The Who’s Who of Back the Blue
Here are the not-so-lovely faces that attended the Back the Blue event on Saturday, July 25th at the EX monument of the dead racist colonizer Columbus. The following is a brief analysis of their messaging and rhetoric, their goals for their campaign and actions, and some of the general trajectories of their movement. We feel it is important to observe the movement and well as note some of the key players.
The organization that created this rally is called Back the Blue Events on Facebook. They are a grassroots movement to “support law enforcement officers”. They have recently received a surge of energy as a reaction to the demoralization experienced by the police and their supporters after the Decolonize Zhigaagoong event in Chicago and the #defundthepolice movement more generally. Their crowd was full of maskless MAGA Trump heads, and their speakers ranted about right wing cultural issues and about how much they hate their opposition, which includes Antifa, the marxist mob, Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx, and they cried about their statue being taken down. What they didn’t talk about at all is the history or why Columbus was significant to them. Their solutions for the problems of gun violence involve more cops and keeping people locked up in Cook County Jail, an epicenter of Covid-19. They did talk about making the city great again though and voting Trump/Pence in again. This was a spectacle for their dumb white suburban MAGA supporter base.
However, we don’t at all believe they are a harmless organization at all, as you will see, people in the Back the Blue movement both online and in person have threatened violence and have connections to far right militias such as the 3 Percenters. You can also see a number of militia looking types with no badges displayed, mingling with CPD. In their speeches, they use dog whistles to communicate their deeper intentions with supporting the police, most obviously with reference to the ex-statue, a symbol of colonization, anti-indigeneity and the myth of discovery. They also focus on gang violence, a classic failed war-on-drugs talking point in which their solutions are nothing but increased policing, the logic that led to the mass incarceration of mostly black folk and other people of color. It is our opinion that they know this, and they know Black Lives Matter is showing the world how irrelevant and harmful their worldview is, hence their expressed position of ideological opposition to BLM and perhaps related groups / ideologies, like antifascists and anarchists who oppose them in the streets and the socialists who oppose them in elections, etc. They never take seriously the goals, demands, ideas of the movement for Black Lives at all, such as in Chicago, the demand for CPAC. This is why it is also important to unravel a lot of what their speakers are saying so that we may better understand their group’s internal language, goals and trajectories.
If anyone has any additional juicy info on any of these individuals or groups they represent , please email us at shieldwallchicago AT cryptolab.net
This is all gathered via publicly available footage that the blue lifers themselves uploaded to Youtube for all to see their stupid faces. There is also a full video of their event by Sputnik media and Ruptly.
This is the event page for the rally that Back the Blue is hosting at the Freedom Square (Homan Square Black Site). Here are their scheduled speakers.
About the Black Site which has been a hotbed of illegal detainments and torture committed by CPD and special units
https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/25/freedom-square-activists-imagine-public-safety-without-police-near-homan-square-black-site/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/05/homan-square-chicago-thousands-detained
WHOS WHO IN BACK THE BLUE
Richard Poisso
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/richard.poisso.9
Link to his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMeRmTQnyRaXzZIffIip3Kw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En1iwrjDHVc
This specimen uploaded multiple videos to Youtube about this the July 25th Back the Blue event, including one where he did a virtual check in before he does security detail as part of TRT Defense, an independent security group, in which he says was requested of him by the Back the Blue event organizers. In this same video, he says that some of his crew went down to Louisville to join the 3 Percenters to counter the NFAC. The 3 Percenters are a paramilitary organization based on the idea that the American Revolution was fought for by the 3% of the population that took up arms. They notoriously were at the neo nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
On his Facebook, he makes joke posts about protesters getting run over by cars, and he frequently posts COVID-19 conspiracy theories, where he cites Plandemic and argues that the Democratic Party may have created covid19 to take Trump down.
possible cell phone # (318) 442-7444
Here he is at the rally. He is taking a photo with Alderman Nicholas Sposato of the 38th Ward.
AAAAND here are the organizers of this back the poo event.
Left to Right, Christine Shannahan, Tina (?) and Ashley Ramos
Ashley Chalupa Ramos
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/ashley.c.ramos.14?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDoxMTgzMzY3OTY2MjQ4OTZfMTE5NTQwMDQzMTcxMjM4
Ashley is the founder of Back the Blue Events Chicago and she also runs the facebook She has/had family in the police and the military. She said she organized this event because she was appalled at all the police getting routed at the ex-statue. She is perhaps the main media person of the crew, appearing on interviews saying “We’ll go anywhere, little village, the south side, to spread the message of support to law enforcement”.
This is Tina speaking. She proudly wears red white and blue in a MAGA hat. She speaking next to Ashley and Christine.
Christine Shanahan
Christine also helped organize this event, but she spoke only for a moment at the rally , where she pretty much just introduced many of the speakers.
And here we go, here’s John Catanzara, in a COPS FOR TRUMP shirt, no mask.
This FOP cop union boss is the one who begged his fascist crush Trump to send in the feds. And indeed they did with a surge of an additional 150 federal agents from ATF, DEA, FBI, DHS and the U.S. Marshalls to assist in gun-and-drug arrests in Chicago this last week under “Operation Legend”. In his speech, he first cautioned cops to use “more discretion” and “be a little more human” in interactions with protesters. But then he justifies the use of deadly violence on them, mentioning that during the Decolonize Zhigaagoong event, “Not a single shot was fired, but you can legally justify several of those protesters getting shot for what they were doing that night.” He then goes off on how law and order defines civilization and keeps it from the mob. He urged people to push back on democratic politicians.He loves talking shit on Preckwinkle, Kim Foxx, Lightfoot, and he even says Tom Dart is too liberal for him, referring to the warden of a jail that has overseen 7 covid deaths due to negligence at Cook County Jail.
Here is Catanzara the Night the Racist Statue got taken down. He and perhaps 30 of his drunk plainclothes cop bros got extremely aggressive in the faces of a crowd that had gathered to watch. He represents the far-right Trumpists of the law enforcement. This night he posted on Facebook that mayor Lightfoot “caved to the anarchists”, and cowardly took the statue down at night. Lightfoot, although she has publicly opposed Catanzara and called him a cartoon-like clown, but only because she knows she must rely on the veneer of progressivism to continue getting elected. She has at least provided lip service to the idea that she opposes the more recent surge of feds coming to Chicago as part of Operation Legend, although she welcomes their aid in material ways and has defended the CPD pretty at every given opportunity.
Here are the speakers
This is Mancow. Hes has been a radio host since the 90’s and has been putting out right-wing white suburban garbage into the ether for decades. Here he said “It’s time for godly people to take back America again, stand for what it stands for, are you with me people”. “Why are so many people on our side scared to come out because of some angry protesters? THIS IS A WAR!” “Lori Lightfoot is a little communist”
This is Sargis Sangari, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, infantry in Iraq and Syria. He is currently running for congress as Republican for the 9th district in Illinois. He gave a very bizarre speech at the July 25th Back the Blue Rally, and he is one of the scheduled speakers at the Homan Square Black Site on August 15th. He is quite a prolific voice for cop / military supporters, having made press statements and media appearances almost every single day since this event.
Referencing the ideological opposition to his pro-cop imperialism which he stands for, “Get me in, and I will dissect them from the inside”.
He actually has a long winded vendetta against Antifa. He believes the YPG, who are a Kurdish autonomous and feminist revolutionary movement in Iraq / Syria, who fought ISIS in the Syrian Civil War, are paid actors by the Russians, and that they trained Antifa. “How could Antifa not be getting this money?”. While he is correct in that many international antifascists joined their struggle, but despite the fact that the YPG were informal allies to U.S. troops stationed fighting against ISIS, he claims Antifa killed a commanding officer in his unit while he was deployed in Syria as part of U.S. Special Forces operation to assist militarily to Christian Assyrians in the region. While most of the suburban cop fanbois in attendance of this rally probably have no clue what Sangari is talking about regarding the complex political situation of Syria and the Rojava uprising, they sure are down with talking shit on Antifa, and the Russian conspiracy shit is eaten up and spat out by his peers and followers across the board.
Never does he take seriously the rise of far right extremism and racism / fascism in the context of this country, but seems on board with this specific angle to demonize the movement to stop them, and he continuously parrots the narrative that “Antifa are the real fascists”.
He is also the head of the international head of the Legion of St. Michael, a “law enforcement motorcycle club ” of which he is wearing their colors on his jacket. This group ”honors fallen cops and first responders” according to their social media. Worth noting is that the Legion of St. Michael shares the same name as the Romanian Fascist ‘greenshirts’ of the 1920’s, more well known as the Iron Guard. The cross in his motorcycle club logo is of the typical cross ‘Crusader’ type, not the triple hashtag of the Iron Guard, so it is not clear whether there is actually a connection between the two specifically. There is a definite possibility that they may be out there August 15th.
https://www.facebook.com/LegionStMichaelLEMC/
Sangari is ALSO the CEO of the Near East Center For Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE), which is a group that advocates and supports for Christian Assyrians in Iraq and Syria. On the website, there are random people commenting that they are ready to go fight in Iraq and Syria for the cause, in unspecified ways.
He is very militaristic minded, bringing up the idea of an ongoing cold war between China and Russia vs the U.S. He also in many interviews is somewhat on board with the conspiracy narrative Trump and others pushed that China invented Covid-19 to weaken the U.S., referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese Wuhan Virus”. He is multiple times praised by other speakers for his military expertise.
On Aug 3rd, he interviews Ashley Ramos of Back the Blue events, where they talk about fighting the rhetoric of ‘defund the police’, and discuss plans to continue holding rallies to support police during the next few months.
Campaign Facebook https://www.facebook.com/votesangari/
Personal Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/sargis.sangari
Mark Curran
This hateful ghostlike apparition has been a prosecutor for 30 years, was also Sheriff of Lake County, Illinois from 2006 to 2018. He is the Republican nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Illinois, facing incumbent Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. He angrily riled up the crowd with zingers like “Gang members are dirtbags, scumbags” “truly evil people” and Antifa are “bad actors”. “It’s really a battle of good vs evil. We’re gonna storm the gates of hell. You know where hell is? Hell is in the mayor’s office, hell is in the governor office, hell is in Springfield, Hell is at the Dick Durbin office in washington. “ “We got Military people, Lieutenant Sargis Sandoval Colonel Bryely”. He will also be speaking on August 15th.
Jimmy Tillman of the Martin Luther King Republicans and the Heritage Action for America, a conservative “thinktank”. He praises Trump for bringing “Operation Legend” to Chicago. He has a podcast also called Jimmy Lee Underground, where often he plays Trump’s speeches.
This speaker, Brian Mitchell, a retired race car driver, started off with a well-received “all lives matter”, then went on talk about people’s right to disobey the “monarchy” of governor Pritzker’s executive order for masks.”Why did people just sit back and let the governor do an executive order on wearing masks?” ”Democracy is mob rules“ “This is a tyrannical time. We don’t have to listen to adolf pritzker.” This is thinly veiled hate speech on Pritzker’s Jewish ancestry. Also in this picture is a guy who was mingling with Sangari, perhaps another Legion of St. Michael MC member, with a very sketchy looking Electrical Union Chicago vest.
This is Jeff Muehlfelder, and he is running for State Representative in the 19th district. His dad is a Chicago cop. At the rally, he said that Black Lives Matter doesn’t care about black lives and that Antifa are the real fascists, at least that’s what I think he was trying to say, but he mispronounced “fascist:” not once not twice, but THRICE. Then, he said he believed Rocky 4 ended communism, because the wall (Berlin) came down just a few years later. That was pretty much all he said. What a platform. What an idiot.
Republican Judge Pat O’Brien is running against the reformist Kim Foxx for States Attorney. Although he claims to be apolitical, his platform is about sensationalizing gang violence and defending not defunding the police. His demeanor is of a no-nonsense tough on crime type. Although Kim Foxx has dragged her feet in the eyes of many in and kept people entering into the covid infested CCJ, she is a reformer who has made substantial policy moves to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated pre-trial through bond reform.
Frank Coconate
This guy was invited to speak because he is a very vocal member of the Italian American community who wants you to know that he loves Christopher Colombus. He claims it was a hate crime to take down the statue, despite Columbus representing the history of the stolen land and the attempt of genocide upon Native Americans. He always gives speeches looking really confused about why the younger folks don’t really buy the ‘discovery’ myth. His facebook is full of idiotic one liners where he calls Lightfoot and ‘the mob’ a bunch of terrorists, but also he outs out racist characterizations and false histories regarding Indigeous people in regards to interactions with Colombus. His website is a joke too.
Thomas McCullagh
He’s a republican candidate running for Illinois State Senate in the 49th district. His campaign page endorses pro-cop events on Facebook, including this Pig Parade in Oswego. Holding a parade during a global pandemic? I’d expect nothing less of someone who claims to be a Campaign Coordinator for Trump 2020 on his FB page. His twitter is basically just a retweet account for Trump. He’s scheduled to speak at the Homan Square Black Site event on August 15th in Chicago.
Tracy Wright
Tracy is running for congress as Republican in 2nd district. She says in regards to Antifa at the ex-columbus Statue, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”. She also said “I Defend the Second Amendment, and I Defend the Police. And this is my message to President Trump. Whatever you’re planning to send to Chicago, SEND MORE.” She also strongly opposes the gun proposed gun taxes in congress.
Mark Vargas
This guy says that he talked to a buddy, the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the White House, who had a message to the Blue – “WE GOT YOUR BACK”. He said he was “deployed multiple times to Baghdad as a civilian between 2007 and 2010” and that he “communicated to the White House, that Our City is a Warzone”.
Mark is also notably the “mystery man” behind the commutation of former corrupt governor Rod Blagojevich, who strongly advocated for his release by writing op-ed pieces, working with Rod’s wife Patti, and used the connections he made working with the Department of Defense to get the attention of Jared Kushner to appeal to Trump to get Blagojevich out of prison.
Interestingly he mentions what many other speakers also do, that the Democrats are the party of slavery, as ‘evidenced’ by their annual fundraiser being of presidents Jackson and Jefferson, while Lincoln is the name of the Republican fundraiser. This is a common theme amongst Republicans, who don’t seem to understand at all how political parties goals and ambitions have changed over the 150 years since the Civil War.
Tom Mckenna, a former Chicago cop who was at the 68 DNC police riot, He said “I am back and can still swing a fucking nightstick”. Just the ravings and inciting of violence by an old cop who has been on the wrong side of history for 50 years.
Social media: https://www.facebook.com/tom.mckenna.355
Ron O’Nesty
This one spoke representing the Italian American Police Association and Joint Civic committee of Italian Americans
Amelia Kessem is running for 41st ward Republican Committeeman. She is a real estate agent and is scheduled to speak at the Back the Blue rally August 15th. She recently spoke out about some bullshit about how science shows that it safe for children to go back to school in the fall, despite the certainty of the spread of Covid-19. She is a lifelong NRA member.
Anthony Beckman is a Norridge Police Officer, who also served with the elite SWAT unit, the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System (NIPAS). He’s running in the Illinois 10th District State Senate. On his facebook, he really goes in on the communist plot to keep people home during a widespread pandemic. He is scheduled to speak at the August 15th Back the Blue Event.
HERE COME THE COPS
Tons of riotcops doing the Abbey Road.
We’re making em tired.
Lots and Lots of Cops.
Not sure who these goons are, it’s hard to tell if they are 3rd party militia types, private security, feds, or just undercover cops. Maybe a combination. They were very interested in watching the counter rally, and look poised to act if called upon.
Here are some other sketchballs and dangerous folks at the event
This guy seems to follow around John Catanzara, above you can see him side by side at the ex-statue the night it was taken down. This guy gets up close to mean mug protesters in heated moments, but doesn’t say much.
Be wary of this individual if you see him, because he threw a punch at a protester. He had an iron cross on his shirt. After his pathetic one-time punch, the cops just pushed the counterprotest back on the sidewalk and let this guy walk, despite them seeing him inflict violence.
Batman on a mountain bike, covering every part of his body except his mouth / nose
MAGA hats, chants of “we’re number one”
Trumpies
This guy in the tanktop was very aggro and threatening violence…until he actually got close enough to do something. Next to him is one of the organizers of the event as outed by Robert Poisso in a previous photo.
This nutjob was threatening violence from behind the cop line.
THIS is the scene from Louisville, that same Saturday, where about 40 or so 3-Percenters showed up in full militia garb, automatic guns out. This is where Robert Possoi’s boys went to support. They went to counter the NFAC black militant action to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. Many Black Lives Matter protesters went as well and bravely got in the faces of these white supremacist 3 percenters.
Other random comments on the Back the Blue FB event page and Back the Blue twitter handle. If you look it up , there are plenty, plenty more pretty much every time they organize, there are comments where they discuss inflicting violence on protesters.
If anyone has any more information regarding these poor saps, please send us an email at shieldwallchicago AT cryptolab.net