CHAOS AND DISORDER

Barr Orders Creation of Task Force to Fight Antifa and ‘the Boogaloo’

The attorney general says the task force will target extremists “of all persuasions.”

Attorney General Bill Barr has ordered the establishment of a task force to take on “anti-government extremists,” The Washington Post reports. In a memo obtained by the Post, Barr cited recent protests against police brutality, saying extremists had taken advantage of those demonstrations and “engaged in indefensible acts of violence designed to undermine public order.” While both Barr and President Trump have repeatedly stoked fears of antifa hijacking the nationwide protests to commit crimes, the memo says the task force will target extremists “of all persuasions,” including “those who support the Boogaloo” and “those who self identify as Antifa.”

“Boogaloo” refers to a far-right, anti-government movement whose followers hope to spark a civil war by using extreme violence. Several alleged members of the Boogaloo movement have been hit with criminal charges in recent weeks for allegedly scheming to instigate violence at protests, though there has been less evidence of prosecutors charging “antifa” members. Barr said earlier this week that many arrested at the protests were also affiliated with antifa. “Some of these violent extremists, moreover, may be fortified by foreign entities seeking to sow chaos and disorder in our country,” Barr wrote in the memo, without elaborating.