zn wrote:

Weapon of Choice (song)

The lines “Walk without rhythm/and it won’t attract the worm” quote the science fiction novel Dune

wv wrote:

The main problem I (as a leftist) have with them is this — Yes, they are right to point out that Race does not explain the Facts/Stats.
Plenty of POOR-whites are killed by police.
And yes, plenty of POOR-blacks kill other POOR-blacks. Many more than the Cops are killing.

These are all excuses the racists use, so they can argue that there’s no racism.

If you are black you have a statistically greater chance of being stopped, searched, arrested, held, tried, and convicted. And you then get a longer sentence. That’s if you don’t get killed in the first place.

A very good example is drugs. The percentage of whites and the percentage of blacks who do any kind of illegal drugs is about equal. But you are far more likely to be pulled over and searched for drugs if you are black.

And poor whites kill poor whites. Killing tends to happen in the neighborhood.

What stats don’t say about the so-called black on black crime thing is that the percentage of violent crime in areas economically defined by poverty are always high, regardless of race.

Which gets us back to WV’s point about why is there poverty. The centrist, conservative, and racist answers are all the same. They did it to themselves.

….

Patriot Coalition: Leaked Messages Show Far-Right Group’s Plans for Portland Violence

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/09/23/patriot-coalition-far-right-chat-logs-violence/?fbclid=IwAR0zOYG11afRLVsBVwg4ACvAGgC1PXnd5Depfhs8obG8gwUFfnLC-LPKuUk

The summer of 2020 has seen the city of Portland, Oregon, become a symbol and a venue for the further, dramatic polarization of the United States. More than a hundred nights of intense protests against police violence by left-wing activists have led to further police violence in response, and to President Donald Trump declaring the city a “beehive of terrorists” and an “anarchist jurisdiction.” A great deal of reporting has been dedicated to the city’s leftist protesters. Less national attention has been focused on those who perceive the protesters as their enemies: a network of “Patriot” militias and extremist groups, who have in recent weeks been staging violent confrontations in Portland’s downtown streets.

Bellingcat has acquired several months of chat logs from the Patriot Coalition of Oregon, a network of pro-Trump, pro-police activists. These chat logs were provided by an infiltrator affiliated with the antifascist collective Eugene Antifa. We were also given login information for the infiltrator’s account on GroupMe, a secure messaging app owned by Microsoft. This allowed us to directly observe the group’s communications, to verify the information provided to us and to export a log of those chats directly from the application. (Many posts contain spelling and grammatical errors, which we have not altered.)

These logs provide an intimate look inside a growing insurgent network, and shed new light on episodes of armed conflict which are already on the public record. Topics of conversation include plans for violence in the streets of Portland, celebration of acts of thuggery and even discussions about harming elected leaders and journalists. More than anything, the chats catalog the rapid radicalization of Patriot Coalition’s membership, many of whom express a willingness to kill their perceived left-wing enemies.

Who Are These People?

The Patriot Coalition of Oregon (often just referred to as Patriot Coalition) was founded in the summer of 2020 by a person who posted under the GroupMe username “Patriot Coalition.” Most other members called her “Momma Bear.” She appears to have been largely motivated by her love of the police and military, as well as her support for President Trump. On August 20th she wrote: “I am the founder of the group- I founded it months ago and it was because I was sick and F’ing tired of watching what was happening… we have men and women fighting for us to keep us safe- they deserve to come home to peace- NOT continue to fight! We owe that to them…”

The leaked chat logs appear to reveal that some members of the Patriot Coalition have taken part in multiple violent rallies throughout the summer, and that they claim to have operated a series of vigilante patrols and checkpoints during the Oregon wildfires. While the chats appear to show they work and fight alongside members of extremist groups like the Proud Boys, American Wolf and 1776 2.0, the Patriot Coalition seems to have no coherent ideology beyond a desire to violently confront leftists in the name of the police and President Trump. A user identified as Paige summed up the general feelings of the group in a post made ahead of a what turned out to be a bloody ‘Back the Blue’ rally on August 22nd in Portland when she wrote: “I’m waiting for the presidential go to start open firing.”

Online, Patriot Coalition prides itself on an unusually strict vetting process, which they (wrongly, it turns out) believed would protect them from being infiltrated. The group’s most public face was its Facebook group. A first (now archived) page had more than 1,500 members.

Individuals interested in joining were subjected to a “security check” before being allowed into a private GroupMe room where more secretive conversations occurred and potential illegal and violent activity was discussed. Membership in this group tended to hover a little over 100.

In chats, ‘Momma Bear’ and other leaders of the group repeatedly expressed confidence in their vetting process. This probably explains why members of the group felt comfortable posting shocking and disturbing content. In one example from August 16th, a user identified as Shelly A suggested members of Patriot Coalition might kill antifascists with injected poisons.

Immediately after this she notes that she is, “…getting tired of hearing about them and the evil Democrats.” Patriot Coalition members regularly declare Democratic politicians to be “Antifa” and thus fair targets for violence.

Over the course of the summer, the group’s original founder stepped down amid dissension over the group’s response to Oregon’s wildfire emergency – her efforts to restrain members from a vigilante response to false information about Antifa arsonists cost her popularity among members.

A new leader, identified as “Trent,” was appointed in her place, heading a leadership team which was often challenged and berated in the chats. Trent soon decided he didn’t want to lead the group either, but eventually changed his mind and recommitted. Beyond this leadership turmoil, the chat logs show frequent conflicts between members over the wisdom of certain actions, including attacks in the city of Portland. Some of these arguments have led to members leaving. Those who remain have expressed a growing desire to train and prepare for further violence, up to and beyond November’s Presidential election.

As user Roger Charlie Bravo posted on September 15th: “What we are doing is not random. Patriots around the country are currently organizing and preparing. We know D day is coming after November. We know that what we are seeing now is a betrayal of trust of the people by our government. We know that this war has a long time to go. We are not alone. There are people all around us supporting us. There are people all around that would stand side by side with us.”

Planning for Violence

Discussions of violence in the Patriot Coalition group chat are not hypothetical. While some individuals are likely grandstanding, the chat logs show members gearing up for a number of events where very real violence occurred.

On August 22nd more than 300 heavily armed right-wing demonstrators rallied in downtown Portland for what was, nominally, a rally supporting the police. Yet the situation quickly degenerated into a mass brawl, with numerous injuries (including to one of the authors of this article).

Those events reflected the plans that Patriot Coalition had made. In the lead up, members discussed acquiring paintball guns and freezing their ammunition for maximum damage. During a discussion on August 18th, a member asked: “Is this for real? Paintballs?” The group founder, ‘Momma Bear,’ who at that point was still in a leadership position, responded: “Some people do not own anything else – or they can’t own anything else.” Though she didn’t clarify the comment, federal gun laws in the United States bar felons from owning powder firearms.

She went on to write: “Paintball markers can be amped up to push more power- trust me – they freakin hurt and leave nasty ass bruises…So for all of you paintball marker carriers- see if you can somehow get your hands on Dynasty’s Banana paint- it has a nasty chemical in it that causes cramping.”

One member of the group, David Willis, messaged the group on August 18th to ask: “Where do you get rubber balls for your paintball gun?” During the rally, Willis was apparently filmed and identified by antifascist activists as having fired indiscriminately into a crowd of left-wing protesters. He later bragged in the chat, after the August 22nd protest: “I was the one with the ar style paintballcgun yesterday i had 200 rubber rounds they worked great but i did have some jams it could have been the gun.”

Willis is currently being sued as the result of an assault on a Portland cider bar frequented by antifascists. During one discussion in the chats, he urged members not to freeze paintballs as “it makes them wildly inaccurate.” Instead, he suggested purchasing “glass breaker balls that are rubber coated metal.”

The authors of this article attempted to reach out to Willis but did not receive a response before press time.

Mark Melchi, a member of the chat group who also heads a militant anti-Antifa group named 1776 2.0, posted on August 17th: “My Group 1776 2.0. Has been fighting Antifa in Seattle, Portland, for months. They are all hit an run tactics from a few behind the main rows of people. When things get going. The Portland Ganges who also hide in Antifa will shoot you…Like they have done with a few of our guys. This won’t be a simple fist fight. People will get shot, stabbed and beat. We have fought with guys in Portland who are like giant Russians so, they’re not all soy boys. We must be ready to defend with lethal response. If we don’t get to enough of them they will just comeback when we leave, just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan. We need to make it dramatic enough for them not to want to return. Suggest wearing mask and nothing to identify you on Camera…to prevent any future prosecution.”

A pseudonymous user who identified as Dan-Medford, appeared to agree: “Always wear a mask at these events.” He added, “if its my time, then its my time. But I’m going out the same way I came in. Bloody and screaming. No more terrorists in my home.” Another user, Rex, said: “We need to tell the feds ‘we’re coming and Hells coming with us’ and if they’re not going to help… then stay the f..k out of our way.” This too met widespread agreement, with a user named Ken stating on the topic of antifascists: “They need to be shot down like rabid coyotes no questions asked.”

When contacted by the authors of this article by email, Melchi suggested screen grabs of comments could have been easily altered with Photoshop, without addressing the exported chat logs, or accounting for his comments. In response to questions about his comments, and his political beliefs, Melchi issued threats, writing “Communist/Domestic Terrorists/Marxis have zero place in America and will be removed from our land, with hugs, violence, snacks, however!”

The chat logs appear to show that the eventual use of less-than-lethal weapons on August 22nd was a grudging compromise, made between more aggressive and cautious members for the sake of public impressions, or “optics.” Prior to the afternoon rally user Ramon Blackwolf warned that the event would receive “nation wide attention.” He followed up by promising: “But our fun will be Saturday night.” On August 19th Melchi asked for clarification about what was planned for the night of the 22nd.

“Hey guys, I guess I miss understood something originally. All the groups we have coming is for the night clearing operation or for the back the blue event in the day? I thought the night operation was the real focus. Just trying to clarify so I can correct with my members as well.”

A user who identified as Nate D. responded to him; “Both are important in my opinion. I plan to be there all day and night until the streets are clear lol.” Another member identified as Jason followed up: “I think most are in favor of both. A huge show of presence in the day to let them know we are here and a night op to show that we are done fucking around.” This plan met with widespread approval, with Patriot Coalition founder ‘Momma Bear’ noting: “Daytime we are to be respectful, calm, quiet, only react if forced to… we must be perfect… night time- it all changes.”

This planned night time raid never occurred, The “Patriots” and their Proud Boy allies were forced out of downtown by a crowd of antifascists that substantially outnumbered them. While they would later claim victory, contemporaneous private chats suggest a disorderly rout.

zn wrote:

Carson Wentz is not a dummy… he’s just shocking inaccurate.

Maybe the Eagles miss their former coordinator, Frank Reich. Maybe he was the coach behind the more successful Wentz of earlier seasons, not Pederson.

JackPMiller wrote:

WHILE DARING & INNOVATIVE, IT IS NOT ENTIRELY CLEAR THAT THE RAMS TACTIC OF DROPPING BALL CARRIERS ON TO THE FIELD FROM AN OVERHEAD HELOCOPTER IS ACTUALLY IN KEEPING WITH LEAGUE RULES.

Aaron Donald working underneath then lifting & THROWING Seumalo (300+ pounds) off of his feet by the elbow. pic.twitter.com/YeF2JOFgyl

— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) September 23, 2020