Neo-Nazi sympathizers seem to be everywhere lately, even among the members of the California Highway Patrol and, apparently, in the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. It’s hard to draw any other conclusion from their actions at, and following, a June 2016 white nationalist rally in Sacramento organized by the “Traditionalist Working Party.”
The TWP is “intimately allied with neo-Nazi and other hardline racist organizations” and “advocates for racially pure nations”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its leaders have praised Trump, and the group claimed to bring more than 100 people to the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, where a counter-protester was killed.
There are ample examples of how members of the CHP sided with TWP members following the Sacramento rally and disregarded counter-protestors’ injuries. Even so, a few officers stand out, including CHP Investigator Donovan Ayres.
The officer’s write-up about an African American anti-fascist activist included a photo of him at the hospital after the rally and noted that he had been stabbed in the abdomen, chest and hand.
Ayres, however, treated the protester like a suspect in the investigation. The police investigator recommended the man be charged with 11 offenses, including disturbing the peace, conspiracy, assault, unlawful assembly and wearing a mask to evade police.
As evidence, Ayres provided Facebook photos of the man holding up his fist. The officer wrote that the man’s “Black Power salute” and his “support for anti-racist activism” demonstrated his “intent and motivation to violate the civil rights” of the neo-Nazi group. He was ultimately not charged.
The same officer attempted to use another protestor’s record of non-criminal activism as evidence justifying charges against her.
Ayres’s report also noted Felarca’s political activism in great detail, referencing her activism on behalf of students of color and women’s rights protests.
This wasn’t just a case of implicit bias or passive assistance. Ayres also attempted to shield TWP’s lead organizer from the consequences of his actions.
In one phone call with Doug McCormack, identified by police as the TWP affiliate who acquired the permit for the Sacramento rally, CHP investigator Donovan Ayres warned him that police might have to release his name in response to a public records requests. The officer said he would try to protect McCormack.
“I’m gonna suggest that we hold that or redact your name or something until this gets resolved,” Ayres told McCormack, adding that he didn’t know who had requested records of the permit and noting, “If I did, I would tell you.”
Ayres’s reports noted that McCormack was armed at the rally with a knife.
Multiple officers, including Ayres, were involved in reassuring a second TWP member that the police were on his side. Like McCormack, Derik Punneo was armed with a knife.
Officers also worked with TWP member Derik Punneo to try to identify anti-fascist activists, recordings revealed. Officers interviewed Punneo in jail after he was arrested for an unrelated domestic violence charge. Audio recordings captured investigators saying they brought photos to show him, hoping he could help them identify anti-fascist activists.
The officers said, “We’re pretty much going after them,” and assured him: “We’re looking at you as a victim.”
Ayres’s report noted that Punneo was armed with a knife at the neo-Nazi rally and that one stabbing victim told officers he believed Punneo was responsible. Using video footage, Ayres also noted that Punneo was “in the vicinity” of another victim at the time he was injured, but the officer said the evidence ultimately wasn’t clear.
Neither McCormack nor Punneo, nor the three other TWP affiliated men armed with knives documented by the CHP, faced charges. In fact, the Sacramento district attorney’s office has charged just one TWP member. By contrast, three anti-fascist activists have been charged with felonies.
So far, law enforcement officers and prosecutors alike have blamed the neo-Nazis’ victims for the proceedings’ shortcomings. Never mind that not only CHP’s actions in the current case, but events in other cities have given counter-protestors good reason to distrust law enforcement.
Allegations of police bias and collusion with neo-Nazis have emerged in similar cases across the US. Last year, US prosecutors targeting anti-Trump protesters in Washington DC relied on video evidence from a far-right group with a record of deceptive tactics.
At an Oregon “alt-right” event, police allowed a member of a rightwing militia-style group to help officers arrest an anti-fascist activist.
Police in Charlottesville were widely accused of standing by as Nazis attacked protesters, and a black man who was badly beaten by white supremacists was later charged with a felony.
Sam Menefee-Libey, an activist who advocated for protesters charged for Inauguration Day rallies last year, said the government has repeatedly gone to great lengths to target anti-fascists: “We have patterns of acknowledged and unacknowledged overlaps between the interest of ultra-right nationalist organizations and the police and prosecutors’ offices.”
Where will this pattern stop?