WASHINGTON _ Word spread quickly across social media platforms. A Facebook account with the username Scobo had sent community invites for competing events. It invited Pennsylvanians to a gun-rights rally on June 8, 10 a.m. in the capital city of Harrisburg. Separately, he also invited Pennsylvanians to a rally in memory of George Floyd _ same place, same day and same time.
Who invited groups seemingly in conflict to march this coming Monday, amid tension and with the potential for bloodshed? Russia? After all it had promoted fake election rallies in 2016 that led people to the streets in Florida and Texas. Radical anarchists?
The answer isn't entirely clear yet. It appears to be tied to sympathizers of a splinter offshoot of the libertarian movement, so-called agorists who are mostly young males who are anti-police and pro-gun. And they've taken up as a martyr to their cause Duncan Lemp, a young Potomac, Md., man killed on March 12 during a largely unexplained police raid on his home.
Across the nation, young men rallying against government COVID-19 shutdowns have used Lemp's name when detained. On his Instagram page, which remains active, the late Lemp posted under his handle @yungquant references to the Boogaloo network, a right-wing group that was targeted in FBI arrests in Nevada this week.
Scobo cited Lemp, born in Miami Beach although he grew up elsewhere, in touting a May 29 rally in memory of George Floyd, the black American man who died last month in Minneapolis, a police officer's knee across his neck for nearly nine minutes.
And adding to the intrigue, many social-media followers of Lemp and Scobo make references to Fuck 12 _ a phrase scribble on signs and spray painted on walls and storefronts during this week's protests nationwide. It's slang for police, and the term is believed to have originated from the old TV police show "Adam 12," and is also slang for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
It's all a confusing cocktail of risks, grievances and beliefs.
Amid questioning from McClatchy and The Miami Herald, which became aware of the invites last weekend, Facebook took down the Scobo account and midweek took down related accounts on Instagram such as @Scobo _and @Scobo _ currentdystopia. (Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012.)
In a statement, Facebook said the account is domestic and was removed for violations of its misrepresentation policy, which requires users to provide their authentic identities. Facebook declined to discuss if shared information with law enforcement but confirmed one of the now-deleted Scobo events referenced a common Boogaloo symbol.
Scobo's true identity remains a mystery. A main account describes him as a "voluntarist" and shows a young man, from behind, wearing battle fatigues and holding up a military-style assault rifle.
"I just want to be free and live peacefully with my fellow neighbors. Government is violence," read Scobo's now-shuttered Instagram profile, which earlier this week boasted 7,308 followers.
People who interacted with Scobo's Instagram claimed to not know him or remember their interactions. But on Monday, Scobo was already on the radar of Stephen Libhart, director of the Dauphin County Department of Public Safety, outside Harrisburg. He confirmed he was aware of the competing invites and that state police intelligence officials had the information, too.
By Wednesday, the organizers of a gun rally long-planned for Monday in the state capital, the one touted by Scobo, called it off. Police and state lawmakers were concerned that radicals planned on infiltrating either or both rallies and could open fire on crowds. It's unclear if there was a real George Floyd rally planned for Monday.
"We got warnings from the dark web that he or his associates have moved there, and are threatening to intermingle," said Kim Stolfer, president of Firearms Owners Against Crime, the group that planned to hold the rally.
In an interview, he was clearly unhappy about Scobo, who apparently had some interaction with the group months ago when he inquired and was discouraged from bringing rifles and heavy weapons.
"He's another one of these usurpers who wants to piggyback and take advantage of this hard work," said Stolfer, who expected as many as 2,000 gun owners at the rally. "The purpose of the rally ... is to get the average citizen involved in working with legislators, communicating to them directly why the constitution is important, and gun control is a fraud."
Chat messages between Scobo and gun enthusiasts, shared by one of those enthusiasts, show Scobo traveled to gun rallies in Richmond, Va., and actively promoted pro-gun rallies. That itself would not be worrisome if not for his Boogaloo references elsewhere on social media.
Adherents to Boogaloo, a term used loosely, share a view that there will be a second civil war in the United States, and sometimes flash three fingers, or the number 3, to call themselves 3 percenters. It reflects a belief that only 3% of the colonists were armed when they fought to end British rule centuries ago. Like-minded groups also identify as the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois.
Are they a threat? Three self-proclaimed members, all ex-service members, were arrested in Nevada on domestic terrorism charges, multiple reports said Wednesday. The three were armed when they attended a George Floyd rally in Las Vegas on May 29, challenged police and tried to incite rioting. It's unclear if Scobo's May 29 post on the George Floyd rally in Harrisburg was somehow related or coincidence.
Charging documents on May 30 said the three men were preparing to use explosives at a coming Black Lives Matter rally.
While President Donald Trump has identified the far-left group Antifa as a threat, he has made no mention of right-leaning anti-police groups. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is one of the few who has, tweeting a warning about anti-police groups on May 30.
"They may not be ideologically compatible but share a hatred of govt & police & are taking advantage of the protests," he warned. Rubio was excoriated from the far right on social media for his observation.
Over the first three months of 2020, Facebook has banned more than 250 white supremacist organizations and removed 4.7 million pieces of content tied to organized hate. More than 96% of it was caught internally, the Facebook statement said. That was up sharply from the previous three months, when there were 1.6 million such posts removed. Focusing attention on protests, Facebooks said it has identified and removed networks of accounts tied to two organized hate groups previously banned _ Proud Boys and the American Guard.
The challenge for police, who track these groups in part via social media postings, is knowing where an intellectual curiosity becomes radicalization. And that's where the slain young Maryland man intersects with the murkiness of events in Pennsylvania.
In her first interview since the death of her son, Mercedes Lemp described him as "the least aggressive person ever," not a Boogaloo member and someone intellectually hungry.
"We're really sad that people are taking and sensationalizing a minor piece of his life," she said. "He was just 21, really trying to learn about the world and different viewpoints. He watched CNN and Fox, he read a ton, he was at a point ... that he was informing his life on a variety of subjects."
One of his last posts before being killed had a photo of men with assault rifles and the phrase "Welcome to the Revolution Sic Semper Tyrannis." In Latin it means "Thus always to tyrants," and was said to have been shouted by John Wilkes Booth after he shot President Lincoln."
That posting underscores Lemp's martyr status. Instagram followers have left messages like "The Boojahideen WILL rise" and "Rest easy king, those bastards will burn for what they've done." Similar posthumous messages were left on Lemp's final post, six days before he was killed. A Houston man whose profile includes the Sic semper tyrannis reference wrote, "Rest in Power, homie. Wish you could see the world right now. Every day your name echoes in the streets. We're fighting for justice."
Lemp's mother is still trying to get basic details from local police almost three months after his death. She insists that he was not a risk to police or others and that he spent 90% of his time on his computer as a coder and website developer. A pro-Boogaloo post should not define him, she said.
"That's one post of how many posts he had. He definitely had an interest in guns and the Second Amendment, he was exploring that," she said. "If you look at his whole social-media postings and history, it's such a tiny percentage of what he was about."
