He Infiltrated a Notorious White Nationalist Group. Now, He’s Being Sued for Exposing Them
Affiliates of Patriot Front are big mad at an alleged antifa spy who spilled their secrets
Hope the lawsuit exposes them more. It should be 100% illegal to be anonymous to be part of a domestic terrorist groups our a hate group like this. Do what Germany does with nazis.
As an attorney, I would absolutely love to have subpoena and discovery power against right wing loons. I’m surprised they sued in the first place.
Since Patriot Front itself as an organization is not party to the suit how much can reasonably be gotten from them that wasn't in the leak? And I assume they've all been sanitizing their electronic devices and destroying anything remotely incriminating leading up to this lawsuit. Probably even distancing themselves from Patriot Front itself.
Heard from a friend; Just as real champagne only comes from France, only facists from Germany can be called Nazis. All others a simply sparkling facists.
I mean, I hate white nationalism just as much as the next guy. But if you go around making it illegal to be anonymous or part of a particular group, whether they're considered terrorist or otherwise, that's bad. It gives the next party in power precedent to make being part of your group illegal. That's why freedom of speech is so important.
I think associating with a group that believes in the creation of an ethnostate should remain legal so that associating with a group that believes in the dismantling of capitalism remains legal.
Yeah, I used to be a "free speech absolutist" too. Used to harp on about how important it is that we allow all views to be spread, regardless of how disgusting it might be... Then I grew up and realized how harmful that idea is to society.
Slippery slope fallacy isn't enough to convince me that having laws similar to Germany is going to lead to oppression or something. These ideologies have no place in modern society, and they should be given no quarter.
These people use your ideal of free speech absolutism against you, and until we realize there needs to be limits, we will never progress as a society because all of our time, focus, and resources will need to be on fighting this shit over and over and over.
You make a good point but whar do we do about these white nationalist and fascist?
Agreed. The first Gay and Lesbian liberation groups people operated with aliases because infiltration could mean their persecution under the law. To fight an unjust rule of law anonymity to a degree is needed to shield the just. That someone unjust can utilize that same shield is an unfortunate consequence.
The difference is if people still think your version of justice is deplorable when you come out from behind the shield then the consequences are yours to reap. In this instance it's not a matter of people wanting to be able to love each other publicly and get married it's people wanting to crush people beneath a boot so the issue is a little less gray. Caveat emptor.
The nuance in this discussion has me both-sidesing pretty hard. I'm gonna have to put some deliberate thought into where I land on this.
I think associating with a group that believes in the creation of an ethnostate should remain legal
So long as the group explicitly says they do not condone violence and they want to achieve their goals through purely peaceful means. If they want to deport everyone who "isn't them" to establish an ethnostate, that's one thing. But killing everyone who isn't them to create an ethnostate is very different and crosses the line.
The same would go for dismantling capitalism. Winning elections and passing laws to achieve that is very different from a violent overthrow of the government.
It should be 100% illegal to be anonymous to be part of a domestic terrorist groups our a hate group like this.
Now, define "domestic terrorist group" and "hate group" and do so in such a way that someone explicitly looking to attack the causes you believe in can't manage to count people you support in either of those groups. Because that's the hard part.
Also the bit where you have to throw out the 1st Amendment - freedom of speech that doesn't apply to even wildly unpopular ideas isn't actually freedom of speech because only unpopular ideas ever need protecting and exactly how far into unpopular, hated, reviled and abhorrent ideas you have to go before things become illegal is exactly how strong those freedoms are. Henry Louis Mencken once wrote, “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
Just imagine a hard right fundie christian conservative judge getting to rule whether or not a group falls under the definitions you give, and they'll rule it accurately for any hard and fast cases but also will use any flexibility you give against you.
Do what Germany does with Nazis
What do you think we do with Nazis?
edit: not sure why this is sitting at -1 right now, germany barely does anything against Nazis on a state level. In fact they support them and allow them to grow with barely any hinderance. Check out the NSU Murders, their relationship with the office for constitutional protection (Verfassungschutz) and their reaction and prosecution of the perpetrators. Bonus if you look at Germanys handling of far right groups and people online, in the military and in the police. Extra-credit is if you look how they treat leftist and progressive photojournalists and activists. Extrajudicial searches and wiretapping, smear campaigns, etc.
Lock they up ?
Germany is all talk. They try to PR that they're so anti fascist and pro freedom, but the numbers don't lie. Germany only cares about money
So no different then America.
To the tune of "if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands"
If you're a Nazi and you're fired, It's your fault 👏👏
If you're a Nazi and you're fired, It's your fault 👏👏
You were spotted in the mob, Now you've lost your fucking job.
If you're a Nazi and you're fired, It's your fault 👏👏
Edit for spacing
You were spotted in the mob, Now you’ve lost your fucking job.
If you’re a Nazi and you’re fired, It’s your fault 👏👏
Absolutely nailed the cadence, well done
8am and my day is already fucking great having read this.
The lawsuit hinges on unwelcome public identification. Ironically, the parties here sue in their own names, filing in federal district court in Washington state and creating a public record of what the suit terms their “unpopular opinions.” By their own identification, they are:
Names listed in the article
They're not sending their best and brightest, folks
They're not sending their best and brightest, folks
Yes they are.
I hadn't even heard about this suit, barely knew Patriot Front existed, and didn't have a clue about any leaks prior to reading this article, and now due to the suit I know them by name. Nice publicity stunt?
I'm pretty sure these are their best and brightest
"Yes, we believe Hitler was right and we want to exterminate every race other than us so that our white children can fulfill their white destinies..... But we don't want people to know our names. They might get mad."
Fuck all of these bigots.
files in court with their legal names, creating a permanent public record
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The suit decries how the left-wing activist conned Patriot Front into thinking he was a fellow traveler, “lying about his background and values,” only to expose its members through photography, secret recordings, and a massive computer hack.
The suit pulls back the curtain, for the first time, on how 400 gigabytes of Patriot Front data came to be exposed by the whistleblower group Denial of Distributed Secrets, in conjunction with the media collective Unicorn Riot in early 2022.
With this alleged hack, “Capito was able to download private chats and intercept video links” later posted in a data dump by DDoSecrets, the suit contends, and publicized by Unicorn Riot.
This leaked material showcased — among other rancid behavior — videos of Patriot Front members defacing murals that celebrate racial justice, burning LGBTQ pride flags in the woods, and thowing up Roman salutes and shouting “Sieg fucking Heil” when they thought they were off-camera.
And the group is infamous for menacing flash-mob tactics, in which shouting members march in a uniform of khakis and blue polo shirts — obscuring their identities with white face gaiters, baseball caps and sunglasses.
Five members of the group, including James Johnson, were recently convicted of “conspiracy to riot” at the 2022 Pride festival Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — where they were intercepted by FBI agents before they could descend on the celebrants.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Good job 👏 bot
secret recordings
If any of those were in CA, or any party being recorded was in CA at the time they'd have grounds to sue over that alone. CA is unique about recording laws in that according to CA where the recording was actually done is irrelevant, if any party is in CA, CA law applies. Not sure what recording consent laws look like elsewhere in the PNW.
It casts him as a 3-D-printed “ghost gun” enthusiast, a practitioner of the martial art of Krav Maga, a seasoned lock picker, and perhaps even “immune” to pepper spray.
They couldn't make him sound cooler if they tried
Dude sounds like how the mobsters talk about the "boogyman" in John Wick. Less discrediting and more showing how much they fear him.
This guy is a real hero
What's also funny is that capito is italian for "i understood." Like, he understood this would happen, and it was kind of the point
He Infiltrated a leftist group.