American Patriot Council claims that the January 6th protesters were mostly peaceful, while “terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May”

The latest posting from the American Patriot Council, further demonstrates both their loyalty to Donald Trump and their penchant for distorting the truth.

On February 9th, the American Patriot Council post a short piece entitled, FBI Plays Pickle with Truth about Mostly Peaceful Protests At the Capitol.

Despite their misapplied use of a baseball term, the American Patriot Council article is primarily a full on attempt to defend by Donald Trump and those who stormed the US Capitol building on January 6th. Early on in the article it states:

A few bad actors assaulted police, broke windows, and entered the building before police opened the barrier, letting hundreds more inside. The problem for the FBI, is that they have already alleged that some of the protesters planned an “insurrection” in advance. The FBI has vowed to take a hard stance against anyone involved on the 6th. This new, hard line against protestors has already raised questions because they have largely done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May. Now, even more questions arise as many ask: if Trump incited the few bad actors on January 6, how did protesters plan it in advance?

Such claims are worth deconstructing. The American Patriot Council writer uses the same phrase – a few bad apples – that has been presented by systems of power and police apologists, whenever police murder Black people. The next sentence demonstrates how morally bankrupt the phrase – a few bad apples – really is, since the American Patriot Council writer then writes, assaulted police, broke windows, and entered the building before police opened the barrier, letting hundreds more inside. Some of the protesters did indeed assault cops and destroyed property, but the writer fails to acknowledge that the protestors also forced their way into the building, thus “letting hundreds more inside.” If the hundreds more were able to enter the US Capitol because other protesters assaulted cops, which included hitting them and knocking them down, then those who entered are also complicit with these assaults by the fact they only enter because of the assaults.

The other major point of misinformation in the American Patriot Council post is the following:

This new, hard line against protestors has already raised questions because they have largely done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May.

White Supremacists and White Nationalists have long been known to be the most threatening to people in the US, particularly towards Black, Indigenous and other communities of color. Hell, even the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have identified these groups as representing domestic terrorism. However, the FBI nor the DHS should be considered credible sources on this matter, since both of the groups have a history of targeting Black, Indigenous and other communities of color. More recently, the FBI has targeted, what they refer to as “Black extremist groups”, and historically Black militants and moderates have been tracked by the US government, from Marcus Garvey to Dr. King. In addition, the FBI created a program named COINTELPRO, which was used to monitor, harass, infiltrate and even assassinated Black Freedom Struggle leaders in the 1960s and 70s. (See The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall.) The Department of Homeland Security, which was created after 9/11, has done a great deal to monitor, suppress and persecute Black, Indigenous and Arab Americans, a practice which was codified after the Patriot Act was adopted in October of 2001. 

The American Patriot Council then goes on to say that law enforcement groups have, “done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May.” First of all this is patently false. Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies have engaged in significant repression of Black Lives Matter and antifa groups since last May. Even in Grand Rapids, the level of harassment and intimidation against those who have been protesting since the May 30th rebellion is significant, as we have documented.

In communities like Portland, the level of state repression against groups has been significant, which even included federal agents in unmarked vehicles attacking and arresting people involved in the anti-White Supremacy and anti-police brutality protests. Not only are these claims false, we have noted in previous posts that the American Patriot Council has gone out of their way to denounce Black Lives Matter groups, even referring to them as fascists in a video they posted in November.

The rest of the very short and not very well written post from the American Patriot Council consists of; 1) the use of ridiculous language like “radicals in Congress”, which is just code for anyone who didn’t agree with Trump; and 2) a weak argument that Trump was not communicating with those who attacked the US Capitol prior to the January 6th action and that he did not incite them to attack the US Capitol. If people are looking for a connection to the far right and the Trump administration, which have been in communication during the entire four years that Trump was President, then I would suggest you read the newly published book by Brendan O’Connor, Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right.