@JesseFFerguson
UNDER OBAMA: Bin Laden is Dead, GM is Alive.
UNDER TRUMP: Americans are dead, Coronavirus is Alive.
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I have started a twitter thread collecting videos documenting racism and police brutality, particularly relating to these protests:
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Photos emerge from T’s walk to the Church…not a holy moment. NYT Times photographer - Doug Mills shots.
WTF
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ONE mask. Despite the outbreak in the West Wing. Wow.
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That about covers it…
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The fake accounts trying to hide as Antifa but are actually linked to white nationalist accounts are being deleted by Twitter. Suspected and confirmed in some instances.
A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national “antifa” organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the account violated the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.
As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” with a brown raised fist emoji and “Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods… and we take what’s ours …”
This isn’t the first time Twitter has taken action against fake accounts engaged in hateful conduct linked to Identity Evropa, according to the spokesperson.
The antifa movement — a network of loosely organized radical groups who use direct action to fight the far-right and fascism — has been targeted by President Donald Trump as the force behind some of the violence and property destruction seen at some protests, though little evidence has been provided for such claims.
Other misinformation and misleading claims spread across Twitter on Sunday night and into Monday related to the protests.
Two hashtags that trended worldwide on Twitter falsely claimed that there was a “cover-up” or a “blackout” of protests in Washington, D.C., overnight. Both appeared to insinuate that protesters have been silenced in some way, perhaps by a secret internet blackout.
Twitter says it has removed the trend from its “trending topics” section because of "coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation" around the protests.
Twitter said it suspended several hundred accounts and is investigating the viral spread of the hashtag, which it said was boosted by "hundreds of spammy accounts."
“We’re taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the company sometimes pulls down hashtags that violate the company’s rules, like platform manipulation.
“We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter. This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending. These include trends that violate the Twitter Rules,” the Twitter spokesperson said.
NetBlocks, a nonprofit group monitoring worldwide internet access, found no indication of a mass-scale internet disruption in the Washington area overnight or in the last 48 hours.
Journalists covering the protests also took to Twitter to disprove the hoax.
“A lot of people are asking me about a possible #dcblackout. I’ve been out near the White House since 4 am and haven’t experienced any outage,” tweeted Victoria Sanchez, a reporter for WJLA, the local ABC affiliate, adding that her colleagues had posted multiple updates throughout the night.
Many accounts tweeting the message had few to no followers. The same messages were also posted on Reddit and 4chan late Sunday. The posts pushing the #DCBlackout hashtag peaked in popularity around 12:30 a.m. ET Monday.
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You wonder who they are seeking?..Antifa ‘actors’ or white supremacists…inciting violence.
June 1, 2020
Seeking Information on Individuals Inciting Violence During First Amendment-Protected Peaceful Demonstrations
The FBI respects the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights. Our mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution is dual and simultaneous, not contradictory.
Accordingly, we are committed to apprehending and charging violent instigators who are exploiting legitimate, peaceful protests and engaging in violations of federal law. The continued violence, potential threat to life, and destruction of property across the United States interferes with the rights and safety of First Amendment-protected peaceful demonstrators, as well as all other citizens.
To help us identify actors who are actively instigating violence in the wake of Mr. George Floyd’s death, the FBI is accepting tips and digital media depicting violent encounters surrounding the civil unrest that is happening throughout the country.
If you witness or have witnessed unlawful violent actions, we urge you to submit any information, photos, or videos that could be relevant to the case at fbi.gov/violence.
You may also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) to verbally report tips and/or information related to this investigation.
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THREAD: photos of peaceful protests in smaller towns (mainly white) all across America.
About 10 peaceful protests listed here -Portland, Me, Medford, Ore, west Texas, Pendleton, Ore, Bozeman, MT, Halifax, Nova Scotia etc
At this link.
100 Black Men of West Texas spearhead Silent Solidarity Walk tonight in Lubbock
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this is a great and actually uplifting interview with Christiane Amanpoor and the Houston police chief. 10 mins, he has good things to say.
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It turns out Trump didn’t just have protesters attacked and chased off with tear gas and rubber bullets – PRIESTS and others working outside St. John’s were also forcibly expelled from the church!
My thread on this part, with quotes from the story:
A homeowner in D.C. offering sanctuary to those attacked by police is under siege by police:
Thread: roughly 40 protesters were invited into a home, putting them in compliance with D.C. curfews. Police threatened the home owner anyhow, claiming COVID-19 as an excuse, and then teargassed A PRIVATE RESIDENCE.
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More evidence of a police force armed for ‘war’ among he civilian population is another example of weaponizing local authority - fascist and authoritarian move.
We have been seeing from so many sectors of the police force…the mindset of a warrior.
Reading through some recaps (Heather Cox Richardson - 6.1.20) and she mentions this -
Esquire writer Charles Pierce notes that since 9-11, the federal government has equipped local police with $4.3 billion in military gear and prepared them for an all-out war on terrorists. In 2014, President Barack Obama tried to stop the transfer of military weapons and equipment to civilian police departments with an executive order, but Trump reversed it. This militarization of the police has created in America’s streets what a government commission in 1968 defined as a “police riot,” in which officers themselves instigate, escalate, or sustain violent confrontations. In addition to attacking protesters, today’s police are singling out journalists for attack. This development is significant because it is a key sign of authoritarian regimes, which try to silence journalists to silence information about their actions.
Heather Cox Richardson Newsletter
Over the weekend, so many chickens came home to so many roosts that, by and large, it was hard to differentiate one from the others. But one stood out among the rest. For decades, we have heard the warnings about turning civilian police departments into quasi-military shock troops. For decades, courtesy of a misguided Pentagon policy, we have watched cops in even the smallest towns outfit themselves as though just beyond the Piggly Wiggly lay Normandy or Fallujah. Police training, where it existed at all, lagged hopelessly behind the armaments. Some $4.3 billion in military equipment was handed over, gratis, to local police departments. You can’t have this equipment and not use it, and you have to have a certain mentality to use that equipment the way it was meant to be used—to wit: to protect yourself and to kill enemies, somewhere out there beyond the gunports. The vehicles are armored, and the vision of the people driving them narrows. They live in frightening psychological isolation with the crosshairs in their eyes.
In the wake of the Ferguson uprising in 2014, Barack Obama issued an executive order that attempted to restrain the transfer of military weapons and equipment to civilian police departments. This policy was reversed by the current administration* because the president*’s underthings have been in a knot since Obama helped him look stupid once in a banquet hall. But the crisis that rode into town in a surplus MRAP reached beyond the paranoid frontiers of the landfill that is the president*’s mind. The military mind follows the military weaponry but, in this case, it’s unaccompanied by military training and military discipline. In this, we end up with myrmidons—modern myrmidons of a dangerous hive mind.
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So here is an important thread about some history of white supremacy at work. I will post some highlights, but it really is a great read all together if you have a few minutes.
[biography link here]
[lawfirm link here]
Yeah, amen – I learned the hard way not to trust cops and I’m a cis white lady, so honestly 
As much as I try to remember that there are good people in our institutions, I can’t quite bring myself to feel any sympathy for those institutions as a whole these last few years. I sure as hell won’t judge these rioters, nor will I ask them to be more polite about their anger and pain.
Here are some other resources Claire includes for further reading in her thread:
And more information on the COINTELPRO:
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