Date: 2024-07-17 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00020733
USA
Dangerous Fringe Movements
White Supremacist Patriot Front came to Philly to march, then ran away
Peter Burgess
White Supremacist Patriot Front came to Philly to march, then ran away Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.) Share this article White Supremacist Group Patriot Front came to Philadelphia this 4th of July weekend to March and argue in favor of Trumps 'Big Lie' that he didn't lose the 2020 election, it didn't go well. Patriot Front is known for these sorts of events: Members mask up, scurry into town, set off some smoke bombs, wave flags bearing fascist symbols and then scurry away. But theirs plans in Philadelphia were interrupted by heckling and the occasional shove from residents. Photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer showed the group being confronted by locals and retreating to two rental box trucks, and separately exiting the trucks with their hands up after being stopped, and then briefly detained, by police. (Penske, the rental truck company the white supremacists were seen using, was none too happy about the situation.) The Inquirer reported that the men were searched by police and then released. Law enforcement told ABC affiliate WPVI that none of the group were from Philadelphia. “An NBC10 photographer had his cellphone taken from him by members of the group, before recovering it,” Local NBC affiliate WCAU reported. “They started engaging with citizens of Philadelphia, who were none too happy about some of the things they were saying,” Philadelphia Police Office Michael Crum told WPVI. “Apparently, these males felt threatened, and at one point, somebody in their crowd threw a type of what we believe is a smoke bomb, to cover their retreat, and they literally ran away from the people of Philadelphia.” What a way to celebrate the 4th of July. A little background on Patriot Front Origins Patriot Front is a Texas-based alt right group led by 19-year-old Thomas Ryan Rousseau. The group split from Vanguard America (VA) in late August 2017, several months after VA participated in a white supremacist rally on the capitol steps in Austin, Texas. Both Rousseau, as the Texas leader, and Dillon Hopper (aka Dillon Irizarry), as the group’s national leader, spoke during the event. Hopper later complained that Rousseau had led event organizers to believe that Rousseau, rather than Hopper, was VA’s leader, and that Rousseau’s lengthy speech during the rally further confused people about the group’s true leader. [...] American Nationalism Leadership disputes aside, the split between Vanguard America and Patriot Front is symptomatic of the divergent opinions among white supremacists about optics and how to best promote their cause to the public. Rousseau’s camp prefers to promote “American Nationalism” and advocate for a racist ideology that appeals to conservatives, using ostensibly unifying symbols like the American flag. In that same vein, Patriot Front uses an image of a fasces, the original symbol of fascism (a bundle of sticks featuring an axe) encircled by thirteen stars as “an American symbol of revolutionary spirit.” So a pack of fascists got exactly what they deserved. Malcolm Nance argued Monday that we need to seriously keep an eye on these kinds of guys, especially the Qanon sort as we move toward August, things could just get violent. Speaking to MSNBC's Joy Reid on Monday, terrorism expert Malcolm Nance explained that there might be many people worried about the possibility of violence in August like the world witnessed on Jan. 6. Watching the communications of the far-right, Nance said that he doesn't think it will happen. What he is concerned about, however, is what will happen after August, when Donald Trump isn't reinstated. Joining the discussion, author and expert Professor Mia Bloom from Georgia State University said that she expected that QAnon would turn into an anti-Semitic group because it has the conspiracy theories about a 'global cabal,' lies about George Soros and Janet Yellen and talks about drinking blood. 'Which are all things Jews have been accused of for hundreds of years in Europe, through the church,' she explained. ''But when we started looking at Save the Children campaign, and I'm a supporter of Save the Children, the charity. So I thought, wait a second, all these children are white and all the Save the Children, children are not. So, we did a systematic study because I needed data to show that they were using these racist tropes that go to the period of restoration where there were stereotypes of the Black bruit who was going to rape the white woman or kidnap the white woman. This is heart and soul of QAnon.' [...] 'Anyone that can see with their eyes understands what is going on here,' said Nance. 'We are in a neofascist era in personal politics. Back in 1939, 1940 there was a formal fascist movement, which openly supported Adolf Hitler and called for American independence and isolation away from Europe's war, which Hitler had just invaded, called the America First movement.' He noted that it was championed by Americans like Charles Lindbergh, an alleged Nazi sympathizer. 'They had a rally in Madison Square Garden where George Washington was juxtaposed with Adolf Hitler,' said Nance. 'These people were fascists. What we've seen is after World War II when they were essentially run to the ground, there was a rise in the 1950s and '60s of these very small fascist groups that turned into terrorist groups like the Christian Identity movement.' [...] 'I don't think we should really worry about the August date because as we know, these things come and go,' he said. 'They have had these dates before. It's the post-August period that I would really be watching as a terrorism professional because Donie O'Sullivan did some interviews with these people and they said if Trump is not reinstalled, then they're going to have to start talking civil war. I've been monitoring their communications since last December. These people are already, many of them, committed to the concept of overthrowing American democracy and inciting civil war.' Unfortunately, Philadelphia wasn't all as a group of III Percenters recently took over an Island in Washington State. Tensions are rising in Whidbey Island, Seattle, after residents say a right-wing extremist group is tearing the fabric of the community apart, The Daily Beast reports. The tension started when the The Washington III Percent militia took control of the local Grange association (a community gathering place) and began rejecting membership applications from anyone not aligned with them. Now, III Percenter flags and bumper stickers have increasingly popped up around town and left-wing rallies. 'They've been trying to do this for quite some time now: Extremists running for office, local elections, you know, county councils, state legislatures, things like that,' said Daryl Johnson, a former Homeland Security analyst who runs DT Analytics. 'Once it creeps in, if nobody challenges, it becomes the new norm.' The group's founder and president Matt Marshall says his group is neither extremist nor racist, and says local activists' criticism of his organization amounts to a 'smear campaign.' According to the Daily Beast's Heath Druzin, the group's 'stealthy takeover' of the region 'is straight out of the modern, far-right playbook: target local and state elections, boards, and other institutions that often fly under the radar to increase influence.' So that's not zesty. Tuesday, Jul 6, 2021 · 8:59:20 PM EDT · Frank Vyan Walton As usual, my friend David Neiwert has much more on this. m.dailykos.com/...