On Thursday afternoon, prosecutors in Texas announced that terrorism charges had been filed against two people for alleged involvement in a shooting during a July 4 protest against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, in which a local police officer was injured.

This is the first time federal terrorism charges have been deployed in association with the “antifa” label, just a month after President Donald Trump announced that he was designating antifa a “major terrorist organization” — a designation that does not exist under law for domestic groups.

The Prairieland case is setting a chilling example for how the government will use so-called counterterrorism efforts to crush anti-fascist dissent. Neither of the people named in the indictment are accused of shooting the gun. Instead, Zachary Evetts and Autumn Hill are accused of “providing material support to terrorists” and having “aided and abetted” the alleged attempted murder of government officers.

The federal indictment accuses Hill, who prosecutors dead-named, and Evetts as being part of an “antifa cell.”

The terrorism charges are an escalation of government efforts to criminalize protest movements by attempting to attribute collective guilt.

  • carlossurf@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Step one of fascist government label anyone that doesnt agree with them as antifa

    • Lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Well, I mean, are they not?

      The real problem is the people in charge taking a common abbreviation of an arguably positive ideology, twisting that abbreviation into a “scary” name, calling it a violent group, packaging it all up with a neat little bow, and then parroting it to the brainwashed masses.

    • MourningDove@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Agreed.

      And, it’s a bit uncanny how eerily close this is to that of the far left when they accuse anyone that’s a hair’s width right of the bat-shit insanity of Stalin of being in support of genocide.

      They have distanced themselves so far from an alt-right ideology- that they have circled all the way back around to being comparatively identical in their absence of logic.

      EDIT: take note how well my point was made in the responses I’ve received. I’ve been accused of both being “programmed” and being a member of truth social- just for points out the fact that there are people who will immediately accuse you of being something you’re not- just because you disagree with them.

      (For the record: this was purposefully done to net these results. Some people are so predictable, you can essentially get them to prove your point for you).

      • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        The right: we just scrapped a major solar farm that would be cheaper than coal, then lied to everyone and said coal would be cheaper and the environmental impacts don’t exist. Also, we have unidentified ice agents wearing masks raiding peoples houses, sometimes kidnapping American citizens, and the national guard deployed unconstitutionally. We have 80% support for this.

        The left: if you don’t support hamas you support genocide

        Truly both sides are the same level of illogical here, you nailed it.

        • MourningDove@lemmy.zip
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          5 hours ago

          So, you’re creating a different point of reference to show dissimilarities as an argument against something that had nothing to do with your references- and nothing at all to what I actually said…. LOL.

          My point remains:

          Both the far left and the far right accuse anyone that disagrees with them of saying stupid shit that was never said, or being stupid shit they never were.

          But by all means, keep emphasizing yet another point people have against the far left: that you all whatabout and play some stupid version of three-card monte with the plot to the point that you force people to defend points they never even made.

          I don’t fall for that shit.

        • MourningDove@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          Yeas. I forgot, this is lemmy: where hive-minded ignorance goes to ignore nuance while congratulating and weirdly- simultaneously competing with one another to see who can make the most smug and edgy response to things they don’t know what they disagree with but are told to.

          And not just that, but it’s also where accusations are freely hung on anyone that disagrees with the flavor-of-the-week rhetoric of being a Trump supporter…

          I’m guessing you probably don’t even see the irony in your comment accusing me of being a Trump supporter just because I said shit you don’t like- in a thread where I called out the fact that the far left accuses anyone that disagrees with them of supporting genocide.

          (In this example, Trump supporter and genocide supporter are interchangeable if it wasn’t obvious)