LAW & DISORDER

Latin Kings Gangster Turned ‘All Lives Matter’ Activist Arrested Over Capitol Riot

Kash Lee Kelly reportedly gave up the gang life to join Trump’s “Stop the Steal” mob.

Federal authorities have charged a Trump-loving former Chicago-area Latin Kings gangster for his alleged, and extensively documented, trespassing into the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Drawing on widely-publicized photos and Kash Lee Kelly’s own social media accounts, federal agents have charged the northwestern Indiana resident with unlawfully entering the seat of government with fellow Trump supporters. The criminal complaint, obtained by The Daily Beast, notes “law enforcement agents who have known Kelly for several years” helped identify him in some of the images.

The Department of Justice indicted Kelly and 11 other members of the Latin Kings in 2017 for running a drug-dealing ring, although he avoided the racketeering charges brought against his peers. According to the Northwest Indiana Times, Kelly was convicted and had been awaiting sentencing when he traveled to D.C.—and said in an interview he believed he was allowed to make the trip.

“Because I’m Black, I thought I would get a pass like all the other Black people who committed crimes this year,” Kelly said in a Facebook Live interview.

This is in keeping with the public persona Kelly has adopted in recent years, having reinvented himself as a religious, pro-law-and-order social media personality and activist, and festooning himself in pro-Trump gear in his online profiles. In an interview recorded last November, Kelly argued police officers were “justified” in killing black men who “made a wrong decision”—even going so far as to assert George Floyd was “high as a kite” when Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin fatally kneeled on his neck.

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William BreddermanSenior Researcher

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