Thread: Online rants, anti-government radicals fuel fear of U.S. cop killings

Online rants, anti-government radicals fuel fear of U.S. cop killings

https://publish.yahoo.com/app/#Slayings of Las Vegas officers were praised in social media

By Jason Sickles, Yahoo 1 hour agoYahoo News

CLICK IMAGE for slideshow: Online rants, right-wing extremists fuel fears for US cops. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The celebrating began before the coroner could collect the bodies of Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo, the Las Vegas patrol officers ambushed and executed while eating at a pizzeria last month.

“The good news is, there are two less police in the world,” read an entry on the Facebook page for CopBlock.org.

The post was visible for less than a day, but it attracted at least 6,300 likes and comments by the time the page’s administrators removed it.

Jerad Miller — who along with his wife, Amanda, gunned down the Vegas police officers before dying during a shootout with police — was one of Cop Block’s 780,000-plus Facebook fans.

The decentralized advocacy group says it disavows violence while spreading a belief that “badges don’t grant extra rights.”

But the Millers, described by investigators as anti-government extremists, had a deadly animosity for authority.

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Officer Alyn Beck was remembered as a loyal husband and dedicated father to his three children. (AP)

“Bout time to start killing cops, eh?” Miller, 31, wrote in May when he shared a viral video of police brutality on Facebook. “Maybe if we can kill all these despotic goons they will turn on their masters and once again be public servants and we can end this madness.”

After a historic decline in the number of police officers fatally shot last year, 2014 has rebounded to previous levels. Beck and Soldo are among 28 U.S. officers shot and killed in the line of duty so far this year. The most recent death came Sunday, when rookie Jersey City, N.J., Officer Melvin Santiago was ambushed by a gunman who reportedly told people he was “going to be famous” for killing a cop.

Such shameless bravado — online and off — and an exploding right-wing movement are creating anxiety about attacks against police.

“There's a deep concern that there has been a measurable increase in violence against police officers, especially with firearms,” said Rich Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations. The anti-police movement “seems to feed off each other online,” he said.

The FBI has increased warnings about possible threats to law enforcement, multiple police sources told Yahoo News. The bureau declined to confirm any change.

This follows a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report that included a warning about domestic extremists using the Internet to recruit members, share tactics and raise hate to an all-time high.

Rich Stanek, who chairs the National Sheriffs’ Association Homeland Security Committee, said he proudly protects constitutional rights, but he worries social networking gives radicals such as Miller a false sense of recognition.

“They can post, blog and do so freely and anonymously without any accountability whatsoever,” said Stanek, sheriff of Hennepin County in Minnesota.

Escalating danger by anti-government extremists dominated a four-hour discussion on homeland security at last month’s National Sheriffs’ Association conference, said Stanek, who commands an 800-member department in Minneapolis.

“That’s the single greatest concern that faces our deputies today,” Stanek said.

Trent Nice, a former neighbor of Miller’s in Lafayette, Indiana, frequented his friend’s Facebook page.

“I shared a lot of his views, but would never do anything like that,” Nice told Yahoo News by email.

The week of the June 8 rampage, Nice gave an approving click to Miller’s Facebook manifesto predicting pending bloodshed and war.

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Officer Igor Soldo and his wife, Andrea, would have celebrated their son's first birthday on July 7. (AP)

“As far as me liking the post, if that’s what he intended when he posted it, then I severely misunderstood his post,” he wrote. “His heart was in the right place. His head wasn't.”

Meanwhile police near Lafayette, where the Millers lived before moving to Las Vegas, are reportedly keeping an eye on the 765 movement, a new anti-police group on Facebook.

Sam Bradbury, a group member, was jailed in late June for posting a detailed Facebook messagethreatening to kill multiple authorities and destroy a courthouse “in a blaze of glory.” Arresting officers also recovered six bags of bomb-making material from the 22-year-old’s home.

Bradbury is being held on federal charges of using electronic communications to threaten injury to a person and destroy property with an incendiary device. According to an FBI affidavit, Bradbury ended his Facebook rant by writing “FREE SPEECH EXERCISE FOOLS” in parentheses. But a judge ruled he did not have to accept Bradbury’s First Amendment disclaimer and ordered him held without bail until an arraignment later this month.

The Bradbury arrest is similar to a spate of recent prosecutions “for alleged threats conveyed on new media, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter,”according to a brief filed in a pending Supreme Court case. Free speech advocates want the court to clarify what constitutes a true threat in today’s digital world.

Mark Potok, an expert on extremism, said he believes it is rare for social media to inspire someone to kill.

“However, the kinds of people who are prone to those kinds of hatreds find validation and real community on the Internet,” said Potok, a senior researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Last week the SPLC issued a report warning law enforcement about the increasingly hostile anti-government movement, which it estimates has grown from 150 groups in 2008 to nearly 1,100 last year.

The economic crisis, proposed gun control, Barack Obama’s election, NSA spying and the militarization of police among other issues have spurred the resurgence, the watchdog organization said.

“There’s a hell of a lot of anger out there in certain corridors,” Potok told Yahoo News. “Jerad Miller was not the only one who saw police in the United States as Nazis.”

Miller found an approving audience for his conspiracy theories and political tirades online. Some Facebook posts were original, but he shared others from pages he frequented such as Patriot Nation, Taxation is Theft and Cop Block.

Cop Block co-founder Pete Eyre told Yahoo News the Facebook entry celebrating the Millers’ rampage wasn’t appropriate.

“There was blanket rejoicing over the deaths of two people and I don’t think that’s good in any situation,” Eyre said. “It didn’t fit Cop Block ideology.

The site’s not an anti-police thing; it’s like a pro-personal empowerment site.”

Launched in 2010, Cop Block encourages the public to submit home videos, photos and stories of rogue officers for discussion.

Eyre said the Vegas entry was put up by a former volunteer who still had administrative access. The post and its removal provoked days of intense debate on the Cop Block Facebook page, which included the following comments:

“You don't promote accountability; you promote anti-police, anti-government behavior by publicizing criminals and making them out to be heroes.”

“A cop died, opinions were stated... don't think a cop wouldn't be bragging about shooting you over some drinks with his cops buddies while he enjoys his 2 weeks paid vacation...”

By its own account, the 2011 blog post “WHEN SHOULD YOU SHOOT A COP” is one of Cop Block’s most read. A week before the Vegas slayings, a photo on Cop Block’s Facebook page portrayed a dead officer with the words: “This is what a good cop looks like.”

“Really? That’s the message we want to send?” asked Melissa, the wife of a Kansas police officer. “It makes my stomach turn.”

Melissa, who requested that her full name not be used for safety reasons, said she and other police spouses are frustrated by Facebook’s lack of action in response to their Cop Block complaints.

View gallery.

A post from Jerad Miller's Facebook page four weeks before his deadly rampage. (Screenshot)

A Facebook spokesperson told Yahoo News in a statement: “People come to Facebook to share experiences of the world around them and on occasion this may result in the sharing of content that some may find upsetting. We encourage anyone who sees content that violates our community standards to report it to us.”
Photos promoting officer deaths posted as comments to Cop Block’s page on May 25 and June 1 were removed by Facebook after being contacted for this story.
“I understand the need for people to express their opinion, but I think there is a line that has to be watched,” Melissa said. “When does an opinion become a plan of action?”
Nice hadn’t seen Miller in a few years, but his Facebook connection earned him a visit from FBI agents after the Las Vegas murders.
“I told them if they wanted to investigate someone, go investigate Barack Obama,” he recalled. “They kinda just had a smirk on their faces when I said that, and said well we're investigating this right now. I don't know if (they) were trying to get background on him or find out if there are more crazies like him.”

http://news.yahoo.com/online-rants-r...225012920.html

Those two Occupy activist were crazy mean and nasty. The Occupy movement has had the most destructive and violent "protests" that ' I have seen and all the Democrats stood up in support of them.

For example.

October 11, 2011
Pelosi supports Occupy Wall Street while her son gets preferential treatment from Countrywide

Rick Moran

I guess consistency is only for the little people:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's strong statements in support of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement raise an interesting question: Does she, then, oppose the preferential treatment her son received at the hand of the financial industry?

Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., was protected from a round of layoffs when he was a mortgage broker for Countrywide, according to "Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon," a 2011 book co-authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.

"Paul Pelosi, Jr., the son of Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, worked as a mortgage broker and sales manager at a Countrywide office in San Mateo, California," Morgenson and Rosner wrote in the book. "In 2007, when the company was on the ropes and beginning a mass of layoffs, Pelosi's name was on the list of those to be cut. According to a former executive with knowledge of the situation, [Countrywide CEO Angelo] Mozilo personally removed Pelosi's name from the list."

According to Morgenson and Rosner, Countrywide was able to make political alliances with people like Pelosi through favors like this.

This calls into question not only the behavior of Countrywide, a major player in the sub-prime mortgage debacle, but also her own personal ethics. While her son was getting preferential treatment, was she voting on legislation that benefitted Countrywide?
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

http://americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/pelosi_supports_occupation_wall_street_while_her_s on_gets_preferential_treatment_from_countrywide.ht ml

Then there is this:

Democrats Seek to Own 'Occupy Wall Street' Movement

By ANALYSIS By RICK KLEIN—

Occupation can lead to ownership, whether or not you want it.

The spread of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement was met with initial hesitation in both the Democratic and Republican parties. That might be an appropriate response to any protests that aim themselves squarely at the establishment, particularly those with goals that are diverse and diffuse as the current protesters' are.

But a consensus is emerging among Democrats that the "Occupy" movement is worth tapping into, even helping along and joining with in some instances.

"I support the message to the establishment," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on ABC's "This Week." "Change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way that does not -- that is not relevant to their lives. People are angry."

To Democrats eager for a liberal antidote to the Tea Party energy that lifted Republicans to power last year, the "Occupy" rallies that started in New York last month and have spread to cities nationwide are tempting to embrace.

In their broadest focus, the protesters channel the indignation Democrats are trying to stir up in the year before the presidential election.

The Obama White House is seeking to rally the public for a jobs package and deficit-reduction ideas that argue for the rich and corporate America to pay more -- goals the protesters largely share.

"The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," President Obama said last week when asked at a news conference about the "Occupy Wall Street" events.

It may be that occupiers wind up playing a role for the political left that tea partiers did for the right. But Republicans had one significant advantage in taking ownership of the Tea Party phenomenon: they were entirely out of power in Washington when the movement took root.

To occupiers, at least some of the blame for their perceived lack of accountability in corporate America rests with the current Democratic administration. A persistent liberal critique of Obama administration has been its coziness with Wall Street, and the lack of more drastic actions to repair the economy after eight years under George W. Bush.

In that sense, the protests may highlight divisions inside the Democratic Party even more than they motivate the party faithful.
The tea party faced major internal rifts -- including some that almost certainly cost Republicans Senate seats last year -- in its infancy. But most of those divisions have long since healed, as tea partiers work almost entirely in concert with Republicans, with the prospect of defeating Obama next year serving as a unifying influence.

The movement has some Republicans concerned -- worried enough to start swinging back.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has expressed concern about the "growing mobs" that are engaged in "the pitting of Americans against Americans."

Cantor's condemnation of members of Congress who are rooting the protesters on echoes conservative commentators who are belittling and delegitimizing the protests. "Occupy Wall Street" hasn't matched the Tea Party when it comes to numbers, or to concrete goals, though neither movement could ever boast of being monolithic.

Others have gone farther in denouncing the current round of protests. Tea Party Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., last week labeled the "Occupy" protests as an "attack upon freedom," and suggested that labor unions have hijacked the movement to boost the president's reelection prospects.

"They don't know why they're there. They're just mad," Broun said of the protesters, on ABC's "Top Line."

Anger, of course, respects no political boundaries these days. Many of the Republicans who are now critical of "Occupy" were cheering the Tea Party movement on.

Now it's Democrats who get to learn the lesson: Channeling the emotions of anger in politics is seldom as simple as it seems.

http://news.yahoo.com/democrats-seek...222048239.html

'Shoot a Cop' Fliers Found at Occupy Phoenix Protest

October 31, 2011 |

Fliers asking, "When Should You Shoot a Cop?" were found at an Occupy Phoenix demonstration at Cesar Chavez Plaza by Department of Public Safety officials.

It's still unclear whether the protesters are responsible for the fliers, which were found on Thursday, reports Phoenix New Times. The two-page fliers outline scenarios where it's appropriate to kill "any government agent" and includes the following paragraph:

"The next time you hear of a police officer being killed 'in the line of duty,' take a moment to consider the very real possibility that maybe in that case, the 'law enforcer' was the bad guy and the 'cop killer' was the good guy. As it happens, that has been the case more often than not through recorded history."
Tags: Cop Killers, Arizona DPS, Occupy Wall Street
http://www.policemag.com/channel/pat...x-protest.aspx

Confirmed: Las Vegas Cop Killers Were Members of Far Left #Occupy Movement

Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, June 16, 2014, 9:46 AM
It figures.
Las vegas cop killers were members of the far left #Occupy movement.



Amanda and Jerad Miller took part in the far left Million Mask March in Indiana.
DC Clothesline reported:

The latest evidence of a liberal media agenda comes from the Las Vegas shooters, Amanda and Jerad Miller. The picture collage at the top of this post paints a much different narrative than we have been fed.

We have been bombarded with the Millers’ connection to the Bundy Ranch, Alex Jones and the liberty movement in general. The liberty movement is massive and it does not emcompass only the right-wing. But we were led to believe that the Millers were Tea Party-loving right-wing extremists. That is what the media wants America to believe…

… it will come as no surprise to our readers that the Millers were involved in the “Occupy Movement.”

Again, the liberty movement is massive but the Occupy Protests tend to be attributed to the left. Bundy Ranch tends to be associated with the right. They are both cases of civil disobedience but obviously the media wants to paint a picture of the Millers as being people who voted for Romney rather than Obama. This is how the media constantly pushes the agenda of the left. Nearly every news publication in America printed something about the associations of the Millers, but very few printed this:
According to CBS Chicago:

While living in Lafayette, Jerad and his wife Amanda took part in last November’s “Million Mask March” – a gathering of protesters from the Occupy movement, anarchists, and hacktivists.

Nick Wertz, one of the organizers of the Lafayette march, said it attracted many people upset over a lot of issues.

“Everyone there just seem kind of like normal people. At least they were going to stick up with what they thought was right,” he said.

Wertz said he didn’t really know the Millers, but weeks after the march, Amanda Miller contacted him. “She was moving to Vegas for whatever reason and they had a dog they couldn’t take with – and I was like, ‘If I can help,’” Wertz said.

But that was the end of it, he said.

​http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/confirmed-las-vegas-cop-killers-were-members-of-far-left-occupy-movement/

They seem to be quoting Bernadine Dorn.

Occupy Movement Says ‘Violence Will Be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals’
OCCUPY MOVEMENT SAYS ‘VIOLENCE WILL BE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS’

NTEB News Desk | October 12, 2011

Making Bill Ayers and Obama proudCitizen journalist Ringo captured this speaker at the Occupy Los Angeles camp a few days ago letting the cat out of the bag: After dismissing nonviolence as a dead end, he admits that for the Occupiers to achieve their goals, violence and bloodshed will be necessary:

Occupy L.A. Speaker: “One of the speakers said the solution is nonviolent movement. No, my friend. I’ll give you two examples: French Revolution, and Indian so-called Revolution.

Gandhi, Gandhi today is, with respect to all of you, Gandhi today is a tumor that the ruling class is using constantly to mislead us. French Revolution made fundamental transformation. But it was bloody.



India, the result of Gandhi, is 600 million people living in maximum poverty.
So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class.

Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”

Crowd: [Cheers.]

Incredibly, he praises the massacres of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror rather than Gandhi’s nonviolent philosophy.

And the crowd laps it up.

Every single day, more videos emerge from the Occupy movement showing people saying things that, if they had been said by a Tea Partier, would have been front-page news for weeks and discredited the movement forever. But since it’s the Occupy Wall Street movement, darlings of the media and Democratic politicians, they get a pass. source – PJM

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=6879