Far-right activist Ammon Bundy speaks in front of the Ada county courthouse in downtown Boise, Idaho, in April 2021. Photograph: Darin Oswald/AP
Ammon Bundy poses in Emmett, Idaho in 2018.
Photograph: Kelsey Grey/AP
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At least 66 members of an anti-government group founded by far-right militia figure Ammon Bundy have attempted to win local positions of influence in the Republican party in Oregon, the Guardian can reveal.
The candidates stood for Republican precinct committee person (PCP) slots in three central Oregon counties in this week’s elections, with some facing no opponent and thus winning their positions by default. The role of PCPs includes electing the executive of the county-level GOP apparatus.
The move is part of what appears to be a coordinated attempt to capture the local Republican party infrastructure, following a far-right strategy of “entryism” into more mainstream political bodies.
The electoral fate of all 66 candidates is not yet clear.
Evidence for these PCP candidates’ membership in the People’s Rights Network (PRN) group People’s Rights Oregon 5 (PRO5), and the coordinated nature of their political campaign, comes in part from dozens of hours of their conversations on a radio network set up by and for PRN members. These conversations were intercepted and recorded by an amateur radio operator who provided them to the Guardian.
That source’s name is being withheld due to fears of retaliation from members of the organization, prominent members of which have paramilitary ties.
Other recorded conversations include planning and evaluation of protests against Covid-19 vaccines and masking rules; stories of members’ armed interactions with intruders; and a discussion of the possibility that a contact serving in the military might be able to “scrounge up” some supplies for the group.
The revelations about the group’s highly organized participation in the Republican primaries raise questions about the extent of anti-government infiltration in the Republican party at the grassroots level, both now and in the immediate future.
PRO5’s strategy resembles the “precinct strategy” as coined by Arizona GOP activist Dan Schultz and promoted by Maga figures including Steve Bannon and Trump himself. That reflects a “shared instinct on the far right post-2020”, according to Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), an organization that researches far-right extremism.
“They want to take over the local party apparatus and change it from the ground up,” he said.
People’s Rights, from pandemic to politics
Bundy founded PRN in April 2020, leveraging burgeoning Covid denialism and his own prominence in far-right circles after leading an armed standoff with federal law enforcement at Oregon’s Malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016.
In the first wave of the Covid pandemic, PRN attracted notoriety for protests against lockdown measures, mask mandates, and vaccines.
Ammon Bundy poses in Emmett, Idaho in 2018. Photograph: Kelsey Grey/AP
The group spread nationwide, and was organized by state, with each state under a state assistant reporting to Bundy, and states subdivided into areas, each under an area assistant. PRO5 is Oregon’s fifth area.
PRO5 has about 1,400 members. Burghart said it is “one of the most successful areas in terms of organization”.
He said: “One of the things separating them from other chapters is the early pivot to politics, which meant they no longer had to rely on Covid denialism, or the succession of conspiracy theories other chapters have tried to mobilize.”
That early pivot resulted in successes in Deschutes county Republican primaries in 2022, with People’s Rights members being elected to enough PCP roles there that they were able to take control of the Deschutes county Republican central committee. PRN PCPs then elected fellow members Scott Stuart as chair, and Connie Whelchel vice-chair.
Stuart – who as a prominent PRO5 activist extensively promoted false conspiracy theories about Covid and the 2020 election, and showed up to a Fourth of July parade in Redmond, Oregon in a Confederate uniform and waving a Confederate battle flag – was now in charge of the county Republican apparatus.
Now PRO5 appears to be rolling out the same strategy in neighboring counties in PRO5’s territory.
Radio network
People’s Rights communicates via radio networks that sometimes involve localised groups organized around particular cities or localities, and sometimes the general membership of the entire group.
The radio network the group uses to communicate incorporates inexpensive handheld radios whose normally short, line-of-sight range is extended by repeaters. Members are thus able to communicate over an almost 50-mile (80km) radius with simple devices. The group started building out its repeater network in July 2020 – in the midst of the pandemic – and added further repeater stations regularly until August 2023.
While repeaters for public benefit are often maintained by amateur radio clubs, nonprofit organizations or public safety agencies, these are set up for the exclusive use of People’s Rights affiliates.
The group prevents unwanted users from transmitting via their repeaters by setting their own radios to send a subaudible tone that identifies them as members of the group to the repeater device. But many of the handheld radios in use by the group use the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) system. GMRS operators are legally required to register with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The recordings capture the group’s weekly, members-only radio meetings, where members often sign in using their FCC-assigned GMRS callsigns, and where views are aired and plans are hatched regarding Covid-19 restrictions, school boards and local Republican politics.
Registrations are public and searchable on a dedicated FCC website, where individual names and addresses are listed along with call signs that person is licensed and required to use on specific radio service, and FCC registration numbers (FRNs) assigned to individuals.
FCC records thus allow individuals in the PRO5 radio network to be identified by their callsign.
Candidates for power
By cross-matching FCC records of callsigns used in PRO5 radio meet-ups, the Guardian was able to corroborate the source’s information that at least 34 PRO5 members ran for PCP positions in Deschutes county; 12 ran in Crook county; and at least 20 in Jefferson county.
In some precincts they were assured of success.
In precinct 2 of Jefferson county, for example, where 17 PCP slots are available, at least 12 of 18 candidates are identified as PRO5 members; in precinct 11, the only candidate is Paul W May, a People’s Rights member; and in precinct 21, all four candidates for four available slots are members.
With only 49 candidates running for positions in Jefferson county, and PRO5 guaranteed at least 21 committee seats, they will likely constitute a powerful voting bloc for central committee positions when votes are tallied.
One PCP candidate in Deschutes county, where PRO5 already dominates the local Republican apparatus, is BJ Soper, a longtime “patriot movement” figure who has participated in armed standoffs with government agencies, and who has a long list of ties to paramilitary groups.
In 2015, Soper served as a “standing guard” at the Sugar Pine Mine standoff in southern Oregon, where Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and the Soper-organized Pacific Patriots Network (PPN) rallied around miners whose unapproved construction work had drawn enforcement notices from the Bureau of Land Management.
PPN was also present in the early stages of the Malheur standoff, and although Soper initially disapproved of the Bundy-led occupation of the US Fish and Wildlife Service facility at the refuge, at the end of the first week of the standoff PPN issued a “call to action” to “secure a perimeter around the wildlife refuge, its occupiers and the citizens of Harney county”.
Months later, Soper was reportedly running weekly firearms training with another group, the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard.
During the pandemic, Soper rallied to Bundy’s standard, and himself criticized Covid restrictions, mask mandates and vaccines, and wrote on Facebook in 2020 that Osha’s extension of social distancing into 2021 was “a political coup meant to destroy this country”, adding: “I have not worn a mask yet and I refuse to do so at any point. I’ve not social distanced myself at any point since this nonsense has started.”
The same year he became PRN assistant for all of Oregon except area 5, which encompasses Redmond, his city of residence.
Burghart, the IREHR extremism expert, said, “he’s been quite adept at walking the fine line of legality”, adding that Soper “has learned from Bundy’s successes and failures” and has played a central role in PRO5’s successful organizing.
Radio recordings
Recordings of their radio conversations indicate that while the PRO5’s earliest years were dominated by Covid-19 denialism and protests against vaccine and mask mandates, they soon reflected the group’s growing preoccupation with local Republican politics.
As early as the summer of 2021, however, members were being encouraged to involve themselves in local politics.
In a 11 July weekly meeting which included Soper, PRO5 member and current Deschutes PCP candidate Mark Knowles mentioned that there had been “a lot of interest in precinct committee seats in Deschutes county, and told listeners that with a one page application – you could be appointed and have a real say in Deschutes Republican politics”.
Increasingly, speakers at the weekly radio meetings issued reminders of upcoming Republican meetings and social events, including a 22 September 2023 Deschutes Republican Party golf tournament, and a 24 March Deschutes county Republicans dinner at the Bend Elks Club.
After PRO5’s successes in Deschutes county in 2022, their radio meetings become more and more intertwined with local Republican party business. On 12 March 2023, Brian Gatley of Redmond told the Redmond “Little Group of Patriots” radio meeting that “I was down in Bend all afternoon for the [Deschutes Republican Party] meeting,”.
PRO5 member Scott Stuart was elected chair of the Deschutes Republicans after their success in fielding PCP candidates in 2022.
Later in the same meeting, another member, Redmond’s LoriLark McBride, suggested a high level of internal organization in PRO5 directed at the capture of the local Republican apparatus.
“John [McBride] and I attended the PCP training and it was great.”
Both McBrides later stood for election in Deschutes county precinct 17.
The Louisiana Senate passed legislation Thursday afternoon to forbid school staffers from talking to students in grades K-12 about sexual orientation or gender identity. House Bill 122 passed 28-7, with all Senate Republicans and two Democrats in support. It now heads to Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who has claimed without citing evidence that some teachers aim to indoctrinate students with “radical” ideas. Landry is expected to sign the measure into law.
Sen. Beth Mizell, R Franklinton, said the bill’s intent was not to harm LGBTQ+ students but to make schools a “safe space” where parents know that staff won’t discuss sensitive topics with their children. The lawmaker behind HB 122, Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, also authored a bill to require all public schools and universities in the state to post the Ten Commandments. The Senate overwhelmingly approved that measure last week.
Last year Democratic former Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed Mizell’s anti-trans bill and Horton’s first attempt at a “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Mizell is an occasional guest on hate group leader Tony Perkins’ podcast. Horton has said she tried again on her “Don’t Say Gay” bill upon the encouragement of her pastor.
Louisiana lawmakers pass 'Don't Say Gay' bill banning classroom talk about sexuality, gender https://t.co/MEh80h9RkP
All this is going to do is fuck up queer kids more than they already are by society, and maybe that’s what they want. Cruelty is always the point. They want to punish queer kids if they dare to come out.
They were very upset when LGBT kids started thriving and everyone around being all functional and stuff, they are ddesperate to traumatize and invest in bullying a whole other generation for them to use to claim America needs complete Christonazi rule.
So I live in Louisiana and I work in a public university. The Ten Commandments will really go over well on my campus, which has a very high student population of Muslims, and, as far as I can tell, almost no Jews. I should post the three versions of the Ten Commandments on my office wall. In Hebrew. Which, yes, I can read.
Don’t say gay. We really are going backwards. I graduated from high school in 1979, and no one ever said anything about gay, except when taunting the faggots and calling them, well, faggots. Like me. I hate this state and have already told my husband that I am leaving upon my retirement in two years.
Similar to you, homophobia was strong in my remote town in northern Alberta. I graduated in 1977, when nothing positive was ever said about gay except ‘faggot’ and ‘homo’ and the french versions fifi’ and ‘tapette’. No wonder I came out at 33, who would want to admit to anyone, or themselves, they were gay in that environment? That’s why is so depressing to see this anti-gay movement today.
I attended the third largest high school in the country, with 6000 students. And it was still a horrible place to be gay. I didn’t come out until I was 27 after a heterosexual marriage and divorce.
Yup, I tried hard to be straight, I had many girlfriends and at least three of them would have married me. Living a lie for so long just destroyed me psychologically. Straight people just don’t understand what we’ve been through. Hugs madknits!
Apparently the “compromise” is allowing things to exist, as long as the people upset by them never have to confront them. Of course, that won’t last very long, since the only way to be certain they’ll never encounter anything upsetting is to eliminate it entirely (which in the case of LGBTQ+ existence requires ignoring the reality that it will always exist, no matter how hard they try to stamp it out.)
They take our important LGBTQ phrase ‘safe space’ and appropriate it for their homophobe parents. Plus, she has the audacity to say “the bill’s intent was not to harm LGBTQ+ students”!
If Trump reoccupies the White House, his religious right puppet masters will demand that he appoint a Secretary of Education who’ll enact these “don’t say gay” requirements nationwide and at all public school levels. Plus, “forced outings” by schools to parents.
Get out your “If Trump Wins” bingo card and be prepared to mark the square described above.
According to a new report, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools have quadrupled in U.S. states that have laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ students.
A Washington Post analysis of FBI data on anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes taking place in K-12 schools and on college campuses, published on March 12 found that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes “serious enough to be reported to local police” more than doubled across the country in recent years. The Post found that while an average of 108 anti-LGBTQ+ school hate crimes were reported between 2015 and 2019, that average rose to 232 between 2021 and 2022. According to FBI data, the most common hate crimes reported at schools were intimidation, simple assault (assault where no weapon was used), and vandalism.
However, this rise in school hate crimes was more pronounced in the 28 states that have enacted policies restricting LGBTQ+ students’ self-expression and/or limiting how teachers can talk about gender and sexuality in school. In these states, reported anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes on K-12 and college campuses more than tripled from an average of 28 per year between 2015 and 2019 to an average of 90 between 2021 and 2022.
As the Post points out, this increase is even more staggering when you remove college campuses and look at the anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools only. In states that have enacted restrictive laws, there were more than four times the number of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes across elementary, middle, and high schools, per year, from 2021 to 2022, compared with the years 2015 to 2019.
Although it’s only March, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking a whopping 478 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the U.S. this year, with 190 of those bills targeting student and educator rights.
Gerald Declan Radford, 65, initially claimed he shot Lay in self-defense. Prosecutors believe that Declan was the aggressor and was motivated by Lay’s sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, nonprofits that work with LGBTQ+ youth have reported an increase in crisis calls. According to the Post, The Trevor Project received over 500,000 crisis contacts during the fiscal year ending in July 2023 compared to the 230,000 the group received the previous year, while the Rainbow Youth Project received over 1,400 calls to its mental health crisis hotline per month in 2023 compared to 1,000 per month in 2022. According to the Rainbow Youth Project, calls from Oklahoma to the group’s hotline more than tripled after details about Nex Benedict, the trans Oklahoma teen of Choctaw ancestry who died the day after three older girls reportedly beat them in a school bathroom, became national news.
“Young people will say, ‘My government hates me,’ ‘My school hates me,’ ‘They don’t want me to exist,’” the Rainbow Youth Project’s founder and executive director, Lance Preston, told the Post. “That … is absolutely unacceptable. That is shocking.”
I forget who or where I got this from. But the video on the page clearly shows the violence at the protest for Palestinian rights was caused not by the students, but by supporters of Israel. It has been reported that some of these outside agitators were funded by right wing dark money big donors. Warning the video shows brutal horrifying attacks / assaults on students with weapons, chemical sprays, and anything they could, often a bunch would single out one protester and beat that person to the ground. I will post the article but you will have to go to the link to see the videos and lots of pictures. Also please note that the college security and police simply stood by and let the protestors be attacked. So much for serve and protect. Hugs. Scottie
A young man in a white plastic mask beats a pro-Palestinian protester. Another in a maroon hoodie strikes a protester with a pole. A local instigator pushes down barricades.
Law enforcement stood by for hours as counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on April 30, which erupted into the worst violence stemming from the ongoing college protests around the country over Israel’s war in Gaza.
While a criminal investigation is underway into the assaults that occurred at UCLA, the identities of the most aggressive counterprotesters have gone largely unknown. A CNN review of footage, social media posts, and interviews found that some of the most dramatic attacks caught on camera that night were committed by people outside UCLA – not the university students and faculty who were eventually arrested.
Many at the scene appeared dedicated to the pro-Israel cause, according to social media and their own words that night. The violent counterprotesters identified by CNN, which included an aspiring screenwriter and film producer and a local high school student – were joined by unlikely allies, several of whom are known throughout southern California for frequenting and disrupting a variety of protests and public gatherings.
The young man sporting the white mask and a white hoodie in widely shared video clips is Edan On, a local 18-year-old high school senior, his mother confirmed to CNN, though she later said he denies being at UCLA. Video shows On joining the counterprotesters while waving a long white pole. At one point, he strikes a pro-Palestinian protester with the pole, and appears to continue to strike him even when he was down, as fellow counterprotesters piled on.
“Edan went to bully the Palestinian students in the tents at UCLA and played the song that they played to the Nukhba terrorists in prison!” his mother boasted in Hebrew on Facebook, referencing Hamas. She circled an image of him that had been broadcast on the local news.
An image from Fox 11 Los Angeles posted on Facebook by Sharon On-Siboni shows her son, Edan On, with a white hoodie throwing an object into the encampment created by pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA. On-Siboni highlighted the image.
From Fox 11
“He is all over the news channels,” his mother wrote in a now-deleted post.
Some counterprotesters had been spotted on campus days earlier, drawn by a high-profile pro-Israel rally as inflammatory videos and claims rapidly spread across social media.
Many at the scene Tuesday hid their faces behind masks and scarves. Some attackers sprayed protesters with chemical irritants, hit them with wooden boards, punched and kicked them and shot fireworks into the crowd of students and supporters huddled behind umbrellas and wooden planks, attempting to stay safe. For hours, they sought to pull away pieces of the barrier, scooping up fallen wooden planks and poles to use as makeshift weapons, lunging toward pro-Palestinian protesters who emerged from the camp to protect it from being breached.
Video footage shows the young man in a white hoodie, identified as Edan On, striking at the barrier around the pro-Palestinian encampment. William Gude
In this still taken from a video posted on social media, Edan On removes his mask.
From Social Media
On, a local high school senior, was captured on video striking a pro-Palestinian protester with a pole.
From Social Media
As protesters chanted, “We’re not leaving” from the encampment, some counterprotesters shouted back, “You are terrorists, you are terrorists!”
Video footage shows that some counterprotesters instigated the fighting, while others did little to intervene. Then police did little as a large group of counterprotesters calmy walked away, leaving behind bloody, bruised students and other protesters.
The Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol referred all questions about the incident to the UCLA Police Department, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Law enforcement did not track injuries from the attack. But according to the encampment’s organizers, more than 150 students “were assaulted with pepper spray and bear mace,” and at least 25 protesters ended up being transported to local emergency rooms to receive treatment for injuries including fractures, severe lacerations and chemical-induced injuries.
“I actually thought someone would get killed,” said Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, UCLA Hillel’s Director Emeritus, who called 911 around midnight as he watched the violence on live TV. “They came to beat people up.”
The next day, Hillel at UCLA posted an open letter from student leaders denouncing what it called “fringe members of the off-campus Jewish community” who did not represent “the estimated 3,000 Jewish Bruins at UCLA.”
“We cannot have a clearer ask for the off-campus Jewish community: stay off our campus,” it stated. “Your actions are harming Jewish students.”
‘You guys are about to get f—ed up’
In one of the more dramatic videos of the night, a protester wearing the colors of the Palestinian flag underneath an LA Kings jersey was knocked to the ground and beaten by multiple counterprotesters as he guarded the encampment.
The footage appears to show Edan On, in the white hoodie, and others striking at a pro-Palestinian protester on the ground. Key News Network
One of those assailants was On, who rushed into the middle of the fray with his pole. When CNN showed On’s mother a video of him attacking the protester, she said Edan, who she confirmed is a senior at Beverly Hills High School, was only defending himself.His mother – who previously described a smaller group of UCLA students protesting the war last year as “human animals” on social media – said dozens of his schoolmates had also gone to campus on the 30th and that her son intends to join the Israel Defense Forces.
The school district said federal law prohibits sharing information about students, including confirming their identities. On could not be reached for comment directly. When CNN contacted On’s mother for an interview with him, she replied that her son was in Israel and that he claimed he wasn’t at UCLA despite her earlier confirmation.
The man in the LA Kings jersey was ultimately dragged into a group of counterprotesters and kicked by an aspiring Los Angeles screenwriter and producer who CNN identified as Malachi Marlan-Librett, according to a review of social media photos, footage from the protest and interviews with multiple people who knew him. According to his LinkedIn, he graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2019 and attended a UCLA professional film and television program the following year.
A man in a maroon hoodie joined Marlan-Librett in dragging the protester into the mob.
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator is beaten by counterprotesters attacking a pro-Palestinian encampment set up at UCLA’s campus. The man in the maroon hoodie is among the attackers, which include Malachi Marlan-Librett (beige cap) to his right.
Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images
A counterprotester, identified by CNN as Malachi Marlan-Librett, pushes a pro-Palestinian protester in the barrier of the UCLA encampment.
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Marlan-Librett is seen throwing the bottom of a broom at a pro-Palestinian protester. William Gude
The protester was later seen in a video receiving treatment for a bloody head injury at the encampment. Marlan-Librett and the man in the maroon hoodie, along with other counterprotesters, such as an unmasked man wearing a red bandana around his neck, were seen committing multiple acts of violence throughout the night.
They became prime targets for online researchers who told CNN they had created internal nicknames such as #UCLARedBandana, #UCLANeffHat and #UCLAMaroonHoodie as they attempted to identify them.
In one violent episode captured on video, Marlan-Librett is seen carrying the end of a broom in his hand, using it to strike a protester in the head before kicking him. Even after the protester retreats, Marlan-Librett sneaks up on him from behind and strikes him in the head once again. Marlan-Librett didn’t respond to calls and texts from CNN.
In another video, the man in the maroon hoodie runs toward the encampment yelling, “You guys are about to get f**ked up.” In the over 3-hour-long livestream, the young man is in the thick of the scrum and can be seen hitting another man with a pole before arming counterprotesters with wood planks. The man could be heard yelling at protesters, “F**k you, f**king terrorists,” then, “The score is 30,000” – a reference to the number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza.
Journalist Dolores Quintana is pepper-sprayed by the man in the maroon hoodie and other counterprotesters. William Gude
Just minutes earlier, the man pepper-sprayed a journalist in the face, while she was filming the crowd. “I had to walk off because I literally could not see anything,” the local journalist, Dolores Quintana, told CNN. “And it was getting in my mouth. And so, I was starting to choke.”
She said a volunteer came out of the encampment to wash out her eyes with water and saline. Quintana took a selfie when she could open her eyes again. In the photo, her face was drenched and pale, with red blotches on her forehead.
“This was the worst situation I ever found myself in as a journalist,” she said. “I was afraid they were going to kill somebody.”
Dolores Quintana pictured shortly after being pepper-sprayed while covering the protests at UCLA in early May.
Dolores Quintana
Local provocateurs in the fray
According to multiple acquaintances of the man in the maroon hoodie, he attended Los Angeles Valley College with his brother. Both brothers were enrolled at USC in the fall 2023 semester for a couple weeks before disenrolling, according to the school.
CNN could not reach the man in the maroon hoodie, and he did not have any apparent connection to UCLA.
Neither did Tom Bibiyan, a 42-year-old who was once a local Green Party official. Bibiyan was stabbed at a KKK rally where he was a counter-protester in 2016 and has since become an ardent Trump supporter. His colorful Instagram page is a mix of right-wing memes, numerous posts defending famous men against sexual assault allegations and pro-Israel content.
Video footage shows Bibiyan among those at the front line of people rushing the encampment in an attempt to remove protective metal barriers, as campus security guards watched the violence unfold.
Tom Bibiyan is seen throwing a water bottle at a protester. William Gude
Tom Bibiyan is seen rushing the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. William Gude
“The moment we rushed the terrorist encampment last night at ucla to take it apart,” he captioned a video he posted to Instagram. “F**k them kids,” he said in a separate post, which has since been deleted.
A CNN journalist reached Bibiyan outside his home, wearing the same jacket he had worn at UCLA, but he refused to say why he had taken part in the violence. “You’re being a little rude, and I’m going to call the police if you don’t leave,” he said.
Other older men spotted among the mob looked familiar to local public school mom Angie Givant as she followed what happened that Tuesday night on social media: a group of right-wing provocateurs who she’d seen protesting LGBTQ rights in public schools at school board and city council meetings around Los Angeles.
“As soon as there were rumors that, you know, things were going to go down at UCLA, there was a mobilization of very familiar reactionary extremists,” she told CNN.
One of the older men, Narek Palyan, joined the group of counterprotesters despite having posted anti-Jewish tropes on his social media accounts. Palyan, who didn’t appear to engage in the violence, claimed to CNN he has a child at UCLA, though a student was not seen accompanying him that night. “I was definitely keeping the peace, at least trying to,” he said.
Student journalists attacked
UCLA junior and student journalist Catherine Hamilton said that when a firework landed a few feet away from where she was standing and she saw the men approaching in masks, it was clear to her that they were about to do something they didn’t want to be recognized for.
“In that moment when that firework went off and started ringing in my ears, I was like, something very bad is going to happen on this campus,” she said.
When the police finally arrived hours later to break up the chaos, Hamilton and her colleagues regrouped to head back to their newsroom. As they walked past a line of cops and along a well-lit street in the center of campus, just before 3:30 am, she says they were encircled by a small group of counterprotesters mainly dressed in black. She told CNN the man leading the group was someone whom she immediately recognized. He was a counterprotester who had previously verbally harassed her and taken a photo of her press badge, she said.
Within seconds, they sprayed the student journalists with a type of mace or pepper spray and flashed lights in their faces. As she tried to get away, Hamilton said, she was repeatedly struck in the chest and abdomen.
One of the journalists confronted the attackers and shoved one before he was pummeled to the ground and beaten, according to video footage of the incident.
‘I was expecting us to start working on an obituary’
The day after the attack, UCLA’s chancellor called the events “a dark chapter” in the school’s history that “has shaken our campus to its core.”
A parent who was at the encampment with their child, a UCLA student, also described the night as feeling like “a civil war movie” with embers raining down and the wounded being treated all around. The parent said they were frantic to find help, calling UCLA campus police six times in a row.
One fourth-year UCLA student – who requested anonymity due to safety concerns – told CNN he was hit in the corner of his forehead with a traffic cone. Minutes later, video captured a counterprotester smashing a wooden plank into the back of his head.
With two deep cuts on his head, he said he rushed to the hospital and ultimately received 14 staples and three stitches for the injuries.
The violence directed at the protesters and his access to medical treatment reminded him of why they had set up the encampment in the first place, trying to raise awareness about the mass deaths and destruction from Israel’s war in Gaza, and calling for the university to divest from any financial ties with Israel. “I had the privilege of going to a hospital,” he said. “In Gaza, there are zero fully functioning hospitals.”
Thistle Boosinger, a 23-year-old member of the encampment who is not a UCLA student, had her hand smashed the night of the violence. She described how her assailant took a piece of wood above his head before slamming it down on her hand. “At first, I just screamed,” she said. “And then after like five minutes where my adrenaline wore off, it was so extremely painful.”
Thistle Boosinger, a 23-year-old member of the encampment, had her hand smashed the night of the violence. Boosinger requested CNN obscure a portion of this image over privacy concerns following recent developments.
Courtesy Thistle Boosinger
In a video call, Boosinger held up her hand wrapped in gauze and described her injury. “My bone is broken totally in half below my knuckle … [which is] shattered into a bunch of pieces and jumbled up.”
Dylan Kupsh, a UCLA graduate student, said he linked arms with other protesters in an attempt to defend the encampment and keep people safe. “We were … trying to keep the barricade wall up because that was literally protecting our lives,” Kupsh said. It wasn’t long before he was pepper sprayed, forcing him to seek medical treatment as the attacks continued.
Kupsh and others still wonder what would have happened had the encampment been breached that night.
“I hate to say it,” said Catherine Hamilton, the student journalist, “but I was expecting us to start working on an obituary the next day because I thought something that serious would happen to the students in the encampment.”
Do you have information to share about the attack at UCLA? Email us at watchdog@cnn.com.
CNN’s Audrey Ash, Isabelle Chapman, Scott Glover and Curt Devine contributed to this story.
Israel is desperate to keep any information or pictures of their genocide and total destruction of Gaza from leaking out to the public. I just found out this morning that Israel military is telling the roving gang thugs that are blocking and destroy aid trucks food supplies where these trucks will be. Also the Israeli military has again targeted food and medical people, including shelling the emergency room and using tanks to shell the only other semi functioning hospital in Northern Gaza. The Israeli government / military is doing everything they can to destroy every aspect of Palestinians lives, culture, buildings, all so the people if any remain will have no way to survive if they try to stay there. The goal is to force the survivors to leave, be relocated so Israel can regain the land it claims as its own. Hugs. Scottie
BREAKING: Israeli officials seize AP equipment and take down live shot of northern Gaza, citing new media law. https://t.co/EcxMVtrWA6
The Israeli government will return a camera and broadcasting equipment it had seized from The Associated Press on Tuesday, reversing course hours after it blocked the news organization’s live video of Gaza and faced mounting criticism for interfering with independent journalism.
The AP’s live video of Gaza was back up early Wednesday in Israel.
The government seized the AP equipment positioned in southern Israel after accusing it of violating a new media law by providing images to the satellite channel Al Jazeera.
Israeli officials used the new law on May 5 to close down Qatar-based Al Jazeera within Israel, confiscating its equipment, banning its broadcasts and blocking its websites.
After Israel seized the AP equipment, the Biden administration, journalism organizations and an Israeli opposition leader condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressured it to reverse the decision.
Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said late Tuesday on the social platform X: “I have now ordered to cancel the action and return the equipment to the AP.”
Karhi said the defense ministry will undertake a review of news outlets’ positioning of live video of Gaza. Officials hadn’t previously told AP the positioning of its live camera was an issue. Instead, they repeatedly noted that the images appeared in real-time on Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera is one of thousands of AP customers, and it receives live video from AP and other news organizations.
“While we are pleased with this development, we remain concerned about the Israeli government’s use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel,” said Lauren Easton, AP’s vice president of corporate communications.
Officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed the AP a piece of paper, signed by Karhi, alleging it was violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law.
Shortly beforehand, AP was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit broadcasts of details like troop movements that could endanger soldiers. The live video has generally shown smoke rising over the territory.
The AP had been ordered verbally last Thursday to cease the live transmission, which it refused to do.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid called the government’s move against AP “an act of madness.”
Karhi responded to Lapid that the law passed unanimously by the government states that any device used to deliver Al Jazeera content could be seized.
Journalism organizations condemned Israel’s seizure of AP equipment, and the Biden administration also applied pressure.
“As soon as we learned about the reports, the White House and the State Department immediately engaged with the government of Israel at high levels to express our serious concern and ask them to reverse this action,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. “The free press is an essential pillar of democracy and members of the media, including AP, do vital work that must be respected.”
When Israel closed down Al Jazeera’s offices earlier this month, media groups warned of the serious implications for press freedom in the country.
“Israel’s record on press freedom already has been dismal throughout the war,” the Foreign Press Association said in a statement on Tuesday. “It has prevented independent access to Gaza for foreign journalists.”
The AP live video shot from Sderot has provided a rare independent glimpse of the situation in Gaza.
Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias against the country. Netanyahu has called it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international news outlets that has remained in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres. AP is also in Gaza.
During the previous Israel-Hamas war in 2021, the army destroyed the building housing AP’s Gaza office, claiming Hamas had used the building for military purposes. The AP denied any knowledge of a Hamas presence, and the army never provided any evidence to back up its claim.
The war in Gaza began with a Hamas attack in Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
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Kirka reported from London. Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani, and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
“Pastor Mark Burns is running for Congress in South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, and has been with me from the very beginning of our Movement to Make America Great Again. In Congress, Mark will help me Secure the Border, Stop Illegal Immigration, Uphold the Rule of Law, Grow the Economy, and Protect and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment. Pastor Mark Burns is an America First Fighter, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – He is a Good Man, a Hard Worker, and will not let you down!” – Trump, posting to Truth Social.
Burns, an avowed Christian nationalist who regularly headlines QAnon events, first appeared here in 2016 when he jumped up and literally fled a CNN interview after being confronted for lying about his military service and education.
Burns later claimed that his website had been hacked to make the false claims and that he was being attacked for being a black Trump supporter. Trump first posted an endorsement of Burns last month.
In 2022, Burns laid out his plan for executing LGBTQs for “grooming” during an appearance on the show hosted by Holocaust denier Stew Peters.
Burns is seeking an open House seat currently held by GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan, who is not seeking reelection. In 2022 Burns finished second in the GOP primary in a failed attempt to unseat incumbent GOP Rep. William Timmons. The South Carolina primary is June 11th.
Last time he ran for Congress, MAGA pastor Mark Burns said that "LGBTQ indoctrination" represents "a national security threat" and vowed to re-establish HUAC to ensure that anyone engaged in it would be executed for treason. Well, he's running again and, of course, he's secured… pic.twitter.com/UgWlwJ54eD
Pastor Mark Burns, at Eric Trump and Michael Flynn’s event in Idaho: “I’m coming here to declare war on every demonic, demon-possessed Democrat that comes from the gates of Hell!” pic.twitter.com/URUcHo11V8
Pastor Mark Burns says “God has chosen Donald Trump” to change American culture, and Trump is using the same methodology to do it that Jesus used. pic.twitter.com/SdzMfQTZc7
Pastor Mark Burns is a Trump-endorsed candidate for SC’s 3rd District: “The laws that are contrary to the word of God, we need to push against it. And I don't care if they call it Christian nationalism.” pic.twitter.com/MjTbgYKwtA
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 9, 2024
MAGA pastor Mark Burns complains that the Department of Justice is "a Gestapo-like weapon" that is being used against Trump and flat-out says he doesn't care what crimes Trump may have committed because "he's God's anointed." pic.twitter.com/efdOXN0vc2
Far-right pastor Mark Burns is opening a military academy that will ensure that students "are not exposed to woke teachings or a sexually perverted lifestyle." Seems like a fitting move for a Trump cultist who falsified his own military & academic record. https://t.co/smRIbsRLnipic.twitter.com/vy1QwwW1NG
MAGA pastor Mark Burns praises televangelist Kenneth Copeland's Victory Channel network for being one of the only places where people like him can openly "talk about Jesus Christ and taking over government." pic.twitter.com/dePrexZ2CH
Christian nationalist MAGA pastor and GOP congressional candidate Mark Burns tells an audience filled with COVID, election, and QAnon conspiracy theorists that "we're here to take over." https://t.co/vCQN369yRxpic.twitter.com/gDx298dGuR
MAGA pastor/Trump cultist Mark Burns says that what is happening to Kanye West is "true, real Nazism in America" and "a form of racism": "They are ostracizing him. That's what real Nazism is." pic.twitter.com/9VtSwYrtIW
he was being attacked for being a black Trump supporter
No, Marky-diddums. You’re not being attacked for being a black Trump supporter. You’re being attacked for being absolutely batshit fucking insane. One of the symptoms is being a black Trump supporter.
Notice that Black Conservatives are bat guano crazy!! As a Black woman, I find them as scary as White Nationalists. I hope South Carolinians reject this joker.
Sorta like gay right-wingers, I think they are extra shitty because they have something to prove. They prove it alright, but not what they think they’re proving.
In Congress, Mark will help me Secure the Border, Stop Illegal Immigration
NBC, May 15th: Mexico is stopping nearly three times as many migrants now, helping keep U.S. border crossings down. Biden administration officials say the increased help from Mexico in slowing migration is proof their relationship with Mexico is more productive than Trump’s approach.
FunFact: Mexico never paid for Trump’s failed wall. PRESIDENT BIDEN got Mexico to spend 1.5 billion on improved border security.
The hypocrisy of all of them is dumbfounding. tRump as the law and order candidate. How can he keep a straight face? And this lying jackass and Robinson give the Black Evangelicals a bad name.
“The laws that are contrary to the word of God, we need to push against it.”
His bible has a lot of words against divorce, yet he’s still a fan of Trump. As the old saying goes, if they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all…
Adultery is another thing that the Bible says God objected to — so much so that under Old Testament law (which is the only one which people like Burns seem to care about even though they don’t follow it themselves), the Jewish community executed anyone who was found guilty of committing adultery. Trump has publicly cheated on at least two of his three wives, but Burns evidently has no problem with that (with the result that one is inclined to suspect Burns himself was unfaithful to at least one of his wives — he’s been married twice himself — and especially since there are several other examples of ethical lapses on his part).
It should be of absolutely no surprise to anyone that Burns is one of the “self-anointed/self-appointed” in the sense that he’s never formally studied theology and obviously never made an effort to discuss his beliefs with any other believers in order to check their validity under historic Protestant doctrine. The “churches” of self-anointed/self-appointed hucksters like Burns are nearly always (very conveniently) non-denominational so that the so-called pastor is not accountable to anyone — not even God, since the self-anointed typically recreate God in tbeir own image to suit themselves. No wonder Trump likes Burns. Burns is just like Trump…a charlatan, a control freak, an egomaniac, and a liar.
This is the result of the hate campaign driven by fundamentalist Christian bigots and their thug troops. They are calling these nonlethal rounds but they can seriously injure, cause blindness, or cause lift time serious problems. This is terrorism. They want to force gay people back in the closet, these thugs want the LGBTQ+ out of the public and out of society. They glorify what Putin has done to gay people in Russia. Hugs. Scottie
San Diego Police say Rich’s, The Rail, #1 on Fifth Avenue and PECS in the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods were hit by the suspect early Saturday morning.
Read the full article. A doorman at Rich’s says he was hit in the face with a pellet after hearing slurs shouted from the car. According to witnesses, the gun resembled an AK-47. Watch the video reports below.
I’ve been out for a long time and have witnessed quite a lot — going back to 1970s NYC. I think we’re indeed entering new territory here.
Here in the states there’s a major political party that’s given license to the worst bigots, the most violent criminals. Their leader — a monstrous bigot himself — has a chance of getting back into the White House.
Ammon Bundy poses in Emmett, Idaho in 2018.
Photograph: Kelsey Grey/AP————————————————————————————–
11 minute read
Scottie's Playtime 