Boogaloo: DHS warns increased threat of RW domestic terror
Wear a Hawai'ian shirt, go to jail…Tulsa did have in attendance the anti-government gun-toting version of Proud Boys called Boogaloo Bois. Fortunately they chickened out on a mission to foment conflict for a second Civil War.
Fortunately, the fashion police and the National Guard were present in Tulsa, and monitoring the Boogaloos’ paramilitary cosplay activity. Doubtless future Trump rallies will feature their antics and weapons.
“In May and June 2020, Facebook acted to limit the movement's activities and visibility across its social media platforms.[19][20]”
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) June 21, 2020
— Slimgirl (@Yvette368) June 21, 2020
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) June 20, 2020
According to the non-profit Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), groups belonging to the boogaloo movement organize on mainstream online platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, as well as on more obscure platforms such as 4chan.[1][22]
Bellingcat identifies Facebook as a particularly important platform for the movement, and that the movement numbers in the tens of thousands.[7] The NCRI researchers also estimate the movement to have tens of thousands of adherents.[2]
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) June 19, 2020
The Trump administration is warning law enforcement and public safety officials that a far-right extremist movement known as “boogaloo” may be setting its sights on the nation’s capital.
On Monday, the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium (NTIC), a fusion center for Washington, D.C. that provides support to federal national security and law enforcement agencies, warned in an intelligence assessment that “the District is likely an attractive target for violent adherents of the boogaloo ideology due to the significant presence of US law enforcement entities, and the wide range of First Amendment-Protected events hosted here.”
The assessment, dated June 15 and obtained by Politico, reported that “recent events indicate violent adherents of the boogaloo ideology likely reside in the National Capital Region, and others may be willing to travel far distances to incite civil unrest or conduct violence encouraged in online forums associated with the movement.”
But there are various facets to the loosely organized group: One generally stems from its original ties to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, while a newer facet is libertarian.
“There's a lot of overlap and the boundary is blurry because they both evolved together,” said Alex Newhouse, digital research lead at Middlebury Institute's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. “It is very difficult to know if the 'boogaloo boi' you see standing in the middle of the street at a protest is there in solidarity or to incite violence.”
