Morning Briefing: Maine Attorney General Files Civil Rights Complaint Against White Supremacist Vandals
Morning Briefing: Maine Attorney General Files Civil Rights Complaint Against White Supremacist Vandals
Maine’s Attorney General announced his office has filed a civil rights complaint against two men, 'alleging they spray-painted racist and antisemitic messages in multiple Cumberland County towns.'
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Morning Briefing: Maine’s Attorney General announced that his office has filed a civil rights complaint against Frey William Deary and Hayden Deary, “alleging they spray-painted racist and antisemitic messages in multiple Cumberland County towns at the beginning of January.”
The spray-painted messages included the words “Gas the Jews” with the numbers 14 and 88, as well multiple swastica symbols and racial slurs, according to the complaint documents. Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement that men’s actions were “clearly designed to make people in our community feel unwelcome and unsafe.”
Isabella Maria DeLuca, right-wing social media influencer with “ties to the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA,” was arrested for participating in the Capitol Riot, DeLuca and is facing “misdemeanor charges, including theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area.”
On the campus of the University of Texas in Austin, the Texas Hillel Foundation's building and parking lot was vandalized with "vulgar antisemitic epithets."
In Cincinnati, Ohio, an antisemitic banner was displayed “along Columbia Parkway,” and local law enforcement reportedly “helped remove the banner because the size of the banner created a safety hazard.”
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Must Reads
Jeet Heer writes that “to a remarkable degree, Trump’s words are now a markedly smaller part of public discourse than they were in his in his first presidential run. This has created an anomalous state of affairs where Trump is talked about as much as ever but rarely heard from in his own voice. In the current election cycle, the only people watching Trump rallies in full are attendees, journalists, and the few hardcore fans (or truly masochistic haters) dedicated enough to track down the events on C-SPAN or YouTube. But like all attempts to thwart Trump through nonpolitical means, deplatforming has failed as a strategy. For the third presidential election in a row, Trump has clinched the Republican Party nomination. In polling, he has enjoyed a lead over his Democratic counterpart Joe Biden for more than six months (in contrast to 2016 and 2020 when he only rarely led his Democratic rivals). Paradoxically, deplatforming might be helping Trump, since it allows Republican-leaning voters to conjure up a party standard-bearer who shares their politics rather than having to pay attention to the actual Trump, whose posts and speeches are animated by nastiness and recrimination.” [The Nation]
Robert P. Jones writes that Donald Trump “gave an ominous speech that—while reported by RNS, the Guardian, the Associated Press, and the New York Times—caused less of a public stir. Trump’s remarks expose how a vision of White Christian nationalism is integral to his MAGA appeal, and they reveal the threat this vision poses to a pluralistic democracy. The venue for this early campaign stop was, significantly, the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) in Nashville on February 22nd. While the name sounds broadly religious, NRB was created by leaders of communications outlets that operate specifically in the White evangelical world. According to its website, NRB, founded in 1944, ‘exists to represent the Christian broadcasters’ right to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.’ In his rambling 75-minute speech, Trump delivered his most thorough articulation of his vision of White Christian nationalism to date. It was received by an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom sported red hats emblazoned with the words ‘Make America Pray Again’.” [Religion Dispatches]
Amanda Marcotte writes that “in the wake of Benedict's death, we're hearing a lot of Republicans, even the most rabidly MAGA ones, claim they oppose violence in schools, even against queer kids. Actions like elevating Morrow, Raichik and Walters say otherwise. At this point, it's almost banal to point out that the Republicans who claim to be "protecting" kids do not actually care how many children are hurt — or killed — because of their cynical efforts to generate right-wing panics and culture wars. But it's crucial nonetheless to keep talking about this. That the MAGA movement stokes violence hardly needs arguing, as evidenced by January 6. It was inevitable that some of that ugliness would trickle down from adults to kids. But, as the nomination of Morrow shows, it's even worse than that. For years now, through ‘don't say gay’ laws and groups like Moms for Liberty, the MAGA movement has been actively trying to remake America's schools in their own image. Where MAGA goes, violence follows. Ignore the glib denials of Republican leaders about school violence. Judge them by what they do — and who they support going into the 2024 election.” [Salon]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
