascist researcher Gwen Snyder. Snyder was not home at the time, so they confronted her neighbor.

“You tell that fat bitch she better stop,” one of them told her neighbor.

You can contact the Bon Air Fire Company via their online contact form.

Researchers in Philadelphia have set up a website, PhillyProudBoys.com, to track the members of the group.

Doloan “Dylan” Daoud, Chicago Proud Boy

Chicago Antifa identified Doloan “Dylan” Daoud as a member of the Chicago Proud Boys.

Daoud’s last known employer is Applied Thin Films in Skokie, Illinois. Their phone number is 847-807-4077, and their email is [email protected].

Deplatforms

Tommy Robinson Supporter Deplatformed from [Checks Notes] McDonald’s

A supporter of far-Right activist Tommy Robinson complained in a video this week after receiving a lifetime ban from McDonald’s.

The Old Redirect Trick

A neo-Nazi tattoo shop, Tac Town Tattoo, in Tacoma, Washington, forgot to renew its web domain, tactowntattoo.com.

Antifascists quickly scooped up the domain and forwarded it to Tacoma Against Nazis, a website detailing the far-right connections of the shop’s owners, Jason and Ryan De Simas. The owners are members of the Northwest Hammerskins Crew 38, a violent skinhead hate group. (The “38” is an alphanumeric reference to “CH” or “crossed hammers,” the logo of the organization.)

Patrick Casey Banned From Twitter

Patrick Casey, leader of the American Identity Movement, was banned from Twitter this week.

In March of 2019, the group was banned from Slack after leaked chats showed them using the service to organize white nationalist events. In April, the group was banned from both PayPal and Zelle after reporting by Unicorn Riot demonstrated that AmIM was using those services to raise funds.

8chan Loses CloudFlare Service

8chan, the website of choice for neo-Nazi mass shooters everywhere, had its service terminated by CloudFlare on Sunday night.

Saturday’s mass shooting in El Paso was the third mass shooting this year where the shooter posted a manifesto to 8chan in advance of the attack. In April, shortly before the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, the shooter posted a link to his antisemitic manifesto on the site, and in March, the shooter who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, similarly posted his manifesto, entitled “The Great Replacement,” which was cited as an inspiration for the El Paso shooter’s targeting of the Latinx community.

Though 8chan remains up, CloudFlare is an essential security service for many high traffic websites, protecting its customers from Dedicated Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, as well as speeding up performance for users.

Actions

Nine members of Patriot Front showed up at a Close the Camps rally in Boston on Sunday. They posed with flags and gave Nazi salutes for a moment before the Abolish ICE protesters began chanting “Nazis out!” and literally chased them away.

Embarrassing Turnout for Philly Militia Rally

About a dozen militia members, including Unite the Right’s Tammy Lee and Gary Sigler, paraded around historic Philadelphia on Saturday under heavy police escort.  They’re doing these “Patriot Pride” marches as a series of weekend rallies, they were in Chicago last weekend.  Look for them in your city soon.

Call to Action

League of the South, a neo-Confederate group that frequently spreads white nationalist and antisemitic propaganda, is holding a conference in Lake City, Florida, headlined by their leader, Dr. Michael Hill. League of the South played a large role in the violence in Charlottesville and was once a part of the now defunct “Nationalist Front,” which included neo-Nazi and KKK groups, including Vanguard America; the group which Heather Heyer’s killer marched with at Unite the Right.

The members will be gathering at the Casa Isabel Venue on August 10, 2019.

If you would like to inform Casa Isabel Venue that they’re renting space to a hate group, you can call them at (386) 588-0613 or contact them via their Facebook page.

For more information on the League of the South, see the Southern Poverty Law Center’s write up on them.

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A weekly roundup of the latest and greatest happenings in the anti-fascist world. Each column features a roundup of news, actions, doxxes and current calls to action.

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