Bringing Guns To a Protest: White Vigilantes and Cops

“White vigilantes and far-right actors have shown up

 to oppose Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. 

at least 497 times this year.”

– Alexander Reid Ross, doctoral fellow at the
Center for Analysis of the Radical Right

Data shows a broad threat of gun violence at protests long before Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly opened fire on anti-racist protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two and severely injuring another.

Alexander Reid Ross began gathering data on May 27, two days after police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, and continued through this week. The dataset, which Ross shared with HuffPost, documents a staggering amount of violence directed at protesters by the far-right, including 64 cases of simple assault, 38 incidents of vigilantes driving cars into demonstrators, and nine times shots were fired at protesters.

All told, six protesters were hit by vigilante bullets in this summer’s violence. Three died from their wounds.

Ross’ dataset also includes 387 incidents of intimidation, such as people using racist slurs, making threats and brandishing firearms. Ross says …

“There just isn’t really anything to compare it to. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

The data – which Ross gathered from social media posts, news reports and the ACLED US Crisis Monitor with help from Political Research Associates and the the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights – includes some harrowing tales of violence.

(Christopher Mathias. “White Vigilantes Have Always Had A Friend In Police.”

HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-vigilantes-kenosha_n_5f4822bcc5b6cf66b2b5103e August 28, 2020.)

The violence included the following:

* A U.S. Army sergeant, who had previously posted tweets about targeting Black Lives Matter activists, shot and killed a protester in Austin, Texas.

* Black Lives Matter protesters marching through a rural part of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, say a white man opened fire on them at night, striking one protester in the face.

* A man in Iowa City, Iowa, allegedly drove his car into a crowd of protesters and, according to a criminal complaint, later justified the attack by telling police the protesters needed “an attitude adjustment.”

Such stories this summer have coincided with story after story of cops and national guardsmen openly supporting or collaborating with fascists and white vigilantes.

Ross said his dataset includes about two dozen incidents of vigilantes receiving approval or support from law enforcement. For example …

• A sheriff in Arizona announced he would form a “civilian posse” to help “suppress lawlessness” during a time of “widespread unrest.”
• In California, a sheriff’s deputy was spotted wearing a “III Percenters” militia patch on his uniform while policing a protest, while in Portland, Oregon, cops let the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys attack protesters in the streets.
• A police chief in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, was suspended for two weeks after writing a Facebook comment encouraging people to drive their cars through Black Lives Matter demonstrators. “HIT THE GAS AND HANG ON FOR THE SPEED BUMPS,” he wrote.

(Christopher Mathias. “White Vigilantes Have Always Had A Friend In Police.”

HuffPost. August 28, 2020.)

There has been a “tremendous increase” in right-wing paramilitary activity this year. Boogaloo Bois, III Percenters, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and white nationalists have become a regular fixture of right-wing counterprotests.

Other armed mobs of mostly white men who have appeared after online calls to defend their communities from mostly imaginary threats of left-wing looters being bused into town. They are not part of any recognizable organized group.

“If you get counterprotesters showing up who are armed, cops are almost always facing towards the Black Lives Matter and racial justice protesters, not towards the armed counterprotesters.”

– Steven Gardiner, a research analyst at Political Research Associates

Trust in the police remains low among people of color, who are often victims of police violence and abuse and are disproportionately underserved as victims of crime. The FBI’s 2015 Counterterrorism Policy Directive and Policy Guide warns that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.”

“The failure of law enforcement to adequately respond to racist violence and hate crimes or properly police white supremacist riots in cities across the United States over the last several years has left many Americans concerned that bias in law enforcement is pervasive.”

– Matt Coker, Los Angeles Times

In 2017, the FBI reported that white supremacists posed a “persistent threat of lethal violence” that has produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000. Alarmingly, internal FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and anti-government militia groups they investigate often have “active links” to law enforcement officials.

(Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security, Joint Intelligence Bulletin. “White Supremacist Extremism Poses Persistent Threat of Lethal Violence.”

May 10, 2017.)

(Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Division, Counterterrorism Policy Directive and Policy Guide. April 1, 2015 – Updated November 18, 2015)

Obviously, only a tiny percentage of law enforcement officials are likely to be active members of white supremacist groups. However, evidence of overt and explicit racism within law enforcement since 2000 is strong. Law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and elsewhere.

(Becky Bratu. “Two Alabama Officers Put on Leave for Alleged Ties to ‘Hate Group.’” NBC News. June 17, 2015, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/two-alabama-officers-put-leave-alleged-ties-hate-group-n377421; Michael Winter. “KKK Membership Sinks 2 Florida Cops.” USA Today. July 14, 2014,

Research organizations have uncovered hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials participating in racist, nativist, and sexist social media activity, which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common. These officers’ racist activities are often known within their departments, but only result in disciplinary action or termination if they trigger public scandals.

(Rashad Robinson.“We Can’t Trust Police to Protect Us from Racist Violence. They Contribute to It.” Guardian. August 21, 2019)

Message From the Top

The Trump campaign has run over 2,000 advertisements on social media since June 2, warning about “Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups,” some versions of which featured a point-down red triangle, an image used to identify political enemies in Nazi concentration camps.

Over the summer, Trump has repeatedly referred to Black Lives Matter protesters as “thugs,” and in June ordered peaceful demonstrators to be tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets.

Now, seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who has described himself as a militia member and who appeared in videos next to other armed men linked to a local militia group known as the Kenosha Guard, has been arrested and charged with killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse himself is a Trump supporter who attended one of the president’s rallies earlier this year, according to BuzzFeed.

Trump and his allies have not condemned armed vigilantism. "How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?" Tucker Carlson asked on his Fox News program.

The opening night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) prominently featured a speech by Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the wealthy white couple who illegally brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis, Missouri.

Consider what followed …

Then, just one day after the McCloskeys’ RNC speech, a white gunman killed two people and injured a third at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was likely influenced by the glorification of vigilante violence that is endemic to the far right.

Militia and right-wing vigilantes agree with the call to take up arms against the “radical left.” They are bringing their guns to towns all around America. This dark path of violence is advocated by Make America Great Again supporters, White Nationalists, and systemic racists.

“While the explicit formula for staving off an impending 'socialist utopia,' as Tim Scott phrased it, is to win the election, the RNC, many Trump supporters, and their far right and fascist fellow travelers are simultaneously engaging in racist rhetoric about the need for a militant defense of 'quiet neighborhoods' from mobs of immigrants and 'radical leftists,' hellbent on 'replacing' America (reminiscent of the Charlottesville chant 'Jews will not replace us').

“The paradoxical call to subvert the law in order to uphold the law is quintessentially fascist. It’s a fascistic worldview that is apparent in the police embrace of the logo of the Marvel superhero The Punisher: a strongman unconstrained by the 'weak' and 'effeminate' limits of bourgeois legalism in his pursuit of transcendent justice.”

(Mark Bray. “RNC Gave Prime Time to Vigilantes. The Next Day a Gunman Shot BLM Protesters.” truthout.com. August 26, 2020.)