Trooper on leave after swap of words
A Colorado State Patrol officer was placed on paid administrative leave after a video showed him instructing a gathering of rightwing activists on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol to “stick around” if they wanted to fight.
The video, which was posted to Twitter by the “Official AltLeft” account, shows the officer approaching a group of men and asking them not to record his comments.
“I know some of you came here to fight,” the trooper said in the video. “That is not happening today. If you want to fight, stick around. I’ve got a couple of guys, they also want to fight.”
The trooper’s comments were met with cheers by the crowd. Some of the men the trooper was addressing are known as the Proud Boys, according to organizers. The group is a farright selfdescribed “western chauvinist” group. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group.
The Capitol Hill gathering was a permitted event rallying against bias and censorship of rightwing commentators on social media. The trooper in the video was on duty, according to CSP spokesperson Josh Lewis. CSP is not releasing the trooper’s name. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave while CSP investigates the content and context of the online video, Lewis said.
The event was organized by Major League Liberty, a rightwing proTrump podcast. One of the podcast’s hosts, Louie Huey, has been involved with the Proud Boys in the past, according to his Facebook account.
In a Facebook video posted after the event, Huey said the video of the trooper was taken out of context. Huey claimed the trooper was trying to disperse and protect the crowd of rally attendees and counterprotesters.
Both the shorter clip and an unedited version of the video posted to Twitter by AltLeft Official have been taken down. The Denver Post reviewed both videos before they were removed.
“This cop clearly was saying he was not going to put up with anyone fighting,” Huey said in his Facebook video.
Several skirmishes and fights broke out between leftwing antifa protesters and rightwing rally attend ees, according to photos of bloodied rally attendees included in Huey’s Facebook video.
The recent banning of rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from several social media platforms has sparked protests among other rightwing outlets such as Major League Liberty.
Congress has held several hearings on social media bias in the lead up to the midterm elections. Jones made a surprise trip to the U.S. Capitol during some of the hearings. He crashed live interviews with members of Congress to complain about his recent removal from social media platforms and shouted at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Soon after, Jones was banned from Twitter.
The Proud Boys require members to go through several challenges to move up in the ranks of the group, according to media reports. One of the toplevel challenges is to brawl with antifa protesters.
Local politicians attended the Rally Against Internet Censorship, sponsored by Major League Liberty. Congressional hopeful Mark Barrington spoke at the event along with Republican state representative Alex Winkler.