Allen Groat attended two “Million MAGA” marches in Washington, D.C., after the November 2020 election, when 1000's of supporters of then-President Donald Trump descended on the nation’s capital to push the “massive lie” about widespread voter fraud. On the second march, Groat, 36, wore a black baseball cap with a U.S. flag on it and took selfies with a who’s-who of far-right figures who weeks later can be key gamers within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
There was a selfie with Ali Alexander, foremost organizer of the “Cease the Steal” demonstration Jan. 6 that became the assault on the Capitol; one with Doug Mastriano, who was on the heart of the trouble to overturn the 2020 presidential election and who's now the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania; one other with Enrique Tarrio, chief of the violent neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys; and one with Alex Jones, the infamous Infowars conspiracist. (Groat later claimed to have labored as “impromptu” safety for Jones throughout a rally.)
Groat was a real believer within the trigger, writing in since-deleted tweets that those that “love America” have to “defend the republic by any means needed.” Quickly, he wrote, “blood will probably be shed to stop the theft of our republic.” He shared his “Make America Nice Once more” brethren’s hated for anti-racist activists, tweeting a picture of a Black Lives Matter mural with the capition, “Fuck BLM!!! Time to uninstall!!!” After which, in early January, he introduced his plans to attend a Jan. 6 demonstration that Trump promised can be “wild!” Groat wrote that he was “so excited to affix all of the #Patriots...to pressure congress to the best factor and #DoNotCertify the fraudulent election.” He took Jan. 6 off from work ― reportedly telling his employer that he needed to take his spouse to the physician — and went to Washington.
Movies and images from Jan. 6 present Groat marching towards the Capitol as a part of the Jones-Alexander entourage earlier than breaking off and climbing the northwest stairs of the Capitol, getting into the constructing at 2:37 p.m. Physique-worn police digital camera footage reveals officers asking him and different rioters to depart.
“We love you guys… it’s their fault, not ours,” Groat will be heard telling officers, gesturing towards Congress. He walked by the Rotunda and ultimately exited by the central east doorways.
Then, after the mud settled from that historic day — 5 deaths, $30 million in damages, a democracy much more imperiled — Groat returned to his residence close to Charlottesville, Virginia, and went again to work as an IT analyst for town’s police division, sheriff’s workplace, hearth division and rescue squad.
Within the weeks that adopted, a lot of Groat’s fellow insurrectionists have been uncovered by a small military of on-line researchers, leading to a day by day melodrama, performed out in headlines throughout the nation — arrests, jobs misplaced, relationships upended — that in some ways mirrored what had occurred in Charlottesville years earlier after one other lethal fascist riot: Unite the Proper.
However Groat’s Jan. 6 actions went unreported for a 12 months and a half, till this June, when native anti-fascist activist Molly Conger uncovered Groat’s social media posts — which he confirmed to C-VILLE Weekly have been his — and located footage of him within the U.S. Capitol.
As Charlottesville marks the fifth anniversary this week of the lethal Unite the Proper rally — the 2017 demonstration wherein about 1,000 Trump-emboldened white supremacists invaded town for the biggest such gathering in a era — locals are pressuring metropolis officers to fireplace Groat.
Charlottesville ought to know higher than most locations, they are saying, how essential it's to ensure extremists face penalties for his or her actions.
“In some ways, you possibly can draw a straight line from 2017′s Unite the Proper rally right here in Charlottesville to January sixth, 2021 in DC,” Conger tweeted earlier this week. “I assume it’s becoming that as we strategy the five-year anniversary, metropolis management continues to downplay and ignore the hazards that put us on that street.”
Each the mayor and interim metropolis supervisor have insisted that metropolis insurance policies preclude them from firing Groat as a result of he has not been charged with against the law associated to the Capitol rebel, in response to a detailed report that the C-VILLE Weekly revealed Tuesday.
“The worker in query admits he attended the occasions on the Capitol,” Metropolis Supervisor Michael Rogers stated at an Aug. 1 metropolis authorities assembly. “He posted his presence on his social media web page, he shared this info with the FBI and he was not arrested.”
“He's very sorrowful of his actions,” Rogers added. “He’s skilled a substantial amount of private loss. Contemplating the totality of circumstances, together with that it’s been a 12 months and half with none motion, I conclude that no additional motion or evaluate is warranted on this case.”
However simply two days later, a message posted from a Reality Social account showing to belong to Groat didn’t sound all that contrite. “Please pray for me as I used to be just lately doxxed for my patriotic participation and it's affecting me in my profession and relationships,” it learn. The message was deleted after Conger posted a screenshot to Twitter.
Groat didn't reply to a HuffPost request for remark for this story.
Rogers additionally claimed on the metropolis assembly that the roughly 900 people arrested for his or her involvement within the rebel have been charged with “prison exercise” that included acts of destruction, “not merely their presence within the Capitol” — seeming to recommend Groat seemingly didn’t break any legal guidelines on Jan. 6.
However Rogers, who declined to remark for this story, is wrong. Lots of the arrests stemming from Jan. 6, 2021, contain prices for merely being contained in the Capitol. These prices embrace “getting into or remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds” and “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol constructing” — which raises the prospect that Groat might nonetheless be charged. (The FBI didn't instantly reply to a request for touch upon this story about Groat’s case. Groat, in response to Rogers, has claimed he has given three interviews to FBI brokers.)
“5 years in the past our neighborhood raised the alarm with metropolis officers concerning the white supremacist terror assaults that have been coming and people considerations have been woefully uncared for,” Rev. Seth Whisperley, the pastor at Charlottesville’s United Church of Christ, instructed HuffPost in an announcement this week. “I discover it alarming that clear ethical management continues to be missing when the decision is now clearly coming from inside the home.”
Whisperley helped mobilize counterprotesters forward of the rally on Aug. 12, 2017. The occasion ended with a neo-Nazi driving his automotive right into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many extra, in what turned one of many defining episodes of the Trump period. The then-president infamously responded to the day’s traumatic occasions by saying there have been “very superb folks on each side” of the demonstration.
Within the ensuing years main as much as Jan. 6, 2021, Whisperley and others in Charlottesville felt like modern-day Cassandras, warning that the broader MAGA motion was prone to commit worse political violence, to little avail.
“Town of Charlottesville’s continued help of Groat undermines the credibility of metropolis authorities and any anti-racist statements they make on paper,” Lisa Woolfork, one other native anti-racist organizer, instructed HuffPost. “It reveals that town, too, nonetheless accommodates white supremacy and fascism to the detriment of those that dwell right here.”
A significant connection between Unite the Proper and the assault on the Capitol, Woolfork argued, is apathy amongst authorities officers towards the risk posed by the far proper in America.
“Apathy claims that white supremacy is merely a contentious perspective relatively than an precise observe that harms folks,” she stated. “Too many individuals suggested activists and organizers to passively settle for white supremacists marching in our streets, solely to be shocked later by the lethal consequence of their presence.”
Kathryn Laughon, a College of Virginia professor of nursing and native anti-racist activist, stated Groat had “profited from a risk-averse system that privileges establishment over making waves, and thus has stored his job.”
“Charlottesville isn't distinctive,” Laughon stated. “Given the variety of contributors within the Jan. 6 rebel, we all know there should be lots of of white supremacists everywhere in the nation who haven't confronted penalties. As a rustic, we've to proceed to combat again.”
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