by Mara Hvistendahl, Alleen Brown
Part 3 - Special Treatment for White Vigilantes
A day after Trump’s tweet about looting and shooting, Constable John Shirley of Hood County, Texas, posted a “Call to Action” in an Oath Keepers Facebook group accessed by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. Shirley called for adherents to provide protection at Dallas’s Salon à la Mode, which had defied the governor’s order to shut down in response to the pandemic, and encouraged current and former law enforcement to carry pistols. “We are now in a Global War on Antifa,” Shirley declared in a second Facebook post.
In communities in the Pacific Northwest, meanwhile, public officials welcomed “local boys” who poured into the streets to defend against rumored busloads of antifa. In Snohomish, Washington, the mayor applauded the armed men who guarded the city’s downtown on May 31, some waving the Confederate flag. Many drank alcohol as they stood watch, and the police chief characterized the armed gathering as a celebratory night of tailgating. Following a backlash from community members, the chief was demoted.
The next day, June 1, a bystander filmed an officer in Salem, Oregon, approaching armed white men to request that they stay out of sight when curfew hit, so that police wouldn’t look bad for not arresting them. “My command wanted me to come talk to you guys and request that you guys discreetly stay inside the buildings or in your vehicles, somewhere where it’s not a violation, so we don’t look like we’re playing favorites,” the officer said. As in Dallas, the men were guarding a salon that had become associated with the reopen movement. (It also had support from the far-right Patriot Prayer group.) In response to outcry over the video, the Salem police chief released his own video message apologizing for the perception of unequal treatment.
A similar example of police inaction came that same night in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. Jill St.Clair was out with her boyfriend walking her dog when she encountered a mob of white men carrying bats, shovels, and nightsticks. When St.Clair pulled out her phone to record, one of the men lunged at her, wielding a bat, and spewed a string of profanities. “Pussy ass bitch,” he yelled. Then he rejoined the others and ran down the street toward Fishtown’s 26th Precinct.
Distraught, St.Clair called 911. According to a detailed account she posted on Instagram immediately after the incident, the operator insisted that the situation was not an emergency. When St.Clair pushed, the operator transferred her to the 26th Precinct, where St.Clair said an officer told her that she should be grateful that the men were protecting her neighborhood. “He kept insisting that I was part of the problem,” she said. Two other residents who called 911 that night reported similar reactions from operators. The Philadelphia Police Department declined to swiftly process a right-to-know request for 911 call records, citing closures connected to Covid-19. A public information officer said that the department’s internal affairs unit is investigating the events in Fishtown and declined to comment further.
By the time the men dispersed, they had beaten at least three bystanders. A video posted by a vigilante named Justin Haskell showed him talking to a police officer, who gently asked Haskell’s group to go home so they could arrest people across the street. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw later said, “We do not endorse or condone any form of vigilante justice.” But a similar scene played out last weekend, when a mob formed at a Christopher Columbus statue in the city. Police stood by as vigilantes assaulted Chris Schiano, a reporter with the video outfit Unicorn Riot. Police Capt. Louis Campione then asked the injured Schiano to leave, accusing him of inciting a riot. The department subsequently reassigned Campione. A spokesperson said that his reassignment was not related to the incident at the statue, but vigilantes nonetheless staged a demonstration to protest the department’s move.
“We’ve seen some glaring examples” of police collaboration, said Burghart. “Compare this to the way they’ve handled Black Lives Matter activists. Peaceful Black Lives Matter activists have had the weapons of war on them.”
Constable Shirley of Texas wasn’t the only officer promoting the Oath Keepers in the wake of Floyd’s murder. The day after vigilantes took over Fishtown, a sheriff’s deputy policing a George Floyd protest in Costa Mesa, California, was caught on camera wearing a distinctive patch. Attached to his tactical vest, the patch depicted the Three Percenters symbol and read “Oath Keeper.” The anti-government Three Percenter militia group’s name refers to the idea that it only took 3 percent of colonial settlers to overthrow the British during the Revolutionary War. The sheriff denounced the officer’s action and put him on leave while the department investigated his behavior.
In Chicago on June 3, men carrying baseball bats and golf clubs guarded the border between the historically white Bridgeport and historically black Bronzeville neighborhoods. Police officers stood nearby, attempting to control traffic as a protest took place in front of the Bronzeville police precinct. Residents complained of confrontations with the men but then spotted officers socializing with the group. Police scanner recordings reviewed by a reporter with the South Side Weekly reportedly captured an officer saying the individuals were “neighborhood people just trying to protect the neighborhood.” Bridgeport, like many communities across the country, has a long history of white men violently enforcing neighborhood boundaries to keep Black people out.
The trend continued into a third week of protests against police violence. In Oklahoma last week, one sheriff put out a call for volunteers to join a “sheriff’s posse” to “aid in safeguarding lives and property.” In Idaho, a former Shoshone County sheriff’s deputy used a private Facebook group to promote a militia-style response to protests in the area. And at a protest in the town of Bethel, Ohio, this past Sunday, hundreds of armed men rode in on motorcycles, wearing Confederate flags and Trump hats, to beat up participants, as police reportedly stood by and watched. The Bethel police chief later condemned the violence, adding that his department’s six officers were outnumbered.
Several militia groups have claimed to be collaborating directly with police. The Facebook page of the Three Percenters – Original said that its Utah chapter coordinated with the Salt Lake City police to set up an emergency perimeter around a police command post at the request of officers. A public information officer for the department told The Intercept that there was no such collaboration. In Georgetown, Texas, and Palmer, Alaska, members of militia groups claimed that public officials approved of offers to assist law enforcement. In both cases, the officials denied the claims.
Several militia groups have claimed to be collaborating directly with police. The Facebook page of the Three Percenters – Original said that its Utah chapter coordinated with the Salt Lake City police to set up an emergency perimeter around a police command post at the request of officers. A public information officer for the department told The Intercept that there was no such collaboration. In Georgetown, Texas, and Palmer, Alaska, members of militia groups claimed that public officials approved of offers to assist law enforcement. In both cases, the officials denied the claims.
Source, links:
Related:
Comments
Post a Comment