A Lot Of the conservative protests against state stay-at-home orders sweeping the nation have been arranged or attended by white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, anti-government militias, members of a neo-fascist street gang, and other assorted extremists and scam artists, a HuffPost analysis programs.
The demonstrations, mostly collaborated on Facebook, have seen crowds of hundreds descend upon state and city government buildings, where participants flagrantly flout social distancing guidelines to require that their particular governors resume state services throughout a lethal pandemic.
Pictures of these frequently heavily armed protesters, screaming at health care workers and obstructing ambulances from reaching medical facilities, have gone viral, stunning a country where polls reveal a big bulk support steps to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed over 45,000 individuals in this nation.
Yet the events– which present a clear risk to neighborhoods throughout the U.S., running the risk of the further spread of a virus– have actually been promoted extensively by Fox News On Friday, immediately after a Fox sector understanding to the rallies, the president tweeted out his assistance for the protesters.
“LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” Trump wrote in a tweet-storm, straight opposing the suggestions of the medical professionals on his own COVID-19 job force.
It’s easy to see why footage of the protests might delight the president. They bear a striking similarity, after all, to his own fascist campaign rallies, with participants who are practically uniformly white, and who show a deep dedication to the president, putting on red MAGA hats and waving Trump 2020 flags.
And like Trump’s rallies, the anti-shutdown protests are bristling with right-wing extremists.
Here’s a brief look at a few of the figures who have either arranged or attended these occasions over the last week.
The White Nationalists
A rally Monday in Augusta, the state capital of Maine, was arranged in part by Larry Lockman, a white nationalist previous state lawmaker who in 2017 warned that proposed immigrant welcome centers were tantamount to a “war on whites.”
According to Maine-based reporter Nathan Bernard, Lockman helped collaborate Monday’s anti-shutdown event on the “Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine” Facebook page, where he motivated guests to show up to the rally using MAGA equipment. “This has to do with the loss of our civil rights and its effect on our companies and religion,” he composed in one post.
Bernard reported seeing Lockman coordinating a group of unmasked protesters at the rally Monday.
Hey! A second photo of these cool guys from today. #makethemfamous pic.twitter.com/5y8UCJuvNQ
— Rep. Casey Weinstein (@RepWeinstein) April 19, 2020
In Columbus, Ohio, two guys were photographed at an anti-shutdown demonstration holding up an anti-Semitic sign portraying Jews as rats, calling them “the real plague.” The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism believes among the men belongs to the neo-Nazi National Socialist Motion.
According to the ADL, this person was photographed at a 2019 white power rally with Timothy Wilson, who was killed by federal representatives last month during an attempted arrest over his alleged plot to bomb a Missouri health center during the pandemic in order to attract attention to his white supremacist views.
Proud Boys, ‘Patriots,’ And Militias, Oh My
A “Reopen Florida” demonstration arranged for this weekend in Miami was arranged by a leader of the neo-fascist street gang The Proud Boys, the Miami New Times reported this week.
Enrique Tarrio, a longtime Proud Young boy, admitted to the New Times that he ‘d arranged the rally, which he’s advertised as being “versus the Democrat-driven unconstitutional lockdown.”
Members of the Proud Boys– a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group initially established by bigot Gavin McInnes– have deep ties to a host of white nationalist and militia groups, and are best known for strongly attacking their political opponents.
Proud Boys have actually also been identified at anti-shutdown demonstrations in Colorado, Nevada, Ohio and Michigan. At the rally in Lansing, Michigan, Proud Boys were supposedly among the guests obstructing ambulances from having the ability to reach a medical facility.
Also in Michigan– as noted by reporter Jason Wilson in The Guardian– were member