By David Neiwert

"This week’s arrest of a 26-year-old Texas “Boogaloo Boi” for opening fire on a Minneapolis police station with a semiautomatic rifle, and later participating in an act of arson against the station, confirmed what many observers of the violence surrounding the protests against police brutality that followed the May 25 murder of George Floyd already knew: That far-right extremists have been initiating violence and property destruction at the scenes of the protests in hopes of inflaming racial tensions and provoking an all-out civil war, in part by blaming the “violent left” for the chaos.

"The FBI this week arrested Ivan Harrison Hunter of San Antonio for traveling to Minnesota in late May and engaging in violence about which he later boasted on Facebook. Hunter, according to the affidavit filed Monday, was also in contact with another Boogaloo Boi—Steven Carrillo, the California man who murdered a federal officer at an Oakland protest and a sheriff’s deputy five days later—and the two bragged to each other about their respective violent acts. Moreover, the two men had formed a so-called “fire team”—an action squad designed to respond with violence in the event of police attempting to take people’s guns away. They named it the “Happy Friends Group.”

"Though Hunter had sworn he would “go down shooting,” FBI agents arrested him this week in San Antonio without incident, and he made his first court appearance Thursday.

"The affidavit says that Hunter traveled from Texas to Minneapolis on May 27 at the behest of other Boogaloo activists in the state, who put out a national call for help on Facebook. Hunter was in contact with another Boogaloo Boi, Ryan Teeter of North Carolina, who also traveled from his home state to Minnesota. That day, Teeter posted to Facebook: "Lock and load boys. Boog flags are in the air, and the national network is going off."

"The FBI says that on the evening of May 28, Hunter fired off multiple rounds from a rifle resembling an AK-47, then ran away shouting: “Justice for Floyd!”

"The next day, he boasted on Facebook that he had participated in setting the building on fire. “I helped the community burn down that police station,” he wrote, later adding: “I didn’t’ protest peacefully Dude ... Want something to change? Start risking felonies for what is good.”

[dailykos.com]