Masked Counter-Protester Arrested After Stopping, Shooting At ‘Free Palestine Rally and March’ in Eugene

spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to politics @lemmy.world – 358 points –
PHOTOS: Masked Counter-Protester Arrested After Stopping, Shooting At ‘Free Palestine Rally and March’ in Eugene
doublesidedmedia.com
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"Counter-Protester" is a weird way to spell "Terrorist".

Right. A counter protestor would be holding a sign, not aiming a gun. This wasn't "counter protesting" in any sense of the word.

Article claimed he was flying flags from his truck. I would argue that "flying flags" is reasonably comparable to "holding a sign". "Counter protester" seems an apt description.

Article further claims he didn't "aim a gun" until after his truck was attacked with him inside. That "gun" was quickly determined to be an air gun.

In apparent support of this label, his own YouTube channel describes him as a "domestic terrorist".

When they tell you what they are, believe them the first time

I'm looking at you, theocratic fascist Matt Walsh

JFC, he's one of those Humboldt County right wing fascist hippies. (Not joking)

And yes, he has multiple videos titled "diaries of a domestic terrorist"... Going back 14 years.

News organizations have started calling right wing domestic terrorists "conservative activists" now.

Yeah. It’s funny how the terrorists always accuse “mainstream media” of lies, while the same mainstream media seems to protect them by downplaying their hate crimes.

These alt right morons are so stupid they can't even use the mask correctly. It doesn't even represent their ideals. This idiot saw "AnoN" and thought he'd LARP as the "hacker" 4chan.

V for Vendetta illustrator and co-creator David Lloyd:

The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way. My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism – V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system. We knew that V was going to be an escapee from a concentration camp where he had been subjected to medical experiments but then I had the idea that in his craziness he would decide to adopt the persona and mission of Guy Fawkes our great historical revolutionary.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_mask

V as an idea is a revolutionary protesting against a tyrannical govenrment. Occupy wall street protestors were well known for using this mask.

This guy was shooting at protestors protesting injustice itself. Nothing about the alt right represents these ideas whatsoever. In fact, these people actively vote to keep existing oppression.

These violent right wing extremists must be having a crisis of conscience in regards to choosing between Islamophobia and antisemitism

Ironically a lot of the ones choosing to support Israel are wildly antisemitic. Israel just needs to exist for their end of days cult prophecies to come true. The Jewish people themselves are irrelevant.

You're thinking about it wrong. They don't have actual positions, they just have whatever position is against the left in the moment.

Guy Fawkes was a sectarian domestic terrorist. Sounds just like modern day MAGA to me.

"The comics follow the story's title character and protagonist, V, an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, as he begins an elaborate and theatrical revolutionist campaign to kill his former captors, bring down the fascist state, and convince the people to abandon fascism in favour of anarchy, while inspiring a young woman, Evey Hammond, to be his protégée."

The masks seem to specifically be based on the graphic novel and it's appearence. I don't agree with anarchy I guess but bringing down the fascist state is definitely not something MAGA would do. MAGATs support the fascist state. Thus why they tried to not let Biden have his election certified and tried to destroy democracy.

"David Lloyd (born 1950) is an English comics artist best known as the illustrator of the story V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, and the designer of its anarchist protagonist V and the modern Guy Fawkes/V mask, the latter going on to become a symbol of protest."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_(comics)

Fawkes wanted to bring down the Church of England fascist monarchy in order to replace it with a Catholic fascist state. It's the equivalent of a Sunni terrorist group trying to overthrow a Shiite government and replace it with their own. He's a terrorist, not a hero.

Now V on the other hand, was a great role model...one second, I'm being told V was also a domestic terrorist who murdered anyone who disagreed with him. I know it's super cool and edgy to scrawl an anarchy A on your notebook and act like V was a superhero, but if you actually watch and absorb what's happening in that story, he's no better than the people he's fighting against.

I view V as morally ambiguous. MAGA certainly is cringe when they use him as representation though. He was experimented on and traumatized by an evil fascist government and yes at times, ruthless and calculated in his attempts to achieve his end goal. He was harmed by the fascist government as were people he knew. He was, to a degree, driven insane, and mad by a fascist government that chose to harm him and others.

MAGA has never had, overall, a hard life in the sense that they should storm a capital to "regain" their "freedumb" to stop our legit votes except their complaints that they couldn't go to Mcdonald's for a while due to Covid. Many of them had expensive trucks, six-figure businesses, and not much to worry about. The poorer ones were of course just idiots thinking electing Trump again will somehow save them, give them privilege in his eyes, or make them wealthy.

It's understandable how V comes to be and how we interpret him morally is complex at best.

MAGA using his mask is just . . .cringe.

I'd tend to disagree that MAGA people haven't had a hard life. Many have been stuck in a cycle of poverty (of arguably their own creation by voting for politicians that lie to and exploit them) for generations, and MAGA talking points speak right to their frustration. Cults in general seek out vulnerable individuals and exploit that to their own means. MAGA politicians continue the cycle while blaming liberal policies, so they're just reinforcing the Republican lie to a new generation of voters.

They have access to all the information on the entire web but choose to go to sources that only confirm their own existing beliefs.

They saw Covid kill a million people and watched their family members die from it. I think the sympathy most of us had for people like this died out long ago. Of course, Republican politicians are the cause as is Reich wing media and Russian Social media.

I feel more sympathy for the people hurt by the shitty way they vote, which is all the rest of us. It feels like they are trying to drag us to hell with them, so excuse me if I'm less than sympathetic.

Hey, JP - That's a great outfit. How much do clothes cost in The Matrix?

On a serious note:

Just another example of these far right asshats being violent, and the protesters they're trying to attack showing restraint and peacefully detaining them.

Whatever thing that guy had, it looks like a real gun. He's lucky he didn't get capped as soon as he started firing it.

began firing several shots that sounded like compressed-air.

EPD said that the weapon was a “splatter ball gun.”

OK...? And cops shoot black teenagers for holding cans of Arizona Iced Tea, claiming they thought it was a firearm.

This dude had a literal replica of a firearm. He brandished it like a firearm, and threatened peaceful protestors. Whether or not the gun was real isn't super relevant at this point.

Any bystander would have been justified in lighting that dude up the second that gun was visible. For example, if the camera was a gun it'd be privileged self defense and defense of others.

I googled "splatter ball gun" and everything looked like a toy. This looked either like a real firearm, a replica or a replica airsoft gun. Either way, it looks real without a close inspection.

Another prime specimen of the master race.

Cool truck too.

Is he wearing his Morphious Halloween costume? Oh well… one less trump voter.

You're assuming they convict him of a crime sufficient to strip his voting rights. Frankly, I'm surprised they even arrested him after they got the mask off and saw he was white.

the woman in the front seat just seems totally unbothered by what's happening around her, how high is she?

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

There is no way for a person to discern that the weapon he is holding is not a real firearm.

This guy is going to jail.

Also surprised that Mr. Terrorist waited for an Israel/Palestine war protest to trigger him, of ll things.

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I feel like pointing out that it was a splat gun and not a firearm is pretty important.

And because I know I have to say it even though it should be obvious, no, that does not make it ok.

If the protestors who drew their weapons made this guy take the room temperature challenge instead of showing restraint, they would have likely been justified in the eyes of the law, and rightly so. When someone brandishes a weapon from a vehicle, or under the partial cover of a vehicle, it’s not on the defender to check and make sure it’s a real gun. Pulling gun shaped toys in public is a really bad idea and should have fatal consequences.

This is rural-ish Oregon and I'd say it's better then even odds that the police then kill the protester(s), or write up their report to justify an arrest and prosecution. Having protestor/public video would be the only potential saving grace in that calculus, at least if they aren't killed prior to being arrested.

take the room temperature challenge

Hadn't heard this one before.

Yeah this is absolute click bait/fear mongering.

Domestic terrorist. Call them what they are.

A half hour into the march...a white GMC Sierra 2500 pickup truck sporting multiple right-wing flags—including the Gadsden—suddenly pulled into the intersection...and began firing several shots that sounded like compressed-air.

Imagine being so stupid and gullible that you fly a Gadsden flag and fanatically support right wing facism.

Not a contradiction. The whole point of fascism is "I get whatever I want, and fuck everyone else".

“…along with 100 more of the mentioned whoopee pills.”

I’m sorry, but wtf are whoopee pills? I think they’re referring to the ecstasy, but I have been doing drugs for over 15 years and have never heard them called a whoopee pill before.

I don't see that word in the article. Maybe the article was edited?

It's slang for drugs basically, not necessarily illegal drugs. The connotation is stimulants or uppers, or even anti depressants or anti anxiety meds.

What a dumbass. People need to tone things down. That Jewish woman stabbed to death is another case of political dumbassery.

Actually the Detroit police chief just issued a statement that there is no evidence whatsoever leading to that conclusion. Which is probably because they have no idea what the hell happened.

Yeah, I should have added an "if" there, since we still don't know what the motivations were. It's possible it could have been a robbery gone wrong, a random weird stalker situation, etc.

Statistically she was most likely to be killed by a man in her close circle. Boyfriend, jilted ex, etc. curious to find out what happened.

Very simple to edit comments. You could just literally go back and fix your comment rather than talk about how you should have said something different.

Just saying.

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What a shit headline. I thought someone stopped a shooting and got arrested until I read the article.