First, let's refresh a few memories. Back in November, two US Marines were physically assaulted in Philadelphia by a crowd of Antifa thugs, who mistook the men for white supremacists. Both victims were Hispanic. According to Philadelphia magazine, Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres were beaten, kicked, and maced, while being peppered with racial slurs (content warning):
According to the Marines’ testimony, they were touring historical landmarks near Front and Chestnut streets when suspect Thomas Keenan approached them. Godinez testified that Keenan asked them “Are you proud?,” to which Godinez remembers responding “We are Marines.” Torres said that he remembers Keenan asking “Are you Proud Boys?,” an allusion to one of the alt-right groups behind the rally, and one that Torres said he didn’t understand. “I didn’t know what Proud Boys meant,” he said...Whatever Keenan said, both Marines testified that Keenan, Massey, and approximately ten other people — men and women, some masked and some unmasked — then began attacking them with mace, punches, and kicks, and calling them “nazis” and “white supremacists.”
On the stand, Godinez said that he was “bewildered” by being called a white supremacist and immediately cried out, “I’m Mexican!” After that, as the attack continued, both men said that members of the group, including Keenan, repeatedly used ethnic slurs, including “spic” and “wetback,” against the Marines. (There was no testimony that Massey used any such language). Godinez testified that he was maced at least six times, hit in the head, and kicked in the ribs, and he said that while he was being “stomped,” members of the group, which the judge and the district attorney’s office have both referred to as a “mob,” chanted “f--- him up” over and over again.
Now, please recall several ugly incidents featuring the Antifa-linked group, "Smash Racism DC," including the hounding of Sen. Ted Cruz out of a Washington restaurant, and the harrowing mob scene outside of Fox News host Tucker Carlson's private home:
Carlson said the protesters had blocked off both ends of his street and carried signs that listed his home address. The group called Carlson a “racist scumbag" and demanded that he “leave town,” according to posts on Twitter. A woman was also overheard in one of the deleted videos saying she wanted to “bring a pipe bomb” to his house, he said...The host’s address, as well as the addresses of his brother and good friend Neil Patel, with whom he co-founded the conservative media site the Daily Caller, were shared in tweets from Smash Racism DC’s account. In a Facebook post that included video of the gathering, the group wrote, “Fascists are vulnerable. Confront them at their homes!”...“I called my wife,” Carlson told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “She had been in the kitchen alone getting ready to go to dinner and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming. ... Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door.” His wife, thinking it was a home invasion, locked herself in the pantry and called 911, Carlson said.
Authorities believe there was at least one common thread throughout all three disgraceful episodes: A man named Joseph Alcoff, who has now been arrested and charged with 17 crimes. The Daily Caller, which Carlson co-founded, reports:
Washington, D.C. Antifa leader Joseph “Jose” Alcoff, also known as “Chepe,” was arrested and charged with multiple felonies in Philadelphia on Jan. 10 in connection to the Antifa mob attack against two Marines in November. Alcoff faces 17 charges, including multiple counts of aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, conspiracy and terroristic threats, and one count of robbery while inflicting serious bodily injury...Torres provided police pictures of the suspects at the time of the attack, leading investigators to “strongly agree” that Alcoff was the person in his photos, the affidavit states. Alcoff is an organizer of Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group responsible for mobbing Fox News host and DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson’s house in November and for chasing Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz from a D.C. restaurant in September. Alcoff made significant efforts to separate his true identity from his fanatical personas, “Chepe” and “Jose Martin”...Alcoff pled not guilty to the charges and is currently out on $15,000 bail.
The DC also produced this video exploring Mr. Alcoff and his various alleged criminal and non-criminal aliases (again, content warning):
How ironic is it that an accused criminal organizer of a group called "Smash Racism" has been charged with "ethnic intimidation" over his alleged role in a violent racist attack? The criminal justice system must throw the book at anyone who resorts to physical violence and intimidation to achieve political ends.
