A bassist in an anarchist rock band drew law enforcement’s attention when he posted a Facebook photoshoot with a mock Molotov cocktail. Had he just been an alcoholic instead of a daily pot user, the feds wouldn’t have anything to charge him with: huffpost.com/entry/anarchis…
The defendant and his band also posted a bunch of memes poking fun at conservative beliefs about Antifa: huffpost.com/entry/anarchis…
There was a whole press conference on this case today. Not much of the coverage seems to reflect the fact that this all stems from a photoshoot for a band. jacksonsun.com/story/news/202…
Amid a lot of criticism of cops, Justin Coffman also praised the Jackson Police Department’s handling of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. They raided his place days later. huffpost.com/entry/anarchis…
He also made some posts about DOJ, the Proud Boys, and the NYPD:
This all sounds a lot scarier if you leave out the pretty critical information that “The Gunpowder Plot” is the name of the guy’s band, and that “the threat” was a staged Facebook photo shoot with a vague caption that certainly doesn’t constitute a direct threat!
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NEW: I spoke with the anarcho-punk band bassist currently in jail after a Trump appointee charged him over a bag of weed. He says the FBI special agent who interviewed him back in June didn’t care about the pot, but did question him about Antifa. huffpost.com/entry/trump-ba…
Critically, the images Justin Coffman posted to his band’s Facebook page (that brought him to the FBI’s attention) were photographed BEFORE George Floyd’s death. They were meant for an album cover. The “Molotov cocktail”? Full of apple cider vinegar. huffpost.com/entry/trump-ba…
The charges were announced at at press conference by @USAttyDunavant, who declined an interview request for this story and didn’t respond to a number of questions I emailed. Here he is at a 2018 Trump rally in Tennessee, when he was U.S. Attorney. huffpost.com/entry/trump-ba…
AG William Barr attacks “cowardly politicians who do not support their police forces” and “a deceitful national media that seizes on a relatively few incidents to scapegoat police and cultivate a false narrative that our police are systemically evil.” justice.gov/opa/speech/rem…
Barr: “We have been pouring massive resources for many decades into social programs designed to address the root causes of crime, without much success... the same old failed programs... frequently perpetuate the problems by subsidizing bad behavior or creating deeper dependency.”
AG Barr, at the Major Cities Chiefs Association Conference, claims that “No one is more focused on reducing [instances of excessive force] than the leaders in this room.”
He also claims that instances of “deliberate, cold blooded excessive force are rare and becoming rarer.”
In case you missed it: Here’s how a Facebook photo shoot for an anarchist-themed band led to a marijuana-related federal charge touted by William Barr’s Justice Department: huffpost.com/entry/anarchis…
Both the federal affidavit and the DOJ press release mention “The Gunpowder Plot” Facebook page without noting that it is a Facebook page for a band, and that this was pretty clearly a staged photoshoot. huffpost.com/entry/anarchis…
“Francis criticized world governments for their ‘very weak’ response to the climate crisis. In June, he issued guidance for carrying out his climate encyclical that included calling on Catholics to divest themselves of investments in fossil fuel companies” insideclimatenews.org/news/06082020/…
A lot of people are going to send out bad tweets about this. Don’t be one of them. There’s far too little accountability for crimes committed against people in jail. huffpost.com/entry/baby-sha…
This isn’t a “bad apples” story. You had two 21-year-old corrections officers torturing inmates and a 50-year-old supervisor who did nothing about it. Points to a broken culture and major systemic issues. oklahoman.com/article/567324…
"The inmates was forced to stand the entire time, hands cuffed behind them and secured to the wall… Some inmates were in the room as long as two hours.” oklahoman.com/article/567324…