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As self-described Marxists and anarchists rampage through American cities, threaten lives, destroy historic monuments, burn churches, and terrorize the public, the Department of Homeland Security’s crack analysts have emphasized the real threat: Hawaiian shirts and cartoon frogs.
Politico reports that the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium (NTIC), a DHS Fusion Center for Washington D.C. and the surrounding area, warned of the threat of “Violent adherents of the boogaloo” ideology, which the outlet headlined as “far-right extremists.”
That headline caused the Department of Homeland Security to object to Politico’s mischaracterization of its sharp intelligence assessment, tweeting out
Another work of fiction by @politico. The @DHSgov intel bulletin does NOT identify the Boogaloo movement as left-wing OR right-wing. They are simply violent extremists from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
It is true that the bulletin does not refer to “adherents” as “far-right.” But this is only because the report attempts to construct an ideology essentially out of thin air, based entirely on a set of internet memes largely created by activist trolls. The DHS report warns that violent Boogaloo extremists frequently wear Hawaiian shirts and may display images of “Pepe the Frog,” an internet meme of a sad frog that became popular with some elements of the Right.
From Memes to “Menace”
The term “Boogaloo” refers to an online meme about the potential for a second American civil war. The term is derived from the 1984 break-dancing movie, “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” and the subsequent movie meme which appends the mocking term “electric boogaloo” to derivative or uninspired sequels. Boogaloo memes often take the form of hypothetical discussions about what one would do “when the boogaloo”—meaning when civil war—begins. Boogaloo memes are often sharply fantastical or couched in video game language, referring to “equipment drops” or “leveling up.”
It is of course possible, even likely, that some individuals participating in this internet subculture could attempt to actualize such fantasies. Law enforcement should be careful and take such threats seriously. But this is not the same as being a “movement,” let alone a coherent ideology.
Substandard Sources
A look at the sourcing of the Boogaloo bulletin shows that the document, like other of Homeland Security’s NTIC products, cannot withstand objective scrutiny.
One of the NTIC bulletin’s primary sources is the Tech Transparency Project, a project of the Campaign for Accountability (CfA), which is a left-leaning nonprofit that “almost exclusively targets” conservative politicians and organizations for opposition research and dubious ethics complaints. One of CfA’s board members, Nick Hayworth, has been described as “Obama’s Opposition Researcher” while other CfA leaders have ties to groups founded by long-time Democratic “dirty tricks hitman” David Brock.
Such sources can be useful in any intelligence product, but the NTIC’s inordinate dependency on it as a major source betrays an unprofessional standard within Homeland Security’s NTIC unit.
Not only does the Tech Transparency Project’s article directly link the “Boogaloo” to the far-right, but this purported intelligence source deliberately blames President Trump personally for the threat, saying that he “inspired” and “energized” the Boogaloo adherents with tweets about the lockdown.
“Imaginary” Antifa?
The leaked report to Politico whitewashes the organized criminal activity waged by Antifa which, as an avowed Marxist and anarchist entity, seeks to overthrow the U.S. Constitution. It also comes at a time when the president is attempting to spur federal law enforcement into action to target Antifa—which has a coherent ideological base and ties stretching back to domestic and international terrorism for over 60 years—for its role as violent agitators in the ongoing protests, despite claims by certain sympathetic lawmakers that Antifa is “imaginary.”
Meanwhile, some government officials, aided by the media, continue to lie about the role of Antifa in the protests. D.C. District Attorney Karl Racine claimed no local rioters had ties to Antifa, despite one arrested individual having been profiled by the Washington Post as an Antifa leader, according to independent journalist Andy Ngo, who recently testified before Congress on the Antifa threat. Full Article @ American Greatness
How the Boogaloo movement is turning memes into violent action
The Boogaloo movement represents a new breed of self-organizing online militias that are using memes to incite violent insurrection and terror against the government and law enforcement.
Late last month, Steven Carrillo pulled up in an unmarked van outside a federal courthouse in Oakland as protests against police violence raged in the city and opened fire on two security officers posted outside, leaving one of the men dead, according to federal prosecutors. A week later, prosecutors allege, Carrillo ambushed police who came to search his home, killing one and critically wounding another.
Carrillo appears to have been part of the Boogaloo movement, an extremist, right-leaning and libertarian, anti-government militia with online roots that is increasingly organizing attacks in the real world. As he ran from police, Carrillo used his own blood to scrawl Boogaloo slogans on a car he had stolen—“I became unreasonable,” “Boog,” and “Stop the duopoly.” Carrillo was later found to be in possession of a Boogaloo patch circulated by one of the Boogaloo movement’s rapidly growing Facebook groups, the Thicc Boog Line, which was identified in a February Network Contagion Research Institute report. Full Article @ Brookings Institute