Busted! California cops, College Republicans sided with violent #MAGA cultist to intimidate and prosecute leftists
Donald J. Trump is not the only problem fascist in the USA. Meet Moshe Daniel Quilinnan:
A pro-Trump demonstrator who admitted hitting protesters at a far-right rally received help and support from California police, who worked with him to prosecute leftwing activists, records show.
Documents and testimony in a trial surrounding a rightwing demonstration in Berkeley reveal that police and prosecutors pursued charges on behalf of Daniel Quillinan, a conservative activist who has posted fascist memes and came to the event with Kyle Chapman, now a celebrated figure amongst the “alt-right”. The authorities consistently treated Quillinan as a victim even though he was visibly armed with a knife, a wooden “shield” and a “flagpole” – and had told law enforcement that he “hit someone in the head”, according to court files.
The resulting criminal trial against five anti-fascist protesters – who are accused of assaulting Quillinan during a roughly 15-second altercation – is, according to activists, the latest example of US law enforcement aggressively targeting leftwing demonstrators and favoring members of the far-right after violent clashes. In another California case, police have worked directly with neo-Nazis to go after counter-protesters, including a black activist stabbed at a white supremacist rally.
“This makes a pretty clear statement of choosing sides,” Dustin Sawtelle, one of the anti-fascist defendants, said in an interview this week before the trial began. “We figured maybe they were trying to use charges as a scare tactic … It feels like they have to prosecute somebody.”
It turns out that Quillinan also has close ties to right-wing Berkeley students:
The [UC Berkeley] college republican club also has ties to Moshe Daniel Quillinan, a local fascist based in Berkeley, CA. Posts on Quillinan’s Facebook page frequently discuss his fascist and racist politics as well as his desire to kill communists and anyone on the left that he considers a barrier to a more pure society. Anti-fascists have noted that Quillinan is a regular at BCR’s meetings and he has been seen with BCR members several times. One such instance was on February 17, 2017, when BCR’s Treasurer David Craig and one other member were seen with Quillinan at a protest against Trump on the UC Berkeley campus. Quillinan would later appear at the March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley with weapons and armor, looking for fights (and losing them).
College Republicans? Maybe they should just change their name to Trump Youth. These crisis actors are attempting to subvert the First Amendment and destroy free speech. It is they, not Berkeley’s leftists, who belong behind bars.
