This story and picture of paint-covered magazines really doesn't add up, so I did some digging and found some interesting stuff. 1/many 
First of all, the paint goes entirely unremarked on and makes no sense. However, reporting from various sources indicates that federal agents claim that they are being hit with balloons full of paint. 🤔
Oh really, you don't say? Well, here's a Reuters photo from yesterday of a DHS police officer covered in red paint.
Source (slide 2): mobile.reuters.com/news/picture/t…
Source (slide 2): mobile.reuters.com/news/picture/t…
Somewhere in the comments, someone pointed out that those look like Magpul PMAG magazines: mobile.reuters.com/news/picture/t…
Huh, would you look at that: Colt sells an M4 variant to law enforcement that comes stock with several Magpul accessories, including 30 round PMAGs.
colt.com/detail-page/en…
colt.com/detail-page/en…
You know who buys a lot of guns from Colt? CBP. ~$325k dollars worth in the last two years:
fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsp…
fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsp…
The most recent of those purchases came from the ICE Office of Training and Tactical Programs, and was for $75k worth of (get this) "Colt M4 Repair Parts".
In 2019, ICE bought $192k worth of Colt "replacement parts and accessories."
fpds.gov/common/jsp/Lau…
Strange that they have such a large investment in accessories for exactly the guns that use the magazines pictured above. 🤔🤔🤔
fpds.gov/common/jsp/Lau…
Strange that they have such a large investment in accessories for exactly the guns that use the magazines pictured above. 🤔🤔🤔
I mean, I dunno what happened, but the simplest explanation is that a DHS officer with a Colt M4 was carrying those magazines in a chest rig, and then got hit in the neck region with a red paint balloon. How they ended up in a bag (if there ever was a bag), I have no idea.
This lie is so transparent that it only took me an hour to find everything in this thread linking the paint covered magazines back to DHS.
If the mags did come a DHS officer who got hit with paint, then I’d have to wonder:
- What use do they foresee for live ammunition?
- Why were the mags left behind? (Seems reckless.)
- Where did the Molotov cocktails come from and why were they (supposedly) in the same bag?
- What use do they foresee for live ammunition?
- Why were the mags left behind? (Seems reckless.)
- Where did the Molotov cocktails come from and why were they (supposedly) in the same bag?
Your guess is as good as mine why a DHS officer would be carrying Molotov cocktails, but some of the potential explanations are deeply unsettling.
A few corrections, starting with the link to the mags. I pasted the wrong link in that tweet, but here's the product page for Magpul PMAGs: magpul.com/firearm-access…
I have severely undersold how much money has been invested in Colt weapons. DHS as a whole has spent a metric fuckton of money on Colt weapons in the last five years, including $3.9 million dollars on M4A1 rifles purchased by CBP in 2015.
Also:
- $1.25m on Colt weapons parts (ICE, 2017)
- $1.1m on Colt weapons parts (ICE, 2015)
- $700k on Colt firearm parts (ICE, 2015)
- $500k on Colt firearm parts (ICE, 2015)
More here: fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsp…
- $1.25m on Colt weapons parts (ICE, 2017)
- $1.1m on Colt weapons parts (ICE, 2015)
- $700k on Colt firearm parts (ICE, 2015)
- $500k on Colt firearm parts (ICE, 2015)
More here: fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsp…
Many people reasonably pointing out that the mags are very common and compatible with a wide range of AR style weapons:
My thinking runs in the other direction: it’s not that the magazine automatically means it was a particular gun, it’s that the preponderance of AR-style weapons at the protests appear to be carried by federal law enforcement, and those are the magazines that they would have. 🤷🏼♂️
😂
Another photo of an officer covered in paint:
Here’s video of CBP officers carrying rifles who have been hit with paint:
Here are some federal agents carrying rifles with the magazines visible who are covered in paint.
Close up of the magazine.
Twitch screen cap of a busted paint balloon from @ConcreteReports:
More paint pics:
Police were even confiscating orange paint:
Estimated cost of the ammunition at publicly available prices is $70-80, which seems unlikely to be randomly left behind by a civilian:
The original tweet from Portland police, which told a somewhat different story and was later changed:
Justice Department says they were also confiscating paint and sprayers:
Using paint was suggested two days ago on Reddit (probably not the first time, but garnered a lot of attention): reddit.com/r/Antifascists…
For everyone suggesting that the mags were painted intentionally:
This is a really good thread about propaganda and why obvious lies like this are put forth in the first place:
The detail about the location where the mags were supposedly discovered being across the street has stood out as unexplained to me, but here’s at least one point where feds ventured out:
Third picture here shows that some federal officers were carrying magazines attached to the front of their vests, which would put them in a position where they’d be easily splattered with paint:
Close up of the person on the left with a magazine attached to their vest:
Another piece of the puzzle, since the magazines don’t look like they’ve been cleaned—have to clean your face shield somehow!
The middle of this video appears to show feds with guns across the street in the park, circa 1:48:
Feds were carrying bags of equipment during physical altercations with protesters in the vicinity of the park, including (but not limited to) backpacks:
Someone with eagle eyes points out drips of what appears to be red-orange paint in the third photo from the Justice Department:
A close up. 🤯
There’s a lot more paint on the floor on the courthouse than I realized (second picture):
If there was a bag recovered, this would definitely be my bet how that happened:
The more I think about it...the original police tweet makes no mention of a bag, it just says they were recovered. Seems more likely the mags were left inside the courthouse near recovered items and assumed to have been recovered. The story changed later to sell the original lie.
Here’s why they want you to believe the mags are from protesters: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Here’s someone who figured out exactly where the magazines were being carried by feds who got hit with paint: open top mag pouches attached at the hip. 💯
Posted already, but adding this to the end of the thread because it partially confirms my conjecture above but highlights EXACTLY where the magazines were being carried by feds hit with paint:
This will surprise no one, but F o x * N e w s and even less reputable outlets like D a i l y * C a l l e r are using the supposed discovery of the magazines and ammunition to portray the protests as violent. I won’t link the articles here, but they’re not hard to find.
I really could not figure out what the jars would have been used for, but this makes some sense:
Higher resolution of the same photo depicting the open-top mag pouches carried by DHS police:
More on this strategy of creating disorder and painting protests as violent from @NYMag: nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Also B r e i t * b a r t and T h e * B l a z e. 🙄
This appears to be the magazine with the window (also a Magpul PMAG, but a slightly different model): magpul.com/pmag30ar-m4gen…
