Jump to content

Right Wing Extremist Violence Thread


Hugo Stiglitz

Recommended Posts

Far right asshole kills 2 and injures 5 more in a Boise mall:

Quote

The man who opened fire at a mall in Boise, Idaho, on Monday, killing two people and injuring five others before being fatally wounded by police, was a far-right gun extremist who had expressed an animus towards Latinos and other minorities—and who not only carried a gun into the Idaho governor’s office, but also turned up armed at an April antifascist protest in Boise and menaced demonstrators, Daily Kos has learned.

Jacob Bergquist, 27, was a convicted felon who had moved to Idaho a few years ago and had apparently developed an obsession with establishing his right to carry a firearm under Idaho law, a review of his social media posts indicates. He died Monday at a Boise hospital after being shot during the culmination of a shooting rampage inside Boise Towne Square, the state’s largest shopping mall.

Bergquist shot and killed a security guard, Jo Acker, 26, of Caldwell, and a Latino man, Roberto Padilla Arguelles, 49, who lived in Rupert. (Acker was transgender; the family of Arguelles, an immigrant from Mexico, is holding a fundraiser so that his remains can be returned home.) Bergquist also wounded two women inside a store in the mall, then proceeded outside where he exchanged gunfire with police; a woman inside a nearby car was wounded, as was one of the police officers.

Police have not yet determined a motive for the shooting rampage but this had not been their first encounter with Bergquist.

On April 2, Bergquist entered the office of Idaho Gov. Brad Little in the Statehouse in Boise and asked for an interview, saying he wanted to query the governor about his thoughts on convicted felons like himself being able to carry guns. A state trooper who observed the interaction and then sought guidance from the Ada County prosecutor’s office was advised that Bergquist was within his rights to do so under Idaho law.

Over two weeks later, on April 17, Bergquist showed up at an unpermitted antifascist protest against police brutality with a handgun in a holster strapped to his waist. Participants in the protest took his photo because he “gave off a dangerous vibe,” according to sources who were present. The marchers did not confront him, and instead continued on their route through downtown Boise.

Bergquist, marchers said, followed them from a distance. Activists noted that Bergquist’s presence came shortly after his encounter with police inside the Statehouse.

"They specifically told him he was all good to be gunned up, and he rolls out immediately to greet us,” one of the marchers said. They described Bergquist as having an “expressionless face.”

At the same march, Boise police ticketed the marchers for violating the city’s noise ordinance. One of the demonstrators, Ty Werenka, later contested the ticket in city court as unconstitutional, and won when the judge—who noted that the officer, Desmond Hooks, failed to handle standard procedure by issuing a warning, and that police failed to hand out similar tickets in situations that more commonly violate the law—ruled that the citation was “discriminatory.”

“Being treated differently by the police isn't something foreign to me and it definitely wasn't a special occurrence that day,” Werenka messaged Daily Kos this week. “The judge, my attorney, and I all came to the conclusion that Desmond Hooks treated me differently than he normally treats folks allegedly violating the city noise ordinance because he admitted to it himself in court.

“He proudly stated that he gave me no warning (despite admitting that it was common practice), didn't investigate if we had a permit, and didn't check to see if the demonstration fell within the outlined exceptions in the city code (it did). Hooks came by Boise Mutual Aid less than a week later and told me that he would ‘jam up’ the people receiving aid if we didn't tell him where an individual he was looking for was located.”

It was an Idaho State Police trooper, rather than Boise police, who dealt with Bergquist on April 2. In a redacted report, Trooper James Love described how Bergquist entered the statehouse with a holstered handgun on his hip and then admitted he had a felony conviction in Illinois. Love said he asked Bergquist why he was carrying a gun if he was a felon, but Bergquist replied that he was allowed to do so under Idaho code 18-310, and urged the trooper to check it out.

Bergquist told the governor’s receptionist that he wanted to interview Little because he was "trying to get the word out to others that they too could carry in Idaho." Love referred the information to the Ada County prosecutor, who informed him that under Idaho law, Bergquist was permitted to possess firearms there.

“Idaho Code Section 18-310(2) has a list of qualifying felony convictions which prohibit firearm possession,” the office explained in a statement. “Mr. Bergquist did not have a felony conviction for a listed offense. He was prosecuted for a qualifying offense in another state, but that case did not result in a qualifying felony conviction. On July 28, 2011, a misdemeanor judgment of conviction was entered in that case [for marijuana trafficking]. He was prosecuted for a retail theft offense in Illinois which does not qualify under 18-310 as a qualifying felony prior conviction. Our office could not take any action.”

On social media, this particular cause was Bergquist’s preoccupation—along with an animus towards Latino people, Black people, and hip-hop music. Though he had a Facebook account on which he mostly kept personal photos, his primary activity was on YouTube, where he operated a channel called “Guns N Rodents.” His “About” text, posted in February 2018, reads, “I am a Convicted Felon that is a Boise, Idaho resident in the USA,” and explains how his videos from his time in Illinois involved “my interactions with squirrels and raccoons.” Then he launched into an all-caps screed:

GUNS N RODENTS MAINTAINS A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY TOWARDS GHETTO BLASTERS AND GENERAL HISPANICS! YOU WILL BE BLOCKED, BANNED & DELETED—WHICHEVER IS MOST APPLICABLE. NO NEGOTIATIONS.

THIS MEANS MINORITIES ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!! GET OUT OF HERE AND DO NOT VIEW ANY OF MY VIDEOS!! GO BACK TO SH*THOLE GUATEMALA.

In a rebooted version of the channel, Bergquist explained: “This channels main dedication is towards repealing the prohibited possessor list in various states throughout the union.”

The cause of enabling convicted felons to have their firearms rights restored has long been a cause of so-called “Second Amendment” absolutists who contend that the Constitution prohibits any gun regulations whatsoever, including the National Rifle Association and the far-right Gun Owners of America. The same ideology has also become a major conduit of recruitment of gun owners into white nationalist and other extremist ideologies, and it proved to be a central factor in the radicalization of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

But gun rights extremism has long had a large constituency in Idaho, resulting in some of the most lax gun ownership laws in the nation. In 2014, Idaho passed a law—which was passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate—declaring the state no longer had to abide by federal gun laws going forward. It also criminalized the enforcement of federal gun laws. Such laws, as The Atlantic explains, are unconstitutional on their face, but they have not yet been challenged in court. (The Supreme Court recently declined the case of a felon seeking to overturn a lifetime gun ban.)

In 2016, gun rights extremists led by Gun Owners of America held a rally at the statehouse demanding legislators pass a law allowing unpermitted open carry of firearms; the rally was populated by a range of militia enthusiasts and other patriot movement followers. The law was passed with broad support, and went into effect in July that year.

The result of these laws is an environment in which far-right extremists are empowered by authorities to use their guns to intimidate their political opponents, as Bergquist did in April. More insidiously, they have created an environment in which police forces—which increasingly have been demonstrating their sympathy with such extremists—actually green-light their threatening behavior, which is invariably directed at vulnerable minorities and the broader community.

“The police here have the ability to act with impunity because so few people actually have the will or the ability to fight back,” Werenka observed. “There are multiple murders and shootings carried out by the police in this state every year that never have their camera footage released because political leaders (elected and unelected) are more concerned with giving lip service to ‘diversity’ than they are with fostering a community where it is actually safe to be a minority. The cops here use drones to flush out and and find people sleeping outside and shoot people in crisis who need real help. It's pretty fucking grim and all of it disproportionately hurts the marginalized communities here.”

Only a few hours after Bergquist unleashed his lethal rampage, an audience member at a Turning Point USA event asked speaker Charlie Kirk: “When do we get to use the guns? … How many elections are they gonna steal before we kill these people?”

There is no evidence that the inquirer (later identified by Redoubt Antifascists and an activist named Danesh on Twitter as Zackary Fettel, a Boise area resident) had any connection to Jacob Bergquist or his rampage. But on a deeper level—the one at which the radicalization of the American right is engendering eliminationist violence—they are profoundly connected.

 

  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, wildcat09 said:

They are enabled, empowered, and encouraged by the Trump Cult movement.  He ain't the first, he won't be the last.  Tree of Life, Wal-mart in El Paso, Idaho mall, many more already, and many more to come.

But remember, the greatest threat to America is "Critical Race Theory!"

  • Rage+1 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

I see the cabal is just focusing on far right violence. What about violence from the left?! 

What gun violence from the left?....  You don't hear and see progressives (or the left) wanting to exercise an outdated 2nd Amendment (aka deadly force) or wanting to use their killing machines (aka guns)to fulfill wild-west-like fantasies, despite their claims to be Christian..... (aka "though shalt not kill" and "love thy neighbor as thyself")...  Is this truly an honest question?

Edited by SwAss
  • Fuck You 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, SwAss said:

What gun violence from the left?....  You don't hear and see progressives (or the left) wanting to exercise an outdated 2nd Amendment (aka deadly force) or wanting to use their killing machines (aka guns)to fulfill wild-west-like fantasies, despite their claims to be Christian..... (aka "though shalt not kill" and "love thy neighbor as thyself")...  Is this truly an honest question?

spacer.png

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/27/2021 at 11:05 AM, Nivek said:

First they have to convince you that you were wronged (there is something amiss).  Once that happens, now we just need to convince you of who did it and what you should do about it (the hook brings you back).    

 

Those two points are pretty obvious in the case of the poor Iraqis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man breaks several bones in a female flight attendant's face because he didn't want to wear a mask.  Whole flight from JFK to California gets diverted to Denver so the flight attendant could be attended to and the asshole arrested.  This drunken political shit never happened before Trump was elected.  You'd have the occasional drunk get so unruly that somebody would force a flight to be diverted but that was just alcohol. This is alcohol + righteous indignation + trumpfuckery.
 

 

  • Rage+1 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Man breaks several bones in a female flight attendant's face because he didn't want to wear a mask.  Whole flight from JFK to California gets diverted to Denver so the flight attendant could be attended to and the asshole arrested.  This drunken political shit never happened before Trump was elected.  You'd have the occasional drunk get so unruly that somebody would force a flight to be diverted but that was just alcohol. This is alcohol + righteous indignation + trumpfuckery.
 

 

Of course this shitbird is going back to Orange County ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting a plane full of innocent Americans at grave risk to show obedience to your caricature of a leader?  

I swear there's a name for that type of belief system.  Starts with an "AL" if I recall correctly.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Putting a plane full of innocent Americans at grave risk to show obedience to your caricature of a leader?  

I swear there's a name for that type of belief system.  Starts with an "AL" if I recall correctly.  

Starts with a Y'all I thought? (hint: Y'all Qaeda )

  • Fuck You 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Putting a plane full of innocent Americans at grave risk to show obedience to your caricature of a leader?  

I swear there's a name for that type of belief system.  Starts with an "AL" if I recall correctly.  

Tfw "al qaeda" translates literally to "the base"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Man breaks several bones in a female flight attendant's face because he didn't want to wear a mask.  Whole flight from JFK to California gets diverted to Denver so the flight attendant could be attended to and the asshole arrested.  This drunken political shit never happened before Trump was elected.  You'd have the occasional drunk get so unruly that somebody would force a flight to be diverted but that was just alcohol. This is alcohol + righteous indignation + trumpfuckery.
 

 

Hopefully he's never allowed to fly again in his miserable life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Man breaks several bones in a female flight attendant's face because he didn't want to wear a mask.  Whole flight from JFK to California gets diverted to Denver so the flight attendant could be attended to and the asshole arrested.  This drunken political shit never happened before Trump was elected.  You'd have the occasional drunk get so unruly that somebody would force a flight to be diverted but that was just alcohol. This is alcohol + righteous indignation + trumpfuckery.
 

 

It’s a tragedy the dream that was Trump Air couldn’t have hung in there a little longer, if for no other reason than MAGA assholes could have had their own airline that sane flyers could avoid.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

911 transcripts filed in updated “Trump Train” lawsuit reveal San Marcos police refused to send escort to Biden bus and actually laughed and “joked about the victims and their distress.”


https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/29/trump-train-texas-highway-crash-police/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1635569751&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/28/2021 at 12:37 PM, Neonmoon said:

My favorite slur, is what mexicans call other mexicans that act white "coconut"

 

 

On 10/29/2021 at 1:21 PM, F250 said:

Sometimes I like to inject derision into that term by saying pinche coconut.

 

 

On 10/29/2021 at 1:33 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

How does someone act white?

Some don't know their own history.  Education is a good thing.

 

Casta_painting_all.jpg

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, SaucyJack said:

 

 

Some don't know their own history.  Education is a good thing.

 

Casta_painting_all.jpg

Just to be clear. Terms like "coconut" or the Italian-American phrase "medigan" have to do with integration with the Anglo-American "white" cultural hegemony not a Spanish colonial caste system. You are so off-base with your post it's insulting.

A "coconut" like a "medigan", "banana" or "oreo" is someone that ignores their ancestral culture in order to blend with the Anglo hegemony at the expense of their own identity. It's seen as a betrayal hence the derogatory terms used to describe such a person.

 

Educate Yourself Shooting Star GIF

Edited by F250
  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/28/2021 at 12:31 PM, Brisketexan said:


Ahhhh…..I see you fortunately haven’t been around many racists back on the day. I have. I knew the word.

He left out "quintroon."  I have never heard those words spoken.  I have read them in historical texts.  I think Pudd'nhead Wilson may have used one or more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

911 transcripts filed in updated “Trump Train” lawsuit reveal San Marcos police refused to send escort to Biden bus and actually laughed and “joked about the victims and their distress.”


https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/29/trump-train-texas-highway-crash-police/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1635569751&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

'bout what you'd expect. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Man breaks several bones in a female flight attendant's face because he didn't want to wear a mask.  Whole flight from JFK to California gets diverted to Denver so the flight attendant could be attended to and the asshole arrested.  This drunken political shit never happened before Trump was elected.  You'd have the occasional drunk get so unruly that somebody would force a flight to be diverted but that was just alcohol. This is alcohol + righteous indignation + trumpfuckery.
 

 

 

if you assault a pilot or flight attendant like this, lifetime no fly list. after you get out of prison

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

911 transcripts filed in updated “Trump Train” lawsuit reveal San Marcos police refused to send escort to Biden bus and actually laughed and “joked about the victims and their distress.”


https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/29/trump-train-texas-highway-crash-police/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1635569751&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

I wonder what would have happened were the situation reversed and it was Biden supporters terrorizing and endangering a Trump bus on a busy interstate. I’m guessing it wouldn’t have been laughed off like this with a refusal to provide support. I have a feeling the request for support would have been accepted with fervent zeal and carried out with extreme prejudice. Just another clear example that we have a significant number of people in law enforcement who will only do their duty if it aligns with their own personal politics.  I’ve never been in law enforcement, but I’ve been active duty military. You have to suck it up and do your duty regardless of whether or not you like or agree with the politics or the assignment. Refusing to meet your obligations for personal reasons is straight up dereliction of duty. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/27/2021 at 11:42 AM, MissingInAction said:

Exactly. Right now the boogeyman man is anyone with at least a 6th grade education and/or not white.

Hispanics are welcome to join the group provided they stay in their space.   See useful idiot Enrique Tarrio, Candace Owens, Michelle Malkin, Andy Ngo, etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, F250 said:

Just to be clear. Terms like "coconut" or the Italian-American phrase "medigan" have to do with integration with the Anglo-American "white" cultural hegemony not a Spanish colonial caste system. You are so off-base with your post it's insulting.

A "coconut" like a "medigan", "banana" or "oreo" is someone that ignores their ancestral culture in order to blend with the Anglo hegemony at the expense of their own identity. It's seen as a betrayal hence the derogatory terms used to describe such a person.

 

Educate Yourself Shooting Star GIF

Where do you draw the line  on ancestral culture?  10 years? 100 years? 500 years? 1000 years? Or is it arbitrary to boost narrative.

Please define "identity" and does this view apply across approx.  40 million people that it could potentially apply to in the US.

"Betrayal" of what?

The term "coconut" has a major component as skin tone prejudice.  It also has undertones of racism where in fact there are none (they're all the same race).

Anglo-American "white" cultural hegemony is a very close cousin of the Spanish/Mexican "white" caste system.

 

As an American whose parents were born/raised in Mexico (very humble lives) and came to this country in the late 40s,  I thoroughly understand Mexican

"ancestral culture".  I find terms like "coconut" ignorant.  It is especially amusing when you hear it from Mexican-Americans who can't speak spanish.

 

Also see, "pocho",  as it relates to our shared "ancestral culture". 

 

Unfortunately, these types of discussions are better in person as there are many nuances.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I have no words, except fuck.

 

As somebody who lives not far from there, and who walked over to see what was going on (was hanging out with some friends a few streets north of there), I would put right-wing nuts down the list, well behind homeless people and high school kids out fucking around.  

I jog/bike that area all the time. There's not many homeless people along that stretch of Shoal Creek (we'll say around the 42nd Street down to around St. Andrews above 30th Street), and very few of them are there long-term (as in you recognize them on a frequent basis) - it seems like most of them are truly transient, with just one or two that seem to prefer that area. That area flooding when it rains, along with a school nearby and kids walking along the creek to said school (which means cops probably run the homeless off) probably keeps "regulars" from sticking around.  And with Randall's closing, I expect the few "regulars" to move on.

But there are a few who are disturbed, including one who has extensive conversations with...somebody other than herself, but who that somebody is, none of us can see. I don't see her often though (and she seems harmless), and the ones who seem disturbed get Nextdoor'd pretty quickly.  But I'm sure there are plenty who transit through the area since you can get downtown without dealing with a lot of traffic/people, and occasionally you do see somebody who spends a few days "hiding" in that area.

With that said, there is a school for gifted and talented kids that's next to Congregation Beth Israel, so don't count the bored high school (or jr. high) kids out of it. And once in a blue moon some fuckhead likes to do some late night drifting in the parking lot.  Seems pretty fucking stupid since A) There's condos and homes right next to it that can see that shit going on and it's a well-lit parking lot and B) one cop car randomly driving by and seeing them fucking around could easily drive up in there and catch them.

But I'd lean towards homeless.  I've went to the garage sales they have there, and my kid occasionally wants to go over to the Pokemon Go gym that's somewhere there, and there's cameras all around.  Any kids going to that school there would be aware of the cameras.

Edited by atomheartbevo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW, by the time shit happened and we started hearing sirens, we hadn't seen any kids out and about for a good 30 minutes or more.

And friends who live a few streets over said as of a few minutes ago, there are still a bunch of people there (civilian cars and AFD), so it's being taken pretty seriously.  

And one of said friends is a member and said based on the picture AFD posted, it would have been visible to people driving by on Shoal Creek, and would have been caught on video.  In her armchair arson investigator judgement, it was somebody wanting attention and not somebody out to do some serious damage.  Edit: She thinks homeless/mentally ill as well.

Edited by atomheartbevo
Link to comment
Share on other sites



×
×
  • Create New...