So in the last 24 hours our Facebook page has been flooded by reactionary trolls. They have let us know in no uncertain terms their feelings towards immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and women. They are hateful, small-minded folks who think they are somehow hurting our feelings with their bullshit. Their nonsense is total projection. They insult us for being weak, effeminate, queers (which, yea, is true, we’re a bunch of LGBTQ+ people and most of us are sassy bottoms), and call us “keyboard warriors” but the fact is we have been kicking ass in Colorado for over two years now, and we’re not fucking going anywhere.
Zachary Graham Lightner is a member of the SPLC designated hate group the Proud Boys who lives in Peyton, Colorado, and is the operations manager at his family’s lumber business JW Hardwoods.
For some reason, Proud Boys from across the nation traveled to Portland to support Gibson. Even with the out of state auxiliaries, Gibson was still hopelessly outnumbered.
Lightner, and his goofy fucking cowboy hat, have become a regular part of the Colorado Springs Proudboys traveling shit show. His distinctive cowboy hat was caught on camera with Unite The Right participant and former generator-mechanic-turned-GI-Joe Shane Reeves, who was filmed conspiring to commit kidnapping.
Shane Reeves – When you never left the FOB on active duty but you want to look tough for the “soyboys”Lightner adding the finishing touches to a Blue Lives Murder flag.
While they were in town they made sure to pose for a photo op with the Portland Fascists
Lightner (with that fucking hat…) next to “Tiny” Toese, a violentextremist. In the Front row, sporting the CNN Fake news shirt is Louis Huey, a Denver-area InfoWars wannabe.Totally normal stuff, nothing to look at here.
The Proud Boys in Colorado have an extensive history of organizingviolentevents and trying to crash events held by local activists. They have a particular boner for the Empowerment Solidarity Network, an activist group made up of people of color who have organized critical viewings of Childish Gambino’s “This is America” and workshops on toxic masculinity.
Russell Bert Frankland of Lakewood attended Unite The Right as a member of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Workers Party. Since the collapse of the TWP, Frankland has continued his fascist activism by regularly attending drag queen story hour protests, pasting holocaust denial flyers, and harassing journalists. Continue reading “Russ Frankland – Traditionalist Worker Party (CO)”
On December 2, 2017, Denver activist group Resist 5280 held a March Against White Supremacy. 2017 has been a banner year for hatecrimes, which isn’t surprising given the current political environment. One would think a march against white supremacy wouldn’t be that controversial of an event. One would be wrong.
The Denver event brought out a contingent of counter protesters. In the same way that being “anti-anti-fascist” just makes someone pro-fascist, protesting a march against white supremacy just makes them pro-white supremacy. Which isn’t surprising given the counter-protesters.
This Saturday, October 21st, there is a planned “Freedom Rally” at the Capitol in Denver. The Rally is being organized by one “Ty Freedom” of militia group “American Freedom Keepers.” AFK bills themselves as a kind of radical centrist militia, espousing the usual claims about the constitution. They generally seem less fanatical than the III%ers, and they have been seen here in Colorado Springs waving American flags on the Bijou/I25 overpass.
In the aftermath of the horrific events at Charlottesville, many news outlets were quick to point out the role women have played in the white supremacist movement, and how the surge of white nationalism being experienced today is not strictly a male phenomenon. One of the women actively supporting white nationalism in Colorado Springs is Justina Thatcher.
Planer and Thatcher. Note Planer’s “love your folk” shirt with circular rune used by groups like American Vanguard.
Shane Reeves is a neo-Nazi member of the hate group the Proud Boys, likely living in Louisville, Colorado & working as a mover. Reeves took part in the deadly Charlottesville white nationalist rally in 2017 that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. Shane is formerly associated with the Colorado III%ers and the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, and was at the June 10th March Against Sharia in Denver.
July 20-27th is the International Week of Solidarity with the J20 defendants. On Inauguration Day, anti-Trump protesters were kettled and mass-arrested in Washington D.C. Many of those mass arrestees are facing multiple felony charges and up to 75 years in prison simply for showing up to a protest and being in the vicinity of a black bloc. These mass arrests and heavy sentences are a show of force by the state, with the intent of chilling political protest.
The Colorado Springs Proud Boys have been laying low since their embarrassing attempt at holding a rally in Boulder back in June. They’ve been hassling the Socialists, at a brewery because of course, but not much more than that.
