According to National Police Association (NPA) spokesperson retired police sergeant Betsy Brandner Smith, Antifa is a dangerous organization with many structural similarities to a radical Islamic terror cell. Smith's comments attempt to push back against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's statement during a presidential debate that Antifa was not an organization but an idea or an ideology.
“Antifa is more than just an idea, Antifa has quite a history, going back to the 1920s and 1930s and Hitler's Brown Shirts, and then we come into the anarchists of the 60s through to today,” said Smith during an interview with The Epoch Times reporter Joshua Philipp.
Smith further argues that Antifa experienced a resurgence during the Occupy Wall Street movement, and then right after Donald Trump became president after the 2016 presidential election.
The NPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational seminars and workshops for police departments. They previously put out a statement regarding Biden's comments regarding Antifa not being an organization by asking whether or not the rioters throwing bricks are Antifa or not. (Related: Wealthy MI bar owner pretends to be an “average Joe” in new Biden ad… social media posts reveal he's a pro-Antifa, Trump-hating, Democrat fundraiser.)
Biden was quoting Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who testified before Congress in September stating that Antifa – or “antifascism” – was an ideology. However, the former vice president took Wray's comments out of context because the FBI director later elaborated that the ideology that drives Antifa is being supported by organizations and individuals engaged in acts that resemble those conducted by violent extremists.
Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about a plot by Antifa and other radical leftist groups to stage false flag terrorist attacks while wearing pro-Trump paraphernalia, such as Make America Great Again hats.
Antifa's leaderless structure makes does not make it less dangerous
According to Smith, leading figures in the Democratic Party have struggled to identify Antifa because the organization is very decentralized, it has “no real paramilitary structure” and it has no leader. This makes it difficult for the wider public to understand and legitimize their actions.
“The Left likes to be able to go to a blue-checked Twitter account and say ‘Okay, this guy's the head of Antifa.’ That's not how it works. Antifa's structure is really more like that of an Islamic terror cell, something like that. But just because we don't have a paramilitary structure for Antifa, it doesn't mean they don't exist and it doesn't mean they're not dangerous.”
While most mainstream Democrats fail to understand Antifa's non-hierarchical structure, Smith claims that Marxists and progressives do, and that they regularly engage with Antifa so that they can lay the groundwork for gaining greater power through elections.
Given this understanding of how Antifa operates, Smith is calling on law enforcement officers all across the country to arrest Antifa members that they find violating the law during riots and demonstrations, and to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. This will help reduce the number of Antifa members still causing chaos in the streets.
Furthermore, Smith says that police officers need to record the Antifa-instigated riots that they are assigned to and to disseminate the videos as widely as possible to show the American public what is actually happening every night in this country. She believes that the current media narratives regarding the “mostly peaceful” demonstrations are putting police officers in danger.
Smith asserts that many police departments are, thanks to these media narratives, in bed with Antifa or afraid of them, which is why many of the riots and violent demonstrations continue.
“The American public is being deceived, we all know that, by the legacy media,¨ said Smith. “And law enforcement officers are the victims of it.”
Antifa's members and tactics are very recognizable, even if they don't have leaders
Instead of trying to understand Antifa from a traditional and hierarchical lens, Smith argues that people who want to learn more about this domestic terrorist organization need to look at their actions. Instead of looking for lieutenants and captains, Smith argues that investigators need to look at the beliefs, attire and tactics of rioters.
“Do they follow the beliefs of Antifa? Do they dress like Antifa? Are they mobilized as part of Antifa?” Smith asks during her interview. “People need to start paying a lot more attention to that. It's dangerous to the American public.”
Smith is citing intelligence reports that state that many members of Antifa and their affiliate organizations are usually dressed in “black bloc attire,” or all-black clothing. Along with the attire, Antifa will usually come with riot gear to help them fight against police and the crowd control munitions deployed against them, such as military boots, gas masks, goggles and makeshift riot shields.
The term “black bloc attire” was coined for the uniform worn by Antifa's most prominent division, the Black Bloc. This “intimidating aesthetic” is completely by design, as it serves to camouflage the individual identities of Antifa members. This helps them avoid being targeted by law enforcement later on.
Antifa's members are governed by the beehive strategy or to “move like water.” This concept has been borrowed from the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong.
The “be water” strategy means that Antifa will move as one and “crash” into police lines quickly. When law enforcement regroups and counterattacks, Antifa will disperse and try again. This strategy aims to help members move as one, be unrecognizable, and not lose momentum by being completely routed by a police line charging at them.
Learn more about Antifa's latest criminal actions all over the United States by reading the latest articles at AntifaWatch.news.
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