News – Illiterate cops order aerial hunt for ‘Antifa’, citing neo-Nazi rumors that have sparked armed crowds

Screenshots of two rambling social media posts – one from Facebook, one from Instagram – form the sum of evidence police used last summer to justify aerial surveillance in Northern California, records obtained by the non-profit transparency group Property of the people and reports from the Guardian show.

The paper reported Monday on the events surrounding the California Highway Patrol’s June 2020 decision to deploy surveillance planes to hunt down a (fake) trailer of left-wing “terrorists”, who were apparently making a round trip across the California smashing windows and starting fires.

Rumors of the invasion, which did not materialize but sparked armed protests from right-wing extremists in cities across the Northwest, stemmed from social media posts that had been made viral by an army of accounts claiming that “Antifa” was going on a rampage.

First, Twitter took action, claiming the rumors had been boosted by “hundreds of spammed accounts” as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Facebook followed shortly after, citing details shared by its competitor. Many accounts have presented themselves as members of “Antifa” or as official “Antifa” accounts while warning against the movements of the caravan.

None of them were real.

In fact, the campaign was started by a white hate group, said company officials, whose notoriety is linked to the “Unite the Right” rally in 2017; a bloody event organized by neo-Nazis and Klan men defending the Confederacy, which ended in a murder.

New Guardian details add chapter already bizarre saga about a California sheriff who in the summer of 2020 also insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary, that a bunch of anti-fascists roamed the countryside, chaos and madness behind.

The documents obtained by Property for the People offer a singular look at how agents in rural northern California counties, primarily “known for their weeding farms and their hikes and [being] extremely white, ”the Guardian notes – have been duped into promoting the same false claims themselves, while throwing taxpayer resources on a phantom threat that even residents have declared to be a beggar.

Despite the number of reporters and law enforcement officials declaring the rumors to be false, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal declined to reverse the claims he promoted via its weekly “media availability” videos. Lost Coast Outpost, a news site covering Northwestern California, documented Honsal insisted he had seen “corroborated law enforcement reports” of “buses full of people” rushing towards the state.

But what his office is now telling the Guardian raises questions at the very least about what Honsal thinks “founded” looks like:

A spokesperson for the CHP told the Guardian the agency had received no evidence of any buses beyond the two screenshots, and said its investigative unit had reviewed publications on the social networks “to assess potential public safety issues”.

One of the two screenshots was from an Instagram post claiming that far-left “national terrorists” were heading towards the small town of Redding in Shastha County; a three hour drive east of Honsal turf. The second, from Facebook, claimed the trailer made a brief stop at Klamath Falls, a five-hour drive from the state, before continuing with his newspaper. No video evidence photos were offered except “a grainy image of a small van with ‘Black Lives Matter’ written on the back.”

The Associated Press, at the time Honsal received the screenshots, was circulate a fact-check claiming that the bus photos with text warning that “Antifa” was “brought in by bus” to “incite violence and destruction” were false. Text painted on buses has been retouched.

Honsal, who received the screenshots from the California Highway Patrol, nevertheless continued to insist a week later that he had “confirmed” that the trailer was real; this, despite at that time, numerous investigations having determined precisely the opposite.

As his defense of the allegations continued, NBC News reported that Twitter had suspended an “Antifa” account announcing its intention to start riots “in residential neighborhoods” in Washington; or, as the story goes, in “white hoods”. Twitter, however, revealed that the account was linked to Identity Evropa, a white nationalist organization. implied at the Charlottesville rally, which ended Heather Hayer murder, a 32-year-old paralegal, by a man described as “love Hitler” from the youngest age.

At the same time, Twitter was grappling with trending hashtags promoting conspiracy theories about a “cover-up” or “blackout” of the news on “Antifa” and the devastation caused by its riot road trip. . The hot topics are the result of the coordinated efforts of “hundreds of spam accounts,” Twitter said.

Soon reports surfaced of gathering of armed militiamen on the city streets, bracing for a confrontation with a threat no one 800 miles away could find.

Honsal, again, did not back down.

Owned by the People’s executive director Ryan Shapiro criticized the Highway Patrol for engaging in “military-style” surveillance while Honsal and others issued disturbing public announcements based on a threat backed by next to nothing.

On the contrary, it suggests, Shapiro told the Guardian, a lack of “basic social media information and information training” among public officials, upon which a great responsibility for public safety rests.