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Dec 30, 19

This Week in Fascism #42: We’ve Only Just Begun

Welcome, fellow antifascists! This week, as we wind down 2020, we’ve got a sobering look at the recent anti-Semitic attacks in New York. two National Guard members getting kicked to the curb after being exposed by antifascists, more Proud Boy doxxes, and a call to kick off the American Identity Movement from Spotify.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

News

Another Horrific Anti-Semitic Attack in New York Area

The latest in a string of violent anti-Semitic attacks in the New York area took place late Saturday, the seventh night of Hannukah, when a man wielding a machete entered the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York, and stabbed several worshipers. Shortly after the attack, police arrested 38 year-old Grafton Thomas.

According to the New York Times:

In his journal, prosecutors said…he wrote about Hitler and “Nazi culture.” On his phone, he searched online for “why did Hitler hate the Jews” at least four times and looked for “prominent companies founded by Jews in America.”

On Monday, new details emerged about the man accused of stabbing five Jewish people at a Hanukkah celebration in the New York suburbs when federal prosecutors filed hate crime charges against him.

[P]rosecutors…suggested that Mr. Thomas, who is from the nearby village of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., had a history of anti-Semitism. In one piece of writing, he used a phrase that investigators said appeared to reference the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a fringe religious movement with offshoots that have been described as hate groups.

The assault in Monsey further rattled the Jewish community in the New York region after a series of anti-Semitic incidents in New York City last week and a deadly mass shooting in Jersey City, N.J., that targeted a kosher supermarket earlier in the month.

Thomas’ family has stated that he suffers from mental illness and does not come from a household with anti-Semitic views. The attack is the just latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents that have taken place in the New York area since mid-December; along with others which have also generated headlines across the world.

The Trump administration seized on the moment, according to The Daily Beast:

Ken Cuccinelli, the Trump administration’s acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, claimed in a morning tweet that 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, a U.S. citizen who allegedly stabbed five people at a Hanukkah party over the weekend, was the “son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants.” It’s not clear where Cuccinelli got that information or if it was correct.

Not to be outdone, far-Right grifters and trolls like Jack Posobiec and Andy Ngo also jumped at the opportunity to play up different talking points and angles, especially since the arrested suspect was African-American. Posobiec tweeted out a statement insinuating that “Antifa” didn’t care about the Jewish community, which was met with widespread scorn as the Pizzagate promoter has a long history of pushing anti-Semitic memes and working associations with the Alt-Right and neo-Nazis.

Back in 2017, Trump along with then Deputy Assistance Sebastian Gorka, were arguing that a wave of anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries were in-fact “false flags” carried out by “the Left” (or Jews themselves) to make the President look bad. Ironically, Gorka himself was removed from the administration after he was photographed wearing the pin of the neo-Nazi group, the Order of Heroes, which “consisted of supporters of Miklos Horthy, the former ruler of Hungary, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War Two.” In recent months, Trump has also been in hot water for anti-Semitic comments as well as his chief policy advisor, Stephen Miller, being directly tied to white nationalism.

Along with the Trump administration and opportunist far-Right trolls, police and politicians have also used the recent attacks as justification for flooding the streets with more police. Meanwhile, abolitionists and anti-capitalists have pointed out the entrenched racism of local law enforcement which has recently exploded in scandal. The State’s forces will never be a vehicle in which to combat anti-Semitism and instead has always been one of its main conduits.

National Guard Members Get Doxxed and Das Boot‘ed

In the spring of 2019, Atlanta Antifascists exposed Dalton Woodward and Trent East as members of the white supremacist Asatru Folk Assembly. (For more on the beliefs of the Asatru Folk Assembly, including the distinction between racist and non-racist Asatru, see this explainer.)

In May, East was first defended by Sheriff Eddie Mixon, then later allowed to quit his job as a Haralson County Jailer after a pressure campaign from antifascists. East and Woodward were fired this week, following an investigation by the National Guard. The resulting story of their firing, which was made possible by the research of antifascists, went far, being covered in a variety of mainstream outlets.

Doxxes

California Proud Boy Billy Johnson

Proud Boy Billy Johnson was exposed by PBDoxer. Salish Black Flag also exposed a fellow member, Cristopher Ocwieja, of Granite Falls, from a group photo posted by one of the members.

Antifascist Exposes Supporters of Ian Kramer, Patriot Prayer Affiliate Facing Charges for Attack on Portland Cider Bar

Dimestore Guevara exposed supporters of Ian Kramer, a Patriot Prayer associate currently facing charges for cracking a woman’s vertebrae outside the Cider Riot bar in May 2019.

GOP Congressional Primary candidate Ron Bassilian posted a petition on behalf of Kramer, which was quickly scraped by antifascists, who shared the names and employment information of the signers on Twitter.

Bassilian claims to be the chairman of the 54th Assembly District of the GOP in Los Angeles. His social media feed is filled with photos and references to far-Right individuals, podcasts, and memes.

Michael S. Pollardo, Proud Boy in Lake Stevens, Washington

Death Cab for Scooby doxxed Michael S. Pollardo, of Lake Stevens, Washington, as being a Proud Boy or Proud Boy associate, after he was seen in a group photo of what appears to be a Proud Boys meetup. For a full expose on the Lake Stevens Proud Boys, go here.

Pollardo is a football coach at Cavelero Mid High in Lake Stevens. You can contact the school by calling (425) 335-1630 or emailing Associate Principal Sandra Pollestad at [email protected].

Call to Action

Help Get the American Identity Movement Kicked Off Anchor

This week, Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists revealed that Patrick Casey, the leader of the white nationalist American Identity Movement, has a show on Anchor, a podcast-hosting company owned by Spotify. You can alert Anchor by tweeting @anchor or by direct messaging their Customer Service department at @SpotifyCares.

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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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