A Republican wearing an IDF pin is defending Israel’s genocide and invasion of Lebanon. He believes anything Israel does is OK, including attacking another country, killing its people, all to steal that country’s land. Same thing Russia is doing to Ukraine that the US tried to stop. Yet some members of our government / congress are bought and owned by Israel’s government. Hugs
Fired journalist accuses CBS News chief of interfering with report because it did not echo Trump’s view of the shooting
Scott Pelley was fired from CBS 60 Minutes last week. Photograph: Charles Sykes/AP
The fired 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley has accused editorial management at CBS of interfering with a broadcast segment on the killing of the Minneapolis protester Renee Good by an immigration officer in January.
The veteran broadcaster, who was recently dismissed from the show, said CBS News’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, had sent an email to his supervisor requesting changes shortly before the airing of the segment in question.
Pelley told the outlet: “Two of the things in the email include, ‘Can we make the protesters look more violent?’ Now, I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the quote, but that’s what was communicated to me. And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.”
Pelley maintained that was the direction contained in the email even though video of Good’s shooting did not support such a conclusion.
A CBS News spokesperson told the Times in response to Pelley’s statements that Weiss had made four points in an email exchange on the segment that had “no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible”.
“Not everything she raised made it into the final piece,” the statement added.
Pelley’s accusation comes amid turbulence at the flagship TV news show that has seen the 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon replaced and several correspondents and producers leave over questions of editorial independence. Three of the show’s veterans – Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim – are staying on.
The newly installed executive producer, Nick Bilton, a former Vanity Fair journalist and film-maker, told staff in a memo that “the foundation of 60 Minutes is journalistic independence.
“We will always pursue stories without fear or favor.”
Pelley’s accusations to the Times followed a heated exchange at a meeting on Monday in which he accused Weiss of “murdering” the show. He was fired soon after.
In his latest salvo, Pelley said he was concerned that Weiss “had zero television experience and had never managed a large global operation like CBS News”. He also called her lack of TV news experience “red flags to me”.
Pelley also said that Bilton’s mission to modernize the 58-year-old show ignored changes that were already in play.
“Of course we have to reach out to a younger and younger audience, but their argument about joining the internet age is just disingenuous,” Pelley said. “It’s almost as if Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton were sealed in a time capsule in 1990, and it just cracked open. They’ve just discovered the internet, and they’re running around telling everybody how important it is.”
Pelley’s accusations over the Minneapolis segment in part centered on what took place in the seconds before Good was shot by an immigration enforcement officer.
“On the video, you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car,” Pelley told the Times. “You clearly see Ms Good’s wheels turned completely as far as they will go, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head [and] kills her.”
Pelley also alluded to cellphone video from the officer’s vantage point that was publicly released and captured him calling Good a “fucking bitch”.
As Pelley put it, the officer said “something about her that I can’t repeat in polite company”.
Pelley said that 60 Minutes had “gone out of our way in our plan from the very beginning to show the protesters for the responsibility that they had … somehow that wasn’t enough for Ms Weiss”.
He added that video of the shooting showed that the officer wasn’t standing in front of the car and she wasn’t “driving toward him”. He argued that Weiss “wanted it described that way” because it echoed what Donald Trump said of the shooting in his capacity as president.
Asked to respond to Pelley’s claim that Weiss “was putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the [Trump] administration”, CBS News said there was “no credible argument” to suggest she was doing that.
This is pure racism and entitlement. The boy put the bottles of water back. But even if he had not does stealing bottles of water rate or equate to a death penalty performed by a civilian? This is clearly an extra juditiacal killing. No judge or jury just a store owner and his son angry thinking a kid stole from them deciding to end his life. This automatic killing of Black people with no evidence has to stop. Black Lives Matter. Hugs
Gas station owner charged in shooting death of 14-year-oldRick Chow, 58, has been charged with murder after allegedly killing Cyrus Carmack-Belton in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sunday, police said.
The family of Cyrus Carmack-Belton expressed their indignation towards a South Carolina jury’s decision on Tuesday to acquit Chikei Rick Chow in the 2023 fatal shooting of the Black 14-year-old.
“Yesterday a jury watched our 14-year-old boy run away from two grown men on video. They knew one of them shot him in the back and they still said no one is to blame,” the family said in a statement first released to ABC News. “We are heartbroken. We do not accept it. Cyrus stole nothing. He was a child, and he was running for his life. Our son mattered.”
Chow, a 61-year-old store owner, shot the 14-year-old in the back outside of his Columbia, South Carolina, store in May 2023. He and his son were seen chasing Carmack-Belton outside of the store in video leading to the incident. Chow was charged with murder and denied bond multiple times before his acquittal.
An image of Cyrus Carmack-Belton is displayed in court during closing arguments in the murder trial against his shooter, Chikei Rick Chow, a convenience store owner accused in the 2023 fatal shooting of the 14-year-old, on June 1, 2026, in Columbia, S.C.
Erik Verduzco/AP Photo
Prosecutors alleged that Chow acted out of a false belief that Carmack-Belton had shoplifted four bottles of water from his store. The defense claimed that Chow acted to protect his son, after allegedly seeing Carmack-Belton point a gun at him.
“On behalf of the Chows, we’re very pleased at the jury’s deliberations and their verdict,” attorney Jack Swerling said in a statement to ABC News. “We think it was the appropriate verdict in this case, although it was a difficult decision to come to, because you have two different stories, two extreme differences.”
Video obtained by ABC News shows that Carmack-Belton returned the bottles of water in question and did not steal anything from the store. A 9mm pistol was found next to Carmack-Belton, with prosecutors saying it was in his possession during the chase, and it had fallen to the ground at some point.
In this June 1, 2023, file photo, mourners stop by a memorial to Cyrus Carmack-Belton, in Columbia, S.C.
Jeffrey Collins/AP, FILE
As the verdict was read in the courtroom, members of the Carmack-Belton family and the audience were seen breaking into sobs.
In their statement Tuesday, Carmack-Belton’s family drew a connection between their case and a larger history of violence against the Black community. “Black families have stood right here too many times — burying our children and then being told the law sees nothing. We feel every bit of that today,” the family said.
Troy Belton, center, father of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, reacts after a not guilty verdict against Chikei Rick Chow, a convenience store owner accused in the 2023 fatal shooting of his 14-year-old son, during a murder trial, on June 1, 2026, in Columbia, S.C.
Erik Verduzco/AP Photo
“To everyone hurting with us: honor Cyrus in peace. We will not stop. We’re taking this fight to civil court, and we will not rest until our son’s life is given the dignity this verdict denied him,” the family added.
According to family attorney Todd Rutherford, the family filed a civil lawsuit against Rick Chow in Richland County, which was put on hold until the conclusion of the criminal case.
The video below is hilarious. Right wing trump loving maga Dave Rubin gets destroyed with facts and figures from podcaster Parkergetajob. While Rubin tries to spout maga talking points and fox news misinformation. Hugs
They have to pay retired cop Larry Bushart $835,000 for sharing a post disparaging Donald Trump after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which it turns out is not illegal.
We’re hearing a lot this week about how the DOJ is going to take over a billion dollars of our tax money and give it to those whose feelings were, like, really hurt when they got in trouble just for doing a little insurrection and maybe pooping on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. So you know what we need? We need a palate cleanser. And, thankfully, the state of Tennessee has deigned to provide us with one. Rejoice!
Officials in the state will have to pay 61-year-old retired police officer Larry Bushart $835,000 in restitution after having imprisoned him for 37 days over a meme he shared to Facebook following the death of Charlie Kirk — which caused him to lose his job and miss both his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter.
Bushart was arrested back in September after he refused to take down a bunch of posts disparaging Kirk after his assassination, specifically over one that actually just criticized Donald Trump. Because, reportedly, people in his community thought it meant he was threatening to shoot up a school, as I guess they are not very good at reading comprehension.
The post he shared in the Perry County, Tennessee, community Facebook page was a meme that existed long before Kirk was assassinated and featured a picture of Donald Trump along the famous words of comfort he shared after the 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa: “We have to get over it.”
Yes, just one day after 17-year-old Dylan Butler shot eight people, injuring six and ultimately killing two (a sixth-grader died the day of, the school principal died 10 days later from his injuries), Donald Trump said to Iowans at a campaign event in Sioux Center, “It’s just horrible — so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”
You know, because godforbid we start thinking that gun control might be a good idea.
Anyway, the aforementioned not-very-good-at-reading-comprehension people saw the meme and thought that this was Larry Bushart threatening a mass shooting at Perry High School in Tennessee. Or at least claimed that they did.
Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told The Tennessean in September that participants on the page were planning to host a Charlie Kirk vigil in Linden, Tennessee on Sept. 23.
Bushart posted multiple photos in the comments referencing Charlie Kirk’s death, which Weems called “hate memes,” but stated were “not against the law and would be recognized as free speech.” […]
Weems said Bushart posted the picture “to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry High School.”
“This led teachers, parents and students to conclude he was talking about a hypothetical shooting at our school,” he said. “Numerous reached out in concern.”
According to the statement, “investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.”
Yeah, I’m pretty certain that was not at all the point of posting that meme. It seems fairly clear that Bushart had the same reason for sharing it as the millions of other people who shared it that week had — to point out how very callous Trump has been when people who are not his rabid supporters are killed. Nevertheless, Bushart was arrested, held on $2 million bail and imprisoned for over a month.
Weirdly enough, however, the Constitution does not actually have any kind of clauses specifying that the First Amendment can be thrown out the window in cases involving the hurting of Republican feelings, so now the officials involved with his arrest have to pay.
“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” said Bushart’s attorney, Cary Davis of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable. Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”
Yes, and while many conservatives believe that the First Amendment only exists to keep other people from calling them assholes on social media or kicking them off social media sites for being assholes, it’s actually meant to keep the government from punishing people for speech — which is why these government officials now owe Larry Bushart almost one million dollars. Whoops!
It’s horrifying that these Jewish settlers who want to eradicate entirely the Muslim population. One woman described Islam as a cancer and wants the Islamists killed or reeducated. Muslims who own businesses can’t even open their shops. But there is a small minority trying to protect the arabs. Hugs
Yet the tRump administration trashed the government’s stance of fighting right wing violence or right wing extremist violent groups. It started with the republicans forcing Obama to remove a government study on right wing extremists. Now the current DOJ and FBI have removed all mention of right wing violence or violent actions instead claiming the violence is all being done and caused by Antifa. The government wants to make the public believe that the people who are against fascism are the real extremist threat to the public. Antifa is antifascism / antifascist. It has no headquarts or central organization it is just people who since the 1930s have pushed back against fascism and fascists. The tRump white supremacists want the public to believe violent groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, Nazi groups, the 3 percenters, and other militia groups that joined in the insurrection riot on Jan 6th and are extreme white supremacists. The current people in charge love the way they can steal the money from the treasury and take away people’s rights, so they want to keep the hate groups that support them to be the good guys and anyone who tries to stop the destruction of democracy they hope to make the bad people. Hugs
Disclaimer: WWFU typically redacts the imagery seen in this zine with an iron front or an X, and encourages others to do the same. This zine also contains slurs that we typically redact. For the sake of eduction and proper recognition, the following content is un-redacted.
A Reference Guide For Recognizing Far Right Groups, Symbols and Dog Whistles
Introduction
As of spring 2026, this zine serves as a reference guide to far-right symbols, dogwhistles, and groups, helping you recognize and understand them. The list focuses on the most active groups and the most commonly used phrases and symbols at this time.
Not all neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups openly brand themselves with swastikas or SS bolts. Recognizing their dogwhistles is essential to accurately identifying them as the community threats they are. Some groups and individuals deliberately project a public facing image of “patriotism” or opposition to “foreign wars” to appear more mainstream, while privately holding the same beliefs as more openly neo-Nazi organizations. Because some symbols are not exclusive to neo-Nazis, fascists, or white supremacists, it’s important to look for additional context clues and patterns of use.
Dogwhistles are coded messages communicated through words or phrases understood by a specific in-group, but not by outside observers. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists use dogwhistles to signal to one another while maintaining plausible deniability.
Phrases / Numbers
131: Anti Communist Action (ACA), the numbers referring to the letters of the alphabet.
Blue Lives Matter/All Lives Matter: These phrases are nothing more than a response to people saying “Black Live Matter” and as way to silence Black voices. Cops can always choose to take off their uniform, while Black people cannot take off their skin or escape the discrimination that comes with it. No one would go to an event to save the rainforests and say that all forests matter. If all lives matter, as racists love to say, then Black lives have to matter. All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter because they are the ones being targeted by police, racist attacks, and everyday discrimination.
TDOTR: The Day of the Rope, a fictional day from the book The Turner Diaries in which race traitors (women who marry non-white men, the press, politicians, LGBTQ people and more) are hanged from lampposts.
6MWE: “Six Million Wasn’t Enough” referring to the number of Jewish people murdered during the holocaust.
The Great Replacement Theory: White supremacist conspiracy theory that argues democratic and government officials are intentionally facilitating non-white immigration to replace the white population for political purposes. Similar phrases include “white genocide.”
It’s okay to be white: While no one is saying it’s not okay to be white, this phrase creates perceived victimhood and is a stepping stone to great replacement.
WPWW: White Pride World Wide
GTKRWN: Gas the Kikes, Race War Now
RAHOWA: Racial Holy War
RWDS: Right Wing Death Squad
Blood and Soil: A reference to race and nationality from Nazi Germany
14: A reference to the 14 words “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” coined by David Lane.
88: 8 Represents the 8th letter of the alphabet, HH or “Heil Hitler.” Variations include H8 and 83 “Heil Christ.” You will often see the numbers 14 and 88 together (1488 or 14/88).
WP: White Power. Also sometimes signified by an “okay” hand gesture.
Reclaim America: White supremacist slogan advocating for the “reclaiming” of America from immigrants (referencing the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory).
We’ll Have Our Home Again: Popular phrase used by neo-nazis and white supremacists based on a song of the same title and similar to “reclaim America.”
Groups / Orgs
Patriot Front: A white nationalist group mostly focused on using patriotic imagery and rhetoric to spread propaganda and recruit. Founded by Thomas Rousseau, the group broke off from Vanguard America in 2017 after the deadly Charlottesville rally in Virginia. They care primarily about public image. Their style involves patriotic designs including red white and blue, fasces, khaki pants, and white masks with matching shirts, shields, the Confederate flag, the Betsy Ross flag, and the US flag. Despite their efforts to be palatable to a wider audience, outside of public view they espouse anti-semetic, pro-white and pro-nazi views. Patriot Front is currently one of the largest white nationalist groups in the US.
Active Clubs: Active Clubs are white supremacist fight clubs widespread across the US and throughout parts of Europe. They use the guise of fitness and training to try recruiting mostly younger white men into their clubs. Often members will march with other larger neo-nazi / white supremacist groups, and all chapters share the same logo of a Celtic Cross with text representative of their region. Many Active Clubs in the US are directly tied to Thomas Rousseau and Patriot Front.
Blood Tribe: Blood Tribe is a neo-nazi group started by former marine Christopher Pohlhaus. They are known for being one of the most outward facing Nazi groups, holding semi-regular marches in cities across the US. They wear matching red and black outfits with black face coverings, and march with matching black and white swastika flags, and will loudly chant white supremacist and nazi slogans. Their goal is to instill a Fourth Reich in the US.
AFN: “Aryan Freedom Network” is a neo-nazi group present widespread across the US. The group has begun functioning as an umbrella organization, bringing in members from other groups like the Ku Klux Klan and outlaw bikers to function under their name. Outside of flyering neighborhoods with nazi propaganda, they operate mostly out of public view. They train often with firearms and make efforts to organize nationally across as many regions as possible.
WLM: “White Lives Matter” is a white supremacist movement with chapters all around America and the globe, who focus their activism on low-risk tactics like stickers, flyers, and banners.
Three Percenters: This movement was created in 2008 with the false claim that only 3% of American forces fought the British in the revolutionary war, and therefore it would take only 3% of the population to overthrow the current US government. They are a far-right militia movement of anti-government extremists focused on gun ownership.
Proud Boys: A group of western chauvinists founded by Gavin McInnes in 2016. Although the Proud Boys aren’t explicitly white supremacist, their emphasis on the “western” values and culture is a thinly veiled substitute for “White” values and culture and is used to deflect accusations of racism. Their ideology can be considered a form of proto-fascism as it contains elements of ultra-nationalism, traditionalism, misogyny, and social Darwinism. Their membership has different levels and members are encouraged to participate in street brawls. Level 1 is to exclaim “I am a proud western chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” Level two is to recite 5 cereal brands while other members perform a “beat in.” Level 3 is to get a tattoo of “PROUD BOY,” and level 4 is to engage in violence for their cause, usually against LGBTQ or antifascists. They use the acronyms POYB (Proud of Your Boy) and FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out) and can be spotted in black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirts, or other clothes with the black/yellow color combination. They also use the “okay” hand sign on a regular basis.
NOVA: “National Organization for Vital Action” is a white-supremacist organization with the goal of building a “nation within a nation” for whites only. They aim to connect as many neo-nazi and white-supremacist groups and individuals as possible in order to create a broad network of racists in America. Their public actions mostly consist of banner drops and stickers. In private, the group has expressed their willingness to use violence to achieve their end goals of a whites only nation.
GDL: “Goyim Defense League”, founded by Jon Minadeo II, is a network of anti-semetic content creators who focus almost exclusively on anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and hatred. They primarily focus their efforts on online videos and live -streams, but are also active in-person, often flyering neighborhoods doing banner drops, harassing synagogues, and holding marches with swastika flags.
Groypers: “Groypers” are a term for followers of far-right, nazi influencer Nick Fuentes. Less of an organized group, it is a term given to adherents of the anti-immigrant, anti-semetic, and pro-white positions held by Nick Fuentes and pushed into the public. The primary function of Groypers is to push more “traditional conservatives” into a more radical, white supremacist sphere.
The Base: An accelerationist paramilitary nazi group formed by Rinaldo Nazzaro in 2018. They have similar aesthetics to Atomwaffen, but a different logo.
Atomwaffen Division: Also known as the National Socialist Order, Atomwaffen is an accelerationist (accelerating towards a race war in which they hope to overthrow the current government and society and replace it with a fascist order) nazi group responsible for several murders. After numerous arrests and infighting. the group dissolved, only recently attempting to reform in 2025, though failing to gain support. Responsible for popularizing the skull mask within neo-nazi groups, other symbols include the radioactive symbol and flecktarn (a German camo pattern similar to the “peas” pattern from WW2). Although now defunct, their influence remains significant.
Ku Klux Klan: One of the longst running white supremacist organizations. They use the number 311 to represent 3 Ks, which is the 11th letter of the alphabet. Their iconic robes have become so recognizable they may no longer count as a dog whistle. They also use the blood drop cross and variations on the blood drop cross including just the blood drop, and the confederate flag.
Gypsy Jokers: A one percenter motorcycle club with white supremacist sympathies who are known to traffic drugs and engage in low level organized crime and violence. They wear motorcycle gear adorned with nazi symbols and a back patch that says “Gypsy Jokers.” In recent years they have been known to associate with the Proud Boys.
Oathkeepers: Far-right anti-government militia founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes. Oathkeepers played a key role in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Oathkeepers appeal directly to military and law enforcement personnel, encouraging them to keep their “oath” to defend the public from what they perceive as the new world order, by means of discipline and violence. They’re also associated with three percenters.
Hammerskins: A racist skinhead group, aka boneheads. The feeder group is known as Crew 38 (38 for “Crossed Hammers”). Hammerskins focus mostly on spreading racist music, but they also engage in street fighting and targeted attacks. Hammerskin Nation is considered one of the most violent racist skinhead groups in the US. They use a hand sign of crossed arms with fists to represent the crossed hammers.
WoV: “Wolves of Vinland” is a group with heavy folkish influences that promotes white supremacy and misogyny, stressing Asatru or Paganism, including animal sacrifices and blood rituals in the woods. They have recently been partnering with Patriot Front and Active Clubs to hold fascist combat events. Their headquarters is in VA, but membership is not limited to that area. “Operation Werewolf” has been used as a recruiting tool and feeder group for WoV. They can be spotted with Celtic and Nordic imagery, runes, and wolf pack patches..
Asatru Folk Assembly: A norse pagan organization which advocates for pre-Christian European rituals and beliefs. The organization discourages “race-mixing” and promotes a whites-only vision of America, falsely claiming that white people were in North America first and were wiped out. Members of other neo-nazi groups such as Blood Tribe associate often with them.
764 / No Lives Matter: 764 is an international, predatory network that espouses neo-nazi, satanic, nihilistic, and accelerationist beliefs. It targets and exploits children / young people and encourages them to commit mass acts of violence. Adherents have been responsible for acts such as murder, firebombings, and school shootings.
Tempel ov Blood / 09A: The Order of Nine Angles (09A), and it’s most violent chapter, The Tempel ov Blood (ToB), are satanic neo-Nazi cults that have had a significant influence on far-right accelerationist projects, like the now-defunct Atomwaffen. Suffice to say, 09A and ToB glorify nazism and violence, and are adept at radicalizing (and abusing) teenagers. Symbols include the seven-pt star inside a circle, a downward sort of pitchfork with 333 above it, and “Drill Sgt Grey” – a sinister space alien in a military outfit.
Injekt Division: An accelerationist nazi group that was formed by Coleman Blevins (aka Korb) in 2021. They are organized in decentralized cells, embracing a terror guerrilla ideology that looks to collapse the “System”. Their symbols include a syringe, 1494 and “Pray For Rain”.
NWTI: “The Northwest Territorial Imperative” is a vision of a whites-only homeland in the Pacific NW. Proposed in the ’80s by Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations, it is an idea embraced by a wide variety of white supremacists, including secretive militant nazi groups dedicated to implementing the vision, such as Northwest Front (NF) or the Northwest Pioneer Association (NPA). NWTI is represented by an inverted Cascadian tri-color flag – having vertical stripes, rather than horizontal. Their flag sometimes includes a rune or swastika. Common associated phrases: “Come Home, White Man” and “Ex Gladio Libertas”.
Vinlanders Social Club: Vinlanders Social Club (VSC / Firm 22) is a violent neo-Nazi bonehead gang formed in 2003. It uses Firm 22 as a support crew of men and women; the men being prospects for full VSC membership. VSC / Firm 22 went into decline in the 2010s, but has been attempting to build itself back up through proximity to the active club movement, much like the Hammerskins. Its symbols include a black cross on a green flag, 22, 1422, an eagle holding brass knuckles, a red, white & blue shield patch with a laurel, or just a laurel.
TPUSA: “Turning Point USA” is an organization which targets high schoolers and college students with far-right propaganda, talking points, and literature. Founded by Charlie Kirk, and now led by his widowed wife Erika Kirk, the organization has chapters in schools across the US, and regularly sets up tents on college campuses in order to recruit and create content by means of filming bad-faith political “debates.” With a roster of speakers and frequent events, TPUSA regularly promotes popular anti-trans white nationalist talking points, white Christianity, and racial divisions. Using the public image of more traditional conservatism, they function as a pipeline to more fascist far-right ideologies.
References and Further Reading
For current / past antifascist articles, contact info for sharing tips, and other resources, you can visit:
Because it’s important to re-read this proclamation every year, at least on Mother’s Day. And especially so in this year of strikes and other activism to get our government back to we the people, and in comparison to the retail profits from this holiday.
Too few Americans are aware that early advocates of Mother’s Day in the United States originally envisioned it as a day of peace, to honor and support mothers who lost sons and husbands to the carnage of the Civil War.
MOTHER’S DAY PROCLAMATION Boston, 1870
“Arise, then… women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.“
~ Julia Ward Howe
May 10, 1857 The Sepoy Rebellion was triggered in Meerut, India, when native troops (known as Sepoys, which also designated a rank equivalent to private) turned on their British officers.It was the first instance of armed resistance against colonial rule. Indians constituted 96% of the 300,000-man British Army.Loading the Lee-Enfield Rifled Musket assigned to the Sepoys involved biting the end of a cartridge greased in a combination of pig fat and beef tallow. “Attack of the Mutineers,” a British illustration of the Sepoy Rebellion The former is haraam (forbidden) under Islamic law, the latter offensive to Hindus who consider the cow as aghanya (that which may not be slaughtered). When the Sepoys, including both Hindu and Muslim Indians, became aware of this, some refused to load their weapons. Mangal Pandey, a soldier in the Army shot his commander for forcing the Indian troops to use the controversial rifles. When others were charged with mutiny for refusing, Sepoys turned on their officers and released the imprisoned soldiers. The rebellion is now considered the first Indian war for independence. More on the rebellion
May 10, 1967 Army Captain Howard Levy, a physician, was imprisoned three years for refusing to train U.S. Special Forces soldiers for Vietnam. He refused an order to perform the training as he considered it a violation of his medical ethics. “The United States is wrong in being involved in the Viet Nam War. I would refuse to go to Viet Nam if ordered to do so. I don’t see why any colored soldier would go to Viet Nam: they should refuse to go to Viet Nam and if sent should refuse to fight because they are discriminated against and denied their freedom in the United States, and they are sacrificed and discriminated against in Viet Nam by being given all the hazardous duty and they are suffering the majority of casualties.” From the Supreme Court case, Parker, Warden, et al. v. Levy.
May 10, 1968 Peace talks began in Paris between the U.S. and North Vietnam with businessman, former New York governor, ambassador and cabinet secretary W. Averell Harriman representing the United States. Former Foreign Minister Xuan Thuy, heading the North Vietnamese delegation, immediately demanded cessation of U.S. bombing.
May 10, 1972 Jane Briggs Hart, the wife of Senator Philip A. Hart (D-Michigan), informed the Internal Revenue Service that she wouldn’t pay some of her taxes; instead, she deposited her quarterly estimated tax of $6,200 in a special bank account. She wrote: “I cannot contribute one more dollar toward the purchase of more bombs and bullets.” Jane Briggs Hart More about Jane Briggs Hart
May 10, 1980 A federal judge in Salt Lake City, Utah, found the U.S. government negligent for its above-ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada from 1951 to 1962. The land of the Nevada Test Site is scarred with craters from nuclear testing.
May 10, 1994 Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. He had won the country’s first election in which all South Africans could vote, regardless of race. Mandela had spent nearly three decades imprisoned for his part in the struggle to attain political and civil rights for black and colored citizens. This ended more than three centuries of white rule, beginning with the Dutch in 1652. Biography of Nelson Mandela South African chronology
Political violence is on the rise — making the job more dangerous for state lawmakers and posing new challenges for state law enforcement officials.
Every high-profile act of violence sets off new waves of threats and fears of more — the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September sent chills down the spines of elected officials throughout the country. But Utah, where he was killed, was already ahead of the curve on addressing threats to lawmakers and high-profile public officials.
Nine years earlier, it had set up a new unit to track and prevent violence against public officials.
The unit follows a four-step process, said Taylor Keys, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety: It receives and identifies reports of threats and concerning behaviors, gathers the facts, assesses the individual’s risk of posing a real physical threat, and then manages the risk with intervention and case management.
But many states aren’t as proactive and prepared as Utah. Most state legislatures are in session only part-time, and many of the state enforcement agencies charged with protecting them are stretched thin and lack standardized procedures for reporting threats, collecting data and conducting regular training.
A spate of high-profile violent attacks over the past year threw this reality into stark relief.
And for some lawmakers, the environment is becoming untenable: Two recent reports show that harassment, abuse and violence are leading factors driving women and younger legislators, especially, to exit office.
State legislatures shape consequential policy and serve as a critical pipeline for higher office. But serving in office and entering the pipeline to power poses increasingly high risks to personal safety, especially for groups already underrepresented in the halls of power. While being a state lawmaker is a part-time job with a part-time salary in most states, lawmakers can’t opt out of being a full-time public figure.
“Elected and appointed officials live in a risk environment by nature of their job and their outward, public-facing positions,” said former Lt. Col. Tim Cameron of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, who spoke to The 19th in 2025 before he retired from the agency after more than 46 years in law enforcement. “Within the last year and a half to two years, that’s moved into a threat environment.”
The 19th spoke with experts and reached out to state-level law enforcement agencies in all 50 states to capture a comprehensive picture of the scope of political violence against state lawmakers and how law enforcement is responding. Officials in a dozen states told The 19th how they identify and respond to threats, what data they collect, and how they’re adapting their responses and procedures to an ever-evolving landscape.
As political violence is on the rise, many states are scrambling to keep pace. Political violence, Cameron said, was a major topic of discussion at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference he attended in 2025.
“Anyone charged with executive protection is really looking closely at what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and looking to utilize technology to leverage that in every way they can,” he said. “So it is going to be a challenge moving forward. And nobody has enough people.”
A February report from the nonprofit organization Future Caucus, based on interviews and surveys with 89 young lawmakers in 31 states, found that threats of violence “have become a serious deterrent to both candidate recruitment and retention,” especially for women, lawmakers of color and LGBTQ+ lawmakers.
“This is a four-alarm fire,” said Layla Zaidane, the president and CEO of Future Caucus, which supports young state lawmakers in bridging divides and working on policy across the political aisle.
“They can stomach the low pay. They can stomach no staff. They can handle even trying to figure out the toxic polarization and transcending that,” Zaidane said of young lawmakers. “But political violence was the thing that, when you add it all together, was the decider of: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to run again, I don’t know if this is worth it.’”
The rise in violent incidents is having an outsized impact on women, who make up half of the United States population but account for only a third of state lawmakers; even fewer women of color are represented in the political arena.
And when it comes to hyperpolarization and the increasingly toxic and hostile climate in state capitols, “women bear the brunt of this, multi-fold, compared to their male peers,” said Aparna Ghosh, the founder and executive director of the Ghosh Innovation Lab, a nonpartisan organization that conducts research and builds tools to support diverse and representative state legislatures.
A report the Ghosh Innovation Lab published last summer, based on 60 interviews and a nationally representative survey of over 300 women legislators, concluded that the assassination of Hortman “exposed a crisis that has been building for years.” Women lawmakers, the report found, “face systematic harassment, threats, and violence that compromise their safety, well-being, and democratic participation.”
The report found that 93 percent of women lawmakers said they experienced some form of harm or abuse in office, 59 percent said it disrupted their legislative duties and 32 percent said it impacted their desire to stay in office.
“It’s not just about an incident, but it’s about the everyday things that add up that push them out of office,” Ghosh said. “This is a huge problem for democracy, because this constant harm that women are facing is eroding the intent to run for office, so it’s eroding democracy in some way.”
(Emily Scherer for The 19th)
In the wake of Hortman’s assassination, several states have weighed legislation that would allow lawmakers to have their home addresses and other identifying information removed from public records. And as federal campaign spending on security expenses has continued to climb into the millions, 25 states now officially or informally authorize state candidates to use campaign funds for personal security, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Vote Mama Foundation.
The role of law enforcement has also come under scrutiny, with the Ghosh Innovation Lab report concluding that state capitols and law enforcement “systematically fail to protect women legislators.”
The top safety shortcomings identified by women legislators surveyed for the report were a lack of training in handling threats (53 percent), the absence of a panic button for reporting incidents (46 percent) and unclear reporting procedures (42 percent). They also cited inadequate technological solutions, insufficient legal support, buildings feeling overly exposed, too few security officers and poor coordination with law enforcement.
“Whatever training they’re getting is their own responsibility, and that’s part of where the system breaks down,” said Ghosh. “It’s two things: One is that we’re not a proactive system, we react to incidents, that is one huge thing. And the second is it feels like safety and security is a legislator problem, not an institutional problem.”
At the federal level, the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) protects members of Congress, often in coordination with local law enforcement, and issues regular public assessments indicating that threats against federal lawmakers are on the rise.
But far less is known about the risk environment and security landscape for state lawmakers.
States have widely varying levels of security for their state capitol complexes and different open carry rules. A 2024 review from the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau found that 39 states use metal detectors in their capitol buildings, 31 use X-ray machines to scan packages and belongings and 10 require visitors to have photo identification.
Many states have dedicated capitol police forces, specialized units within state police or highway patrols responsible for protecting lawmakers and executive officials, or both. Local sheriff’s offices and police departments also respond to reports of threats from state lawmakers.
“The big problem is that there’s no standardization in the protocols and processes, and this is the gray zone where the system breaks down,” Ghosh said.
To get a clearer picture of the protection landscape, The 19th asked these questions to state agencies responsible for protecting state lawmakers in all 50 states:
What steps should a lawmaker take if they receive a threat?
What are the agency’s processes for identifying and responding to threats?
Does the agency collect data or produce threat assessments on threats to public officials, including state lawmakers? If not, are there plans to start collecting that data and/or to make it public, as the U.S. Capitol Police does?
Has the agency implemented or plans to implement any additional security measures, safety plans or training for state lawmakers/capitol protectees in the wake of the Hortman and Kirk shootings?
Representatives of law enforcement agencies in 27 states responded to The 19th’s inquiries. Representatives of agencies in four states declined to comment, and 19 did not respond to requests for comment. Of the agencies that responded, many declined to share specific security plans or details but said they were committed to ensuring the security of state elected officials and those working at and visiting state capitol complexes.
The basics are the same: All agencies said lawmakers should immediately report a threat to a state, capitol or local law enforcement agency. But where lawmakers report threats can vary depending on whether the legislature is in session and the nature of the threat: a lawmaker might report a threat to the state capitol police or the highway patrol if the legislature is in session, or to their local police or sheriff’s department if they’re in their home county.
All the law enforcement officials emphasized that keeping evidence of threats is important.
Chris Loftis, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol, also said lawmakers should preserve “all evidence, including emails, voicemails, and social media posts” and are “advised not to engage directly with the individual making the threat.”
States use different methods to identify and trace threats. Many said they work with other agencies to monitor, identify and respond to threats. New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said the agency has a team of social media analysts who identify threats. Sgt. Ricardo Breceda of the New Mexico State Police said they use a variety of sources, including law enforcement databases.
“Our response depends on the nature and severity of the threat and can range from routine follow-up investigations to the activation of specialized tactical teams if necessary,” Breceda said.
Some officials and courts have found that some harassing and abrasive rhetoric directed at public officials falls under the First Amendment’s free speech protections, a finding that has at times frustrated lawmakers. Zaidane pointed to a 2021 case in which a man charged with making a threat to a Michigan state legislator’s office was acquitted after his lawyer said he was “just blowing off steam.”
“I think, at a minimum, better enforcement of laws and coordination with law enforcement would make lawmakers feel like the system has their back,” Zaidane said. “Like there are still bright lines that we should not cross in America and that we are committed to upholding those.”
Another thing lawmakers want more of, Ghosh said, is data.
For over 20 years, the U.S. Capitol Police has published annual public threat assessments detailing the number of threats they investigate. In new data released in January, the USCP’s Threat Assessment Section reported investigating nearly 15,000 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” against lawmakers, their families, staff and the U.S. Capitol complex in 2025, marking the third consecutive year the USCP has investigated more threats.
But most state law enforcement and state capitol security agencies either don’t collect or don’t publish such statistics. Utah is one of just a few states in the country that collects statewide data on threats to state lawmakers and produces assessments. The lack of comprehensive data from official sources makes it difficult to know the scope and scale of political violence against state lawmakers.
“They want that kind of tracking and monitoring system,” Ghosh said of women lawmakers. “They want security briefings annually.”
Some state agencies told The 19th they don’t have a full picture of how threats are reported and investigated across their states because jurisdictions respond differently to threat reports. Several others said they do centrally collect that data but don’t release it for security reasons.
“We collect data, but sometimes we’re not aware of the other complaints that potentially could be made to the sheriff of whatever respective county,” said Cameron of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Some state agencies share data with other law enforcement authorities, including through fusion centers.
Ghosh said women lawmakers also want more official safety training from law enforcement — many told her that they spend thousands of dollars out of pocket for self-defense and security training.
“They want systems to back them up and say, ‘We’re going to prepare you for what’s coming,’ even if it doesn’t happen,” Ghosh said.
Many states are working to expand security as well as training for lawmakers in the wake of the Minnesota shooting, though most declined to share specifics.
Cameron said that in Wyoming, the conversation about improving protective operations “never stops.” The state Highway Patrol has a trooper focused on protective intelligence who attended a threat intelligence course at the U.S. Marshals Service headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia, and investigates threats against lawmakers, he said.
“We’re constantly training our people. We recently instituted a special response team, more or less a SWAT unit, but they’re cross-trained to do executive protection,” he added. “Sometimes we’ll activate some of those members, so our [executive protection division] has additional personnel, either for advanced work or on site work or escort work.”
He said he’d like to see more adoption of drones and drone technology, an area where law enforcement in the United States is “behind,” to protect the state capitol and lawmakers.
Ghosh said the women lawmakers she’s spoken to need three things to carry out their work: to feel prepared, protected and nurtured.
“It’s simple things, right?” she said. “Their safety needs to feel well supported and ready to do the work that they’re meant to do. They want these three things, and when it breaks down is when they’re unable to do this work.”
Scott Pelley was fired from CBS 60 Minutes last week. Photograph: Charles Sykes/AP
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