On Friday, the Arizona Democratic Party closed a campaign office in Tempe, Arizona after it had been targeted by gunfire on three separate occasions in the last month.
One of the bullet holes that struck the Democratic National Committee campaign office in Tempe, Arizona earlier this month.
Arizona is one of the seven states that will likely decide the US election, and Maricopa County may decide the outcome in Arizona. Trump lost the state in 2020 by less than 11,000 votes.
In the lead-up to the January 6, 2021 coup, Trump and his Republican allies targeted election officials and politicians, including Republicans, who refused to overturn the vote and award the state’s electors to Trump.
As of this writing, police have yet to identify a suspect or motive in the shootings. It appears no one was injured in any of the incidents. In an October 9 X post, the Tempe Police Department claimed the last shooting occurred on October 6 at about 12:30 a.m.
In the same post, the police shared a flyer from “Silent Witness,” a “non-profit” that works with the police, media and local businesses to offer cash rewards for anonymous tips. It released photos showing a a silver Toyota Highlander SUV, the “suspect vehicle,” as well as damage to a window that appears to be from a bullet.
It appears that all three shootings took place between midnight and 1:00 a.m. The first shooting incident occurred on September 16, 2024, followed by another attack on September 23.
Lauren Kuby, a Democratic state Senate candidate, confirmed that staffers were continuing to conduct their work in Maricopa County at “undisclosed locations.” The office had previously been shared by several Democratic Party campaigns, including those of Kuby, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and US Senate candidate Ruben Gallego.
A climate of violence hangs over the 2024 elections. While he himself has been the target of at least two assassination attempts, former President Donald Trump is currently conducting a fascistic terror campaign targeting immigrants and his political enemies, aimed at sowing chaos and whipping up his militia supporters in the lead-up to the November 5 vote.
In the midst of antisemitic lies spewed by Trump and his Republican allies in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Washington Post reported Sunday that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees had to temporarily suspend recovery operations in North Carolina after National Guard units reported that an “armed militia” was “hunting FEMA.”
The Post reported that at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, a US Forest Service employee sent an “urgent message to numerous federal agencies warning that ‘FEMA has advised all federal responders in Rutherford County to stand down and evacuate the county immediately.’”
The message claimed that National Guard troops “had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there [sic] were out hunting FEMA.”
According to the Post, the email also stated that “The IMTs [incident management teams] have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county.”
The Post confirmed with “two federal officials” that the email was authentic. An unnamed “Forest Service official” told the newspaper that local responders had been moved to a “safe area” until Sunday, when clearing and search and rescue efforts resumed.
A separate unnamed FEMA official told the Post, “For the safety of our dedicated staff and the disaster survivors we are helping, FEMA has made some operational adjustments.”
At a campaign rally in Coachella, California on Saturday, Trump reiterated his fascist call to arms that November 5 would be “liberation day,” as America was being “occupied” by “migrant criminals,” who were “taking over parts of Colorado … taking over other states…” He added, “It’s no different really than if we lost a war.”
During his speech, Trump was interrupted by a protester who was escorted out of the event. As she was being led out, Trump said she would get “the hell knocked out of her.”
Trump appeared to turn toward the protester and declared, “Back home to mommy, she goes back home to mommy. Was that you darling? And she gets the hell knocked out of her. Her mother’s a big fan of ours, you know that right. Her father, her mother. You always have that.”
At a news conference on Sunday, self-admitted Oath Keeper and Riverside County, California Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed the arrest of a man trying to enter Saturday’s rally with multiple firearms. Bianco said that Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, tried to pass through a checkpoint in a black SUV to enter the rally at around 5 p.m.
According to Bianco, after passing an initial checkpoint, Miller was stopped again and was unable to produce documentation proving he was a VIP guest and a journalist. Bianco said that as police were questioning Miller, they noticed that his license plate was homemade, which the sheriff said is “indicative of individuals claiming to be ‘sovereign citizens.’” The far-right “sovereign citizens” do not adhere to any government laws they deem unconstitutional, particularly concerning vaccines and gun ownership.
According to Bianco, in addition to illegal plates, the vehicle’s interior was “in disarray” and a search yielded fake passports and driver’s licenses with different names, along with a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine.
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Publish date : 2024-10-13 15:18:00
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