News: How the extremist group Blood Tribe spreads racist conspiracies about Haitians in Ohio
16 september 2024 в 20:37
During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Donald Trump repeated an unfounded and sensational statement about Haitian immigrants in Ohio allegedly consuming dogs and other domestic animals. By Friday — just three days after the debate — bomb threats led to the evacuation and closure of public schools and municipal buildings for the second day in a row, leaving the residents of Springfield understandably frightened by violence and discrimination.
Despite the increasing violence, the Republican presidential candidate insists on his statements — supported by others such as Trump supporter Jay De Vans and billionaire Elon Musk — about Haitians, which his supporters eagerly accept in an attempt to demonize immigrants. «We will carry out the largest deportation in the history of our country», - Trump insisted. «And we will start with Springfield and Aurora».
Although Trump has become associated with these statements as if he came up with them himself, he was just an amplifier. Let’s look at the extremist group that took credit for creating and spreading this racist conspiracy.
Blood Tribe leader Christopher Polhaus noted on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, after the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. The neo-Nazi group «brought Springfield into the public consciousness», - wrote Polhaus, known to his followers as «Hammer», - on Telegram, according to NBC News.
«The president is talking about it now», - wrote one Blood Tribe member on Gab, a social network popular among the far right. «This is what real power looks like».
In late June, local Facebook groups in Ohio began posting messages that Haitian children were allegedly chasing geese and ducks. Over the next few weeks, a conspiracy emerged claiming that ducks and geese were disappearing and possibly being consumed by Haitian immigrants. The following month, Blood Tribe capitalized on these rumors, began posting them on Telegram and Gab, and spoke at some city meetings.
But this young man was already discussing this issue on August 27. He attended a city meeting to speak out.
He is the leader of the neo-Nazi group Blood Pride. pic.twitter.com/PcReF05muc
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 10, 2024
On August 10, about a dozen masked members of Blood Tribe, carrying banners with insignias, marched through the center of Springfield, calling it an «anti-Haitian march against immigration».
The debunked statement repeated by Trump and spread by the neo-Nazi group was also traced back to a post by Erika Lee, who wrote on Facebook about a neighbor’s missing cat. She added that the neighbor suspected that his Haitian neighbors had attacked the cat, NewsGuard reported.
NewsGuard, an internet misinformation monitoring watchdog, found that Lee was one of the first to post about the rumor, and screenshots of this post were circulated online before she deleted it.
«It just got out of hand, which I didn’t want», - Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.
Unlike Blood Tribe, Lee stated: «I am not a racist», - explaining that her daughter is half black and she herself is multicultural and a member of the LGBT community. «Everything seems to be turning into this, and it was not my intention»
Despite the increasing violence, the Republican presidential candidate insists on his statements — supported by others such as Trump supporter Jay De Vans and billionaire Elon Musk — about Haitians, which his supporters eagerly accept in an attempt to demonize immigrants. «We will carry out the largest deportation in the history of our country», - Trump insisted. «And we will start with Springfield and Aurora».
Although Trump has become associated with these statements as if he came up with them himself, he was just an amplifier. Let’s look at the extremist group that took credit for creating and spreading this racist conspiracy.
Blood Tribe leader Christopher Polhaus noted on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, after the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. The neo-Nazi group «brought Springfield into the public consciousness», - wrote Polhaus, known to his followers as «Hammer», - on Telegram, according to NBC News.
«The president is talking about it now», - wrote one Blood Tribe member on Gab, a social network popular among the far right. «This is what real power looks like».
In late June, local Facebook groups in Ohio began posting messages that Haitian children were allegedly chasing geese and ducks. Over the next few weeks, a conspiracy emerged claiming that ducks and geese were disappearing and possibly being consumed by Haitian immigrants. The following month, Blood Tribe capitalized on these rumors, began posting them on Telegram and Gab, and spoke at some city meetings.
But this young man was already discussing this issue on August 27. He attended a city meeting to speak out.
He is the leader of the neo-Nazi group Blood Pride. pic.twitter.com/PcReF05muc
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 10, 2024
On August 10, about a dozen masked members of Blood Tribe, carrying banners with insignias, marched through the center of Springfield, calling it an «anti-Haitian march against immigration».
The debunked statement repeated by Trump and spread by the neo-Nazi group was also traced back to a post by Erika Lee, who wrote on Facebook about a neighbor’s missing cat. She added that the neighbor suspected that his Haitian neighbors had attacked the cat, NewsGuard reported.
NewsGuard, an internet misinformation monitoring watchdog, found that Lee was one of the first to post about the rumor, and screenshots of this post were circulated online before she deleted it.
«It just got out of hand, which I didn’t want», - Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.
Unlike Blood Tribe, Lee stated: «I am not a racist», - explaining that her daughter is half black and she herself is multicultural and a member of the LGBT community. «Everything seems to be turning into this, and it was not my intention»
© Smirnova Olga
