theintercept--2020-09-10--Once a Police Union Ally, Democratic House Candidate Pitches Herself as a Reformer

after the House passed the Justice in Policing Act , the former mayor of Tacoma , Washington , Marilyn Strickland , released a statement in support of police reform .
“ The tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor , George Floyd , and Manny Ellis have reinforced that today ’ s legislation is long past due , ” she said .
“ While no bill will solve the problem on its own , the Justice in Policing Act is an important step toward national reform of our police justice system .
We also know the justice system is more than policing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who led Tacoma from 2010 to 2017 , is now running for an open seat in Congress in the state ’ s 10th District , hoping to capitalize on the energy of protests in the city .
Strickland , a centrist , has made police accountability a centerpiece of her platform , as has her progressive opponent in November ’ s general election , Beth Doglio .
Strickland has the bulk of establishment support in the race , while her opponent has been backed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite presenting herself as an advocate for police reform , Strickland presided over a controversial department with a history of excessive force and failed to implement even marginal promised reforms like body cameras .
In fact , Strickland ’ s record on policing is a testament to the overdue nature of the Justice in Policing Act .
During her time as mayor , the Tacoma department faced controversy over an officer ’ s murder of a young Native American mother in 2016 and another officer ’ s brutality toward a 15-year-old Black girl @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white police officer sued the city alleging that it had fired him in 2017 for not shooting to kill a suspect , and the city was found to have illegally withheld public records related to his termination in his disciplinary investigation .
In 2013 , the Tacoma Police Department paralyzed a Vietnamese American man despite the fact that he was not a danger to the police .
In 2009 , the largest contributor to Strickland ’ s first campaign for mayor was the Tacoma Police Union .
In a comprehensive review of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington found that from January 2010 to September 2015 , the Tacoma Police Department took “ a hindsight-oriented approach to reviewing use of force incidents , and almost always reaches a conclusion justifying the amount of force used.
” The Justice in Policing Act , among other things , creates incentives for localities to ban no-knock raids .
In 2011 , as Strickland was mayor , the Tacoma police brutalized a 62-year-old nurse when they performed a no-knock raid at the wrong address .
The city then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for five years , arguing that the city was immune from liability .
The legislation additionally creates incentives for all police to use body cameras .
Despite the police chief and Strickland promising body cams in February 2016 within two to three years , the Tacoma police are still not wearing them .
Finally , the bill bans chokeholds .
The city of Tacoma didn ’ t ban chokeholds until this past June after the Tacoma police choked a man , Manuel Elllis , during an arrest that led to his death .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and misconduct in Tacoma demonstrates and exposes deep cultural and structural issues within the department , ” said Michele Storms , executive director of the ACLU of Washington in response to a request for comment from The Intercept .
“ For meaningful , lasting progress to happen in Tacoma , profound changes must occur .
Denials and delays cost lives.
” Tacoma Police Department were thrust onto the national stage four years before Strickland ’ s election to the city council in 2007 .
In 2003 , after a volatile two-year tenure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21-year veteran of the department , murdered his wife and then killed himself .
David Brame had been hired and promoted despite concerns about his psychological health and a rape allegation .
Over two weeks before her death in April 2003 , Crystal Brame called 911 and told the dispatcher of “ numerous death threats from my husband.
” As Brame ’ s mental health deteriorated further over the following weeks , the people around him failed to blow the whistle to the city manager , the mayor , and city council .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ who had been twice promoted by Brame and worked with Brame closely .
Ramsdell confirmed to state investigators that he knew about the domestic violence allegations prior to the murder-suicide .
Ramsdell was promoted to chief soon after the Brame murder-suicide .
Crystal Brame ’ s family sued the city for $ 75 million and settled for $ 12 million .
A six-month investigation by then-Attorney General Christine Gregoire found “ examples of misconduct , poor judgment , troublesome behavior by top officers , lax accountability ” by the department ’ s leadership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very troubled management culture in the police department.
” The AG ’ s report led Bill Baarsma , the then-mayor , to question whether Ramsdell should step down as police chief .
Instead , Ramsdell hung on for 17 more years , as major blunders and human rights violations by the department piled up — and for the full eight-year duration of Strickland ’ s mayoral tenure .
Tacoma has a weak-mayor form of city government , which means that the mayor does not directly supervise the police department , but does oversee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the appointment of the city manager , who in turn appoints the chief of police .
The average tenure of a big city police chief is two and a half to three years .
In 2007 , a 12-year-old Tacoma girl was kidnapped and murdered , and an Amber Alert that could have saved her life was not issued because an officer fell back to sleep .
That officer was kept on the force for at least four years following the incident , well into Strickland ’ s tenure as mayor .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2011 , Strickland refused to support disciplining the officer who fell asleep and publicly defended the department ’ s actions in the case .
The city manager reprimanded Ramsdell in the case .
On Strickland ’ s watch , the city of Tacoma ’ s attorneys made the argument that the city had no legal obligation to issue an Amber Alert in the case .
Concerns around the Tacoma Police Department ’ s culture and conduct came to a head on January 27 , 2016 , when Jackie Salyers , a 32-year-old member @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by police officers attempting to serve a warrant on her boyfriend .
Salyers ’ s uncle , James Rideout , told The Intercept that there were many unanswered questions surrounding his niece ’ s death .
“ They had the scene completely blocked off , ” said Rideout .
“ Blocks and blocks blocked off .
Perimeter like I ’ ve never seen before .
I had seen a different shooting , and it wasn ’ t contained like that .
When I left , I got pictures sent to me that my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She was taken off the scene and put under a tarp a block away , ” said Rideout .
“ It took several days , if not a month later for the police chief to come and speak to our tribal council about what happened , ” said Rideout .
To achieve justice for Salyers ’ s death , Rideout and the Puyallup tribe led a successful campaign to pass legislation that would end the presumption of justification for officer-involved shootings in Washington state .
Despite the fact that the campaign was led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had little involvement .
“ We didn ’ t have a whole lot of interaction with her , ” said Rideout .
Strickland never reached out to the family in the next two years of her mayoralty .
The shooting was ruled as justified by the Tacoma Police Department .
One of the officers involved , Aaron Joseph , had been arrested on domestic violence charges six years before , at the beginning of Strickland ’ s tenure , though Ramsdell had pledged in 2003 that he would not accept domestic violence by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s 2010-2015 investigation revealed that “ the Department rejects nearly all civilian complaints about unnecessary force.
” The ACLU-WA additionally found that “ the Department sustained zero complaints of police bias or racial profiling , despite regularly receiving complaints about this issue , ” and that the “ vast majority ” of civilian complaints against police were “ exonerated , unfounded , or not sustained.
” The letter also describes how in 2012 , Tacoma police tased and handcuffed an “ innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states .
“ She specifically told dispatch she was deaf , yet police reports describe her as ‘ ignoring ’ their commands.
” Strickland remained loyal to the police after she left office in January 2018 .
Soon thereafter , Strickland was tapped to lead the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce , which in 2019 spent over $ 700,000 to defeat critics of police violence running for the Seattle City Council , notably left-wing activists Tammy Morales , Kshama Sawant , Lisa Herbold , and Shaun Scott , who all made police reform @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stated that candidates ’ positions on policing played a role in their endorsement processes .
“ There is what I call the street population , and then there are people who are homeless and they ’ re not necessarily one and the same , ” Strickland said at the time .
“ There are people that are a part of the street population who do things that are antisocial , and there are people who are homeless .
And sometimes I think we just say they are one and the same.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time that the Chamber ’ s political action committee “ was impressed , Strickland said , by candidates who understood the ‘ difference between the two ’ groups.
” The Intercept sent Strickland and Ramsdell a detailed list of questions .
Strickland declined to answer any specific questions about her record , but said that she “ is committed to giving voice to all members of our community and providing our nation ’ s policing units the accountability they need to serve , protect , and respect all of America ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” and pledged again her support for the Justice in Policing Act .
Strickland campaign spokesperson Mark Prentice also pointed The Intercept toward Project PEACE , a communication project between the police and community leaders , which did not appear to lead to any policy or personnel changes at the Tacoma Police Department , and the Mayor ’ s support for I-940 , an initiative led by the Puyallup tribe to reduce police impunity .
Rideout said that the mayor had little involvement in the campaign .

In June, after the House passed the Justice in Policing Act, the former mayor of Tacoma, Washington, Marilyn Strickland, released a statement in support of police reform. “The tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Manny Ellis have reinforced that today’s legislation is long past due,” she said. “While no bill will solve the problem on its own, the Justice in Policing Act is an important step toward national reform of our police justice system. We also know the justice system is more than policing and includes prosecutors and judges.”
Strickland, who led Tacoma from 2010 to 2017, is now running for an open seat in Congress in the state’s 10th District, hoping to capitalize on the energy of protests in the city. Strickland, a centrist, has made police accountability a centerpiece of her platform, as has her progressive opponent in November’s general election, Beth Doglio. Strickland has the bulk of establishment support in the race, while her opponent has been backed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
But despite presenting herself as an advocate for police reform, Strickland presided over a controversial department with a history of excessive force and failed to implement even marginal promised reforms like body cameras.
In fact, Strickland’s record on policing is a testament to the overdue nature of the Justice in Policing Act. During her time as mayor, the Tacoma department faced controversy over an officer’s murder of a young Native American mother in 2016 and another officer’s brutality toward a 15-year-old Black girl in 2014. In 2018, a white police officer sued the city alleging that it had fired him in 2017 for not shooting to kill a suspect, and the city was found to have illegally withheld public records related to his termination in his disciplinary investigation. In 2013, the Tacoma Police Department paralyzed a Vietnamese American man despite the fact that he was not a danger to the police. In 2009, the largest contributor to Strickland’s first campaign for mayor was the Tacoma Police Union.
In a comprehensive review of the department’s policies and data, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington found that from January 2010 to September 2015, the Tacoma Police Department took “a hindsight-oriented approach to reviewing use of force incidents, and almost always reaches a conclusion justifying the amount of force used.”
Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Justice in Policing Act, among other things, creates incentives for localities to ban no-knock raids. In 2011, as Strickland was mayor, the Tacoma police brutalized a 62-year-old nurse when they performed a no-knock raid at the wrong address. The city then fought Mancini’s lawsuit in court for five years, arguing that the city was immune from liability. The legislation additionally creates incentives for all police to use body cameras. Despite the police chief and Strickland promising body cams in February 2016 within two to three years, the Tacoma police are still not wearing them. Finally, the bill bans chokeholds. The city of Tacoma didn’t ban chokeholds until this past June after the Tacoma police choked a man, Manuel Elllis, during an arrest that led to his death.
“The long history of excessive force and misconduct in Tacoma demonstrates and exposes deep cultural and structural issues within the department,” said Michele Storms, executive director of the ACLU of Washington in response to a request for comment from The Intercept. “For meaningful, lasting progress to happen in Tacoma, profound changes must occur. Denials and delays cost lives.”
Problems with the Tacoma Police Department were thrust onto the national stage four years before Strickland’s election to the city council in 2007. In 2003, after a volatile two-year tenure, the Tacoma chief of police, a 21-year veteran of the department, murdered his wife and then killed himself. David Brame had been hired and promoted despite concerns about his psychological health and a rape allegation. Over two weeks before her death in April 2003, Crystal Brame called 911 and told the dispatcher of “numerous death threats from my husband.” As Brame’s mental health deteriorated further over the following weeks, the people around him failed to blow the whistle to the city manager, the mayor, and city council. That included Assistant Chief Don Ramsdell, who had been twice promoted by Brame and worked with Brame closely. Ramsdell confirmed to state investigators that he knew about the domestic violence allegations prior to the murder-suicide.
Ramsdell was promoted to chief soon after the Brame murder-suicide. Crystal Brame’s family sued the city for $75 million and settled for $12 million. A six-month investigation by then-Attorney General Christine Gregoire found “examples of misconduct, poor judgment, troublesome behavior by top officers, lax accountability” by the department’s leadership and painted “a picture of a very troubled management culture in the police department.” The AG’s report led Bill Baarsma, the then-mayor, to question whether Ramsdell should step down as police chief.
The casket of Crystal Brame is loaded into a hearse following her funeral at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor, Washington, on May 10, 2003. Photo: John Froschauer/AP
Instead, Ramsdell hung on for 17 more years, as major blunders and human rights violations by the department piled up — and for the full eight-year duration of Strickland’s mayoral tenure. Tacoma has a weak-mayor form of city government, which means that the mayor does not directly supervise the police department, but does oversee the department’s annual budget and the appointment of the city manager, who in turn appoints the chief of police.
The average tenure of a big city police chief is two and a half to three years. In 2007, a 12-year-old Tacoma girl was kidnapped and murdered, and an Amber Alert that could have saved her life was not issued because an officer fell back to sleep. That officer was kept on the force for at least four years following the incident, well into Strickland’s tenure as mayor. And when more information came to light in 2011, Strickland refused to support disciplining the officer who fell asleep and publicly defended the department’s actions in the case. The city manager reprimanded Ramsdell in the case. On Strickland’s watch, the city of Tacoma’s attorneys made the argument that the city had no legal obligation to issue an Amber Alert in the case.
Concerns around the Tacoma Police Department’s culture and conduct came to a head on January 27, 2016, when Jackie Salyers, a 32-year-old member of the Puyallup tribe, was killed by police officers attempting to serve a warrant on her boyfriend. Salyers’s uncle, James Rideout, told The Intercept that there were many unanswered questions surrounding his niece’s death.
“They had the scene completely blocked off,” said Rideout. “Blocks and blocks blocked off. Perimeter like I’ve never seen before. I had seen a different shooting, and it wasn’t contained like that. When I left, I got pictures sent to me that my niece was removed to the scene. She was taken off the scene and put under a tarp a block away,” said Rideout. “It took several days, if not a month later for the police chief to come and speak to our tribal council about what happened,” said Rideout.
To achieve justice for Salyers’s death, Rideout and the Puyallup tribe led a successful campaign to pass legislation that would end the presumption of justification for officer-involved shootings in Washington state. Despite the fact that the campaign was led from Tacoma, Rideout said that Strickland had little involvement. “We didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with her,” said Rideout. Strickland never reached out to the family in the next two years of her mayoralty. The shooting was ruled as justified by the Tacoma Police Department.
One of the officers involved, Aaron Joseph, had been arrested on domestic violence charges six years before, at the beginning of Strickland’s tenure, though Ramsdell had pledged in 2003 that he would not accept domestic violence by officers under his command.
Photo: Karen Ducey/Getty Images
The ACLU-WA’s 2010-2015 investigation revealed that “the Department rejects nearly all civilian complaints about unnecessary force.” The ACLU-WA additionally found that “the Department sustained zero complaints of police bias or racial profiling, despite regularly receiving complaints about this issue,” and that the “vast majority” of civilian complaints against police were “exonerated, unfounded, or not sustained.” The letter also describes how in 2012, Tacoma police tased and handcuffed an “innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help because she was being beaten” the letter states. “She specifically told dispatch she was deaf, yet police reports describe her as ‘ignoring’ their commands.”
Strickland remained loyal to the police after she left office in January 2018. Soon thereafter, Strickland was tapped to lead the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which in 2019 spent over $700,000 to defeat critics of police violence running for the Seattle City Council, notably left-wing activists Tammy Morales, Kshama Sawant, Lisa Herbold, and Shaun Scott, who all made police reform centerpieces of their campaigns.
Strickland explicitly stated that candidates’ positions on policing played a role in their endorsement processes. “There is what I call the street population, and then there are people who are homeless and they’re not necessarily one and the same,” Strickland said at the time. “There are people that are a part of the street population who do things that are antisocial, and there are people who are homeless. And sometimes I think we just say they are one and the same.” The C is for Crank blog reported at the time that the Chamber’s political action committee “was impressed, Strickland said, by candidates who understood the ‘difference between the two’ groups.”
The Intercept sent Strickland and Ramsdell a detailed list of questions. Strickland declined to answer any specific questions about her record, but said that she “is committed to giving voice to all members of our community and providing our nation’s policing units the accountability they need to serve, protect, and respect all of America’s communities, regardless of race or ethnicity,” and pledged again her support for the Justice in Policing Act. Strickland campaign spokesperson Mark Prentice also pointed The Intercept toward Project PEACE, a communication project between the police and community leaders, which did not appear to lead to any policy or personnel changes at the Tacoma Police Department, and the Mayor’s support for I-940, an initiative led by the Puyallup tribe to reduce police impunity. Rideout said that the mayor had little involvement in the campaign.


theintercept--2020-09-10--FBI's "Hamas" Sting Against Boogaloo Boys Was So Absurd That Even Hamas Spoke Out Against It

29 , in a Minnesota hotel room , Michael Solomon , a pudgy 30-year-old man with a brown scraggly beard , and his pimply faced 22-year-old friend Benjamin Teeter handed over a “ drop-in auto sear ” : a special part used to convert a gun to fully automatic fire .
Solomon and Teeter were accompanied by two men they believed were members of Hamas , a Palestinian political and militant organization that the U.S. government has designated a foreign terrorist organization .
Solomon and Teeter , who had been on the streets of Minneapolis following the killing of George @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members of a group called Boojahideen — part of the so-called Boogaloo movement , a loosely organized collection of far-right , pro-gun extremists who advocate for civil war and the overthrow of the U.S. government .
The Hamas operatives had enlisted the two men to build parts that could modify weapons .
The arrangement was the first in what was supposed to be a growing partnership between Hamas and Boojahideen .
Teeter told the Hamas members that they should test the drop-in auto sear before using it in battle , in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bullets discharge .
One of the Hamas operatives then asked if the gun part could be used to kill American and Israeli soldiers .
“ Yeah , ” Solomon told him .
About a week later , Solomon and Teeter discovered that their new colleagues weren ’ t Hamas members .
One was an FBI informant , the other an undercover agent .
On September 9 , the Justice Department announced an indictment against Solomon and Teeter , charging them with attempting to provide material support to Hamas .
Now Hamas , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is publicly denouncing the prosecution and its supposed connection to the two Boogaloo members .
“ When we read about this , it was really shocking to connect our movement with such extremists , ” said Basem Naim , a Hamas member who is the head of the Council on International Relations in Gaza , in an interview with The Intercept .
This is the first time that a designated terrorist group that the FBI pretended to be has come out publicly to denounce a sting case .
“ First of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and we have limited our struggle for freedom and independence within the boundaries of Palestine , and we have nothing to do outside these geographical territories , ” Naim said .
“ The second thing , we have nothing planned and we are not intending to plan anything against the United States.
” FBI stings such as this are part of a well-worn counterterrorism tactic .
Since the September 11 attacks , the FBI has arrested more than 340 defendants who were caught up in counterterrorism stings in which they believed they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Qaeda , or another foreign terrorist organization .
The Boojahideen case did something rare : Over the years , the FBI usually uses foreign terror plots to coax would-be adherents of these foreign groups , whereas in the Boojahideen case , the FBI linked up domestic extremists with a foreign terror group .
Under the Justice Department ’ s normal modus operandi — using something of a double standard — right-wing domestic terrorists do not face terrorism charges .
Still , the use of stings involving foreign-terror plots is still unsettling to some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rights Watch has critized these stings for often targeting “ those with intellectual and mental disabilities and the indigent.
” The FBI has long defended its practices by saying that stings allow federal law enforcement to find would-be terrorists before real terrorist groups have the opportunity , but , as in the Boojahideen case , the threats often seem to be concocted by the FBI out of whole cloth in order to initiate charges .
Michael German , a former FBI special agent and now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sting operations .
While German didn ’ t want to pre-judge the Boojahideen case without all the facts at hand , he nonetheless expressed concern that the use of these tactics on far-right terrorists had the same shortcomings .
“ I fear that the bureau is throwing a lot of effort into resource-intensive sting operations that target only the most gullible individuals in the movement , ” German said , “ rather than investigating the multiple examples of far-right violence that are happening in plain sight.
” Solomon lived in the suburbs north @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Teeter was from North Carolina .
On May 26 , the day after a white police officer killed a Black man by kneeling on his neck for nearly eight minutes , Teeter posted on Facebook : “ Lock and load boys .
Boog flags are in the air , and the national network is going off.
” He then traveled from North Carolina to Minnesota to meet up with Solomon .
As demonstrations started in Minnesota — the first of what would become a summer of unrest in the United States — Teeter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A witness , who would later be paid by the FBI for information , encountered Solomon walking down the street with a gun .
Solomon told the FBI ’ s witness that he was with Boojahideen , and he was there to protect others from the police , white supremacists , and looters .
Solomon and Teeter told the witness that their group ’ s goal was to overthrow the government and the police .
The Boogaloo movement ’ s aims are difficult to pin down , since its ideology can vary greatly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group .
Some are white supremacists who view the current unrest as a prelude to a race war .
Others , like Solomon and Teeter , do not appear to be racist but are virulently pro-gun and anti-police .
Boogaloo adherents refer to themselves as “ Boogaloo boys ” or “ Boogaloo bois , ” and during the protests around the country this summer , some wore Hawaiian shirts to connect themselves with the loose anti-government ideology .
Their propensity for violence is not in question .
In June , federal and state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role in a plot to use Molotov cocktails to start a riot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas .
In California , an Air Force officer and Boogaloo adherent allegedly ambushed and killed one police officer and severely wounded another .
In early June , the FBI ’ s informant contacted Solomon and Teeter on Facebook .
The informant , according to court records , was a Middle Eastern man with a heavy accent .
He told Solomon and Teeter that he was with Hamas .
Solomon and Teeter explained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to attack protesters in Minnesota , and if the police were called , they ’ d stick around for a gunfight .
“ I ’ m going to take out whoever initiated the violence , and then I ’ m going to hang out in the area , you know , move and set up in a better location that ’ s as close to the area as I can , and then I ’ m going to take out the next thing that shows up , ” Solomon told the informant , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Solomon and Teeter apparently had big plans .
They wanted to raise money to purchase a compound where Boogaloo and Boojahideen members could train .
They saw Hamas as a possible solution , and the pair allegedly suggested to the FBI informant that they could become mercenaries for the Palestinian organization , earning money from the group by blowing up government monuments and courthouses .
On June 28 , the informant introduced the two men to an undercover agent who also pretended to be a Hamas member .
Teeter told the undercover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wanted to remove the government .
Solomon , according to court filings , added : “ Our goal is to tear it down.
” The undercover agent suggested that Solomon and Teeter make suppressors — which muzzle the sound and light from a discharging firearm — for Hamas .
The FBI informant , in turn , gave the two men money for a drill press , which they needed to make the suppressors .
From Solomon ’ s and Teeter ’ s statements , it ’ s clear they lived in a fantasy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ build untraceable AR-15 rifles and that they had a network of “ Boog Boys ” who could deliver guns around the country .
When asked what he ’ d like to do in the future , Solomon told the supposed Hamas members : “ Well , for the future , I ’ d build a gallows … and just start hanging politicians left and right.
” But the FBI also did its part to construct the fantasy world .
After Solomon and Teeter delivered five suppressors on July 30 , the FBI made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members , that appeared to show soldiers with the terrorist organization firing rifles with the suppressors Solomon and Teeter produced .
A month later , Solomon and Teeter were arrested .
One of the many problems with the fantasy that the FBI constructed for Solomon and Teeter is that Hamas says it ’ s not interested in any such plots .
“ Maybe this is for internal domestic reasons — to create such connections and to attract more voters from the right and the Zionist lobbyist to support the current administration , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ But this should not come at the expense of our just struggle against oppression , apartheid , and occupation .
”

On August 29, in a Minnesota hotel room, Michael Solomon, a pudgy 30-year-old man with a brown scraggly beard, and his pimply faced 22-year-old friend Benjamin Teeter handed over a “drop-in auto sear”: a special part used to convert a gun to fully automatic fire.
Solomon and Teeter were accompanied by two men they believed were members of Hamas, a Palestinian political and militant organization that the U.S. government has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Solomon and Teeter, who had been on the streets of Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd by police, claimed to be members of a group called Boojahideen — part of the so-called Boogaloo movement, a loosely organized collection of far-right, pro-gun extremists who advocate for civil war and the overthrow of the U.S. government.
The Hamas operatives had enlisted the two men to build parts that could modify weapons. The arrangement was the first in what was supposed to be a growing partnership between Hamas and Boojahideen.
Teeter told the Hamas members that they should test the drop-in auto sear before using it in battle, in order to get a sense of how fast the bullets discharge.
One of the Hamas operatives then asked if the gun part could be used to kill American and Israeli soldiers. “Yeah,” Solomon told him.
About a week later, Solomon and Teeter discovered that their new colleagues weren’t Hamas members.
One was an FBI informant, the other an undercover agent. On September 9, the Justice Department announced an indictment against Solomon and Teeter, charging them with attempting to provide material support to Hamas.
“When we read about this, it was really shocking to connect our movement with such extremists.”
Now Hamas, the group FBI agents were pretending to represent, is publicly denouncing the prosecution and its supposed connection to the two Boogaloo members.
“When we read about this, it was really shocking to connect our movement with such extremists,” said Basem Naim, a Hamas member who is the head of the Council on International Relations in Gaza, in an interview with The Intercept.
This is the first time that a designated terrorist group that the FBI pretended to be has come out publicly to denounce a sting case.
“First of all, Hamas is a Palestinian national movement, and we have limited our struggle for freedom and independence within the boundaries of Palestine, and we have nothing to do outside these geographical territories,” Naim said. “The second thing, we have nothing planned and we are not intending to plan anything against the United States.”
New Sting, Same Problems
FBI stings such as this are part of a well-worn counterterrorism tactic. Since the September 11 attacks, the FBI has arrested more than 340 defendants who were caught up in counterterrorism stings in which they believed they were supporting the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, or another foreign terrorist organization.
The Boojahideen case did something rare: Over the years, the FBI usually uses foreign terror plots to coax would-be adherents of these foreign groups, whereas in the Boojahideen case, the FBI linked up domestic extremists with a foreign terror group. Under the Justice Department’s normal modus operandi — using something of a double standard — right-wing domestic terrorists do not face terrorism charges.
Still, the use of stings involving foreign-terror plots is still unsettling to some law enforcement and rights experts. Human Rights Watch has critized these stings for often targeting “those with intellectual and mental disabilities and the indigent.” The FBI has long defended its practices by saying that stings allow federal law enforcement to find would-be terrorists before real terrorist groups have the opportunity, but, as in the Boojahideen case, the threats often seem to be concocted by the FBI out of whole cloth in order to initiate charges.
“I fear that the bureau is throwing a lot of effort into resource-intensive sting operations that target only the most gullible individuals in the movement, rather than investigating the multiple examples of far-right violence that are happening in plain sight.”
Michael German, a former FBI special agent and now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice, has been a critic of these sting operations. While German didn’t want to pre-judge the Boojahideen case without all the facts at hand, he nonetheless expressed concern that the use of these tactics on far-right terrorists had the same shortcomings. “I fear that the bureau is throwing a lot of effort into resource-intensive sting operations that target only the most gullible individuals in the movement,” German said, “rather than investigating the multiple examples of far-right violence that are happening in plain sight.”
Long, Strange Trip
Solomon lived in the suburbs north of Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Teeter was from North Carolina. On May 26, the day after a white police officer killed a Black man by kneeling on his neck for nearly eight minutes, Teeter posted on Facebook: “Lock and load boys. Boog flags are in the air, and the national network is going off.” He then traveled from North Carolina to Minnesota to meet up with Solomon.
As demonstrations started in Minnesota — the first of what would become a summer of unrest in the United States — Teeter and Solomon were patrolling the streets. A witness, who would later be paid by the FBI for information, encountered Solomon walking down the street with a gun. Solomon told the FBI’s witness that he was with Boojahideen, and he was there to protect others from the police, white supremacists, and looters. Solomon and Teeter told the witness that their group’s goal was to overthrow the government and the police.
The Boogaloo movement’s aims are difficult to pin down, since its ideology can vary greatly from adherent to adherent and group to group. Some are white supremacists who view the current unrest as a prelude to a race war. Others, like Solomon and Teeter, do not appear to be racist but are virulently pro-gun and anti-police. Boogaloo adherents refer to themselves as “Boogaloo boys” or “Boogaloo bois,” and during the protests around the country this summer, some wore Hawaiian shirts to connect themselves with the loose anti-government ideology.
Their propensity for violence is not in question. In June, federal and state prosecutors charged three men for their alleged role in a plot to use Molotov cocktails to start a riot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas. In California, an Air Force officer and Boogaloo adherent allegedly ambushed and killed one police officer and severely wounded another.
Would-Be Mercenaries
In early June, the FBI’s informant contacted Solomon and Teeter on Facebook. The informant, according to court records, was a Middle Eastern man with a heavy accent. He told Solomon and Teeter that he was with Hamas.
Solomon and Teeter explained to the informant that they were willing to attack protesters in Minnesota, and if the police were called, they’d stick around for a gunfight.
“I’m going to take out whoever initiated the violence, and then I’m going to hang out in the area, you know, move and set up in a better location that’s as close to the area as I can, and then I’m going to take out the next thing that shows up,” Solomon told the informant, according to the government’s account.
Solomon and Teeter apparently had big plans. They wanted to raise money to purchase a compound where Boogaloo and Boojahideen members could train. They saw Hamas as a possible solution, and the pair allegedly suggested to the FBI informant that they could become mercenaries for the Palestinian organization, earning money from the group by blowing up government monuments and courthouses.
On June 28, the informant introduced the two men to an undercover agent who also pretended to be a Hamas member. Teeter told the undercover agent that he was an anarchist who wanted to remove the government. Solomon, according to court filings, added: “Our goal is to tear it down.”
The undercover agent suggested that Solomon and Teeter make suppressors — which muzzle the sound and light from a discharging firearm — for Hamas. The FBI informant, in turn, gave the two men money for a drill press, which they needed to make the suppressors.
From Solomon’s and Teeter’s statements, it’s clear they lived in a fantasy world. Teeter claimed that they could build untraceable AR-15 rifles and that they had a network of “Boog Boys” who could deliver guns around the country.
When asked what he’d like to do in the future, Solomon told the supposed Hamas members: “Well, for the future, I’d build a gallows … and just start hanging politicians left and right.”
But the FBI also did its part to construct the fantasy world. After Solomon and Teeter delivered five suppressors on July 30, the FBI made a video, using agents as Hamas members, that appeared to show soldiers with the terrorist organization firing rifles with the suppressors Solomon and Teeter produced. A month later, Solomon and Teeter were arrested.
One of the many problems with the fantasy that the FBI constructed for Solomon and Teeter is that Hamas says it’s not interested in any such plots.
“Maybe this is for internal domestic reasons — to create such connections and to attract more voters from the right and the Zionist lobbyist to support the current administration,” Naim, the Hamas member, said. “But this should not come at the expense of our just struggle against oppression, apartheid, and occupation.”


theintercept--2020-09-11--The Political Revolution Comes to the Statehouse

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Progressive candidates won big in this week’s Rhode Island primaries, thanks in large part to an array of left-wing organizing groups that have sprung up there in the last few years to promote candidates for state and local office. One of the week’s winners was Cynthia Mendes, who defeated the state Senate finance chair. Ryan Grim talks to Mendes about her victory. Then, Daniel Denvir of Reclaim Rhode Island explains the organizing strategies that made it happen.
Newscaster: A very strong showing for the progressive wing of Rhode Island’s Democratic Party.
Newscaster: Ten incumbent lawmakers have been defeated in their Democratic primaries.
Speaker: We’ve sent a message that’s really clear: if you’re not working for the people, you shouldn’t be in the statehouse.
[Musical interlude.]
Ryan Grim: Welcome to Deconstructed. I’m Ryan Grim, D.C. bureau chief for The Intercept. For years, the story in local politics across the United States has been the same. Since maybe the 1820s, big city machines have effectively been in control and they’ve used that clout to heavily distort politics at a national level. Why do we have the Democratic Party that we do today? Well, it’s largely thanks to those untouchable local machines. But those machines have gotten rusty over the years.
Cynthia Mendes: We were done with inside deals and sweetheart deals and the things that our statehouse had been known for.
RG: That’s one of my guests today. Cynthia Mendes, who just ousted William Conley, Jr, the finance committee chair in the Rhode Island State Senate. She’s one of a wave of progressive candidates who stunned the party establishment this week in the state’s primaries.
Then, I’ll talk to Daniel Denvir of Reclaim Rhode Island, a fellow podcaster who put his boots on the ground and was part of this ocean state political earthquake. This week on the show: What happens when the political revolution comes for the statehouse?
[Musical interlude.]
RG: In the summer of 2016, two years before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ousted Joe Crowley in New York and kicked off a national insurgency in the Democratic Party, progressives in Rhode Island were organizing one of their own. House Majority Leader John DeSimone, was a right-wing Democrat typical of the Rhode Island party establishment. A Jamaican-born teacher from Providence decided to challenge him. She beat him by just 21 votes. Three other progressives ousted incumbents that year, too.
Rhode Island’s Democratic Party leadership is famous for its corruption, but also for its grit. DeSimone mounted a write-in campaign in the general election, but in the end, he fell short there, too. The party establishment has spent the last four years trying to win those seats back, mounting challenges to the 2016 upstarts. But this cycle, they found out they had bigger problems fending off insurgents everywhere.
On Thursday evening, the mail-in votes were finally counted and the results were conclusive. Establishment Democratic candidates were routed across the State. In the House, at least 10 progressive candidates won primaries, and in the Senate, another nine knocked wins against establishment Democrats, with fewer than 30 races in play.
The most unusual intervention in the primary came from a new organization called the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, founded by veteran Rhode Island lefties and built to recruit and provide infrastructure to an entire slate of candidates all the way down to the town council level. That cooperative relied heavily on help from chapters of the local Sunrise Movement. Two Sunrise hubs in Providence and South County played a critical role, with more than 10 full-time organizers dedicated to the operation, which generated thousands of volunteer voter contacts. Progressives owed much of their success to the organizing groups that had sprung up over the last few years, much of it flowing from the 2016 campaign of Bernie Sanders, including the new group, Reclaim Rhode Island, along with the Working Families Party, which is now four years into its effort to flip Rhode Island from a deep blue, deeply corrupt right-wing state to a blue and progressive one.
[Musical interlude.]
RG: The most immediate political problem confronting Rhode Island lawmakers is their state’s budget shortfall. The fight over how to deal with it has so far played out along familiar lines: The progressive slate argued for raising taxes on millionaires, while the Democratic governor and much of the party leadership has pushed instead for social spending cuts. To pass a budget in Rhode Island, you need a two-thirds vote in both chambers, which means that just a handful of lawmakers can block any given proposal.
If Democrats can’t model a decent path forward in dark blue Rhode Island, it’s hard to imagine them doing it in Washington. So what’s the plan? I’m joined now by Cynthia Mendes, a single, working mom from East Providence, who just upset the finance chair in the State Senate.
Cynthia, welcome to the show.
CM: Thank you for having me, Ryan. Excited to be here.
RG: So, Cynthia, tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you become politicized? What was the first moment in your life that you started to absorb the idea that there were politics at play in your life?
CM: So just existing in the world, right, I was aware there were politics at play. I never once ever, ever imagined that I would be involved in politics. That’s completely different.
You know, my dad was a minister. My dad gave up law school to become a minister and served his entire life. And so I grew up in a very service mindset. That was a lifestyle that I had and, as a single mom, I have with my daughter.
I had to think about the world that my teenage daughter was gonna grow up in, with the climate crisis we are essentially handing that generation. I had to think about my history and healthcare. I’ve worked in healthcare for 15 years; I remember giving treatment plans to mothers that would deny that because they had to choose between a medical deductible and their mortgage, and putting a roof over their family’s head. And that was a decision that working families in District 18 had to make on a daily basis.
RG: So what was the role of the Rhode Island Political Co-op, and your decision to run, and launching your campaign?
CM: Yeah, so the Rhode Island political establishment has made it really clear that the statehouse is this impenetrable force; you don’t run for office, you don’t get in office, unless you’ve been tapped on the shoulder by the political establishment. It’s virtually impossible. You can be an outlier, hack the system — maybe — and try to get in, but then you’re really ineffective because the corrupt leadership has a stronghold really on that statehouse.
And so, I was connected with Jeanine Calkin and Jennifer Rourke, who were the co-chairs of the Rhode Island political cooperative. And they’re women who have experienced that firsthand. Janine had made it into office and then lost her second term due to the establishment, and Jen had not.
And so they had this idea of like, let’s work together to help create a cooperative where people are able to get into office, and share resources, and share a platform. And then that was kind of the beginning. I was one of the first candidates who kind of jumped to join the club.
RG: Now, you’re a Bernie Sanders delegate. What role did Bernie Sanders play in the development of your politics?
CM: He was definitely an inspiration to me back in 2016, and even now, because of my experience of knowing what it looks like when we don’t have leadership that is going to fight for the basic universal health care, $15 minimum wage, reject corporate PAC money.
RG: Right.
So let me ask you a little bit about some of the state level politics here. As, of course, you know, not every progressive group in Rhode Island got behind your campaign. And my understanding is that one of the reasons for that is that while nobody would describe William Conley, Jr., as some type of progressive champion, he was the lead sponsor of the millionaire’s tax, as the finance chair, the lead house sponsor was somebody that the Working Families Party had gotten elected to the House in 2018.
And so, you know, while he wasn’t perfect, the argument went, he was kind of the best progressive ally that progressives had in the Senate leadership. And so by taking him out, you’re sending a signal that, well, there’s no point in working with the left because they’re just going to come after you anyway, no matter what you do.
So, you know, what was your response at the time to that criticism? And how do you feel about it now in the wake of the election results?
CM: There are a few policies that came up and they came up late. So his proposing of the taxing of the top 1 percent came on after I announced my candidacy. And so it was convenient, the timing. So not a lot of people would actually say that he’s championed some of those things.
There’s also — Rhode Island has a history of corruption. Sweetheart deals, you hear weekly about those. And so there’s a deep level of distrust for the political establishment and they’ve earned that.
RG: And so, obviously, it’s a great thing when good people win elections. But none of it matters, of course, unless it translates into real you know, material gains for people on the ground. So what do you think is going to be the most immediate effect of this kind of progressive landslide that we saw across the state, in Rhode Island, and then more specifically, the big fight in Rhode Island, as obviously you know, is about the budget now. Are there going to be taxes on the rich? Is there going to be more social spending and help for towns and cities in Rhode Island? Are you going to join the people who are committed to voting against the budget if it’s not strong enough? And where do you think this is headed?
CM: Yeah, absolutely. So I think that the beautiful thing about running with a slate of candidates now, and a lot of us are showing that we’re going to be in the statehouse right now, we all have eyes on that budget in new and unique ways. And another way is that we are not bought by the political establishment. We are not bought by corporate PACs. We’re able to look at that budget with the people that we’ve talked to for months in mind. And so yeah, the budget will go under some deep scrutiny, and there will be a major shift going forward.
RG: Well, Cynthia Mendes, thank you so much for joining us here on Deconstructed.
CM: Thank you so much, Ryan, for having me. And I just wanted to thank my Rhode Island Political Cooperative family, as well, for running an amazing slate of candidates that have really challenged the political establishment here, and particularly for the Sunrise Movement, which was really instrumental in our ground game, the way that we were able to knock doors and to be able to have those conversations. It really wouldn’t have been possible without the partnership between the Rhode Island Political Cooperative and Sunrise Movement.
RG: Well, congratulations, Cynthia, and best of luck in the State Senate.
CM: Thank you, Ryan.
[Musical interlude.]
RG: Another group that threw its organizing muscle into the Rhode Island primaries this week was Reclaim Rhode Island. The group was founded just a few months ago by former volunteers and organizers from the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign. Despite their efforts, Bernie himself declined to endorse any local candidates there, but they pulled it off anyway.
Daniel Denvir is the host of the podcast The Dig, author of the book “All American Nativism.” He’s also a writer for Jacobin Magazine. But more importantly, he’s the co-founder of Reclaim Rhode Island. Daniel, welcome to Deconstructed.
Daniel Denvir: Thanks so much for having me.
RG: Thank you for being here. And congratulations on the win by your slate. We just learned that you went 4 for 4 this election cycle. Tell us a little bit about Reclaim Rhode Island. Because you wrote a piece that was much-discussed in Jacobin several months ago, saying that Bernie Sanders ought to convert his presidential campaign into a movement that would elect grassroots progressives around the country. He hasn’t done that. But you guys in Rhode Island did. How did all that come together?
DD: Well, we did such hard work here in Rhode Island sending bus after bus to New Hampshire to canvass there, car caravans every weekend, then the same in southeast Massachusetts. We had two huge rallies that we organized on our own with very little help from the national campaign. And we never got the shot of really having a Bernie campaign here in Rhode Island because the whole world turned upside down: coronavirus, Joe Biden becomes the nominee, things looked pretty bad.
But we had built this incredible organizing infrastructure, incredible leadership, with an incredible volunteer base. And we didn’t want it to go to waste. And what I was hoping that the Bernie campaign would do nationally, what Bernie would do nationally is try to help facilitate the infrastructure that all of us had put so much sweat and so much time into building, to not let it go to waste and to build successor organizations. And that didn’t happen nationally.
But we did that here in Rhode Island, building off the model of Reclaim Philadelphia, which was a successor organization to the 2016 Bernie campaign. We formally founded Reclaim Rhode Island in May and we are building organizing committees in statehouse districts across the state — we just started that about a month ago and we already have like a dozen set up. We are fighting against an austerity budget. And we dipped our toe into the electoral fight for this week’s democratic state legislative primary elections, and we went 4 for 4.
We backed DSA’s candidate, David Morales, for the State House; we won that. We backed, with WFP Rhode Island, Leonela Felix; won that. We backed Meghan Kallman for State Senate; won that. We have helped defend Sam Bell, a progressive in the State Senate, who was targeted by the establishment, and we won that. And this was just an enormous, enormous week for the Rhode Island left: not just us, but the Rhode Island Political Cooperative had a huge number of enormous wins, Providence DSA again, Sunrise —this is just like a political earthquake in the state.
RG: So what kind of people did you organize and get out — or did you get out on the street and go knocking on doors?
DD: Yes. We were canvassing. Yeah.
RG: So what was that like, in the COVID era?
DD: Yeah, I mean, it’s with masks is what it’s like. And then kind of weirdly the same.
RG: Right. Joe Biden has said he’s not going to do it. I mean, do you think —?
DD: I think that’s absurd.
RG: What do you hear from people at the doors, when you’re knocking in the middle of a pandemic?
DD: Yeah. I mean, first of all, people don’t ask you, like, “Why are you knocking on my door during a pandemic?” You knock, you take a good six, eight steps back from the door, and you have a conversation with your mask on. And what you’re hearing is kind of what you’re hearing before the pandemic but intensified, which is that people are alienated from politics.
The biggest challenge is always giving people reason to vote and convincing them that voting matters. And in Rhode Island, I think what that looked like was targeting the machine. Because, in this state, we’re not only up against like neoliberal establishment Democrats, like people in other states are up against. We’re up against, straight-up conservative Democrats — like anti-abortion conservatives.
And so running an anti-machine message and tying that in with the progressive message around things like the budget. Because, like, do we need an austerity budget right now, that cuts services to the same working class people who’ve already suffered so much during this pandemic? Or do we need, in fact, precisely the opposite? And those kinds of conversations resonate.
RG: What kind of person did you bring out into your volunteer operation? Were these people who flowed out of the Sanders campaign?
DD: Our initial members, our earliest members were Sanders volunteers by and large. But, pretty quickly, we’ve expanded to bring in all sorts of people who are committed to social justice work in the state, who are committed to defunding the police. We’ve even brought Warren supporters on board. We are building a really powerful left united front. And I’ve never found it so easy to recruit people to an organization as right now. People really want to do something and to plug it.
One challenge is plugging people into canvassing having canvassed before. Having all these people who had experienced canvassing for Bernie helped, but we had a lot of people who hadn’t canvassed for Bernie. So we did a bunch of events, including one with Reclaim Philadelphia and another with New York City DSA on how to organize a canvassing operation, why knocking on doors matters, how, in these races with low-win numbers — for those who aren’t electoral nuts, a win number is the number of votes you need to win — we have such low win numbers in this state. So we really tried to convey to people concretely that every single conversation you have really gets us, concretely, one step closer to winning these elections.
And we did win them.
RG: Do you notice a change in people when they move from just Twitter activism to actually hitting doors, and phone banking? And what does that look like?
DD: Oh, I think people find it very refreshing because the discourse on the internet is obviously a total dumpster fire, and the way people interact with each other on the internet is precisely the opposite of how you need to interact with voters at the door [laughs]. Instead of yelling at people or trying to own them — I’m not saying I’ve never done that myself on Twitter — but instead of doing that, which is kind of about making yourself look good and racking up the likes, what you’re trying to do is get someone who likely has rather different politics than you to come over to your way of seeing things, or at least seeing their way of seeing things as being something that can be realized through voting for your candidate. And so it’s entirely about persuasion.
RG: So on this program, we spoke earlier to Cynthia Mendes, who ousted the finance committee chair. Reclaim didn’t actually endorse her and the Working Families Party didn’t endorse her. What were the politics behind that? And what do you think will be the effect of knocking the finance chair out?
DD: I think Mendes’ win is enormous and there was no particular reason that we did not endorse Mendes except that we’re a brand-new group. And so we started with a list of maybe like 16 candidates that we were considering endorsing, and narrowed it down to four. And the idea from the get-go —
RG: Is that a lot about capacity?
DD: Entirely about capacity. We did not want to issue paper endorsements; we wanted to work hard on four races, and show those candidates and our members that we have the capacity to win races. And now we’re planning on building more capacity for 2022, including running our own candidates, but including, again, supporting candidates supported by DSA, Working Families Party. We look forward to working really closely with the Rhode Island Political Co-op, who I should add, was closely partnered with the Sunrise Movement in all of these victories across the state.
RG: Rhode Island might be tiny, but it’s actually still a state, I have heard.
DD: [Laughs.]
RG: Which means that it gets to send two people to the United States Senate. Do you think that they’re watching these results and wondering what that means for future Senate races?
DD: I certainly hope that Reed and Whitehouse are watching. We have win numbers for U.S. Senate seats in the state that are comparable to U.S. House seat win numbers. These are races that organized people can win. And Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse should be playing close attention to the just crystal-clear message that Rhode Island voters have sent this week: unambiguous progressive message.
RG: Last question. So what does this mean on the ground for the fight over austerity in Rhode Island? Do you expect that you’ll get a different budget? That working people’s lives will be different as a result of these others? And what needs to happen between now and the time that the budget is implemented for that to happen?
DD: I certainly think so. Because the budget, they’ve kept kicking the can down the road. We’re months and months into the fiscal year without a budget passed. State leaders are waiting on U.S. Senate Republicans in Washington to pass more funding to states, and I’m not incredibly optimistic that that will happen. And so there are things we can do right here in Rhode Island.
After a decade of huge tax cuts for the rich in this state, it’s time to make the 1 percent pay their fair share and not gut funding to cities and towns and schools. And Governor Raimondo, our neoliberal Democratic governor has already started taking money from the funding targeted to the poorest cities and towns in the state, based on her budget proposal for this year, which is not the current budget. So we’re already seeing Governor Raimondo, perhaps illegally, taking action to impose austerity before the budget has even been passed.
So we think that this election sends a clear message to those who are currently legislators in the Rhode Island State House, responsible for this year’s delayed budget, that people do not want austerity. They want the opposite. And we are currently organizing legislators to sign a no-austerity pledge, and we’ll have a press conference soon with currently sitting legislators to signal their opposition to an austerity budget.
But not only should Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse consider themselves on notice, but every single state legislator in Providence should consider themselves on notice. Because we won — the left, progressives won — in all sorts of districts this week. There are very few legislators who are safe from a progressive challenger.
RG: It feels like a signal to legislators all across the country, too. And we will continue to watch this. Daniel Denvir, congratulations on your wins. It looks like at least a dozen of the insurgents beat establishment candidates in this primary. Daniel is like, he’s the host of the podcast “The Dig,” author of the book “All-American Nativism,” writer for Jacobin. Daniel, thanks so much for joining us on Deconstructed.
DD: Thank you so much. And just a huge shoutout to Providence DSA, Rhode Island Working Families Party, Rhode Island Political Cooperative, and Sunrise. We couldn’t have done it without them.
[Musical interlude.]
RG: That’s our show! Deconstructed is a production of First Look Media and The Intercept. Our producer is Zach Young. Our theme music was composed by Bart Warshaw. Betsy Reed is The Intercept’s editor in chief.
And I’m Ryan Grim, DC bureau chief for The Intercept. I’m also the author of the recent book, “We’ve Got People: From Jesse Jackson to AOC, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement.” The Rhode Island Democratic establishment should get a copy before it’s too late.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. Go to theintercept.com/deconstructed to subscribe from your podcast platform of choice: iPhone, Android, whatever. If you’re subscribed already, please do leave us a rating or review — it helps people find the show. And if you want to give us feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com. Thanks so much!
And we will see you next week.


theintercept--2020-09-11--3,000 Dead on 9/11 Meant Everything. 200,000 Dead of Covid Means Nothing. Here's Why.

have ridiculed President Donald Trump for telling Bob Woodward that he “ wanted to always play [ Covid-19 ] down … because I don ’ t want to create a panic.
” That ’ s hilarious , because Trump obviously loves creating panics — about Mexican immigrants , Antifa , single-family zoning , and , scariest of all , low-flow toilets .
But Trump was , as he often does , telling us by accident something profound about American politics .
Nineteen years ago today , a group of men from Saudi Arabia , Egypt , Lebanon and the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They successfully flew three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon .
All in all , they murdered 2,977 people in one day .
By March 19 , the day Trump explained his reasoning to Woodward , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already predicted that the novel coronavirus would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and possibly as many as 1.7 million .
In the first situation , George W. Bush , the president of the United States , actively fomented panic .
Americans could not sleep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afghanistan .
The FBI should be able to obtain the bank records or internet activity of citizens anytime it wanted without a warrant .
Saddam Hussein was hiding anthrax in his mustache .
In the second situation , one that was objectively much more frightening , the president of the United States openly acknowledged that he played the danger down .
This goes not just for the danger of Covid-19 itself — his administration has also played down the continuing economic danger to tens of millions of Americans .
What accounts for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the answer is as obvious as it is bizarre : Reality often has nothing to do with gigantic government actions .
Instead , politics is mostly about illusions that leaders strive to create inside our heads .
In the case of 9/11 , the Bush administration did not attempt to respond rationally to the actual events .
Instead , they used it as a justification to do what they had always wanted to do but couldn ’ t get away with .
An influential think tank , the Project for a New American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that “ the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security , ” a goal that “ transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
” Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumseld told an aide just hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon that he wanted to “ go massive — sweep it all up , things related and not , ” including Iraq if possible .
Both Bush and his national security advisor , Condoleezza Rice , soon explained that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By contrast , Covid-19 really did demand a large-scale government response , but there was little that Trump wanted to do .
So Trump has delivered hours of a TV show in which he starred , but not enough PPE for doctors and nurses , or contact tracing , or desperately needed funding for states and cities and people thrown out of work .
Bush wanted a pretext to do a lot of things that were unnecessary , such as invading Iraq , while Trump wanted an excuse to do nothing when in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done .
at history shows that this is how the world works .
Governments decide what they want to do , and then search for some public rationale .
On December 16 , 1989 , Panamanian troops shot a U.S. soldier and threatened to rape the wife of a Navy officer .
But in the world of political illusion , President George H.W .
Bush explained this meant that we had to invade Panama , which we did , killing hundreds or thousands of people ( the precise toll is disputed ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the time that “ the December 16 incidents were the excuse and not the reason for the invasion.
” There was no actual connection between the attack on Panama and what had happened to the American troops , which would have been totally ignored if Bush hadn ’ t wanted a war to oust the country ’ s military leader , Manuel Noriega , who had once been a CIA asset but had turned into an antagonist to U.S. interests .
On August 2 , 1964 the U.S.S .
Maddox exchanged fire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Tonkin .
No U.S. sailors were killed ; the Maddox suffered a single bullet hole .
Then on August 4 , nothing at all happened , although the U.S. dreamed up an imaginary second attack on the Maddox .
In the world of political illusion , the U.S. used these events as justification to escalate a war that ended up killing millions of people in Indochina .
This isn ’ t just an American thing .
In April 1980 , members of Islamic Dawa , an Iraqi Shia organization opposed to Saddam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a grenade at Tariq Aziz , the deputy prime minster of Iraq .
According to Saddam Hussein , this meant that Iraq had to go to war with Iran , which it did , leading to the deaths of a million people on both sides .
In June 1982 , Palestinian terrorists attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to the UK in London .
According to Israel , this meant it had to invade Lebanon , leading to the deaths of thousands and the Sabra and Shatila massacre .
In September 1938 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shot a German diplomat in Paris .
According to the Nazi Party ’ s SA paramilitaries , this required them to carry out Kristallnacht .
Today more than any other , we should understand how much Donald Trump ’ s beserk honesty tells us about life on earth .
Our lives have value insofar as the powerful can use them to create whatever “ panic ” they desire .
If not , we Americans will die quietly in a void , as a thousand of us are currently doing every day from Covid-19 @

Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
Lots of people have ridiculed President Donald Trump for telling journalist Bob Woodward that he “wanted to always play [Covid-19] down … because I don’t want to create a panic.” That’s hilarious, because Trump obviously loves creating panics — about Mexican immigrants, antifa, single-family zoning, and, scariest of all, low-flow toilets.
But Trump was, as he often does, telling us by accident something profound about American politics.
Nineteen years ago today, a group of men from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates hijacked four passenger jets. They successfully flew three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. All in all, they murdered 2,977 people in one day.
By March 19, the day Trump explained his reasoning to Woodward, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already predicted that the coronavirus would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and possibly as many as 1.7 million.
In the first situation, George W. Bush, then the president of the United States, actively fomented panic. Americans could not sleep safely in their beds unless we invaded Afghanistan. The FBI should be able to obtain the bank records or internet activity of citizens anytime it wanted without a warrant. Saddam Hussein was hiding anthrax in his mustache.
In the second situation, one that was objectively much more frightening, the president of the United States openly acknowledged that he played the danger down. This goes not just for the danger of Covid-19 itself: His administration has also played down the continuing economic danger to tens of millions of Americans.
What accounts for the glaring disparity in reactions?
History shows the answer is as obvious as it is bizarre: Reality often has nothing to do with gigantic government actions. Instead, politics is mostly about illusions that leaders strive to create inside our heads.
Bush wanted a pretext to do a lot of things that were unnecessary, while Trump wanted an excuse to do nothing when, in fact, a lot really needed to be done.
In the case of 9/11, the Bush administration did not attempt to respond rationally to the actual events. Instead, they used it as a justification to do what they had always wanted to do but couldn’t get away with. An influential think tank, the Project for a New American Century, had explained the year before that “the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security,” a goal that “transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told an aide just hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon that he wanted to “go massive — sweep it all up, things related and not,” including Iraq if possible. Both Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, soon explained that they saw 9/11 as an “opportunity.”
By contrast, Covid-19 really did demand a large-scale government response, but there was little that Trump wanted to do. So Trump has delivered hours of a TV show in which he starred, but not enough PPE for doctors and nurses, or contact tracing, or desperately needed funding for states and cities, and people thrown out of work. Bush wanted a pretext to do a lot of things that were unnecessary, such as invading Iraq, while Trump wanted an excuse to do nothing when, in fact, a lot really needed to be done.
Any look at history shows that this is how the world works. Governments decide what they want to do, and then search for some public rationale.
On December 16, 1989, Panamanian troops shot a U.S. soldier and threatened to rape the wife of a Navy officer. But in the world of political illusion, President George H.W. Bush explained that this meant that we had to invade Panama, which we did, killing hundreds or thousands of people (the precise toll is disputed). An anonymous member of Congress accurately said at the time that “the December 16 incidents were the excuse, and not the reason, for the invasion.” There was no actual connection between the attack on Panama and what had happened to the American troops, which would have been totally ignored if Bush hadn’t wanted a war to oust the country’s military leader, Manuel Noriega, who had once been a CIA asset but had turned into an antagonist to U.S. interests.
On August 2, 1964 the U.S.S. Maddox exchanged fire with North Vietnamese ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. No U.S. sailors were killed; the Maddox suffered a single bullet hole. Then on August 4, nothing at all happened, although the U.S. dreamed up an imaginary second attack on the Maddox. In the world of political illusion, the U.S. used these events as justification to escalate a war that ended up killing millions of people in Indochina.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
This isn’t just an American thing.
In April 1980, members of Islamic Dawa, an Iraqi Shia organization opposed to Saddam and backed by Iran, threw a grenade at Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minster of Iraq. According to Saddam, this meant that Iraq had to go to war with Iran, which it did, leading to the deaths of a million people on both sides.
In June 1982, Palestinian terrorists attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to the U.K. in London. According to Israel, this meant that it had to invade Lebanon, leading to the deaths of thousands and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
In September 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, who was Jewish, shot a German diplomat in Paris. According to the Nazi Party’s SA paramilitaries, this required them to carry out Kristallnacht.
Today more than any other, we should understand how much Trump’s berserk honesty tells us about life on earth. Our lives have value insofar as the powerful can use them to create whatever “panic” they desire. If not, we Americans will die quietly in a void, as a thousand of us are currently doing every day from Covid-19.


theintercept--2020-09-11--Oregon Police Beg Public to Stop Calling In False Reports Blaming Antifa for Wildfires

in parts of Oregon ravaged by wildfires — propelled by high winds across parched land during hot , dry weather in a changing climate — are pleading with the public to stop calling 911 to pass on unfounded rumors that antifascist political activists have intentionally set the blazes .
The false claims have been spread on social networks by supporters of President Donald Trump , who has spent months pretending that antifascists in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to confronting white supremacists are members of an imaginary army of domestic terrorists called Antifa .
Primed by that fear-mongering , the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ internet hoaxes falsely claiming that antifascist arsonists have been caught in the act .
“ Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires , ” the Douglas County Sheriff ’ s Office in Roseburg , Oregon wrote on Facebook on Thursday .
“ THIS IS NOT TRUE !
Unfortunately , people are spreading this rumor and it is causing problems.
” One prominent Trump supporter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Douglas County and has refused to retract it is Paul Romero , who finished second in the Oregon Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in May , with more than 100,000 votes .
The Jackson County Sheriff ’ s Office in southwestern Oregon was also forced to respond to the spread of rumors on Thursday .
“ One increasingly problematic issue related to the disastrous fires in Jackson County is the spreading of false information , ” the sheriff ’ s office wrote on Facebook .
“ We are inundated with questions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One example is a story circulating that varies about what group is involved as to setting fires and arrests being made .
THIS IS NOT TRUE !
” While the authorities in Jackson County have opened an arson investigation into the Almeda Fire , which has caused at least two deaths and destroyed hundreds of homes , Ashland Police Chief Tighe O ’ Meara told The Oregonian , a Portland newspaper , that there was no evidence of any link to antifascist activists .
“ One thing I can say is that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 per cent false information , ” the police chief wrote in an email .
“ We have some leads , and none of it points in that direction.
” Rich Tyler , a spokesman for the Oregon fire marshal , told Reuters that it was not yet clear that any of the fires in the state had been deliberately set .
“ Every fire is investigated for the possibility of arson so that we can either determine it is or rule it out , ” he said .
Police officers in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take time away from responding to the crisis to debunk a hoax Facebook post , mocked up to look like it had come from their department , which claimed that they had arrested five arsonists “ based on anonymous tips.
” “ This is a made up graphic and story , ” the department wrote on its real Facebook page next to an image of the fake one .
“ We did not arrest this person for arson , nor anyone affiliated with Antifa or ‘ Proud Boys ’ as we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , no confirmed gatherings of Antifa which has also been reported.
” On Wednesday , police officers in Molalla , a city in Clackamas County which was evacuated on Thursday , asked residents who remained in town to report possible suspicious activity by thieves amid what the department called a spate of “ rumors ” about looters spreading on Facebook .
The department ’ s Facebook appeal was then wrongly cited as evidence of “ Antifa arsonists ” by Katie Daviscourt , a member of the Trump-supporting Turning Point USA .
“ Multiple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fires along the West Coast are caused by dozens of arsonists , ” Daviscourt tweeted above an image of the Molalla Facebook post .
“ These fires are allegedly linked to Antifa and the Riots.
” After nearly 3,000 people shared Daviscourt ’ s fever dream , the Molalla police department added a clarification to its post , reading : “ This is about possible looters , not antifa or setting of fires .
There has been NO antifa in town as of this posting at 02:00 am .
Please , folks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” As the rumors swirled online , the Kremlin ’ s Potemkin news channel , Russia Today , added to the confusion by illustrating a report on a request from the police in Portland for protesters not to light bonfires with an image of an entirely unrelated wildfire elsewhere in the state .
The total lack of evidence for the false claims about left-wing arsonists has not stopped the internet rumors from having an impact in the offline world .
As Christopher Miller and Jane Lytvynenko reported for Buzzfeed News , the paranoia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identify Gabriel Trumbly , a Portland video journalist and his partner , Jennifer Paulsen , as arsonists while they were filming some of the fires there on Wednesday .
MG Belka , a journalist in Eugene , Oregon , reported on Wednesday that a member of a far-right group providing aid to evacuated families showed him “ screenshots from her Facebook account that claim members of ‘ Antifa ’ are being caught starting fires around the county.
” The woman assured Belka that two of the arsonists from a group called “ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There have been no such arrests .
Three freelance journalists based in Portland — Justin Yau , Sergio Olmos and Alissa Azar – reported on Twitter on Thursday that they were threatened while reporting on the fires at one location in Molalla by armed men on the lookout for antifascist arsonists .

Four police departments in parts of Oregon ravaged by wildfires — propelled by high winds across parched land during hot, dry weather in a changing climate — are pleading with the public to stop calling 911 to pass on unfounded rumors that antifascist political activists have intentionally set the blazes.
The false claims have been spread on social networks by supporters of President Donald Trump, who has spent months pretending that antifascists in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to confronting white supremacists are members of an imaginary army of domestic terrorists called Antifa.
Primed by that fear-mongering, the president’s supporters have fallen hard for internet rumors and hoaxes falsely claiming that antifascist arsonists have been caught in the act.
https://twitter.com/BonnieAnkle/status/1303804932772880384
“Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Roseburg, Oregon wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “THIS IS NOT TRUE! Unfortunately, people are spreading this rumor and it is causing problems.”
One prominent Trump supporter who spread the false information about arrests in Douglas County, and has refused to retract it, is Paul Romero, who finished second in the Oregon Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in May, with more than 100,000 votes.
It seems those individuals who have been setting fires in Oregon…well, six of them are in custody. All are ANTIFA. So does this put all the fake environmentalists, who allowed our forests to become tinder boxes, in direct opposition to the Fascist Marxists of ANTIFA? — Scooby-Dude for America (@PJR4Oregon) September 9, 2020
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in southwestern Oregon was also forced to respond to the spread of rumors on Thursday. “One increasingly problematic issue related to the disastrous fires in Jackson County is the spreading of false information,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook. “We are inundated with questions about things that are FAKE stories. One example is a story circulating that varies about what group is involved as to setting fires and arrests being made. THIS IS NOT TRUE!”
While the authorities in Jackson County have opened an arson investigation into the Almeda Fire, which has caused at least two deaths and destroyed hundreds of homes, Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara told The Oregonian, a Portland newspaper, that there was no evidence of any link to antifascist activists.
“One thing I can say is that the rumor it was set by Antifa is 100 per cent false information,” the police chief wrote in an email. “We have some leads, and none of it points in that direction.”
Rich Tyler, a spokesman for the Oregon fire marshal, told Reuters that it was not yet clear that any of the fires in the state had been deliberately set. “Every fire is investigated for the possibility of arson so that we can either determine it is or rule it out,” he said.
Police officers in the badly hit city of Medford also had to take time away from responding to the crisis to debunk a hoax Facebook post, mocked up to look like it had come from their department, which claimed that they had arrested five arsonists “based on anonymous tips.”
“This is a made up graphic and story,” the department wrote on its real Facebook page next to an image of the fake one. “We did not arrest this person for arson, nor anyone affiliated with Antifa or ‘Proud Boys’ as we’ve heard throughout the day. Also, no confirmed gatherings of Antifa which has also been reported.”
On Wednesday, police officers in Molalla, a city in Clackamas County which was evacuated on Thursday, asked residents who remained in town to report possible suspicious activity by thieves amid what the department called a spate of “rumors” about looters spreading on Facebook.
The department’s Facebook appeal was then wrongly cited as evidence of “Antifa arsonists” by Katie Daviscourt, a member of the Trump-supporting Turning Point USA. “Multiple sources in Emergency Response have confirmed that the fires along the West Coast are caused by dozens of arsonists,” Daviscourt tweeted above an image of the Molalla Facebook post. “These fires are allegedly linked to Antifa and the Riots.”
After nearly 3,000 people shared Daviscourt’s fever dream, the Molalla police department added a clarification to its post, reading: “This is about possible looters, not antifa or setting of fires. There has been NO antifa in town as of this posting at 02:00 am. Please, folks, stay calm and use common sense.”
On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also issued a statement calling on the public to stop spreading “Misinformation Related to Wildfires.” The FBI’s Portland office wrote that it too has “been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon.”
“With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue,” the bureau said. “Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control.”
Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources. pic.twitter.com/ENc4c3kjep — FBI Portland (@FBIPortland) September 11, 2020
Even as multiple law enforcement agencies pleaded with the public to stop spreading unfounded rumors, evidence emerged online that a sheriff’s deputy in Clackamas County, just outside Portland, was doing so himself. In a YouTube clip recorded on Thursday the deputy can be heard telling a conservative video blogger that he is “worried about” arsonists “stashing stuff… in preparation” for starting fires.
He then urges the video blogger to call him directly if he comes across “any intel,” because, the deputy says, “antifa motherfuckers are out causing hell, and there’s a lot of lives at stake and there’s a lot of people’s property at stake because these guys got some vendetta.”
The deputy was placed on leave pending an investigation into the video, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said in a statement on Saturday, one day after his department had urged the public to beware of misinformation spreading online during the emergency.
The deputy, who identified himself as “Mark” in the recording, was not named by the sheriff’s office, but The Oregonian reported that he is Mark Nikolai.
Before that report from the Portland daily, local activists who track police misconduct had already found visual clues in the YouTube clip that seemed to support that identification. The first two letters of the deputy’s last name, “Ni,” can be seen at one stage on camera, and he is seen in profile briefly at the very end of the YouTube clip.
Robert West, via YouTube
The deputy’s face can also be seen more clearly in a second video clip recorded minutes later in the same location by the video blogger.
The local activists pointed to a Twitter feed maintained in Nikolai’s name, with a profile photograph that seems to match the appearance of the officer seen on camera. The account is filled with recent tweets expressing strong support for Trump and disgust with Democratic elected officials and protesters. The deputy did not immediately reply to a request to confirm that he maintains the Twitter feed using his name and photograph.
Facebook moved on Saturday to stem the flow of misinformation. “We are removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups,” Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, wrote on Twitter. “This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public.”
As the rumors swirled online, the Kremlin’s Potemkin news channel, Russia Today, added to the confusion by illustrating a report on a request from the police in Portland for protesters not to light bonfires with an image of an entirely unrelated wildfire elsewhere in the state.
The total lack of evidence for the false claims about left-wing arsonists has not stopped the internet rumors from having an impact in the offline world.
As Christopher Miller and Jane Lytvynenko reported for Buzzfeed News, the paranoia in Molalla led some locals to wrongly identify Gabriel Trumbly, a Portland video journalist and his partner, Jennifer Paulsen, as arsonists while they were filming some of the fires there on Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/sun_everything/status/1303960554751447040
MG Belka, a journalist in Eugene, Oregon, reported on Wednesday that a member of a far-right group providing aid to evacuated families showed him “screenshots from her Facebook account that claim members of ‘Antifa’ are being caught starting fires around the county.” The woman assured Belka that two of the arsonists from a group called “The Ring of Fire” had been arrested. There have been no such arrests.
Three freelance journalists based in Portland — Justin Yau, Sergio Olmos and Alissa Azar – reported on Twitter on Thursday that they were threatened while reporting on the fires at one location in Molalla by armed men on the lookout for antifascist arsonists.
We were approached by an armed group telling us to leave, they are wary of outsiders based on rumors of arsonists starting fires in the area. #OregonFires2020 #OregonFires #oregonwildfires pic.twitter.com/pbUJPC5hKh — Justin Yau (@PDocumentarians) September 10, 2020
I asked this gentlemen if he was threatening us, he said he wasn’t. Him and another man with a gun told us to “get the fuck out of here” and took a picture of my plates https://t.co/l4L9oOLRl4 — Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) September 11, 2020
Updated: Saturday, September 12, 2020, 3:50 p.m. PDT
This article was updated to report a plea from the FBI, asking the public to stop spreading “untrue” rumors that “extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon,” and video of a sheriff’s deputy in Clackamas County spreading such rumors himself.