Leader of Michigan white supremacist group sentenced to prison

By Edward Era Barbacena

The leader of The Base, a national white supremacist group that advocates for violence against the government, was sentenced to prison Tuesday after preparing for years to kill police and minorities in an effort to start a race war.

Justen Watkins, 25, of Bad Axe, was sentenced to 32 months - four years for conspiring to train for a civil disorder and a mandatory consecutive two years for a felony firearm charge by Judge Amy Gierhart of the Tuscola County Circuit Court.

One of the charges filed against Watkins, conspiring to train for a civil disorder, marked the first time a defendant has faced the felony in Michigan’s history.

The neo-Nazi organization embraced the idea of militant accelerationism, urging members to commit acts that will hasten society's downfall in the hopes of then building a white ethno-state, according to court documents.

The group's plans involved calling for police assistance to an area and then killing officers that arrived, according to sentencing documents 

“In the months prior to his arrest, Watkins conspired with his co-defendants to enhance their tactical capabilities and firearms proficiencies to engage in violence against minorities and the government in furtherance of a civil disorder," sentencing documents say. “Their concerted efforts included regularly conducting tactical firearms training, and hosting 'hate camps' for members of The Base and other like-minded individuals.”

“In late November 2019, as part of his in-real-life vetting, Watkins traveled to downtown Detroit where he walked around the city streets harassing and attempting to bait African-Americans into a physical altercation,” reads the document. “When exchanging messages with members of The Base about the night, Watkins described his actions as having 'harassed n*****s and called out race mixers.'"

Court documents also say members of The Base began to plan possible attacks against the headquarters of VICE News.

“I truly believe that we prevented a massacre of untold proportions by investigating in this case and moving in when we did,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said during a press conference Tuesday.

Watkins and a fellow neo-Nazi training with firearms (Attorney General's Office)

In October 2020, Watkins was charged in connection to a December 2019 incident in which a Dexter family was terrorized at their home after Watkins used intimidation tactics and posted messages to other members of The Base targeting the home.

From this incident, Watkins faced charges in Washtenaw County including gang membership, unlawful posting of a message and using computers to commit a crime.

After these charges, authorities found evidence that Watkins and two other members of The Base, Thomas Denton and Tristan Webb, entered two former and vacant Michigan Department of Corrections sites in the city of Caro a few weeks prior to the charges being filed.

The men assessed the properties as potential areas for paramilitary firearms training exercises, the Attorney General's Office said.

From this, Watkins was charged with one count larceny in a building, one count gang membership, one count conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder and one count felony firearm.

Webb pleaded no contest to gang membership, conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder and felony firearm on May 16.

Denton pleaded no contest to felony firearm and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder.

Founded in 2018, The Base is a white supremacy gang that advocates for violence against the U.S. and purports to be training for a race war to establish white ethno-nationalist rule in areas of the U.S., including Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Watkins claims to have been the leader of The Base and reportedly ran a "hate camp" for members to learn firearms training with the goal of being prepared for the violent overthrow of the government.

 

Anti-Marcos protests compose of pro-communist militants and Robredo's supporters  inside CHR compound turns chaotic while being dispersed by anti-riot police

 By Edward Era Barbacena

According to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), the rallyists were attempting to proceed to Batasang Pambansa where Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, would later proclaim Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the winner of the May 2022 presidential race.

The protesters were compose of the supporters of the defeated presidential candidate Leni Robredo and pro-communist militants.  It has been anticipated that these groups of Marcos antagonist will not accept the results of the election and would definitely protests against proclamations of Bongbong Marcos as president-elect  and Sara Duterte-Carpio as vice-president-elect.

According to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), the rallyists were attempting to proceed to Batasang Pambansa where Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, would later proclaim Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the winner of the May 2022 presidential race.

The protesters included human rights advocates who denounced the atrocities of martial rule, which was declared by Marcos Jr.’s father and namesake, Ferdinand Sr. on September 21, 1972. The Philippines was under martial law until Ferdinand Sr.’s administration was toppled by a bloodless uprising of Filipinos, who condemned the regime’s massive rights abuses and corruption, in 1986.

Police said an estimated 200 demonstrators were at Liwasang Diokno within the CHR compound in Diliman, Quezon City, where they are allowed to stage their activity since it is a freedom park or an area where political gatherings, rallies, and demonstrations may be held even without government permits.

But the NCRPO claimed the rallyists tried to go outside Liwasang Diokno purportedly to advance towards Batasang Pambansa. The NCRPO also claimed that “a brief scuffle ensued when a group of protesters who were denied passage along Commonwealth Avenue attacked police contingents.”

“Accordingly, protesters tried to kick and waggle the shields of the police force,” the police further claimed.

This incident, the NCRPO said, prompted firemen to bombard the protesters with water.

“Police officers did not retaliate from the violent actions of the rallyists. Unfortunately, the broken shields which are made out of plastic may have caused injury to anybody who has come in contact with it if applied with considerable force,” the police said.

The Philippine National Police backed the NCRPO narrative. It said that some participants of the proclamation day protest were dispersed and water cannoned because they kicked the police’s riot shields and caused traffic along Commonwealth Avenue.

The PNP also said in a separate statement that police exercised maximum tolerance on the demonstrators.

“The PNP exercises maximum tolerance in every mass action where police intervention is necessary. Nirerespeto po namin ang freedom of expression nila (We respect their freedom of expression) but they went overboard,” it said.

But human rights group Karapatan denied the story of the police, asserting that it was a peaceful gathering. It condemned the violent dispersal of their colleagues “in strongest possible terms.”

Citing reports of its health marshals, Karapatan said the protestors were hit with truncheons and shields and that at least 10 people from their ranks were wounded.

“We will not take these violations sitting down, and in the face of the looming return of the forces of tyranny and fascism, all the more that we will protest and resist any and all attempts to unleash the horrors of Marcosian martial law and State repression,” the group said.

The CHR, for its part, said Wednesday that it has deployed investigators to probe the incident.

It also expressed alarm over the methods used by the police in dispersing the protesters.

The CHR pointed out that using water cannons and carrying firearms during peaceful protests are prohibited under Batas Pambansa Blg. 880.

“CHR-National Capital Region and the Central Investigation Office have dispatched its lawyers and investigators early on in line with our mandate to monitor rallies and to investigate. The CHR-NCR lawyers explained to the police officers the intricacies of BP 880 urging them to practice maximum tolerance. In the same manner, they also talked with the leaders of the rallyists,” CHR Executive Director Jacqueline de Guia said.

“To prevent a similar incident in consecutive rallies, the CHR will communicate with the PNP regarding its initial findings and recommendations,” she added.

 

Cops hunt for NYC synagogue firebug

The arsonist definitely looks like a white woman

By Edward Era Barbacena

A woman who was obviously a caucasian ignited a book and piece of cloth and hurled it through the gate of a Gramercy Park synagogue, according to police, who released video footage of the alleged firebug.

The disturbing incident — which is being investigated as a hate crime — happened at 1:30 a.m. Thursday at the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park South, near 3rd Avenue, cops said.

There was no serious damage to the building, police said.

The NYPD late Friday night released a 16-second video clip seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspect, who ran off.

The clip shows the woman — who is dressed in all black and  wearing glasses, a white baseball hat and carrying a green shopping bag — walking on a sidewalk.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Saturday afternoon denounced the attempted arson.

“Any attack targeting a house of worship must be condemned in the strongest terms possible, with the alleged perpetrator apprehended swiftly to face the full force of the law,” CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement. “Americans of all faiths and backgrounds must join together in challenging the growing bigotry we are witnessing nationwide.”

 

Ferdinand 'Bongbong' officially proclaimed as the new and 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines

By Edward Era Barbacena

 Manila: Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was officially proclaimed the next Philippine president, the same position his dictator father and namesake occupied for 20 years before he was overthrown by Filipinos in a peaceful revolt in 1986.

The official canvass of votes by the joint congressional canvassing committee on Wednesday showed Marcos received 31,629,783 votes from nearly 60 percent of the electorate, commanding a landslide victory over his closest rival and defeated presidential hopeful Leni Robredo.

Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte will occupy the top two positions in the country for the next six years once their terms start on June 30.

'I want to do well'

Following the Congress' proclamation, Marcos vowed that his administration will be one that "strives for perfection."

"[To] have received over 31 million votes from our countrymen is as valuable [an] expression of trust as can be had by anyone in public life," Marcos said, adding he was "humbled" by the victory.

"I promise you, we may not be perfect, but we will always strive [for] perfection," he stated.

Marcos also sought the public's prayers so he could perform well as the next chief executive.

"I ask you all— pray for me. Wish me well. I want to do well. Because when a president does well, the country does well. And I want to do well for this country," he said.

Marcos' win came as no surprise since he had been the frontrunner in pre-election surveys despite having a significantly smaller attendance in his campaign rallies nationwide compared to the mammoth crowds at Robredo's events.

The result of the pre-elections surveys was immediately reflected in the first hours after voting precincts closed on the May 9 election day, which was hounded by complaints of by vote-buying and errors in over 1,000 vote-counting machines.

Despite Marcos' stunning rise to power, garnering nearly double the votes that outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte got in the 2016 election, ghosts from his and his family's past continue to hound him.

The impending return of another Marcos to Malacañang palace 36 years after the family fled the "people power" revolt against abuses committed by Ferdinand E. Marcos' regime has been a deeply divisive issue for Filipinos.

Source: CNN

200 decomposing bodies found in basement in Mariupol’s ruins

 

200 decomposing bodies found in basement in Mariupol’s ruins

By Edward Era Barbacena

The decomposing bodies of 200 people were found in the basement of a bombed-out apartment building in battered Mariupol, authorities said Tuesday, marking the latest in a series of dismal discoveries since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began three months ago.

Mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenk said local residents had refused Russian demands to collect the bodies of the dead, so Russia's Ministry of Emergencies left the bodies amid the rubble. 

International observers have accused Vladimir Putin's forces of deliberately targeting civilian buildings in their effort to crush Ukrainian resistance during the three-month-old conflict. 

The bodies were decomposing and the stench hung over the neighbourhood, said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor. He did not say when they were discovered, but the sheer number of victims makes it one of the deadliest known attacks of the war.

Heavy fighting, meanwhile, continued in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that Moscow´s forces are intent on seizing. Russian troops intensified their efforts to encircle and capture Sievierodonetsk and neighbouring cities.

Mariupol was relentlessly pounded during a nearly three-month siege that ended last week after some 2,500 Ukrainian fighters abandoned a steel plant where they had made their stand. Russian forces already held the rest of the city, where an estimated 100,000 people remain out a prewar population of 450,000, many of them trapped during the siege with little food, water, heat or electricity.

 

ARIZONA MAN HIT, DRAGGED AND RAN OVER BICYCLIST, THEN LEFT THE VICTIM TO DIE AS HE FLED THE AREA, POLICE SAID

By Edward Era Barbacena

A man in Arizona is accused of hitting a bicyclist and then leaving the man to die while he fled the area.

Fernando Ramos was arrested in Buckeye, Arizona, in connection to the May 21 incident, according to 12 News.

Police said Ramos was driving his truck on Jackrabbit Trail when he crashed into a bicyclist, dragged the victim along the road and then ran over him before fleeing.

The victim was identified as George Cooper, 60, according to 12 News.

Cooper was found dead at the scene and police said Ramos didn’t stop to help or call police, according to the report. Tipsters reported the suspect’s vehicle and Ramos was pulled over about 10 miles from the scene.

Ramos told officers he didn’t see Cooper when the crash happened, according to 12 News. He also said he panicked and called his wife multiple times.

Investigators said Ramos was speeding at the time of the wreck.

Ramos was arrested and faces charges of manslaughter and hit-and-run resulting in death or injury.

 

Chinatown senior attacked with bear spray in Vancouver 

By Edward Era Barbacena

Police in Vancouver, Canada are asking for the public’s help in tracking down a man who attacked a senior in Chinatown with a bear spray. The man appears to be a caucassian

The Vancouver Sun reports the unprovoked assault on the 87-year-old man may be racially motivated.

“Every indication is that this incident was completely unprovoked and may have been fuelled by anti-Asian hate,” said Const. Tania Visintin, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver police.

CBC reports that investigators accuse the suspect of making racial slurs and attacking the man during his morning walk Friday morning. Visintin described the victim as traumatized but not seriously injured.

Police are also investigating whether the incident may be connected to the spraying of offensive graffiti on the nearby Sun Yat-Sen memorial. Someone scrawled the word “shhhh” across the statue, considered by some a response to the increased outspokenness of the community to anti-Asian attacks.

“People who live and work in Chinatown deserve to feel safe, valued, and respected,” adds Constable Visintin. “Violent and unprovoked attacks, rampant graffiti, and street disorder are appalling, and these incidents continue to erode peoples’ sense of safety.”

Police are looking for a man 30-40-years old who is about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a black jacket, dark-coloured pants, a grey baseball cap, grey shoes with red trim and white soles and was carrying a black backpack.

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