Dana El-Kurd

The prosecution argued that they took quote unquote direct action against the ice facility and argued black block and Antifa ideology were central to how the alleged attack was carried out on quote.

The government described BlackBlock for the purposes of this case as, quote, dark clothing with head and face coverings that concealed their identities, designed to hide each individual's identity, but also to aid and abet those members engaged in illegal acts by making members indistinguishable from one another to law enforcement, unquote.

The jury was shown clothing from all the defendants as evidence, as well as body armor and a quote-unquote resist fascism flag.

Now, all this does raise the question about whether this prosecution is against the defendants' political ideology or the specific criminal acts of throwing fireworks or shooting at a police officer.

Rather than being convicted of being members of Antifa the terrorist group, something that still doesn't really have legal precedent, the prosecutors argued that the Antifa ideology, left-wing anti-authoritarianism, played a role in inspiring the defendants, formed the basis of political affinity that brought this collection of individuals together, and relates to a collection of security practices, subcultural practices, and associated tactics which were employed before, during, and after the criminal acts related to the noise demo.

Quote-unquote OPSEC practices like BlackBlocker using Signal were used as evidence that there was some sort of conspiracy at foot.

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, that makes sense from a prosecutorial standpoint, right?

These people are talking about like just the fact that there are zines talking about the purpose of black block and people are having a planning meeting ahead of time where they're like checking their gear and talking about how they're going to come in and block like, yeah, yeah, that's that's that's unfortunate.

Yeah, I can see why the prosecution went with that line of argument.

But how does this relate to, like, terrorism, right?

Because conspiracy and terrorism are different things.

Yes.

So to get an idea of the government's own preferred language regarding Antifa terrorism, I'll quote from the guilty plea drafted by the government for a former defendant turned government witness.

Quote,

The terrorism was calculated to influence and affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion.

Co-conspirators adhered to an Antifa anarchist ideology and organized cells or affinity groups.

Co-conspirators began planning direct action at Prairieland.

Co-conspirators agreed to dress in black block to provide cover for each other to commit crimes, including concealing the escape of those who committed destruction of government property, unquote.