Far-Right Extremists Are Hoping to Turn the George Floyd Protests Into a New Civil War

There's a fair deal of nuance to this group that everybody should learn about by delving deeply into this piece mentioned below by author, Tess Owen, titled, "The Boogaloo Movement is not what you think."  Opposition to police brutality appears to be what unites the disparate, including far-right extremist, threads of this group.  Facebook is their primary recruitment and communication tool.

These things are really good to know about so that good people who seek justice for George Floyd and police brutality, in general, aren't viewed as the instigators or perpetrators of violence.

-Angela Valenzuela

Far-Right Extremists Are Hoping to Turn the George Floyd Protests Into a New Civil War

Armed extremists are showing up to protests and urging a “boogaloo” — code for civil war — online.

By Tess Owen | May 29 2020, 4:41pm

Far-right extremists are showing up, with guns, to the protests against police brutality that have exploded across the country.

Others are egging on the violence from behind their computers, urging followers to carry out acts of violence against black protesters with the goal of sparking a “race war.”

Their presence makes an uneasy addition to the escalating unrest, which was triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was choked to death by a white Minneapolis police officer earlier this week.

But there’s a range of motivations that’s driving far-right interest toward the protests, which are being led by community members and Black Lives Matter, and bolstered by antifascists.

For example, the so-called Boogaloo Bois — a group of armed anti-government extremists made visible by their Hawaiian shirts — have reportedly shown up to some of the protests.

READ: The cop who kneeled on George Floyd's neck was just charged with murder

The “boogaloo” is code for impending civil war or violent confrontation with law enforcement, and that’s what they’re hoping to get out of the protests. Their main reason for being there is their antipathy toward law enforcement, and so they’re trying to position themselves as allies of Black Lives Matter protesters. They’ve made police brutality one of their central issues, which was explored at length in a Bellingcat article this week.

Their approach to police brutality links the victims of the deadly standoff with federal agents at Ruby Ridge in 1992, to the victims of modern police brutality, including Floyd. But unlike the vast majority of protesters, they refuse to acknowledge the fact that police brutality is an issue that disproportionately impacts people of color.

There have been scattered reports of Boogaloo Bois’ presence at the protests, which were compiled by a Bellingcat investigative journalist in a thread. He includes an audio clip (stripped of video per activists’ requests) of protesters saying they’d wrestled a handgun from a “white nationalist” agitator — whom he describes as a Boogaloo Boi who became overly rowdy.

READ: New video shows three cops kneeling on George Floyd as he lay dying

Another photo, shared across private Boogaloo Facebook pages, showed one of their own unfurling their trademark flag during the Minneapolis protests.

 Continue reading here.

Retired justice urges repeal of Second Amendment

Here, here!  Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is weighing in on gun ownership in the U.S.  It's surely a sign of the times that mere consideration of an appeal of the Second Amendment is even happening.  It's not like we're inescapably stuck in a political-policy conundrum.  There are options, particularly with mass public support.

-Angela

#NeverAgain

Retired justice urges repeal of Second Amendment

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation.

The 97-year-old Stevens says in an essay on The New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Association's ability to "block constructive gun control legislation."

Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He had previously called for changing the Second Amendment to permit gun control.

Stevens says the decision in that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, "has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power." Stevens retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years.

In his essay published Tuesday, Stevens talks about the "March for Our Lives" events on Saturday which drew crowds in cities across the country. Stevens said the demonstrations "reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society."

He said the support "is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms."

But Stevens called on demonstrators to "seek more effective and more lasting reform."

"They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment," he wrote.

Repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult. An amendment to the Constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.

Asked at a White House briefing whether President Donald Trump had any reaction to Stevens' comments, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president and administration "still fully support the Second Amendment."

"We think that the focus has to remain on removing weapons from dangerous individuals, not on blocking all Americans from their constitutional rights," she said.

The National Rifle Association also issued a statement in response to Stevens' essay.

"The men and women of the National Rifle Association, along with the majority of the American people and the Supreme Court, believe in the Second Amendment right to self-protection and we will unapologetically continue to fight to protect this fundamental freedom," the statement said.