The recent traffic attack in Waukesha was a mass casualty event, and likely vehicular homicide, but it also is being manipulated for political gain by right wing forces. Known Proud Boys propagandist Andy Ngo initiates a process that gets amplified and distorted in RW media. The commodity is that right-wing audience eager to reinforce their prejudices. This reframed message gets monetized for RW “news” outlets with little fact-checking.
- Ngo then digs up a FB (Facebook) page allegedly belonging to the POI (Person of Interest) and posts some screenshots. But not before adding his own editorial slant, which at best could be described as inflammatory (if not outright false) and designed to get the attention of the online right. 2/x
- On FB, the POI allegedly posted some antisemitic dreck, a cartoon about police brutality, and a photo of a mural of George Floyd. The latter two were enough for Ngo to say he'd posted "in support of BLM causes." Nowhere did he find anything directly linking the POI to BLM 3/x
- There's no posts with a BLM hashtag (though Ngo added one in his tweet), or images of him attending/supporting BLM protesters, at least not that Ngo has found to date. For his audience, it doesn't matter. They've linked the POI to BLM. But take a look at the last sentence. 4/x:
- That seems quite damning! What Ngo doesn't say is that the FB post was from a cop (who was later fired) and bragged about being able to get away w/running over protesters b/c of the privileges afforded members of law enforcement Not the same thing! 5/x twincities.com/2016/02/17/st-…
- Naturally, Tim Pool made a video. The headline is "Police Refuse To Rule Out Terror In Waukesha Attack, Person Of Interest Detained Is BLM Supporter" [sic]
- Pool's source for this is Ngo's tweets. He says though it hasn't been proven that the POI is a member of BLM... 6/x
- ... clearly the POI has "ties to Black Lives Matter." (To date, this is false) Doesn't matter to Pool, who then speculates that since the cops haven't ruled out terrorism this could be a "revenge attack" for the Rittenhouse verdict. The video's received 54k views in 2 hrs. 7/x
- By the time a motive (if any is learned) neither Ngo nor Pool will correct any of their inflammatory or outright false reporting. They'll have moved on to the next target. Some percentage of their audiences, though, will forever remain convinced BLM targeted parade-goers. 8/8
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To be clear: none of this excuses the alleged crime nor the person who perpetrated it, regardless of whether it's the POI or someone else. But connecting it long before any of the facts are known to BLM is how the far-right triggers and then monetizes their audience. 9/9
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WAUKESHA, Wis. — A close-knit community that had been gearing up for the holidays found itself in mourning on Monday night as residents gathered in a candlelit park a block from where a Milwaukee man drove through a crowded Christmas parade, killing five and injuring scores of others.
Christmas songs gave way to sirens and screams on Sunday afternoon as the driver of an S.U.V. broke through barricades, ignoring the warnings of officers, and raced along the parade route. The driver, identified by the authorities as Darrell E. Brooks, 39, who had a long history of arrests, had left the scene of a domestic disturbance involving a knife moments before the incident, police said. He faces five counts of intentional homicide.
[...]
Darrell E. Brooks, who is accused of driving a maroon 2010 Ford Escape into the Christmas parade in Waukesha, has a long, violent criminal history — and was freed just six days ago on $1,000 bail after being accused of trying to run over his girlfriend with the same S.U.V.
Mr. Brooks, 39, who is from Milwaukee, has been charged with or convicted on an array of charges over the past 22 years, including battery, domestic violence, cocaine possession and resisting arrest in several jurisdictions in Wisconsin.
He has served at least two jail sentences and spent years on probation and in court-mandated work-release and anger management programs, records showed.
On Nov. 2, Mr. Brooks was arrested in Milwaukee after the mother of his child accused him of punching her in the face in a hotel room, then following her in his S.U.V. into the parking lot of a gas station, where he hit her with the car, according to the police.
www.nytimes.com/...