WEBVTT - Episode 7: The Lost Cause 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.040 Before we get into it, be advised that this series 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:16.960 contains bad language and references to violence. It's a sunny 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.279 day in downtown Portland, Oregon, but the air is thick 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:28.080 with tension. It's August and I am outside of Portland 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:36.239 Police Headquarters Center, jostling bodies packed the street. There are 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.360 men in black helmets and kevlar vest's openly carrying a 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.280 R fifteens, bikers with MAGA flags draped from their motorcycles, 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.839 Proud boys and oathkeepers and gas masks in bandanas who 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:54.080 have formed a battle lie. Their wooden shields are painted 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:59.800 with pro Trump and quan On slogans. I'm here to 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.000 her a far right rally. The Facebook event declared it 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:07.840 the mother of all Back the Blue rallies. Portland has 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.520 been ground zero for far right street violence over the 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:17.480 last few months. I'm filming on my phone wearing a 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.200 vest and a helmet labeled PRESS, but I know that 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.679 won't be enough to protect me. Some anti fascist demonstrators 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.520 in Black Lives Matter T shirts start a counter chant 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:36.720 with drums. They're outnumbered, but they square off with their opponents. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:39.800 I'm right in the thick of it. I to eye 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.640 with a bearded proud boy named Alan Swinney who threatens 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.400 to maze me. He's kind of a local celebrity in 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.480 Portland fascist circles. Later today he'll pull a gun on 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:57.680 a BLM activist. Someone throws a jug of orange juice 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:03.040 into the crowd and things escalate a back the blue 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.560 supporter hurls smoke bombs and improvised flash bangs into the crowd. 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.200 Four right wingers start beating an unarmed man with baseball bats. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.000 A line of proud boys charges at the anti fascist protesters. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.600 People are knocked to the ground, and oath keepers pile in, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:35.440 kicking and spraying mace. Out of nowhere, a proud boy 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.960 with a blue shield and blasted with God Bless America 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.000 runs right at me. He smashes the phone out of 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:47.240 my hands with a police baton. I double over. My 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:52.120 hand is broken into places. I confront my attacker, holding 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.680 up my bloody hand. He attempts and fails to knock 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.880 me back with his shield. It's a thousand persons street 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.320 fight ten feet in front of Portland police headquarters, but 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.359 no arrests are made. In fact, law enforcement never moved 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.520 in on the crowd. The closest they get to riot 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.320 control is an officer parked outside in nearby Starbucks. He 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:25.200 tells the protesters to play an ice from inside his car. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:35.480 Just over four months later, on January six, many of 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.200 the far right activists who honed their tactics on the 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.280 streets of Portland while police look the other way, will 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:51.119 make their way to the capital. Last episode, we heard 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.120 the stories of officers who fought tooth and nail against 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.080 the rioters. This time we meet the cops on the 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.600 opposite side of the battle lines. At least twenty current 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.360 or former members of law enforcement have been charged with 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.360 crimes related to the January six insurrection. Even more have 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:13.000 been suspended, dismissed, or are currently under investigation by their 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:18.080 local department. Even the Capitol Police themselves, the officers charged 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.000 with defending the building, have placed over thirty five officers 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.720 under investigation and suspended at least six. The vast majority officers, 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.159 like Harry Dunn and Sergeant Gonell fought heroically, but a 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.640 small number put their arms around rioters and posed for selfies. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.320 Patriots are taking selfeast together with Capitol police inside the 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:42.320 Capitol or they beckoned the invaders into the Capitol building. 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.640 Urging them on, and the so called patriots loved it. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.880 Police are doing nothing. They're not even trying to stop. 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.960 At this point, I've seen for myself the way police 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.520 handle far right groups like the Proud Boys and local 0:04:53.560 --> 0:05:00.360 militias is decidedly hands off. The question is why, Because 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.200 there's no doubt about it. This permissiveness of right wing violence, 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.599 which stretches back decades, was a key ingredient in the 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.800 toxic stew that led to January six. So it's time 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.400 to address one of the scariest questions about the riot. 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.800 How comes so many cops were part of the mob. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.480 From the team's at Cool Zone Media, I Heart Radio 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:27.200 and novel This is the Assault on America Episode seven, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:57.200 The Lost Cause m the first Black Lives rally in 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.440 Rocky Mount I was very impressed with the number of 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:07.720 people that came out that day, children, older people, young 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:14.120 black people, young white people, older black people, older white people. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.960 Penny Edwards Blue grew up in Franklin County in the 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.920 foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. She moved back after 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.159 a career in tech and is now the only black 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.640 member of the local school board. She's describing a rally 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.159 that took place in June in Rocky mount a rural 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.120 town in Franklin of about five thousand people. It was 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.919 Rocky Mounts first ever b l M turnout and it 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:45.520 was a good one. The sun was shining. People out 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.479 with signs. Everyone was very nice to each other. When 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.719 cars passed by and they saw the signs. Most people 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.400 hank and the sheriff spoke and he also had a 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.599 black deputy speak. There was a sense of determination but 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.640 also elation. There was dancing. Do you remember that rash 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.440 of videos in early twenty of cops dancing at b 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:23.560 l M rally's everybody, Well, it happened here too. As 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:25.600 they moved on to the next part of the march, 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:32.640 they did dis dancing. Police officers and protesters did the 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:40.040 electric slide sidestepping in Unison, next to the Farmer's Market. 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.360 The police department handed out water bottles, and as the 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.360 afternoon wore on, an officer brought the protesters McDonald's Happy 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.680 Meals and pizza. One of the dancing protesters was a 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.880 young hairdresser named Bridget Craighead. Bridget founded the local Black 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.679 Lives Matter chapter and asked Penny him mentor her. After 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.040 the protest, Bridget was brimming with optimism about the reception 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.400 they'd had from the cops. She thought she had made 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.760 a breakthrough because these cops were dancing with her. What 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:16.040 do you have to understand about history is they did 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:21.440 that during slavery. The master's children played with the slave children. 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.760 Yet when they grew up, they treated them as slaves 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.880 and treated them harshly. Just because someone is dancing with 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.560 you and smiling with you and have on a conversation 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.079 with you does not mean they have your best interest 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:42.360 at heart. In a photo from the rally, Bridget stands 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.280 side by side with two police officers. Sergeant Thomas T. J. 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.439 Robertson has a wide, clean shaven face. Officer Jacob Fracker 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.520 has dark sunglasses and a goatee. They all hold signs 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:59.640 painted with slogans just us isn't justice and silence equals violence? 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:13.960 Police and the People United. Everyone is smiling. Seven months later, 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:18.600 on January six, a very different image finds its way 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:25.960 onto the Internet. It's another selfie featuring officers Fracker and Robertson, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.440 but this time they're not smiling. This time, the two 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.000 cops are glaring down at the camera, they look angry 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.560 and hyped up. Fracker is flipping his middle finger. Behind 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.959 them looms a white marble statue of the revolutionary general 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:45.200 John Stark. There's only one place they could be, the 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.720 Statuary Hall in the heart of the US Capital. They've 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.400 traveled there from Virginia to join the riot. The picture 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.760 shoots around Rocky Mount, lighting up phones and computer screens 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.080 all around town. Within a week of the riot, it 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:04.000 all hell breaks loose tonight Tonight to Rocky Mount police 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.319 officers are on administrative leave and are being investigated by 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:12.720 federal authorities. Protesters going head to head outside the Rocky 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:21.679 Mount Town Council meeting Monday night on January Frecker and 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:26.360 Robertson are arrested on federal charges after a public outcry. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.680 They lose their jobs at Rocky Mount's tiny police department, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.560 and at the time of recording there awaiting trial. But 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.840 the story doesn't end there because the case of officers 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.000 Frecker and Robertson has split their community right down the middle. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.000 There are those in Rocky Mount who are a gas 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.200 that two of their officers invaded the US capital, and 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.680 there are many others who think that the Justice Department 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.600 is being over zealous and prosecuting two cops with previously 0:10:55.640 --> 0:11:00.280 spotless records. So who are these police officers who dance 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.079 with BLM one day and attack democracy the next? What 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:09.839 do they have to say for themselves? It's very rare 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:16.480 if you're a journalist to have a police officer readily 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:21.440 answer your questions. This is Mike Allen, a journalist who 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.559 lives near Rocky Mount. He works for The Roanoke Times, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:29.000 where he covers politics in Franklin County. Franklin County has 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:34.280 a kind of colorful reputation. Its nickname is the Moonshine 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.800 Capital of the World. Mike loves the history of Franklin 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.720 County so much that he has quite literally bought the 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.560 T shirt. I'm not wearing it right now though. When 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.240 it came out the two Rocky Mount police officers had 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.800 invaded the capital, Mike was quick to get in touch. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.760 To his surprise, Sergeant Robertson and Officer Fracker were willing 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:57.360 to speak. T J. Robertson was very eager to expound 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.920 on his side of the story. Jacob was it first 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.679 a bit more cautious, but later he also communicated with 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:12.439 me and My impression, for what it is worth, is 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.360 that both of these fellows were absolutely convinced that they 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.600 had done nothing wrong. How could two police officers charged 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.520 with upholding the law failed to understand that storming the 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.920 seat of American democracy is a no no legally speaking? 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.480 The answer, as is so often the case, lies in 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:38.480 the trail of their social media communications. In November, following 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.000 the presidential election and the rollout of Ali Alexander's Stopped 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.240 the Steel campaign, which we covered an episode two, t J. 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.760 Robertson became increasingly outspoken on Facebook. His words here, as 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.480 laid out in his FBI indictments, are spoken by an 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:57.680 actor being disenfranchised by fraud is my hardline. I sent 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.320 most of my adult life fighting encountering sir agency. I'm 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.080 about to become part of one, and a very effective one. 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.520 Like his colleague, Officer Fracker, Sergeant T J. Robertson is 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.199 a military veteran who has done tours in both Iraq 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:19.840 and Afghanistan. When Robertson talks about insurgencies, he's not getting around. 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.800 Civility has left me. I'm tired of always taken the 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.880 high road and being beat by those who cheat, lie, 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.480 and steal the win and then allow their media to 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.599 paint me as the bad guy. I won't be disenfranchised. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:42.000 I'll follow the path our founders gave us. Redressed grievances, 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:49.320 already done civil disobedience here now, and then open armed rebellion. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.480 I spent the last ten years fighting an insurgency in 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.920 Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm prepared to start one here and 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:03.600 know a bunch of like minded and rained individuals. On 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.320 Monday January four, two days before the riot, he writes, 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.560 I'll be in d C Wednesday to peacefully protest. The 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:17.079 day after we shall see. So how did the peaceful 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.400 protests turn out? Jacob Fracker and T. J. Robertson went 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:27.080 into the capital in about the middle of the time 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.280 of greatest turmoil, though they both told me in interviews 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.080 that they didn't see any violence happening around them. As 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.880 they went in. Fracker would message a friend that he 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.040 was the eighth person inside the capitol. If this is true, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.560 it would be pretty astounding if he saw no violence 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.480 against police on his way in, But Francker and Robertson 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.360 have always maintained that they weren't involved in any violence. 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:57.320 They simply walked in and walked out. They really really 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.400 took pains to convey to me as they saw it, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:07.200 all they had done was take part in a peaceful protest. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.120 Anybody who's familiar with the case who hears me say that, 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.320 is immediately going to think about some of the things 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.400 that both of these men posted on social media that 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:25.560 actually sound very militant and like they are advocating for violence. 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.160 But they swore that they had done nothing wrong, that 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.360 they were just participating in a protest. On January eight, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.840 Robertson took to Facebook to celebrate his participation in the 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:42.520 peaceful protest from two days before the next revolution started 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:47.560 in d C. One six one. The only voice these 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:53.560 people will now listen to is violence, So respectfully, buckle 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.720 armor or just stay at home. The word violence in 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.240 that post, by the way, is it all caps? And 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.480 there's more. The picture of senators cowering on the floor 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.320 with genuine fear on their faces is the most American 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:13.440 thing I've seen in my life. Wants for real, you 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.560 people actually realize who you work for. For his part, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.640 Officer Fracker shared a video with friends on Facebook saying 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.360 that he hadn't been that hyped up since Afghanistan. For 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.200 good measure, he added ship was wild l O l 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:33.840 I Piston, Nancy ps toilet. T J. Robertson told me 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:40.920 that those statements were essentially meant to be editorial statements 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.440 or hyperbole or you know, sort of cheering for the team, 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.320 that they weren't supposed to be taken literally. People obviously 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.920 have their own opinions about that, and you'll probably have 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.960 your own opinion about this too. The most recent development, 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:03.040 which is kind of mind boggling, is that T. J. Robertson, 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.760 after he was released on bond under conditions that he 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:14.240 not possess any guns, proceeded to buy more than thirty 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:21.959 guns online and have them shipped to a gun dealer 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:27.159 essentially in Romano, as well as receipts for thirty four guns. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.280 The police found a partially constructed pipe bomb in Robertson's home. 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.199 He claims he owned it for police training purposes. Whatever 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.159 the case, his bail has been revoked and he is 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:42.440 awaiting trial from prison. The Rocky Mount Police force is small, 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.080 about twenty officers strong, and the fact that two of 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.160 them have allegedly been planning an insurgency online and I'm 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.879 asking weapons while out on bail. It's scary stuff. And 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.120 the unavoidable truth is that it's scarier for Black Americans 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.200 than it is for white Americans. Of coy Sarbotica and 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:02.200 eariler this year, and I put cameras around my house. 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.600 Penny Blue, who was at Rocky Mounts first BLM event, 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.960 sees the Capital riot as a racist event, a largely 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.399 white crowd protesting election results from largely black areas, egged on, 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.199 as she sees it, by an overtly racist president. She 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.639 recognizes the dynamics clearly enough from her own childhood growing 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:26.720 up in the sixties in Franklin County. Back then, she 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:28.919 and a couple of other kids were the first black 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:34.399 students in the newly integrated schools. Certain elements of the 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:40.000 local community were less than welcoming. The KKK burnt across 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.399 in another family's yard that had sent their children to 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.879 the white school system. So my dad went to visit 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.000 them and talked to him, and then he came back 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.439 and went to the Union Hall store where the guys 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.280 sit around and talk and share news, and he basically 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.040 said he heard it was a cross burning and these 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.840 people's yards last night he said, I just want everybody 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.520 to know if it's some white sheets in my yard 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.080 that's not on Helen's line, they will be full of 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:14.040 bullet holes. Today, Penny still feels under threat in her 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:21.960 own community. Remember the BLM rally from earlier. While Penny 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.320 Blue and Rocky Mount residents were peacefully demonstrating, the local 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.399 militia had just out of you, armed and watching. We 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.000 have pictures of the militia that was right down the streets. 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.560 So we had children and grandparents out there that day 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.480 and they had the militia with guns across the street. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.199 If the militia had been visible at my rally, that 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.640 would have concerned me very much. Militia groups like these 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.359 often claim that they're turning up to keep everyone safe 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.199 and make sure things stay calm, because what's more calming 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.800 than a troop of anonymous white gunman shadowing a BLM protest. 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.760 And the way Penny sees it, these militia groups are 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.200 driven by the same forces that took officers for Racker 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.600 and Robertson to the capital on January six. And I'm 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.199 not talking about online radicalization or the ratcheting power of 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.320 social media, which pushes people towards evermore extreme beliefs. I'm 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.160 talking about something much deeper. Most people need to understand 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.359 their history a little better. If you understood your history 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.720 a little better, then you would understand a lot more 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.560 of what's going on today. A lot of people talk 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.440 about the Confederate flag and it being in the capital 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.040 and that being such a big deal. We're living in 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.280 Franklin County. We see the Confederate flag all the time. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.000 Penny volunteers at the book Or T. Washington National Monument 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:44.160 in Franklin County. It's the estate and a farmhouse where 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.320 Booker T. Washington, the educator and author, was born into slavery. 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.720 I have learned that success is to be measured not 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:53.960 so much by the position that one has reached in 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.320 life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:00.560 trying to succeed. Penny spends her free time dressed up 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.280 as Washington's mother, giving history lessons to visitors. For her, 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:06.959 the Capital riot is just the latest iteration of an 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:10.679 ancient battle that's always been part of the story of America. 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.199 Those who backed the January sixth rioters say the storming 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.080 of the Capitol had nothing to do with racism. Penny 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.840 argues that a casual glance back at the history books 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:24.320 reveals some striking parallels. It amazed me the number of 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.879 people that tried to tell me that the Civil War 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:32.640 was not about slavery, and when you have the conversation, oh, 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.480 it was about states rights. Yes, states rights to own slaves. 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.920 The idea that the Civil War wasn't actually about slavery 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.439 is known as the Lost Cause narrative. It paints the 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.480 Confederate States as heroic and erases the horrors of the 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.000 slave trade. According to Lost Cause mythology, enslaved people were 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.360 happy and even grateful to their Antebellum masters. It's basically 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:02.000 lying about history. I had that to the insurrection because 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.679 they show it on TV in the news almost on 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:10.800 a daily basis. Yet Congress, people who one day or 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.359 fraid for their lives now are saying it was just 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.040 people that were visiting the capital on January six. I 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.159 never felt threatened. I didn't. Watching the TV footage of 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.960 those who entered the capital and walked through Statuary Hall, 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.320 I knew those are people that love this country. If 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:28.800 you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.240 Even though we can see it with our own eyes. 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.520 It's trying to rewrite history. It wasn't. It wasn't an 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:40.520 armed invasion by a brigade of dangerous white supremacists. Those 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:46.040 are wise. So this is why Penny was unsurprised to 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.240 learn that two local cops would be joining the far 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:52.000 right throng at the insurrection. To her, it's just the 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.000 natural evolution of the deeply rooted beliefs. A lot of 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.000 people in her community hold Trump did not have to 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:04.240 radicalize anyone. They learned this from birth. All he did 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:07.680 was take advantage of what was there. And I don't 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.840 want to speak anything into existence, but just to say, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.000 I am not surprised that Donald Trump was elected. I 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.760 am not surprised about the insurrection, and I don't know 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:29.400 what the next things will be. The events in Franklin 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.160 County are a microcosm of modern America. Cops going bad, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:35.680 society at each other's throats, and right at the heart 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:38.960 of it all too competing narratives, not just about the election, 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:43.159 but about America's history and this kid glove treatment of 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:45.440 the far right. It doesn't just happen in small town 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.159 p d s or during BLM. Proud boy clashes in 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:52.920 major cities. It also happens at a policy level, right 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:56.040 at the very top. Someone who has seen this firsthand 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:59.840 is a security expert named Darryl Johnson. Like Penny Blue, 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.200 Arroll wasn't remotely surprised by the events of January six. 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.399 He comes from a conservative Mormon family in Utah and 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:09.160 on paper, has a background that wouldn't have sounded out 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.080 of place at the Capitol on January six. But Darrell 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:16.040 has dedicated his career to confronting right wing domestic extremism. 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.320 He's a former analyst at the Department for Homeland Security. 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:22.919 Today he runs a consulting firm called dt Analytics, and 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:25.080 the reason he no longer works for the DHS is 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:28.320 quite a story. When I sat down with Darryll, he 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:30.840 told me that groups like the Franklin County Militia follow 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:33.560 the pattern he's seen playing out nationally with other far 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:37.760 right militias like the Oathkeepers. These people are recruited with 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:40.560 specialized skill sets that they've learned in the military and 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:45.000 police forces. They have access to investigative information as well as, 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:49.479 you know, maybe classified information, so it poses a unique threat, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:55.040 an insider threat or counterintelligence threat. Just to be clear, 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.639 there's been no implication that Jacob Fracker and t. J. 0:24:57.800 --> 0:25:00.840 Robertson were members of the Oath Keepers, but their rhetoric 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:03.439 on social media bears a lot of similarities to the 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:07.080 idea that the militiamen subscribed to. Plus, you know, Robertson 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:09.200 bought thirty four guns while out on bail and banned 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:11.399 from owning a firearm. I think a lot of militia 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:16.080 guys would approve These anti government militia groups are getting 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:20.480 more agitated and more active and been arming themselves for 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:23.679 the past couple of decades, and they are definitely the 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:27.399 most capable of conducting a mass act of violence just 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:30.040 with the sheer amount of weaponry that they hoard an 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:34.480 ammunition that they've stockpiled. This is a threat as old 0:25:34.480 --> 0:25:38.480 as America itself. Darryl has seen the far right recruiting 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:41.800 people with military and law enforcement experience many times across 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:44.680 his career. Darryl knows as well as anyone what can 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:50.000 happen when trained soldiers become extremists. Chaos in downtown Oklahoma 0:25:50.080 --> 0:25:52.639 City after what police believed to be a twelve hundred 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:55.600 pound car bomb ripped through the nine story Federal Building 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:00.680 in Timothy McVeigh, a decorated U. S. Army teran, murdered 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:03.119 one hundred and sixty eight people when he detonated a 0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:06.560 homemade fertilizer bomb at the Alfred Piemura Federal Building in 0:26:06.600 --> 0:26:10.440 Oklahoma City, and in its shadow the exhausted, who for 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:12.720 a day and a half now have sifted through its 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:17.480 debris and counted it's dead and seen up close why 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:22.159 they call it terror. Darrell witnessed the aftermath of that 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:26.520 terror firsthand when he visited the wreckage soon after. The 0:26:26.560 --> 0:26:30.439 makeshift memorial will still up with the various notes and 0:26:30.560 --> 0:26:34.880 flowers and teddy bears tied to the fencing. The candlelight 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:39.400 vigils were still laying on the sidewalks, and I made 0:26:39.400 --> 0:26:42.080 a commitment to myself that I would do anything I 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:46.200 could to try to prevent the next terrorist attack, either 0:26:46.280 --> 0:26:51.040 against the military overseas or here at home. McVeigh was 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:54.879 a veteran and an anti government white supremacist. The bombing 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:58.520 triggered a major crackdown on right wing extremists by federal authorities. 0:27:00.680 --> 0:27:03.800 The Department of Justice, the FBI, a t F and 0:27:03.880 --> 0:27:09.440 others disrupted many plots, rounded up key leaders on conspiracy 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:13.639 and other charges and disrupted these groups and movements, and 0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:16.720 it worked. According to data from bipartisan think tank the 0:27:16.760 --> 0:27:20.760 Center for Strategic and International Studies, in nine there were 0:27:20.800 --> 0:27:23.760 forty three major right wing terrorist attacks and plots in 0:27:23.800 --> 0:27:28.240 the USA, around eight of all terrorist incidents. By two 0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:31.880 thousand two, that felt a fifteen with only four right 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:35.240 wing plots or attacks, And as the right wing terror 0:27:35.280 --> 0:27:43.719 threat declined, eleven came along. Suddenly the state security apparatus 0:27:43.760 --> 0:27:48.280 was throwing everyone at combating Islamic extremism, everyone apart from 0:27:48.359 --> 0:27:51.119 one guy. When I arrived at Homeland Security, I was 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:54.680 actually the only person at the Office of Intelligence Analysis 0:27:55.040 --> 0:27:57.960 monitoring this threat that's right in the middle ots. The 0:27:58.000 --> 0:28:02.160 Department of Homeland Security had just person analyzing far right threats. 0:28:02.680 --> 0:28:05.200 And you know, the crazy thing is the Oklahoma City 0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:08.159 bombing hadn't really been all that long ago. But in 0:28:08.200 --> 0:28:13.800 two thousand eight, two things happened that changed everything. Barack Obama, 0:28:14.080 --> 0:28:17.800 forty seven years old, will become the President elect of 0:28:17.920 --> 0:28:21.680 the United States, but now tumbled more than five hundred points. 0:28:21.720 --> 0:28:24.720 After two pillars of the Street tumbled over the weekend. 0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:27.680