BOMB THREATS AND ARRESTS: AFTERMATH OF TWO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RALLIES

Huntington Beach SWAT officers arresting an antifascist April 27th. Witnesses say the police charged the protesters unprovoked.

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

Friday night April 26th while I was watching my friend DJ at someone’s 16^th birthday, FBI agents arrested an ex-Army Infantryman named Mark Domingo. Feds spent weeks pretending to plot an attack with him. Beats thumped, my friend took a break to check on his infant son, and I ate pizza and stared at my phone. Meanwhile, the FBI persuaded Domingo to carry his attack out. They gave him a fake bomb. He bought nails for shrapnel. He thought he was going to plant it at a far-right rally in Long Beach I’d come to report on.

I was packing up to head back to the East Bay when the news broke the Monday morning after the rally. Law enforcement didn’t see fit to tell the rally organizers nor the anti-racist coalition countering them nor the public in general about it until then.

ABOUT THE RALLIES

I previewed the rallies before I came down for them, so there won’t be as much space explaining them here.

The one in Huntington Beach on the 27^th was called “March to END Sanctuary State.” Much of the signage and rhetoric of the rally were photos of people killed by “illegal aliens” and slogans like “STOP illegal immigration.” Studies show statistically undocumented immigrants commit significantly less violent crime than legal immigrants or natural-born citizens.

One of the prominent guest speakers at the rally, Arthur Schaper, harasses Drag Queen Storytime Events because of the same tired lavender scare conspiracies that have been part of the right-wing landscape for decades now. The SPLC calls Mass Resistance, the organization he works for, an “anti-LGBT hate group.” Schaper, the SPLC also says, is a “long-time anti-immigrant and nativist activist.” A member of his group, Kenny Strawn, helped try to start an American chapter of Generation Identity, the European neo-Nazi group that the Christchurch mass murderer gave money to. Strawn was present at the event.

The rally in Long Beach on Sunday the 28th had more of a sense of urgency to it. Huntington Beach, along with the rest of Orange County and northern San Diego, has long been a hotbed of white nationalist organizing. Long Beach is a pretty liberal community, though it has a history with segregation policies.

United Patriot National Front (UPNF) decided to hold a rally there. The group seems to center partially around Antonio Foreman, who bills himself as a security guard to far-right figures like Laura Loomer, alt-right e-celebrity Baked Alaska, and InfoWars’ Owen Shroyer.

Foreman’s involvement in the group drew a lot of attention. He and another UPNF member attended Patriot Movement Arizona’s harassment of a church where refugees sought aid. He bragged on camera about how he “busted through the door” of the church while armed. UPNF was also part of an alt-right/alt-lite campaign to harass Chicano Park in San Diego last year. But most people know Foreman as Baked Alaska’s bodyguard during Charlottesville. He also recited the white nationalist slogan, the 14 words, on a livestream.

In a since-deleted Facebook post on UPNF’s page, Foreman denied he was a white nationalist, said UPNF “denounces all forms of neo nazi-ism and racism” and that their event in Long Beach was about “free speech.” He also said his group wouldn’t be armed. When I met him at the HB rally, he claimed UPNF chose Long Beach for their rally precisely because it was a liberal town without much of a history of right-wing activism.

The UPNF event was taken down weeks before it was set to go off, but counter-protest organizers like the Long Beach United Anti-Racist Neighborhood Front (UARNF) and the local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter vowed to show up to send a message that far-right groups should expect resistance if they chose to rally there.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

The rally was across the street from TK Burger. I was order #88. For those of you who don’t know, 88 is a code among white nationalists that means ‘Heil Hitler.’ It didn’t bode well.

Sitting at the window, I ate fries and watched a few people across the street in lawn chairs under a black EZ-Up tent with a California flag and a white flag with a red star on it fluttering in the light breeze.

I initially thought they were with some right-leaning movement like New California. The tent was actually set up by folks at Independent California, a left-leaning group that wants California to have more autonomy over how the it’s governed–even if true independence can’t be achieved. The group was part of a coalition including Occupy I.C.E. L.A. and Indivisible O.C. At least thirty people formed a black bloc as well.

“We’re the anti-racist side,” one of them told me when I walked up. I turned around and saw a few people across PCH with American flags and a “Build the Wall” sign talking to police officers.

THE ALTERCATION

When traffic stopped, I’d walk across the street between the protests. I was on the right-wing side when a fight broke out and rushed across the street. The provocateur at the center of it was C. Brandon Recor, the host of a far-right YouTube channel called “That’s the Point with Brandon.” Activists later told me Recor was “chest to chest” with counter-protesters as he went up to them.

Recor is a SAG-AFTRA stuntman. His “That’s the Point” channel started in August 2017. He recently hosted a QAnon conspiracy theorist called “AJ” on his show.

“Trump runs for office and all of a sudden, if you’re a straight white male you ain’t getting in Hollywood unless you’re gay or Jewish,” AJ said on Recor’s show.

“The rate of me getting hired versus other people getting hired has dropped so dramatically,” Recor replied. “It’s true–it’s a ridiculous thing, but it’s a fact.”

Video posted to his own channel shows Recor was belligerent from the beginning.

Recor started off trying to get a hug from a woman who clearly didn’t want to be touched. He had no respect for people’s boundaries, elbowing them, bumping them and getting in their faces. In response, people started gathering around him to keep him from the main group of counter-protesters and repeatedly tried to drown him out by shouting and chanting. When people put their arms up in front of him and blocked him, he would shout things like “Don’t touch me!” at them. When he failed to get egress towards the main group of counter-protesters, he started shouting things like “Let’s go, pussies! I’m ready!”

After his first attempt to penetrate the counter-protesters’ ranks, Recor talked to a Huntington Beach police officer. He told the officer “I’m just trying to do my business, sir. I’m just trying to work.” The officer responded “I get it. I know.”

“I’m not trying to touch people,” Recor said, though video shows he was.

“We’re going to walk away, just telling you that,” the officer replied.

“Okay, cool man, so just don’t come after me if I defend myself,” Recor said.

“We’re not after anybody, but you can’t put hands on other people whether you–” the officer said before Recor interjects. “I haven’t! And I’ve got it on camera. I’m not stupid,” Recor responds.

A woman who Recor previously bumped into showed up and told him “you were elbowing me and you were elbowing everyone.” Recor shouted over her and called her a liar.

“Let’s try not to instigate,” the officer said, continuing, “let’s let everyone have their First Amendment rights be voiced–”

“Am I not allowed to walk up and down the sidewalk?” Recor interrupts to ask.

“You are–If you’re gonna instigate, you’re gonna instigate. That’s–” the officer said before Recor cut him off again. I can’t tell what the officer said as Recor talked over him at the end.

“So walking up and down the sidewalk is instigating?” Recor asked.

“No. What you were doing there was instigating,” the officer said.

“Interviewing people? Asking them why they’re here?” Recor replied.

“You were pushing back–” the officer said. The officer’s full sentence isn’t clear to me. “I’m telling you, I was watching it,” the officer adds.

“So it’s okay for them to push me though but I can’t stand in my own spot?” Recor asked.

“It sure looked like they were standing,” the officer said. Recor gave him an annoyed look for a split second.

“You do what you gotta do, man,” the officer said.

“Let them do that again,” Recor responded. “Alright, come on let’s go,” he said to his cameraman.

Recor tried to go back into the crowd and eventually talked to someone from Independent California for about six or seven minutes.

Recor then went up to some black bloc protesters who were standing around watching his interview. The Independent California activist pat him on the chest and told him “Don’t go in there.”

“Don’t put your hand on me. You put your hand on me again there’s going to be a problem,” Recor said, taking the activist’s hand off of him.

“There shouldn’t be a problem. Why? This is America. I should be able to talk and walk wherever I want, right?” Recor then said.

Black bloc protesters gathered around him to block him from getting near the other counter-protesters. Some shouted at him. They walked towards him to push him out. Recor backed into a banner some of them were holding. A black-clad fist jabbed at Recor. Recor took a hard swing at someone then stumbled around, repeatedly saying “Let’s go! Let’s go pussies!”

Someone knocked a flagpole against Recor’s head. He punched them square in the face. He appeared to hit another person off-camera near his cameraman as he stumbled back. Audio is cut in the last few seconds because the microphone was knocked off.

Video I took before I ran across the street showed Recor didn’t retreat. He kept trying to push himself back into the crowd. Counter-protest organizers then waved at police to intervene as Recor continued to behave belligerently. Two policemen on horseback blocked him off from the crowd.

Recor wasn’t arrested. He eventually made his way over to the anti-Sanctuary State side. He had a cut on his forehead.

THE ARRESTS

Things calmed down for a while. The cops on horseback didn’t go away. I think there were around 200 people counter-protesting at the peak and maybe 100-150 at the anti-Sanctuary State event.

Photo by an unnamed videographer. They claim it was taken "less than a minute before they drew the wooden batons (they really shouldn't be called that they were like over 2 ft long) and charged into the group to make the arrests."

Police started blocking traffic. Some of the anti-Sanctuary State protesters crossed into the middle island of the road and started shouting at counter-protesters for a while, eventually returning to their side. Some counter-protesters ripped a “Trump 2020” flag in half. I don’t know where they got it.

Police continued to bottleneck the road. I remember the mounted police and SWAT cops in their green jumpsuits started lining up and blocked the road completely. The next thing I remember was the horse cops charging the crowd. My back was towards the counter-protesters. I didn't hear or feel a scuffle or any other commotion that would prompt it. Just without warning the cops were pushing us back.

HBPD SWAT officer grabbing an antifascist protester.

“Several at the front of the group were knocked over but the charge continued past them, nearly stepping on many but no one was seriously injured past cuts and bruises,” an anonymous videographer who captured part of the arrests told me. “There were even 2 elderly (over 50) who were at the front and due to the charge fell to the cement.”

Officers violently detaining protesters.

An officer shouted at me to move back, which I did. His baton was against my stomach. By the time I came out of shock enough to take pictures, I’d moved to the north side of the tent. An HBPD SWAT officer was grabbing someone by their neck and backpack while another one stepped in with a baton to subdue them.

Officer Garcia pinning a counter-protester down while Officer Esparza shouts at me to move.

I could feel how hard the police were pushing this person down into the dirt. Officer Garcia sat with his knees pressed down into a protester’s back and Officer Esparza pushed his baton into my gut and shouted for me to get back.

Esparza kept his baton in both hands like he was a living velvet rope in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre. 

Officer Esparza shoving me with his baton.

I moved towards the railing and saw the arrestee pictured in my photos had sand and dirt all over his face. Once they’d made their arrests (five in total,) the whole lot of the police withdrew. I saw officers with badges from Anaheim, Orange, Huntington Beach and HB SWAT. Might have been other departments.

Officers clearing the counter-protest area while arresting a counter-protester.

“All day police and park rangers with bulletproof vests and firearms threatened and harassed the counter protest,” the anonymous videographer told me.

“I don't think anyone expected that level of police repression. Everyone politically on the left was targeted from the get-go, and that includes other folks I knew there who were not part of the black bloc,” Rose, an antifascist present in the crowd, said.

Officers clearing the counter-protest area and arresting people after they rushed it without apparent provocation.

One antifascist who was arrested told me his account. He was on the southern side of the tent, so I didn’t see him past the policemen on horses.

“They rushed in and started grabbing people,” the antifascist arrestee told me.

“I didn’t get grabbed right away. They grabbed one guy right by me and the cops started freaking out and telling me to back off. But I had my back to the fence and was surrounded by officers so I couldn’t get out,” he recounted.

“I ended up behind a mounted cop,” he continued. “He turned to me and shouted “That guy is trying to sneak up on an officer!”

The antifascist said his hands were raised “from the moment the cops rushed in.”

“None of them had any excuse for seeing me as a threat,” he said. He was pulled onto the ground and arrested.

The anonymous videographer’s footage shows an officer’s knee pressed on the arrestee’s back as his face in the dirt. People chant “Cops and Klan go hand in hand!”

As they led the arrestees away towards police cars parked next to the anti-Sanctuary State protest, the right wingers cheered. “Bye Bye, Antifa! You don’t do good at the beach!” one of them shouted.

“The cops and the fash go hand in hand. The cops were 100% there to be bodyguards for them and snag us to put us in our place,” the antifascist arrestee said.

“The bloc got out of there pretty quickly after the arrests happened. It was obvious that the police were intent on snatching up and picking us off,” Rose told me.

“I didn’t even find out what they charged me with until my way out of jail,” he recounted. “No Miranda rights or anything.”

The antifascist arrestee said police started driving towards the jail, but doubled back “I think to try and get another arrestee.” Police, he recounted, “just kinda made me cook in the car a little bit for nothing.” He recalled they didn’t speak to him at all, just talked to each other in code a bit. He was in a cell for four hours.

“The whole time there was no communication about why I was in there,” the antifascist said.

His citation said “148 (A)(1): resisting arrest/obstructing a peace officer.”

Because multiple agencies made arrests, his friends didn’t know where he was being held.

“By sheer coincidence, a few were at the jail trying to help out two of the others arrested the moment that I got out,” he recounted.

“I was a mess when I got out. Everyone was just relieved that they found me and I was okay,” he said.

As of this writing, arrestees are still facing court dates.

THE MARCH

Officers being cheered and greeted with chants of "Blue lives matter!" at the anti-Sanctuary State protest.

After the arrests, I went back to the other side of the street. Kim Sorgente, who the O.C. Weekly called “a Huntington Beach resident and Proud Boys reject,” was chanting “No commies, no pedophiles, no child sacrifice!” Look up the Pizzagate conspiracy theory if you want to know what that's about.Joining him was Kenny Strawn, the aforementioned white nationalist. I didn’t see anyone object to their presence. Other young men were holding up signs that said “This land is OUR land” and “America for Americans!”

Protesters with signs that say "America for Americans," "End Immigration" and "This land is our land."

Antonio Foreman showed up. He told me that UPNF was “pretty much done.” He said they weren’t coming to the next day’s rally. After what happened to the Rise Above Movement and the group of Proud Boys in New York, he told me, he said it was better to work as individuals.

Antonio Foreman, who marched as Baked Alaska's bodyguard in Charlottesville, at the rally.

The group started marching. Police escorted them the whole time.

It's good to have the cops on our side," one anti-Sanctuary activist told me. "Most of them probably voted for Trump!"

Man with an ecumenical Christian flag and and another with a sign that says "Build that fucking wall" with the 'u' in 'fucking' replaced by Nancy Pelosi's face.

They crossed at Huntington St. and started coming up the same side as the counter-protest.

“We’re coming your way!” one of them said.

The man in the black shirt shouted "We took this land before, we'll take it again!"

The counter-protest was nowhere to be found. Only one person who said he was an anarchist started shouting at them and arguing with them. I asked him later where the other counter-protesters went and he didn’t know–he’d just showed up around when I encountered him. As I quoted from Rose earlier, they cleared out once it was clear to them the police were after them. Most went to figure out where the arrestees were and how to help them.

The anarchist followed the march back across at Main in front of the pier. At one point, he mentioned the theft of native land the United States is founded on as he argued with the marchers.

"We took this land before, we'll take it again!" a man in a black shirt that said “save America” on it responded.

Some kids at the pier shouted “Fuck Trump!” at the marchers.

“Go back to Mexico!” a marcher responded.

Right-wing e-Celeb 'The Adorable Deplorable' at the rally.

They eventually reached their original rally spot with only the self-identified anarchist still counter-protesting them. Organizers had planned to begin the speeches. The rally attendees and journalists were mostly more interested in the anarchist. Cameras surrounded him. Recor, the YouTuber who incited a brawl with counter-protesters earlier, argued with him. An older man from the Bikers for Trump organization tried to moderate and keep people from shouting over both of them. Organizers begged for people to ignore him and pay attention to them.  

“Don’t give him (the counter-protester) any more attention,” an organizer said over a megaphone. “He’s probably illegal anyways.”

Police told people to start dispersing. The anarchist started dancing with the older Bikers for Trump guy. It seemed he’d managed to distract everyone and then de-escalate the situation.

Grace K flipping off HBPD SWAT officers as she interrupted the Anti-Sanctuary State protest.

Around that time, I noticed Grace K, a local artist and vocalist for L.A.’s Graveyard Junkies. She had a shirt with “Fuck Trump” written on the back. She started dancing and poking fun at the right wingers still standing around.

“I made sure they were mocked and that they knew there were people who weren’t afraid of them and don’t stand for their shit,” Grace told me.

The right-wing crowd responded with sexist vitriol.

“Antifa ho for auction!” one man shouted.

“People said things like ‘whore,’ ‘cunt’–I got that a couple times. ‘A woman should not be carrying herself this way.’ ‘She has no self-respect.’ ‘She should be ashamed,’” Grace recounted.

“I think that’s just blatant sexism, slut-shaming, all that kind of stuff,” she remarked.

“I heard, obviously, ‘Get out of this country.’ I mean I’m born here, too, but fuck borders, to be honest,” Grace recalled.

She said there was a pretty clear gender divide in the insults she got.

“From the women I got stuff like I should bring myself up, go to God,” Grace said, “but the other ones that are just pure degrading–which, both are degrading, but the just blatant insults were from the men.”

“I’m not surprised at all because that’s how they view us anyway,” she continued. “Everything that they believe on a day-to-day basis they’re spewing now because only now is when it’s justified–because I’m a counter-protester.”

A "Biker for Trump" following Grace around making lewd motions at her as she danced and trolled the anti-Sanctuary Protest.

Grace kept dancing. Organizers begged people to go home. The older man from Bikers for Trump got close to her and started putting his arms out like he was at a strip club and she was giving a lap dance.

“You know how viral you’re going to go? Cause your video isn’t going to go viral. Ours are!” Foreman said.

“It’s always effective, regardless if there were cameras, regardless if this [interview] was happening right now,” Grace said, “I put myself in terrible situations just like this to pave the way for other queer PoC in the future to live unapologetically and safely.”

“I’m not going to let them be at this rally comfortably. I’m not going to let them think ‘Wow! That was a good rally!’ We have to let them know we exist,” she concluded.

Grace wasn’t aware of rally organizer and participants’ specific white nationalism and anti-LGBTQ+ hate connections until I told her. When I explained, she gasped.

“Oh my god, I didn’t know it was to that extent at all. I thought these were just like crazy fucking Trump supporters,” she said. “That’s so scary. It’s very depressing. It’s a little perspective changing.”

“I don’t want to say if I heard this before, I wouldn’t have done what I did,” Grace said. “I think I would have been more cautious though. The legitimate ties to murderers changes things. My heart sunk hearing this. My stomach totally flipped right now.”

Grace told me it wasn’t going to stop her from future actions.

“If anyone else hears this, it’s not like I have all this bravery and courage. People were walking by saying ‘you’re so brave.’ Not really. I just feel like I’m doing the bare minimum. I feel like this should be normalized,” she said.

Grace again flipping the cops off.

“Sometimes I question if I’m being a genuine activist, am I trying to do this for any stupid shallow reason,” Grace told me. “But we can all do it. You’re not alone. I understand doing it feels isolating and scary, but if there’s more of us I won’t be the only one and you won’t be the only one.”

Others who went to the Huntington Beach rally echoed similar sentiments.

“I came out to oppose the fash because I can’t stand their shit. They push these ideologies that are about making life worse for anyone who’s not a cis white male,” the antifascist arrestee told me.

“It's all about the community moving forward. Folks are ready to stand up against fascism, against racism, so let's get ourselves organized and really tackle these issues across the board,” Rose said. “If things are going to change in Huntington Beach, it's gotta start with the community.”

When I got back to my car, I found out about the 8chan neo-Nazi murderer in Chabad of Poway Synagogue a bit south by San Diego. He managed to kill Lori Kaye, age 60. Three others were injured, including the Rabbi and an eight-year-old girl. The murderer would have killed more people, but his gun supposedly jammed. He apparently would have broadcast the murder spree on Facebook like the Christchurch shooter before him, but couldn’t get it to work. The attack was on my mind going into the next day’s rally.

LONG BEACH

Protesters in Long Beach on Sunday April 28th. Their signs say "We are on stolen land" and "None of that nazi shit here allowed!!"

Long Beach seemed peaceful by and large. Police in helicopters, on bicycles and on the beach on ATVs monitored. There was a separate counter-rally by the Party for Social Liberation (PSL) just north of where I was at the DSA and United Anti-Racist Neighborhood Front rally. I was told later police presence and surveillance was more prominent over there, but didn’t check their rally out.

“Folks were out there because they were really concerned about the threats presented by white nationalists and, more generally, racists,” Rose, an antifascist who was there and had been to the Huntington Beach rally the day before, said. “There were lots of different groups and a whole range of left politics (and even folks that probably wouldn't consider themselves political) represented.”

“We were born and raised here. White nationalism has no place in Long Beach,” some protesters told me. One of their signs said ‘racists belong in cages, not children.’ The other said ‘stop trying to make white nationalism happen. It’s not going to happen.’

“I think it’s good we tell them hell no, bring your racism to another city.” Hollis Stewart from DSA Long Beach told me. His sign said “L Beach is democratic No Nazis, fascistas, racists!”

“We ended up doing a victory lap of sorts and marching part of the length of the park,” Rose recounted.

At one point during the march they chanted “From Palestine to Mexico/All the walls have got to go!”

A man with a long jacket green jacket that says "Hey Melania, it's called empathy. (It's a liberal thing, I guess.) It's referencing Melania Trump wearing a similar jacket with "I don't care" written on it after news broke of immigration authorities separating children from their families.

Someone from the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization talked about the August 28^th rally Patriot Prayer tried to have in Berkeley. Local unions like the Longshoremen organized a counter-protest that I remember turned out more than 3,000 people. He said organized labor is the only way to defeat fascism. I remember Joey Gibson didn’t turn many people out that day. “They turned tail,” the speaker said.

Giant banner at the head of the march that says "Trump-Pence must go!"

Things started to wind up quickly and peacefully, but it wasn’t without disturbances.

I later heard from some activists that there were suspicious people coming into the crowd a few at a time taking pictures. I saw men who might have been undercover cops walking back and forth on the bike path below. Activists told me they had been walking back and forth all morning. Another person was apparently across the street by the police at one point taking photos.

A photography student named Jose and a few other cameramen told me two kids went around the block on an electric scooter shouting at people.

One activist on Twitter said they “looked like stupid little high school wannabe neo nazis.”

“Hoping they’ll get their heads on straight before it’s too late,” they added.

Jose said they called him a homophobic slur, said “Fuck you Commies!” and Seig Heiled. He said cops on bicycles chased them down.

“Nothing like drive-by racism” Jose said.

An activist also witnessed someone in a white truck drive by that “yelled out white power slogans.”

Foreman, to my knowledge, didn’t show up in Long Beach on the 28^th. UPNF later claimed they had people undercover at the rally.

Statement by UPNF after the rally. Their page was deleted shortly afterwards.

“Got all the intel we need on which groups organize in that part of town. Cops got what they needed,” the post read. “Doxxing campaigns to come folks. 2020 gonna be lit. No safe space for communists.”

UPNF’s page has since disappeared from Facebook. Their closed “vetting group” was still there when I checked yesterday, but the only member was Foreman’s girlfriend.

OVER

I thought that was it on Monday morning. My friend and his infant son laughed in their living room while I loaded some photos I took of them together on his computer. I got a notification on Twitter.

“Holy shit,” an activist I’d been talking to texted me. I told them I’d felt like something bad was going to happen.

Domingo, the would-be mass murderer, was enraged by the killing of 50 worshippers at Mosques in Christchurch a month and a half before. It was, in his mind, retaliation against white supremacist violence. But I kept thinking about how the FBI pushed him to carry out the attack this weekend. I thought about shrapnel.

“To hear about that after such a successful, empowering, and ultimately peaceful rally was a real shock,” Rose told me later. “If anything had happened, it's comforting to know that I would have been surrounded by folks standing up for something good. People turned out to the park because they care.”

“In the end,” Rose concluded, “those are the folks who give me strength and help me get through the day-to-day.”

COUNTER-PROTESTS ORGANIZED FOR WEEKEND FAR-RIGHT RALLIES IN LONG BEACH AND O.C.

Poster for "March to End Sanctuary State"

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

On April 27^th and 28^th, two right wing extremist rallies are going to be held Southern California.

April 27^th’s “March to END Sanctuary State” in Huntington Beach is organized by a group called “What You Can Do Now.”

Arthur Schaper of the California chapter of Mass Resistance, which the SPLC calls an “anti-LGBT hate group,” will speak as well as Robin Hvidston of The Remembrance Project, which describes itself as “a voice for victims killed by illegal aliens.”

SB-54 is the rally’s legislative target. Under existing law, a description of the measure on the California Legislative Information website says, if law enforcement arrests someone for certain controlled substance charges and they suspect the arrestee isn’t a U.S. citizen, they have to notify “the appropriate agency” that’s in “charge of deportation matters.”

“This bill would repeal those provisions,” the proposal reads.

The march’s organizers said SB-54 “puts ALL Californians at risk,” adding “Our politicians need to stop playing games with our lives and fully fund border security at our southern border.”

Studies by the Koch-backed libertarian Cato Institute and by University of Wisconsin’s Michael T. Light and Purdue’s Ty Miller published in the journal Criminology indicate that statistically, illegal immigrants kill people and commit other crimes at much lower rates than native-born people in the United States.

An opposing rally organized by Occupy ICE L.A. is expected to confront them.

“Racists, white supremacists, and just plain-ignorant haters are planning a rally to oppose California's Sanctuary State status,” their description reads, continuing, “Their aim is to fuel more violence against communities of color by repeating Trump's lies about border emergencies, crime etc.”

“A TROLL WITH AN AMERICAN FLAG AROUND HIS NECK”

The opposition to the rally has good reason to expect racists and white supremacists. For one thing, the SPLC reported that white nationalist Kenny Strawn joined Schaper’s group in July last year. Strawn, according to UK-based anti-hate group Hope Not Hate, tried to start an American branch of the European white nationalist organization Génération Identitaire last year. Generation Identity received over a thousand euros in donations from the Christchurch mass murderer. The SPLC described Schaper himself as a “longtime anti-immigrant and nativist activist.”

“I’ve never seen him get violent, but he’s a harasser,” ‘K’, an activist with Long Beach United Anti-Racist Neighborhood Front (UARNF) told LCRW. “When I first encountered him in 2016, he was going to city council meetings and cutting in and harassing immigrants and immigrant rights activists. And from there, I think people just ate up his YouTube channel because he’s always filming all of it.”

“He’s just a troll with an American flag around his neck,” K said, adding, “I should clarify: I think the potential for his group to get violent is there. I’ve just never personally seen him be violent.”

“People like Arthur Schaper, they’re aware of the fact that they’re a public figure, they’re aware of the fact that the things they’re doing on Instagram could all become evidence against them,” Emma, another UARNF activist said.

Emma recounted Schaper and others backed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) attending a city council vote in Los Alamitos to withdraw from California’s Sanctuary State policy. That event turned violent, Emma said, and was a turning point for them to take his activism seriously.

Outside the meeting, an anti-immigrant activist shouted “I want you out of my country you illegal alien creep, you weirdo!” Inside the meeting, resident Cathrine Yeh told the OC Register, “There were people sitting behind us saying that the kids were being brainwashed.” Yeh said the group was “yelling at the kids.”

Schaper and MassResistance recently gained attention for disrupting “Drag Queen Story Time” events at libraries around the country, claiming they were part of a long-running anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory that claims LGBTQ+ members are trying to indoctrinate and molest young people. A Houston far-right radio host was arrested after he brought a gun into a library in February this year, claiming “We have a bunch of homosexuals who are molesting children.” He had previously harassed the library because of the Drag Queen Story Time events Schaper's group was whipping up controversy over.

“For people like Schaper, the goal is to not turn violent, not to do anything on camera but to get other people to do it,” Emma said. “The subtext of everything he’s doing is to incite these–whatever the media wants to call them–these lone wolf attacks or random acts of violence against immigrants or LGBT folks.”

Schaper, incidentally, accused LCRW and the Hate Trackers organization of “defending pedophiles and sex offenders” on Tuesday while we discussed a recent Drag Queen Storytime protest by white nationalists with Identity Evropa.

“They probably are targeting children for sexual abuse and exploitation as we speak. SHAMEFUL!” Schaper said.

LCRW’s editor in chief responded by screencapping the tweet and captioning it “lol.”

A “PATRIOT” GROUP PLANS A “FREE SPEECH” RALLY IN LONG BEACH

Since-deleted UPNF Event for the 28th in Bluff Park.

The counter-protest on the 27^th has an added sense of urgency because of a group whose members are tied to Unite the Right and allegedly to alt-right podcast Revenge of the Cis.

UPNF announced a rally in Bluff Park in Long Beach set for the day after the “March to END Sanctuary State.” The event was called “Freedom’s Safest Place,” which is also the slogan of the National Rifle Association.

“It was kind of comical because they haven’t really done much research. There’s usually like, yoga that happens in the park that day,” K said. “It was sort of like, out-of-town people who were coming in.”

UPNF member Antonio Foreman said the group will “wear street clothes no body armor or weapons. American flags only. This is a freedom of speech and censorship event. Not a trump event.”

“Traditionally in our area, white supremacists/white nationalists can organize pretty freely down in Orange County in the Huntington Beach area, but Long Beach is a little bit off-limits for them,” K said, continuing, “so I think for them this was sort of like ‘We’re going to go to the heart of whatever and have this rally.’”

“We caught wind of it and started letting the neighborhood know. That was sort of our goal, just flyering a little bit and talking to people in the neighborhood.,” K said.

UARNF and the Long Beach chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organized a counter-demonstration. Local antifascist crews like Long Beach Antifascist Action spread the word. The campaign gained local attention.

Since-deleted post by Drake Willian Nighswonger.

“See you fucks in April,” UPNF President Drake Nighswonger said on Facebook on March 18^th in a post that’s since been deleted.

“It didn’t take long for them to take their page down. How quickly did it go down?” K said.

“It was like a couple weeks,” Emma replied, continuing “They took their page down and the event down and rebranded as “Everything Patriot and Tactical.”

Emma and K laughed after saying the name.

“While we were monitoring it, I think it had like, four or five people going,” K said. “It never really gained traction and I think some of that is just the demographics of Long Beach. They picked a terrible neighborhood for their cause. It’s a pretty liberal neighborhood.”

UPNF has since stopped posting about activism and just shared the same kind of memes and outrage-of-the-day posts as many other right wing groups. Their profile picture still says UPNF on it.

However, UARNF was well aware that so-called “free speech” events by right wing extremist groups often target liberal and leftist spaces and obfuscate what they’re doing publicly. Such was the case in Berkeley, Portland, and Charlottesville. Weeks before the first so-called “Battle of Berkeley” on March 4^th, 2017 were filled with confusing and contradictory statements from organizers, wildly different numbers of people showing up and claiming the event wasn’t even happening. At least 80 people showed up on the right-wing side of that rally and it turned into a bloody brawl. UARNF activists told LCRW they’re reaching out to people to act as medics on the ground, just in case.

“We’re preparing for the worst-case scenario,” Emma said.

“We’ll get people out and send a really clear message if they do show up, absolutely,” K said.

“For me, personally, a bigger concern is that LBPD has done a great/terrible job at making sure to show up any place where we’re organizing and we definitely know they’re going to be there that day,” K said. “Definitely there’s a concern for people there of being monitored and surveilled.”

LBPD told multiple outlets they were “aware of the event and at this time it’s too early to say if we will have additional patrols in the area,” adding, “The Department always encourages our community to express their 1^st amendment right in a peaceful manner.”

“We haven’t been able to officially confirm their rally is not happening, however from what it looks online, they’ve sort of just merged with the Huntington Beach rally that’s happening,” K said. “So everybody’s just organizing themselves in their traditional locales.”

“I don’t feel like there’s going to be a ton of resistance,” Emma said, guessing that “95% chance there’s not going to be a lot of resistance, 50/50 they don’t show up at all.”

“Before they took the event page down, there was a lot of discussion about the Huntington Beach rally and ‘why are we doing an event that’s so close to that event?’” Emma recounted. “So we know that going to that event was on their radar.”

UARNF and other groups will still show up in Bluff Park and demonstrate in case any extremist groups try to stage a demonstration–and to send a message to the organizers of the anti-Sanctuary State rally.

“We oppose the recruitment of vulnerable, disillusioned young white men in our community and will stand up to protect people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and all others who suffer from violence promoted by far-right and white nationalist groups,” their press release reads.

Press release by UARNF

“So far, our event has gotten pretty broad support from the neighborhood. We expect a lot of people–at least a lot of liberals–to show up,” K said. The counter-rally at Bluff Park is scheduled for 10am on Sunday the 28^th.

ARE UPNF REALLY WHITE NATIONALISTS?

United Patriot National Front (UPNF) doesn’t have a website or much of a description on its Facebook page, but the slogan on their logo is “Defendere Gentem,” or “Defend the Nation” in English. They were founded, according to their Facebook page, on November 4^th, 2017. The date has some significance because the Revolutionary Communist Party front group Refuse Fascism picked it for a national rally and right wing conspiracy theorists pumped it up as a day of mass chaos targeting white people. By most accounts, that rally was a flop and serious antifascists didn't organize around it.

Al Jazeera called UPNF “a far-right coalition of white supremacists and ultra-nationalists.” The group itself insists it isn’t. It’s Going Down and Al Jazeera reported Antonio Foreman was the head of the group at the time, but other sources indicate Drake William Nighswonger is the group’s current president.

Nighswonger (second from the right), Foreman (second from the left) with the rest of their security team and Infowars' Owen Shroyer (center) in Berkeley.

Foreman, who sells himself as a bodyguard to right wing extremists, is a prominent member of UPNF.

Foreman was at Unite the Right as alt-right/white nationalist internet celebrity Baked Alaska’s bodyguard. He and Nighswonger acted as security for far-right YouTube channel “Slightly Offensive” at a protest against Trump Administration child separation policies in June 2018. He’s also worked security for perennial L.A. area Republican candidate Omar Navarro, who called him a friend. Last August, he was at Amber Cummings’ “No to Marxism 2” rally in Berkeley, where he and his “security team” guarded Infowars’ Owen Shroyer, sometimes shoving counter-protesters during the march. This year, he was working security for Laura Loomer as she trespassed on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Napa mansion and then the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento with anti-LGBT and racist Fresno-based radio host Ben Bergquam.

Specializing in working with anti-Semites like Baked Alaska, career Islamophobes like Laura Loomer and transphobes like Bergquam doesn’t necessarily make you a bigot or even shape your ideas. Foreman could simply have found a niche market for his work. In response to criticism of his involvement in the event, Foreman took to UPNF’s Facebook.

“Upnf denounces all forms of neo nazi-ism and racism,” Foreman wrote. “We are a freedom loving group and do not intend to bring any violence to any of our events.”

“My participation in unite the right was that of a bodyguard and never start out with violence only self defense,” he added.

Since-deleted statement by Antonio Foreman on UPNF's Facebook page.

But this isn’t the case. Foreman has a history of going on livestreams with groups like the Red Elephants, a white nationalist media outlet poorly masked as a conservative one that promoted neo-Nazi fight club the Rise Above Movement and makes videos about white genocide conspiracies.

A month after Unite the Right, Foreman was in Berkeley during racist commentator Milo Yiannopoulos’s failed “Free Speech Week.” In Berkeley, he was front and center with at least fifty others blocking the door of a Revolutionary Communist Party-associated bookstore in Berkeley, shouting taunts at its trapped employees. In another incident at the same bookstore, Foreman was pushed out by employees after shouting and harassing them.

“Because we keep attacking this bookstore, they keep coming out,” Foreman said in a Red Elephants livestream.

“We’re not attacking–we gotta be careful with our words, man,” Red Elephants’ Rick Write told him.

He and Baked Alaska also recited the neo-Nazi “14 words” slogan on a livestream and then discussed their plans to use coded language to acclimate their “normie” viewers to more extreme political positions.

“1476, that’s what I like to say,” Foreman said in the video. 1488 is a common Nazi code, combining the 14 words and 88, a code that means ‘Heil Hitler.’

“It’s the 14 words and a new revolution in America,” Foreman continued.

“Against cultural Marxism,” Baked Alaska interjected.

“Against cultural Marxism, against feminism, all this bullshit,” Foreman added.

“I think the other one (1488) is fun in private,” Foreman said.

“And it’s a little heavy for people,” Alaska replied.

“Yeah, and it’s outdated,” Foreman said.

“It’s scary,” Alaska replied.

“Okay, how about this, guys,” Alaska told his livestream viewers, “It’s 1476 on the streets and it’s 1488 in the sheets, baby!”

“For people, for normies that can’t really get to the other part, ‘76’ stands for a new revolution against cultural Marxism in our country,”Alaska continued. “So if you guys can get people on to 1476, you’re getting people real close to, um, some good info there.”

“So that’s something Tony (Foreman) came up with–an idea on how to redpill normies,” Alaska concluded. “So I love it. I love it. Let’s try it out.”

Foreman and another UPNF member, Jesse Macias, showed up to harass a bus full of asylum seekers at a church with Patriot Movement Arizona (PMAZ) in January, as PMAZ has done multiple times at least since last year. According to the SPLC, PMAZ are an “anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hate group.” Foreman said he “busted right through the door” of the church during the incident. He was armed.

In addition to being at the deadly Unite the Right rally, Foreman was at the bloody “Second Battle of Berkeley” on April 15^th, 2017 where white nationalists, militia members, and alt-lite groups brawled side-by-side against m80-throwing antifascists. Foreman posed for a photo wearing Oath Keepers militia paraphernalia. The Oath Keepers infamously carried rifles and stood on the rooftops to protect businesses in Ferguson, Missouri after the police killing of black teenager Michael Brown sparked prolonged protests and clashes with law enforcement.

“Our impression is he’s kind of muscle, right?” Emma from UARNF said of Foreman. “If he shows up, there’s a big potential for them to incite violence, which is one of their goals.”

“I definitely feel like down here, some of these people just kind of bounce around and get involved with whatever groups doing whatever thing,” K from UARNF said. “Obviously, Foreman’s a racist, white nationalist, whatever he wants to call himself, but it seems like he’s just looking to bounce around with whatever group is doing a thing, getting involved and starting shit.”

UPNF attended at least one other racist event in the past. In February 2018, the group was part of a rally at Chicano Park outnumbered by counter-protestors. The event was part of a sustained harassment campaign by alt-right and alt-lite groups against Chicano Park, a historical Chicanx/Latinx space. UPNF, Foreman included, attended, as did Patrick Little, the neo-Nazi ex-Marine who ran for Senate in California in 2018 on an explicitly anti-Jewish platform.

Far-right e-celeb Mike Tokes, Vincent James of the Red Elephants, MASS Resistance members Arthur Schaper and Kenny Strawn, Proud Boy and American Blackshirts Party supporter Carl Nieves, and Asatru Folk Assembly adherent and self-described “ethno-nationalist” Michael E Johnston are all listed in the public ‘likes’ of UPNF’s page.

If that weren’t enough, Frank “L.A. Werewolf” Espinoza is allegedly a member of UPNF.

Espinoza is an anti-Semite. He’s associated with the alt-right shock jock podcast Revenge of the Cis (ROTC.) He called someone a “Jew lover” on one of his Facebook pages in March and frequently posts other anti-Semitic statements. Espinoza is a friend of Foreman’s, at least on Facebook. He wasn’t listed on UPNF’s public ‘likes’ page after their rebranding, however.

Espinoza mocked the It’s Going Down article naming him as a possible attendee.

“Please scroll down to the part of my parody photoshop gun/skull mask with a rainbow background. Allegedly I'm Atom Waffen Division. LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL,” he wrote, referring to Attomwaffen, a network of neo-Nazi terror cells with five known murders to its name whose members often wear skull masks like Espinoza’s in the photo.

“Bro you host ROTC....nice!,” Revenge of the Cis co-host Royce Lopez commented.

“I think they think you're Frank. Cuz all Hispanic dudes look alike, right?” Dan Rice replied to Lopez.

“I'll be contacting my lawyer Dr.shekelsteinberg to collect my portion of the revenue. I also want half the discord,” Espinoza said.

It’s not clear whether Espinoza works directly for Revenge of the Cis, which is hosted by Lopez and Mike “Mersh” Schiele. He does work with them, is a frequent guest on their show, and he’s on their “Friends of ROTC” page, along with The Red Elephants. Espinoza did have his own “L.A. Werewolf” channel with over 2,000 subscribers. It appears YouTube removed his content, however. ROTC posted on a February 20^th 2018 YouTube video that Espinoza believes “cucked Antifa tattletales” at It’s Going Down mass-reported him.

UARNF members also said David Feiner might show up at the Huntington Beach and Bluff Park events. David Feiner is a reporter for The Red Elephants and a member of Cal State Long Beach’s Turning Point USA Chapter. Feiner is also friends with Samaria Salazar, who helped run pagan Holocaust denier Augustus Invictus’s senate campaign.

“With some of these groups, it almost looks to me like the actual person who we should be concerned about is usually, like, the vice president or some lower-level something,” K said, “because when we started looking into David, he was involved with all kinds of people and has been everywhere.”

“With the exception of [David Feiner,]” K added, “none of these people live here.”

“We all live here. This is the city we live in.” they said. “They’re L.A. people, they’re Inland Empire people, they’re Orange County people, they’re not from here. I was glad to see how many people in Long Beach cared about that.”

THE WHITE POWER YOU DON’T SEE

American Identity Movement (AKA Identity Evropa) stickers and flyers at UCLA.

In terms of white nationalist and right-wing extremist organizing in their area, however, Emma said they’re most concerned about Identity Evropa (IE), now rebranded as the American Identity Movement.

IE’s founder used the “Second Battle of Berkeley” as a “test run” for Unite the Right. In its aftermath, the group rebranded, tried to distance itself from street violence and doubled down on trying to appear clean-cut and moderate. Some more overt white nationalists call them “optics cucks”–people who won’t publicly “name the Jew” or wear swastikas and instead try to appeal to respectability. IE’s activism, usually flyering and stickering, minimizes public appearances and they try to keep membership in the group anonymous secret beyond their public-facing, media-savvy leaders.

“We literally have not seen any actual person. They’re very underground. We see them putting their flyers up,” Emma said, adding, “their organizing is set up towards anonymity which we know is set up towards violence.”

“A lot of the Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement activists can be people from L.A. but go down to Orange County and organize with people who can be more open down there,” K said.

Identity Evropa also creeps in to more official right-wing channels of power. They phonebanked for white nationalist and Iowa congressman Steven King and planned to use Turning Point USA, a nationwide right-wing campus organization, as grounds to recruit.

THE OTHER WHITE POWER YOU DON’T SEE

“The problems in Long Beach are more with the fact that a lot of these people are invested in businesses and stuff like that–gentrification, to use a buzzword, which can impact people of color, working people,” Emma said.

“Even though we’re focused on opposing this rally, just fighting white nationalism and open displays is not enough to combat racism. There’s other fronts,” Emma continued. “When there’s a ballot measure on the line, the older white population will come out to defend their interests, which are not the interests of people of color in Long Beach.”

K said that traditionally, most white power organizing happens in coastal Orange County–Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. They haven’t heard of something this organized happening in Long Beach before. While it’s historically been pretty liberal, the adjacent city of Lakewood to the north has a long history of segregated housing policies. “It flew under the radar as a super racist city for years and years and years,” they said.

“I grew up here and I’ve never seen anything here that was really organized,” K said, “which is why personally I feel really strongly about doing this kind of work here.”

“We don’t see a lot of Blue Lives Matter flags here,” Emma added, “but if you go to Orange County, you see them everywhere–it's a big tip-off to where people stand and where the culture is.”

“We know these people are there and they’re kind of under their rock. Every once in a while you might drive through Lakewood and see a Confederate flag or something like that, but I’ve never seen people try to organize here,” K said.

“Which is why I think that it’s critical that even if they don’t show up that we just show up with as many people as possible to just send the strongest message we can–that anybody that tries this is going to be met with a huge amount of resistance.”