Octopus Overlords

disarm wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 6:53 pm I have a somewhat distant relative who fell victim to a random act of gun violence yesterday. He was 24yo and one of the nicest people you could meet; worked with the local volunteer fire department, EMS, and his dad has been a deputy with the local sheriff's department for more than 20 years...but that all ended in an instant last night.

The story is a little unclear, but it sounds like he saw a stopped car at the side of the road and pulled over (with one of his friends also in the truck) to offer assistance at the same time police were arriving in response to a 'stranded motorist' call. When they all got out of their cars, someone started shooting and two people are now dead...my distant cousin and the driver of the stopped car. At this point, they're not even sure who started shooting. Crazy story...

https://www.wlky.com/article/2-killed-o ... a/40015856

disarm wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 6:53 pm I have a somewhat distant relative who fell victim to a random act of gun violence yesterday. He was 24yo and one of the nicest people you could meet; worked with the local volunteer fire department, EMS, and his dad has been a deputy with the local sheriff's department for more than 20 years...but that all ended in an instant last night.

The story is a little unclear, but it sounds like he saw a stopped car at the side of the road and pulled over (with one of his friends also in the truck) to offer assistance at the same time police were arriving in response to a 'stranded motorist' call. When they all got out of their cars, someone started shooting and two people are now dead...my distant cousin and the driver of the stopped car. At this point, they're not even sure who started shooting. Crazy story...

https://www.wlky.com/article/2-killed-o ... a/40015856

Zarathud wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 7:47 pm If you can’t stop them, you defang them to limit the damage.

The massacre at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo on Saturday should have been thwarted by New York’s red flag law, which aims to stop people from buying or possessing firearms when they show they’re threats to themselves or others, gun policy experts said.

“It was designed exactly for this circumstance,” said David Pucino, the deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center, a gun-safety group.

...

Hochul said a teacher had asked Gendron about his plans just before the start of summer vacation last year. He responded, “I want to murder and commit suicide,” Hochul said.

School officials immediately alerted police, Hochul said. Gendron underwent a psychiatric evaluation and was released, Hochul said, adding that there was “not a specific threat” or “something that seemed to be actionable.”

“There was nothing that flagged that he wouldn’t be able to — from that encounter, at the time — be able to go into a store and purchase a gun,” she said. “Now, we need to question that, as well. There’s a lot of layers here that we need to get to the bottom of and find out if changes need to be made.”

Little Raven wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 8:39 pm

I know a lot of gun owners. I don't know any that plan on changing their voting habits based on last weekend. (I'm assuming that lawbeef is already a blue voter - if not, I guess I know one.)

disarm wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 6:53 pm I have a somewhat distant relative who fell victim to a random act of gun violence yesterday. He was 24yo and one of the nicest people you could meet; worked with the local volunteer fire department, EMS, and his dad has been a deputy with the local sheriff's department for more than 20 years...but that all ended in an instant last night.

The story is a little unclear, but it sounds like he saw a stopped car at the side of the road and pulled over (with one of his friends also in the truck) to offer assistance at the same time police were arriving in response to a 'stranded motorist' call. When they all got out of their cars, someone started shooting and two people are now dead...my distant cousin and the driver of the stopped car. At this point, they're not even sure who started shooting. Crazy story...

https://www.wlky.com/article/2-killed-o ... a/40015856

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Gov. JB Pritzker will sign a law to make ghost guns illegal Wednesday.

Illinois is poised to become the first state in the Midwest to ban ghost guns, as lawmakers are under pressure to curb violent crime.

Three members of a militant white supremacist group were the first in Michigan to be convicted of conspiring to train with firearms for a civil war, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

The men belong to The Base, a pro-Hitler movement that advocates a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Justen Watkins, Thomas Denton, and Tristan Webb were charged in August 2021 with larceny in a building, gang membership, felony possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil war. They were accused of breaking into the vacant Michigan Department of Corrections Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program in Caro in October 2020 and stealing state-issued clothing from one of the jails.

Prosecutors allege they were scoping the site as potential training grounds for “hate camps,” which is the name the group gave its paramilitary firearms training exercises.

Little Raven wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 10:25 am 3 go down in Michigan.

Three members of a militant white supremacist group were the first in Michigan to be convicted of conspiring to train with firearms for a civil war, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

The men belong to The Base, a pro-Hitler movement that advocates a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Justen Watkins, Thomas Denton, and Tristan Webb were charged in August 2021 with larceny in a building, gang membership, felony possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil war. They were accused of breaking into the vacant Michigan Department of Corrections Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program in Caro in October 2020 and stealing state-issued clothing from one of the jails.

Prosecutors allege they were scoping the site as potential training grounds for “hate camps,” which is the name the group gave its paramilitary firearms training exercises.

When did Michigan become hate group central?

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 10:30 am Howell, MI

Alefroth wrote:

disarm wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 6:53 pm I have a somewhat distant relative who fell victim to a random act of gun violence yesterday. He was 24yo and one of the nicest people you could meet; worked with the local volunteer fire department, EMS, and his dad has been a deputy with the local sheriff's department for more than 20 years...but that all ended in an instant last night.

The story is a little unclear, but it sounds like he saw a stopped car at the side of the road and pulled over (with one of his friends also in the truck) to offer assistance at the same time police were arriving in response to a 'stranded motorist' call. When they all got out of their cars, someone started shooting and two people are now dead...my distant cousin and the driver of the stopped car. At this point, they're not even sure who started shooting. Crazy story...

https://www.wlky.com/article/2-killed-o ... a/40015856

That's awful and so senseless. Do they think domestic extremism was involved?

Little Raven wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 10:25 amThe men belong to The Base, a pro-Hitler movement that advocates a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Little Raven wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 10:25 am 3 go down in Michigan.

Three members of a militant white supremacist group were the first in Michigan to be convicted of conspiring to train with firearms for a civil war, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

The men belong to The Base, a pro-Hitler movement that advocates a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Justen Watkins, Thomas Denton, and Tristan Webb were charged in August 2021 with larceny in a building, gang membership, felony possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil war. They were accused of breaking into the vacant Michigan Department of Corrections Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program in Caro in October 2020 and stealing state-issued clothing from one of the jails.

Prosecutors allege they were scoping the site as potential training grounds for “hate camps,” which is the name the group gave its paramilitary firearms training exercises.

When did Michigan become hate group central?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 11:33 amhttps://www.britannica.com/event/Oklahoma-City-bombing

malchior wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 11:47 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 11:33 amhttps://www.britannica.com/event/Oklahoma-City-bombing

A pretty big omission in that article is it doesn't even mention the Michigan Militia by name. It is probably one of the biggest of the 'militia movement' groups in the United States. McVeigh and Nichols went to several meetings of the Michigan militia around it's founding in the 90s. That actually prompted some efforts to moderate it in the late 90s. This did not seem to work as several members were participants in the Whitmer kidnapping plot.

In the wake of the horrific shooting that took place in Buffalo on May 14, New York Attorney General Letitia James has officially launched an investigation into the role social media companies may have played in the attack on a supermarket that took the lives of 10 people and is now being investigated as a hate crime. According to the Attorney General’s press release, the investigation will look into how social media may have allowed the shooter to “discuss and amplify his intentions and acts,” focusing on “Twitch, 4chan, 8chan, and Discord.”

This comes mere days after NY Governor Katherine Hochul criticized the CEOs of these platforms for not doing enough to “assure all of us that they’re taking every step humanly possible to [monitor] this information.”

While messaging and community apps like Discord are at the center of this tragedy, the Attorney General’s investigation is also deeply concerned with video streaming platform Twitch, which was used to broadcast the attack. She described it as “bone-chilling and unfathomable” that someone could “commit such an act of hate without consequence, and then stream it for the world to see.”

Little Raven wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 10:25 am When did Michigan become hate group central?

The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”

White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.

Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months.

...

Law enforcement agencies are already monitoring an active threat from a young Arizona man who says on his Telegram accounts that he is “leading the war” against retail giant Target for its Pride Month merchandise and children’s clothing line and has promised to “hunt LGBT supporters” at the stores. In videos posted to his Telegram and YouTube accounts, sometimes filmed at Target stores, he encourages others to go the stores as well.

Target said in a statement that it is working with local and national law enforcement agencies who are investigating the videos.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 3:01 pm
I can't help but believe this is going to continue to escalate.

Police in Idaho arrested 31 people who had masks, white supremacist insignia, shields and an “operations plan” to riot at a park hosting an LGBTQ Pride parade on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said authorities received a tip about a “little army” loading into a U-Haul truck at a hotel Saturday afternoon. Police from the city, county and state pulled over the truck about 10 minutes later, White said. Many were wearing logos from the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that rebranded after one of its members plowed his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville in August 2017, killing anti-racism protester Heather Heyer.

White said the people — dressed similarly in the Patriot Front’s signature khaki pants — were headed to City Park, which was hosting Pride in the Park. Organizers for the event did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s call or email seeking comment Saturday evening.

malchior wrote:No actual violence luckily but...wtf.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:22 pm I mean, we had the Pulse nightclub shooting in FL back in 2016. Things are much, much worse now, so yeah. Seems like this would be a great time to clamp down on domestic violent extremists.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:22 pm I mean, we had the Pulse nightclub shooting in FL back in 2016. Things are much, much worse now, so yeah. Seems like this would be a great time to clamp down on domestic violent extremists.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 10:26 pm 20 Meal Team Sixers in the back of a U-Haul is a criminal conspiracy.

Enough wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:02 pm

malchior wrote:No actual violence luckily but...wtf.

The news lately like this gives me a sickening feeling that we are in a very, very bad place.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:30 am Are these Proud Boys(tm) or just Proud Boys in the general sense. Not that it matters to their targets but just wondering whether we're seeing some sort of national organization or just loosely affiliated assholes who frequent the same message boards.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment today charging five members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s former national chairman, with seditious conspiracy and other charges for their actions before and during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

The defendants include Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 38, of Miami, Florida, the former national chairman of the Proud Boys; Ethan Nordean, 31, of Auburn, Washington; Joseph Biggs, 38, of Ormond Beach, Florida; Zachary Rehl, 37, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester, New York. All previously were indicted and remain detained. They pleaded not guilty to charges contained in earlier indictments.

The superseding indictment adds two charges to the earlier indictment: one count of seditious conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties. All defendants now face a total of nine charges and Pezzola faces an additional robbery charge. The defendants are scheduled to appear for a hearing on June 9, 2022, in the District of Columbia

According to court documents, the Proud Boys describe themselves as members of a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.” Through at least Jan. 6, 2021, Tarrio was the national chairman of the organization. In mid-December of 2020, Tarrio created a special chapter of the Proud Boys known as the “Ministry of Self Defense.” As alleged in the indictment, from in or around December 2020, Tarrio and his co-defendants, all of whom were leaders or members of the Ministry of Self Defense, conspired to prevent, hinder and delay the certification of the Electoral College vote, and to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States. On Jan. 6, 2021, the defendants directed, mobilized and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, breaching of the Capitol building, and assaults on law enforcement. During and after the attack, Tarrio and his co-defendants claimed credit for what had happened on social media and in an encrypted chat room.

Patriot Front taking a casual stroll along the Freedom Trail

Patriot Front is an American white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America during the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. The group maintains an Americana aesthetic, utilizing imagery of American culture, patriotism, and other widely accepted traditional American values to promote its ideology. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of the racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in 2021 across the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.

hepcat wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 11:46 am

Enough wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:02 pm

malchior wrote:No actual violence luckily but...wtf.

The news lately like this gives me a sickening feeling that we are in a very, very bad place.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:54 pm The new normal

Patriot Front taking a casual stroll along the Freedom Trail

NOTE:

Patriot Front is an American white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America during the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. The group maintains an Americana aesthetic, utilizing imagery of American culture, patriotism, and other widely accepted traditional American values to promote its ideology. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of the racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in 2021 across the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.