UW Suspected Shooter and Victim Identified | Tikun Olam |
Marc K. Hokoana, age 29, a known pro-gun activist, can be seen in video and still photographs at the scene shooting a protester. Hokoana is originally from Lacey, WA and graduated from Timberline High School in 2006. He is also a UW alumnus. At Researchgate.net he declares an academic interest in biology and physiology. He lives in Lacey currently.
Eyewitnesses who saw him that night told me he was aggressively provoking protesters and appeared intoxicated. He appears in a photo that evening accompanied by a woman. He recently married Elizabeth Freeland, who appears to be the same person seen that night.
I have tweeted King County prosecutor‘s, Dan Satterberg about the status of his investigation. I also asked why he’d been released without any charges filed. Maintaining radio silence only protects alt-right institutions like Breitbart and Donald Trump himself from shouldering their share of responsibility for inciting this sort of violence. None of my tweets have been answered.
A review of Hokoana’s online presence indicates he or his family has Hawaiian roots. On Facebook, he Likes Donald Trump, Breitbart News and Breitbart editor, Ben Shapiro. At the Guns Across America rally at which he was pictured, he told Daniel Berman:
“It’s important to have this exposure and for the public to see people with
guns that don’t fit the stereotype of old white racists who own guns.”
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About 1,500 gun owners and supporters attended the Guns Across America rally at the Washington State Capitol
in Olympia Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. The organization held events at capitol buildings in many states
to show support for the 2nd Amendment and opposition to new gun control measures. ( Photo credit: Daniel Berman)First comment listed:
Ben says
January 25, 2017 at 3:56 AMWow. He shot a `wobblie’.
I thought they were extinct.My reply:
Oui says
January 25, 2017 at 8:08 AMIWW and Wobblies
In 1917, during an incident known as the Tulsa Outrage, a group of black-robed Knights of Liberty, a short-lived faction of the Ku Klux Klan, tarred and feathered seventeen members of the IWW in Oklahoma. The IWW members had been turned over to the Knights of Liberty by local authorities after they were convicted of the crime of not owning war bonds.
…
The situation grew so intense that even acts of murder were merely winked at, such as in the case of miner Robert Prager, above, who was hanged by an angry mob in Illinois because they “suspected” he might be a German spy. The perpetrators of this heinous act received no punishment.
Follow-up articles …
○ UW Shooter, Marc Hokoana, Disciple of Alt-Right Pepe the Frog
○ UW Shooting Suspect Marc Hokoana is Current University Student
Several sources have identified the victim as a Seattle computer-security engineer and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) General Defense Committee, which describes itself as an “anti-racist and anti-fascist organization.”
His Seattle attorney, Sarah Lippek, confirmed his identity, although she said the victim was concerned about his name being made public “as the risk of harassment and threats is very real, and my client needs time to rest and recover from his injuries.” Lippek said he planned to issue a public statement at a later date.
Lippek said IWW member attended the event “in order to resist Mr. Yiannopoulos’ message through principled protest.”
“He is aware that there are many conflicting narratives circulating about what occurred that night,” Lippek said in a statement released Monday evening. “My client wishes to express his empathy for the person who shot him. He hopes to engage in constructive dialogue with that person, in order to de-escalate and provide a community-based response to this violence.”
The IWW has created a Crowdwise social-media funding page to raise money for his hospital expenses. So far, it has raised more than $42,000.
Dukes was an early opponent to the appearance of Yiannopoulos at the UW and worked to organize a resistance among a number of groups, including the IWW and the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Action Coalition, where he posted a link to a document outlining how anti-Yiannopoulos forces had rallied against the Breitbart editor at other colleges where he has appeared.
Yiannopoulos’ visit to the UW campus was highly anticipated, and there were rumors that protesters would try to shut down the speech by the senior editor at Breitbart News, which has been denounced by many as a platform for hate. Yiannopoulos has been permanently banned from Twitter for racism and misogyny.
○ Milo Yiannopoulos who was banned from Twitter gets £200,000 book deal | The Independent |
Shooter of unarmed anti-racist walks free, authorities silent | IWW |
Multiple witnesses have reported that this person appeared drunk that evening, and had aggressively and repeatedly sought confrontations with protesters. This behavior can be seen on videos released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others. Media sources have reported that the suspect has claimed they shot in self-defense and that they originally thought that the person they shot was a `white supremacist,’ but UWPD deny these reports. The reporting of these sorts of unsubstantiated claims has clouded the facts, and allowed undue credence for the right-wing narrative of fear.
People have questioned the University of Washington administration’s handling of this situation. UW administrators justified the event on the basis of the principle of freedom of speech; it is unclear however that the administration would permit self-proclaimed nazis to speak on campus and encourage the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the United States. We question why the administration permits people who have merely rebranded themselves as members of the alt-right to encourage similar violence against our fellow humans. UW President Cauce’s statement denied administration responsibility, and offered no support, condemning `violence’ in general and reaffirming support for the event’s approval, as well as the police handling of the situation.
Multiple press accounts from witnesses indicate that the police made no serious attempts at crowd control that evening, and were unprepared for the event. At the same time, observers have questioned the prosecutor’s unwillingness to charge the shooter, even after they turned themselves in. Our comrade has expressed his empathy for the shooter and his desire to engage in a restorative justice process rather than cooperating with a criminal prosecution. This indicates his deep opposition to the violence of the police and the state. The police’s complicity with the shooter indicates their willingness to protect those who create violence.
There is a double-standard for violence in America: right-wing activists may shoot protesters with impunity. We appear to be in a period when the right wing can murder unarmed protesters and claim self-defense. This was the supposed defense of the white supremacists who shot five people in Minneapolis at a protest against police murder. These violent right wing activists will even call us the `nazis.’ As they have done in this case, the media will collaborate unintentionally.
Finally, we are disturbed by the total silence from Seattle’s political establishment. We expect conservatives to ignore or even celebrate violence against us. However, the silence and lack of support from liberal, progressive, and radical members of the city council – especially socialist Kshama Sawant – is damning.
Let’s Shut Down the Alt-Right College Tour Circuit | It’s Going Down (IGD) ] [pdf]
Professional troll Milo Yiannopoulos [@Nero] is touring colleges across the US as a front-man for white nationalist media outlet Breitbart. “Alt-right” front man Richard Spencer has also been making speeches at universities. Turning Point USA has created a national professor watch list. The extreme right seems to believe that colleges are still hotbeds of radical activity, or at least bastions of liberalism, or maybe they can’t tell the difference, regardless, they’re clearly putting a lot of resources into making headway on campuses.
When Yiannopoulos came to Milwaukee in December, local anti-fascists and organizers turned out against him. We mounted a multi-pronged approach to opposing Milo and all he stands for. We mobilized a couple hundred people to demonstrate against Milo, scuffled with and belittled his entourage in the hallways of the student union, interrupted his speech repeatedly, pressured and shamed the UWM Administration for allowing the event to occur, helped gain local, national and international media attention and used the event as a spark to build a stronger anti-racist coalition and culture of resistance in our town. We’re hoping to share what we learned (and how we fell short) so that communities Yiannopoulos, Spencer or their friends visit in the future can put up more effective resistance.
Milo has a large echo chamber and (compared with other Nazis and far-right media stars) a sophisticated media strategy that often successfully navigates the landscape of liberalism to turn shallow understandings of free speech and civil rights into a platform for hate. There is no clean and clear victory, they specialize in mocking and creating negative spin around their opponents. Having this guy visit your town forces you to choose between engaging with the worst kind of internet trolls or letting Nazis recruit unopposed. You kind of have to hold your nose and do the former, to prevent the latter from occurring. It sucks, but we’re offer the following lessons learned to anyone in the unfortunate position in hopes that you’ll be more successful.
Did the Koch Brothers Just Choose Their Candidate? | Huff Post – Deb. 24, 2016 |
On the list of the richest people in America, Charles and David Koch stand tied for 5th, each sitting on top of a $41 billion fortune. If you counted them together their $82 billion would easily win them first place, besting Bill Gates by over $6 billion. Bill and Melinda Gates have pledged, and are in the process of giving away nearly all of their fortune to charity. The Koch brothers have pledged to spend $900 million electing the presidential candidate who can best protect the fossil fuel industry.
It’s hard to imagine the Koch’s spending nearly a billion dollars to elect Donald Trump president of the United States. (Although, if you are an aspiring screenwriter looking for inspiration, that scenario would make a phenomenal slapstick comedy.)
The Koch brothers have kept a low profile during the primary season, but a new hire by Marco Rubio might signal the end of their impartiality. Politico reported yesterday: “Marc Short, the Koch brothers’ top political adviser in Washington and a trusted member of their inner circle for five years, is making a surprise move to the Marco Rubio campaign as a senior adviser as the Republican establishment ramps up efforts to stop Donald Trump.”
As the president of Freedom Partners, the hub of the wheel for the Koch’s political empire, Marc Short may have the greatest donor list in all of politics, and even better data. Short will now be the Koch brothers’ man on the inside of Rubio’s campaign, which means Rubio now has access to the most money and one of the best data-mining operations in politics. The money is good, but the data might be even better. It’s a “sophisticated databank of voter information that has been augmented with personal information gathered by campaigns and commercial groups. The group has data on millions of American voters and its voter files have become one of the must-have tools for most Republican campaigns.” (Mother Jones )
You can bet that Donald Trump doesn’t have access to that spreadsheet.
You can bet your wife, the billionaire Koch Bros of coal and tar hills has pocketed the Donald Trump presidency …
Donald Trump’s man on the Hill | Politico – Jan. 17, 2017 |
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Marc Short, pictured behind Vice President-elect Mike Pence, has a substantial track record
in Washington, having worked as a top Hill aide to Pence. (Photo: John Shinkle/Politico)Donald Trump’s pick to lead his legislative efforts in Congress is a soft-spoken, self-effacing Hill operator — in short, the opposite of his brash and bombastic boss.
Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, has a substantial track record in Washington, having worked as a top Hill aide to Trump’s more affable running mate, Mike Pence. And those who know Short — a Virginia native — say he’s got a sharp eye for strategy, eschews credit and will be effective at smoothing Trump’s rougher edges when it comes to relationships with lawmakers.
Though he briefly worked for a Trump primary rival — Marco Rubio [NY Times link]– Short maintained his ties to Pence, and they paid off when Pence joined Trump’s ticket in July.
