INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Louisiana Police Accused Of Using Fake ‘Antifa’ List To Harass Law-Abiding Citizens

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 14:27 PST, Sep 1, 2018

The Louisiana State Police (LSP) is being accused of taking “marching orders” from far-right groups after they refused to hand over a questionable “Antifa” list reportedly sourced from 8chan and Stormfront. The police’s possession of the list is drawing concern because of a fear that it could be used to target citizens who have no affiliation to Antifa. Now the LSP is being sued for it by a Harvard Law School lecturer and a civil rights attorney.

According to WGNO, William Most, a civil rights attorney from New Orleans, discovered the list after he made a public records request for Louisiana State Police emails that included racist language like “white genocide.”

Most eventually received just over 60 emails, although he claims that you can find this type of language in “thousands” of emails between senior officers in the LSP. But he noticed something else about the emails. Many of them passed around a file called the “full list of antifa.docx.” He requested a copy of the document but the LSP claimed that delivering it would undermine an investigation.

Most said that the police informed him that “releasing the document could ‘compromise’ an ongoing criminal investigation in which LSP anticipates arrests, and reveal the identity of its ‘Confidential Informant.'” He claims that the list originated on 8chan and Stormfront, online platforms that have become known for being a breeding ground for Neo-Nazi, far-right ideas and conspiracy theories.

Harvard Law School lecturer Thomas Frampton has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Most so that he can gain access to the “Antifa” list. RT reports that the list contains the names of people who signed an anti-Trump petition.

As mentioned earlier, people have claimed that the state police in Louisiana might be taking “orders” from far-right groups because of their refusal to release the list.

“This is very alarming. Louisiana State Police are now getting their marching orders from the #AltRight and the #KKK?!?!” one person tweeted. “Lawsuit claims Louisiana State Police has ‘antifa’ roster from Neo-Nazi site.”

“The list rooster itself is laughable, but what exactly do police not want the public to see?” another person asked.

The term Antifa refers to a movement of militant leftists whose main goal is to confront and prevent Neo-Nazi groups from operating. As USA Today reports, the group has no structured leadership and exists primarily as a type of resistance to far-right activity in the United States. Antifa is short for Anti-fascist and the members of the movement work anonymously. It’s another reason to question the credibility of the list the LSP has and to wonder if it could be used to harass law-abiding citizens.

USA Today notes that Antifa got into President Donald Trump’s crosshairs when he implied that they were also to blame for the violence that occurred at the Charlottesville protests last year along with the KKK, white nationalists, and other extremist groups on the far-right.

Share this article: Louisiana Police Accused Of Using Fake ‘Antifa’ List To Harass Law-Abiding Citizens
Antifa
More from Inquisitr