A Wednesday morning fire in Baltimore that put three people in the hospital is being investigated as a possible hate crime, authorities told WJZ.
Based on a preliminary investigation, authorities believe someone set fire to at least one Pride flag outside a row home in the 300 block of E. 31st Street and the flames spread to the home and neighboring homes, a Baltimore Police spokesperson said.
Three victims were taken to Shock Trauma for treatment, he said. A 30-year-old woman and 57-year-old man were hospitalized in critical condition, and a 74-year-old man is in serious condition, the Baltimore City Fire Department told WJZ.
JFC, it feels like we’re back in the 80’s. Be vigilant, everyone. Know who is near you at all times. Know who is behind you at all times. Look out for yourselves and each other.
I find myself holding back from using public restrooms if there is someone already in there. The atmosphere has changed where there could be a real confrontation. It isn’t helping that Republican politicians here in Oklahoma are trying to out do each other in their anti-Trans hate.
This is what a failing democracy looks like. A majority support gay marriage, contraception, interracial marriage, and abortion rights, but are powerless to stop the removal of these rights.
Fundamentalist evangelical Christianity and its members are, sadly, a major major factor when it comes to the future of our nation. Ronald Reagan opened the doors of government to them in the early 80s and they poured in.
In the person of Donald Trump they found their perfect puppet. They control him and he controls the vast majority of Republicans today.
My thoughts exactly. Add to that increasing violence, especially political violence and violence directed at minorities, and society at large but especially authorities becoming increasingly tolerant of it. Kyle Rittenhouse being acquitted after murdering two people and then lauded as a celebrity is a harbinger of things to come.
The insurrection continues. This is what we have been warning people about. The rabid right has been trying to get themselves into all positions that approve who won the election so they can throw each election to the Republicans and deny any win by a Democrat. Forget the votes or what the voters want, these people are driven to install their own single party dictatorship and end US democracy. We all better understand this because already in two swing states the Stop the steal election deniers have won the election oversite positions. I am listening to Sam Seder talk on this and he makes the actions the Republicans have made to insure this result so clear. Think in a lot of these states that have more land than people, everyone they know voted for tRump, so how could Biden have possibly won they ask. Talk about narrowed horizons, if my and my friends did this then everyone must have done it, Right? Can what is written below be any more clear what these people intend for 2022 and even worse for 2024? Hugs
FILE – Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin stands outside the federal court after receiving a verdict in his trial, March 22, 2022 in Washington. A federal judge has convicted Griffin of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds, but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
New Mexico’s secretary of state on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to order the Republican-led commission of rural Otero County to certify primary election results after it refused to do so over distrust of Dominion vote-tallying machines.
Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Olive’s request came a day after the three-member Otero County commission, in its role as a county canvassing board, voted unanimously against certifying the results of the June 7 primary without raising specific concerns about discrepancies.
The commission’s members include Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin, who ascribes to unsubstantiated claims that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Griffin was convicted of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds — though not the building — amid the riots on Jan. 6, 2021, and is scheduled for sentencing later this month. He acknowledged that the standoff over this primary could delay the outcome of local election races.
“I have huge concerns with these voting machines,” Otero County Commissioner Vickie Marquardt said Monday. “When I certify stuff that I don’t know is right, I feel like I’m being dishonest because in my heart I don’t know if it is right.”
The commission’s vote is the latest example of how conspiracy theories and misinformation are affecting the integrity of local elections across the U.S. Trump has continued to describe the 2020 election as “rigged” or “stolen,” despite a coalition of top government and industry officials calling it the “most secure in American history.”
Dominion’s systems also have been unjustifiably attacked since the 2020 election by people who embraced the false belief that the election was stolen from Trump. The company has filed defamation lawsuits in response to incorrect and outrageous claims made by high-profile Trump allies.
New Mexico’s Dominion machines have been disparaged repeatedly by David and Erin Clements of Las Cruces in their review of the 2020 election in Otero County and voter registration rolls at the request of the commission. The Clements are traveling advocates for “forensic” reviews of the 2020 election and offer their services as election experts and auditors to local governments. Election officials including County Clerk Robyn Holmes say the Clements are not certified auditors nor experts in election protocols.
The couple has highlighted problems during sporadic, hourslong presentations to the commission this year. Local election officials dispute many of the findings as mistaken or unfounded.
County canvassing boards have until June 17 to certify election results, prior to state certification and preparation of general election ballots.
Under state law, county canvass boards can call on a voting precinct board to address specific discrepancies, but no discrepancies were identified on Monday by the Otero commission.
“The post-election canvassing process is a key component of how we maintain our high levels of election integrity in New Mexico and the Otero County Commission is flaunting that process by appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories and potentially nullifying the votes of every Otero County voter who participated in the primary,” Toulouse Oliver said in a statement. She accused the commission of willful violations of the state election code.
New Mexico uses paper ballots that can be double-checked later in all elections, and also relies on tabulation machines to rapidly tally votes while minimizing human error. Election results also are audited by random samplings to verify levels of accuracy in the vote count.
The Otero County commission voted last week to recount ballots from the statewide primary election by hand, remove state-mandated ballot drop boxes that facilitate absentee voting and discontinue the use of Dominion vote tabulation machines in the general election.
On Monday, Holmes said those instructions from the county commissions conflict with state and federal election law, and that she would only recount the election by hand under a court order.
“The election law does not allow me to hand tally these ballots or to even form a board to do it. I just can’t,” said Holmes, a Republican. “And I’m going to follow the law.”
Holmes noted that the state-owned vote tabulation machines from Dominion are tested by Otero County officials in public view and that the machines also are independently certified in advance. Griffin said he and fellow commissioners don’t see the process as trustworthy.
“That’s a source that we don’t have any control or influence over,” he said.
Mario Jimenez of the progressive watchdog group Common Cause New Mexico said the public can view testing of vote-tallying machines prior to elections in every county, and that certification notices are posted on every machine where voters can see them.
“They have no basis — other than ‘we just don’t trust the machine’ — for not certifying the election,” Jimenez said of the Otero County commissioners.
Though Trump won nearly 62% of the vote in Otero County in 2020, county commissioners have said they are not satisfied with results of the state’s audit of the vote count nor assurances by their Republican county clerk that elections this year will be accurate.
County commissioners could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Marquardt, the commissioner, laughed Monday at the suggestion that a court might intervene in the election dispute.
“And so then what? They’re going to send us to the pokey?” she said.
Expect more of this… wake up America and GOP, this will destroy us. This is now the plan for MAGA, place people in low levels who can refuse to do their basic duty.
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) June 15, 2022
Expect more court battles ahead as recalcitrant election boards and officials refuse to certify results (or certify their own version of results) and injunctions are sought against them. https://t.co/QCWoavYzw8
This is why @runforsomething's Clerk Work program to elect pro-democracy local election administrators (like county commissioners) *in all 50 states* matters. https://t.co/2wlhhppoz3
A sneak preview of how America’s democratic republic finally ends: Republicans simply refuse to certify any election results they don’t like and disqualify however many hundreds, thousands, or millions of voters it takes for them to declare themselves the winners.
Democracies require candidates to accept winning and losing. The problem is we’re beset by a party that refuses to accept losing. The only good thing about this is that this party will also destroy itself from within with its own primaries, as their own childish candidates refuse to concede to their own party’s victors.
The problem is that they’re likely to destroy the process & faith in elections, before turning on each other
It’s starting, the next 2 years is going to be a utter shit show in relation to elections, especially in the red states. There’s going to be massive amount of lawsuits both for and against election certification and claims of fraud and tampering are going to become the norm in virtually every level of election. We’re on our way to a Theocracy and the right is fueling the flames of civil war at every turn.
In the mind of these people gay people not only shouldn’t exist but shouldn’t ever be seen or have rights. These assholes claim as it is paid for by tax payer money it shouldn’t have gay people represented, well what about all the tax paying gay people who want to see themselves represented in government. As a gay man why should I support museum art that depicts straight people kissing? The idea that only right-wing straight ideas have a right to be shown in society is infuriating as it is more than clear there are other people in society. That is the point of course the right-wing straight people want the rest of us ignored or publicly shamed. Damn it the SCOTUS has said it is more than OK that a religious organization taking taxpayer money gets to discriminate against gay people who pay those taxes. I am angry and sick of it. Hugs
LGBTQ equality advocates are demanding officials in Gaston County reverse their decision to remove a photo showing two men recently engaged, kissing, from a museum exhibit.
The photograph shows Justin Colasacco and his husband Bren Hipp kissing after Colasacco dropped to one knee and proposed in front of the crowd at the 2019 Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade. They married Oct. 4, 2020.
County Manager Kim Eagle told Gaston County Museum staff to have the photographer submit a replacement picture “that would be more considerate of differing viewpoints in the community.”
When I was in middle school (then Jr High) I was sitting with a member of the WWII generation who grimaced and said, “Yuck.” when a Black male kissed a Black female on TV.
They also made him remove a pic of a black woman being arrested for protesting a Confederate statue. And you can forget about contacting the County Manager or any of the commission members – the Gaston county’s website is devoid of all names and contact info.
Horry County Council members on Tuesday did something highly unusual. They voted to nix a not-legally-binding resolution after having voted to approve it last month. That resolution? To declare June as Pride Month.
It’s a decision that’s highlighted the long-simmering tensions between conservative Christians and the LGBTQ community.
The local LGBTQ advocacy group Grand Strand Pride was behind the resolution, organization leader Terry Livingston said, and local conservative pastors, like Rev. Mack Hutson [photo], led an effort to nix the resolution.
Read the full article. According to one council member, local Christians had planned to swarm council meetings to “raise hell” until the resolution was withdrawn.
“We’re going to start having more backlash. This is going to become more common instead of less common in my view of the future,” one LGBTQ advocate said. https://t.co/0sTaxM63dp
“It’s a decision that’s highlighted the long-simmering tensions between conservative Christians and the LGBTQ community.“
Actually, they want us to disappear from public view and die and are happy to use violence to make that happen, whereas all we’re doing is trying to live our lives, and we usually don’t care what crazy shit people believe as long as they leave us alone.
I swear to fucking god, mainstream media are both-sidesing this country toward fascism and genocide.
Folks, let’s remember that we have been dealing with shit like that and much worse for the entirety of our collective existence. Christianists stepped their game up with the orange juice whore some 45 years ago and found a winning ticket but ultimately lost. Remember those that came before us, the ones that lived through the raids, lost their jobs and in some cases ultimately died, smothered by christianity Inc. We have overcome so much more than what these pathetic clowns are throwing at us. Our strength lies in our ability to stretch, change, bend but not break.
I will be drinking champagne today as I am celebrating the anniversary of my 39th year.
Absolutely right, Nic! It is because of that history that Republicans country-wide are going back to that well instead of engaging in any real problem solving and forward thinking.
This. As discussed at length by Ta-Nehisi Coates in “The First White President”, Trump owes his entire political existence to racist backlash over Obama’s successful “[n-word] presidency”.
No telling where all this is headed. How far it will go.
If it goes full-hard right — if, for example, the religious right takes over all branches of government — we could be looking at armed civilian combat, a second American Civil War, on the streets of America.
the long-simmering tensions between conservative Christians and the LGBTQ community
Those tensions are a result of these people trying to takke away my rights, something I never tried to do to them. It’s not something I consider negotiable.
They can practice their religion and I don’t think that they should get forced to be changed or subject to conversion therapy or be told how to live their lives. I don’t care what they do in private or even if they want to practice their religion in public,, but they can’t force other people to live according to their beliefs. I haven’t asked them to live a gay lifestyle.
“I have been covering the wonderful month of Pride, for which I feel no pride for at all. I think it should be called shame month. It’s absolute debauchery.
“You’re seeing right now that adults are getting behind this narrative so they can have a woke t-shirt on and say, ‘I love my children. I allowed my child to pick their gender and pick their species.’
“And they feel proud of themselves because they can go and they can say this on Facebook that they are wonderful, accepting, and loving adults.
“When, in reality, they are underqualified to have children. They should have their children taken away from them because it’s child abuse.” – Daily Wire host Candace Owens, on her podcast.
Somebody recently posted an article about how well this anti-trans shit plays with GOP voters.
They’re eating this shit up.
As such, Republican Nazi politicians know they are on solid ground. Many may not actually believe a word of what they’re saying but, hey, if it helps get them elected, who cares about the human cost.
Republicans can’t exist without having some group to hate. Communists, liberals, Muslims, Jews, dark-skinned immigrants, gays, trans, Blacks, the list goes on and on. Unless you are a straight, white, conservative Christian you are the enemy! Hate is all they have.
They’re even playing one of their greatest hits by going after us gays for “grooming.” There’s just no minority group that doesn’t deserve a kicking in the eyes of Republicans.
Owens is such a vile POS! But it seems like the entire right-wing has gone into hysterics over the “danger” of having gay and trans people around children, even their own. This hateful rhetoric is exactly the same as the Nazi’s used against the Jews! “They are a danger to society and must be dealt with!” People are going to be killed because of this BS!
The editor of a conservative publication based in Mountville and a Berks County pastor are planning to hold an event next week exploring whether Pennsylvania should be an “explicitly Christian state.”
The event, at Tied House in Lititz on June 23, features Joel Saint, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society, and Chris Hume, managing editor of The Lancaster Patriot, and is billed as a discussion of “the wisdom of Pennsylvania’s original constitution.”
“Come hear about how Pennsylvania’s original Constitution called for an explicitly Christian state and what that looks like,” a Facebook ad for the event reads. “Can it be accomplished today? If so, should it be attempted?”
But the discussion, and the venue, are facing pushback and denunciations from some in the community who say Hume and Saint are promoting an extreme view of the role of Christianity in public life.
The collaboration by Hume and Saint on the discussion is not by chance.
Hume published a book last year, titled “Vote Christian: Biblical Principles for Voting,” in which he sought to make “the biblical case for why we should elect men who fear God to be civil magistrates.” In a promotional video for the book, he said, “God has instituted government, and he has instituted government to execute his wrath on Earth.”
The book received an endorsement from John Bingaman, an elder at Independence Reformed Bible Church in Morgantown, where Saint is the pastor.
Hume and Saint have been social media friends since at least 2017, and in February 2021 Saint wrote a review for another one of Hume’s books.
Dave Stoltzfus, who owns The Lancaster Patriot along with his wife, Jennifer, is a board member of Saint’s organization, the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society.
In Oct. 2020, Charles Bausman, the publisher of Russia Insider who hosted a white nationalist rally at his Lancaster Township property two months earlier, told LNP | LancasterOnline that he met the Stoltzfuses at conference put on by Saint’s organization at the Lancaster convention center and that he later put them in touch with Trey Garrison.
Before he was exposed as a white nationalist writer and podcaster, Garrison was the editor of The Lancaster Patriot. The Stoltzfuses announced they were delaying plans for The Patriot after Garrison’s identity was revealed and said they did not condone his views.
Saint, like Bausman, participated in protests outside Rep. Bryan Cutler’s Quarryville office and Peach Bottom home on Dec. 30, 2020, where protesters urged Cutler to illegally overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Hume did not respond to a call seeking comment. When reached by phone on Wednesday, Saint said, “I have no comment.”
Pa.’s constitution and Christian nationalism
The June 23 event at Tied House is advertised as a discussion about Pennsylvania’s original constitution and the role religion played during the early years of the commonwealth.
The oath of office in the original constitution required elected officials to pledge, “I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.”
Eight of the thirteen other colonies had similar provisions, but these provisions were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court more than 50 years ago. Pennsylvania’s constitution was amended to remove the provision in 1968.
But Hume, Saint and others believe Christianity should be returned to the forefront of government and civic life, a view sometimes referred to as “Christian nationalism.”
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, defines it as “a political ideology and cultural framework that merges American and Christian identities.”
She has called it the “single biggest threat” to religious freedom in America, and her organization leads a Christians Against Christian Nationalism project.
“This framework is dangerous both to American democracy and to Christianity,” she said. “Christian nationalism attacks the foundational idea that one’s belonging in the United States is not at all predicated on one’s religious affiliation, one’s theological beliefs or lack thereof.”
She pointed out that the U.S. Constitution makes no reference to Christianity, and in fact Article VI states “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
“This is directly relevant to the conversation at this event,” she said. “So when (the founders) were deciding if they wanted to set up a Christian nation, they said, ‘No, we cannot have religious tests for public office.’ ”
What concerns her, she said, is the effort to advance the narrative that the United States was founded as a Christian nation.
“I think this ideology attacks the foundational values of religious freedom for all in this country,” she said “Christian nationalism sends a signal that to belong in the United States you have to be Christian. That sentiment is un-American.”
Online backlash
Tied House is owned by St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co. of Ephrata. People angry about the June 23 event have posted multiple comments to the social media accounts of the restaurant and the brewery.
Several commenters objected to Hume’s views on homosexuality. Writing in The Patriot, Hume has criticized local communities for holding Pride Month events; he called homosexuality “evil” and equated Pride with “pagan posturing.”
One commenter, identified on Facebook as Matthew Kabik, wrote: “Hi, I’m a Jew – would I still be safe to come to your place, given that you host white nationalists and Christian nationalists at your venue?”
In a post to his own account, Ismail Smith-Wade-El, president of Lancaster City Council and the Democratic nominee for the 49th Legislative District, questioned why Tied House was “elevating racists, conspiracy theorists, and people who publish content with anti-LGBTQ slurs.”
Kevin Brown, owner of The Fridge in Lancaster, responded that he would be removing St. Boniface beers from his bar’s selection.
A post by the St. Boniface brewing company, which has since been deleted, in which they address the event.
On Wednesday, St. Boniface responded to the comments in a Facebook post that has since been removed. The unsigned message defended the decision to rent space at Tied House for the event and noted that many Christians live and work in Pennsylvania and Lancaster County.
Dain Shirey, a co-owner of Tied House, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
On Thursday morning, Shirey said he could no longer comment on matters relating to Tied House or St. Boniface because as of 8 a.m. Tuesday he was no longer with the company, though he declined to say why he left.
Michael Price, co-owner with Shirey and Jon Northup, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday. An accurate number for Northup could not immediately be located.
“Our company believes in inclusivity for everyone, including Christians,” it said. “We reject all forms of white nationalism, racism, bigotry and homophobia.”
Duncan Hopkins, a Lancaster city resident who works for the progressive advocacy group Lancaster Stands Up, said he reached out to Tied House on social media to ask about the event.
Tied House, he noted, was quick to point out the “should” portion of the event’s title, implying it was meant to be an open debate.
“Asking a question sometimes gives the answer away,” he said. “These are two individuals (Hume and Saint) who have a vision for Lancaster and the rest of the country which does not include people who don’t look like them or think like them in places of power.”
The June 23 event, Hopkins said, “should not be construed as an open debate or forum. We should not want an ‘explicitly Christian state’ because that excludes so many people.”
This reporter’s work is funded by the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund. For more information, or to make a contribution, please visit lanc.news/supportlocaljournalism.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misspelled the co-owner’s name. It is Dain Shirey.
The event is being billed as an exploration of a portion of Pennsylvania's original constitution which required officeholders to affirm their belief in God. “Can it be accomplished today? If so, should it be attempted?" a Facebook ad for the event asks.
The January 6th Committee has obtained emails between Trump lawyer John Eastman and Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, clearly showing that Thomas was very much involved in planning the coup attempt. In an email to another MAGA lawyer, Eastman explained that the SCOTUS was still debating whether or not to hear an election contest claim from Wisconsin, while Ginni reached out to 27 Arizona lawmakers on multiple occasions encouraging them to overturn their states’ election results. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.
“The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is in possession of emails Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, exchanged with John Eastman, a lawyer advising former President Donald Trump how to overturn the 2020 election.
The correspondence shows Thomas was more involved in trying to reverse Trump’s election defeat than previously known, two sources told The Washington Post. The content of the emails, and the timing of the exchanges, wasn’t known.
Earlier this month, a judge ordered Eastman to surrender 159 documents to the House panel. In another email exchange dated Dec. 24, 2020, reviewed by the committee and detailed in The New York Times, Eastman wrote to Kenneth Chesebro, another lawyer supporting Trump, and other Trump officials, that Supreme Court justices were arguing over whether to hear a case contesting the results of the 2020 election.
In the email, Eastman discussed filing a lawsuit over the results in Wisconsin, hoping to nudge at least four justices needed for the Supreme Court to take a case.”
There is yet another child Herschel Walker has been hiding from the public, estranged from his father for roughly a decade. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.
“Just one day after the news came out about Herschel Walker’s “secret son,” the Georgia Republican Senate nominee confirmed he has at least two more previously unknown children.
The Daily Beast broke the story that Walker had a 10-year-old son who he has virtually no contact with — unlike his other 22-year-old son, Christian, who Walker was actively involved in raising.
The story was shocking to political observers, given that Walker has made a point of blaming African American issues on fatherless households; and yet, the mother of Walker’s 10-year-old son born out of wedlock had to sue him about a decade ago for child support and a declaration of his paternity.
The Beast followed up by reporting they received a statement from Walker wherein he confirms that he has a 13-year-old son born to a woman living in Texas, plus an adult daughter who he had while he was in college. Walker’s campaign took umbrage with the notion that these children were being kept secret — citing a form he filled out in 2018 in order to join President Donald Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.
The form reportedly bears the names and ages of Walker’s kids.”
Like many Ukrainians trying to leave Russian-occupied areas, Andriy was forced to go through a process called filtration
Andriy watched anxiously as Russian soldiers connected his mobile to their computer, trying to restore some files. Andriy, a 28-year-old marketing officer, was attempting to leave Mariupol. He had deleted everything he thought a Russian soldier could use against him, such as text messages discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or photos of the devastation in his city caused by weeks of relentless shelling.
But the internet in Mariupol, a once bustling port in southern Ukraine, had been cut off as part of the siege imposed by Russia, and Andriy had not been able to take down some of his social media posts. He remembered the first days of the war, when he had shared some anti-Russian messages and speeches from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. “I’m screwed,” he thought.
The soldiers, Andriy said, already had their focus on him.
On that day in early May, when he first joined the queues for what is known as filtration, the process of scrutinizing civilians wishing to leave Russian-occupied areas, one of the soldiers noticed his beard. He instantly assumed it was a sign Andriy was a fighter with the city’s Azov regiment, a former militia which had links with the far right. “Is it you and your brigade killing our guys?,” Andriy was asked. He replied he had never served in the army, he started working directly after graduating, but “they didn’t want to hear it”.
As the soldiers went through his phone, they turned to his political views, and asked his opinion of Zelensky. Andriy, cautiously, said Zelensky was “okay”, and one of the soldiers wanted to know what he meant by that. Andriy told him Zelensky was just another president, not very different from those who had come before, and that in fact, he was not very interested in politics. “Well,” the soldier replied, “you should just say you aren’t interested in politics.”
They kept Andriy’s phone and told him to wait outside. He met his grandmother, mother and aunt, who had arrived with him for the process in Bezimenne, a small village to the east of Mariupol. They had already been given a document that allowed them to leave. A few minutes later, Andriy said, he was ordered to go to a tent where members of Russia’s security service, the FSB, were carrying out further checks.
Five officers were sitting behind a desk, three wearing balaclavas. They showed Andriy a video he had shared on Instagram of a speech Zelensky had given, from 1 March. With it was a caption written by Andriy: “A president we can be proud of. Go home with your warship!” One of the officers took the lead. “You told us you’re neutral to politics, but you support the Nazi government,” Andriy recalled being told. “He hit me in the throat. He basically started the beating.”
Image caption,
Andriy said the soldiers found out he had shared speeches of President Zelensky after connecting his phone to their computer
Like Andriy, Dmytro had his phone confiscated at a checkpoint as he tried to leave Mariupol in late March. Dmytro, a 34-year-old history teacher, said the soldiers came across the word “ruscist”, a play on “Russia” and “fascist”, in a message to a friend. The soldiers, Dmytro told me, slapped and kicked him, and “everything [happened] because I used that word.”
Dmytro said he was taken, with four other people, to a police station in the village of Nikolsky, also a filtration point. “The highest-ranking officer punched me four times in the face,” he said. “It seemed to be part of the procedure”.
His interrogators said teachers like him were spreading pro-Ukrainian propaganda. They also asked what he thought about “the events of 2014”, the year that Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. He replied that the conflict was known as the Russo-Ukrainian war. “They said Russia was not involved, and asked me whether I agreed that it was, in fact, a Ukrainian civil war.”
The officers checked his phone again, and this time found a photo of a book which had the letter H in its title. “We got you!” the soldiers told Dmytro. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claims his war in Ukraine is an effort to “de-Nazify” the country, and the soldiers, Dmytro said, believed he was reading books about Hitler.
The next morning, Dmytro was transferred with two women to a prison in Starobesheve, a separatist-controlled village in Donetsk. He counted 24 people in the four-bunk cell. After four days and another detailed interrogation, he was finally released, and eventually reached Ukrainian-held territory. Weeks later, he still does not know what happened to his cell mates.
Back inside the tent in Bezimenne, Andriy noticed two other people with their hands tied behind them, who had been left in a corner while the officers paid attention to him. “They started to beat me way harder,” Andriy told me, “everywhere”. At one point, after a blow to the stomach, he felt as if he was about to faint. He managed to sit on a chair.
“I wondered what would be better,” he said, “to lose consciousness and fall down or tolerate the pain further.”
At least, Andriy thought, he had not been sent somewhere else, away from his family. Ukrainian officials say thousands of people are believed to have been sent to detention centres and camps set up in Russian-controlled areas during filtration. In almost all cases, their relatives do not know where they are being held, or why. “I [was] very angry about everything,” Andriy said, “but, at the same time, I know it could’ve been much worse.”
His mother tried to get into the tent, but was stopped by the officers. “She was very nervous. She later said they had told her that my ‘re-education’ had started,” Andriy said, “and that she shouldn’t be worried.” His ordeal, he told me, continued for two and a half hours. He was even forced to make a video saying “Glory to the Russian army!”, a mockery of “Slava Ukraini!”, the Ukrainian slogan.
The final question, Andriy said, was whether he had “understood his mistakes”, and “I obviously answered yes”. As he was being released, officers brought in another man, who had previously served in Ukraine’s military and had several tattoos. “They immediately pushed him to the ground and started to beat him,” Andriy said. “They didn’t even talk to him.”
Image caption,
“I even try to justify the process somehow. Try to convince myself there’s some logic,” Andriy said about filtration
Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces and Russian-backed separatists have carried out filtration in occupied territories as an attempt to establish residents’ possible links with the military, law enforcement and even local government, as the invading forces try to restore services and infrastructure.
Men of fighting age are particularly targeted, checked for bruises that could suggest recent use of weapons, such as on the fingers and shoulders. Strip searches are common, witnesses say, including for women. Oleksandra Matviychuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, a Kyiv-based human rights group, said the process, even when not violent, was “inhuman”. “There’s no military need for this… They’re trying to occupy the country with a tool I call ‘immense pain of civilian people’. You ask: ‘Why so much cruelty? For what?'”
Maksym, a 48-year-old steelworker, said he was forced to strip naked while officers in Bezimenne checked even the seams of his clothes. He was asked whether he was from the Azov regiment or was a Nazi sympathiser – he denied being either – and why he wanted to leave Mariupol. “I said, ‘Actually, it’s you who are on Ukrainian soil.'” One of the officers, who he said were all Russian, reacted by hitting Maksym with the gun butt in his chest. He fell.
“I leaned my head on the ground, holding my ribs. I couldn’t get up,” he said. “It was very painful to breathe.”
He was taken to what he described as a “cage”, where others were being held. He noticed that one man, a weightlifter, had a tattoo of Poseidon, the Greek god, with a trident. The soldiers, Maksym said, thought it was the Ukrainian coat of arms. “He explained it to them but they didn’t understand.” Those detained in the “cage” were given no water or food, and had to urinate in a corner in front of everyone, Maksym told me. At one point, exhausted, he tried to sleep on the ground. An officer came in and kicked him in the back, forcing him to stand.
People would be taken to be interrogated and, when they returned, “you saw the person had been beaten,” Maksym said. He witnessed a woman in her 40s lying in pain, apparently after being hit in the stomach. A man, who seemed to be around 50, had a bleeding lip and red bruises on his neck. Maksym believed he had been strangled. No-one in the “cage” asked or said anything to each other. They were afraid that FSB officers could be disguised as prisoners.
After about four or five hours, Maksym was released and allowed to leave Mariupol. Days later, he reached safety in Ukrainian-controlled territory, and went to a hospital to treat the persistent pain in his chest. The diagnosis: four broken ribs.
Yuriy Belousov, who leads the Department of War at the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office, said his team had received allegations of torture and even killings during filtration. “[It seems to be] a Russian policy which was designed in advance, and pretty well prepared,” he told me. “It’s definitely not just a single case or [something] done by a local military guy.”
He acknowledged it was difficult to verify the cases, or estimate the scale of the violence. The Ukrainian authorities are unable to carry out investigations in occupied territories and most victims remain reluctant to share their stories, concerned that relatives in Mariupol could be targeted if their identity is exposed.
Vadym, 43, who used to work at a state-owned company in Mariupol, said he was tortured in Bezimenne in March. Separatist soldiers had questioned his wife after finding out she had “liked” the Ukrainian army page on Facebook, and restoring a receipt on her phone of a donation she had made to them. “I tried to stand up for her,” he said, “but was knocked down.” He got up, but was beaten once more. A pattern, he said, that happened again and again.
When Russian soldiers realised where he worked, they took Vadym to a different building. There, Vadym said separatist soldiers asked him “stupid things” and started to beat him. “They used electricity. I almost died. I fell and choked on my dental fillings, which had come out from my teeth,” Vadym said. He vomited and fainted. “They were furious. When I recovered consciousness, they told me to clean everything up and continued to give me electric shocks.”
The torture, Vadym said, only stopped after Russian officers intervened. They carried out another round of questioning before finally freeing him. As Vadym left the building, he saw a young woman, who had been identified during the process as a court clerk, being carried out.
“A plastic bag was put on her head, and her hands were tied,” Vadym said. “Her mother was on her knees, begging for her daughter not to be taken away.”
Vadym’s release came with a condition: he would have to go to Russia. About 1.2 million people in Ukraine, including thousands of Mariupol residents, have been sent to Russia against their will since the invasion began in February, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia denies it is carrying out a mass deportation, which would constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law, and says it is simply helping those who want to go. Ukraine rejects this claim.
Some of those sent to Russia have managed to escape to other countries and even return to Ukraine. How many, remains unclear. Vadym, with the help of his friends, moved to another European country – he did not want to reveal the exact location. He had lost some of his vision, he told me, and doctors said this was a result of head injuries from the beating. “I feel better now, but rehabilitation will take a long time.” I asked him what he thought about filtration. “They separate families. People are being disappeared,” he said. “It’s pure terror.”
Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to several requests for comment on the allegations. The Russian government has previously denied it is carrying out war crimes in Ukraine.
Image caption,
Andriy said his mother was told by a Russian soldier that he was going through “re-education”
Andriy and his family have now settled in Germany, after also having been forced to go to Russia. Looking back, he believes the occupying forces seemed to be using filtration to show their “absolute power”. Soldiers, he said, acted as if it was a “type of entertainment”, something to “satisfy their own ego”.
I told him about another Ukrainian I had met, a 60-year-old retired engineer called Viktoriia. A soldier found out she had added a Ukrainian flag to her profile photo on Facebook, she told me, and the message “Ukraine above all.”
She said that he pointed his gun at her and threatened: “I’ll put you in the basement until you rot!” He then kicked her, she said. Viktoriia could not understand why he had acted like that. “What did I do? What right did they have?”
Andriy said he could not explain such behaviour. “I even try to justify the process somehow. Try to convince myself there’s some logic.”
But, he said, “there’s no logic”.
Some names have been changed to protect identities
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