CONTROVERSIAL GROUP ‘DEFEND EAST COUNTY’ REMOVED BY FACEBOOK

By Saturday evening, the group was reactivated on the social media platform

Facebook removed then republished the 22,000-member Defend East County group on its social media site Saturday.

The group’s founder and administrator, Justin Haskins, announced in a post to a separate Facebook group Saturday morning that the group was gone. However, by 7 p.m. the group was back.

Neither Facebook nor Haskins, 37, responded to requests for comment.

A Union-tribune investigation of the group’s activity in August revealed that members frequently talked about inflicting violence on Black Lives Matter protesters, shared memes and videos celebrating right-wing violence against protesters and discussed the baseless Qanon conspiracy theory.

John Sepulvado, a racial justice activist who lives in East County, told the Union-tribune that the action by Facebook is the result of a coordinated campaign among several East County activists.

“We were concerned about electioneering by Defend East County and threats against women and minorities and wanted to do something safely,” Sepulvado said.

When told the group was back online, Sepulvado said he didn’t understand how the site could allow the group to remain.

“It’s all garbage,” he wrote in a text message.

Sepulvado said the idea for a coordinated campaign to get Facebook to take action came from the women who founded the Santee activist group East County BIPOC Coalition.

The group was harassed during an August food drive they organized in a Santee park by a group of people who monitored the food drive from a short distance. The individuals declined to identify themselves when asked by a Union-tribune reporter whether they were members of any organized group, but at least one of them had a “Defend East County” bumper sticker on his or her car.

Another group Haskins administers called “Working Class Patriots” was renamed Saturday with the Defend East County logo featured as both its profile and banner images.

“Fascistbook shut Defend East County down,” Haskins wrote in the “DEC Conservatives” Facebook group.

Facebook announced in August it would ban “militarized social movements and violence-inducing conspiracy networks,” such as militia groups and those affiliated with the Qanon conspiracy theory.

Haskins previously sought to distance his group from the militia movement in an interview with NBC 7 San Diego that he livestreamed on the joint personal Facebook account he shares with his wife.

“I don’t want Defend East County labeled (or) associated in any way as a militia,” Haskins said in the interview. In the same interview, Haskins said he considered militias to be protected under the 2nd Amendment.

“I don’t see how a militia can be considered a bad thing,” Haskins said.

The group initially organized to defend businesses after several La Mesa businesses were looted and two banks set ablaze following a protest on May 30. At the time, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that it did not support any acts of vigilantism and that protecting the community is law enforcement’s responsibility.

Members of Defend East County and other affiliated Facebook groups have counter-demonstrated at a number of East County Black Lives Matter events. While the Defend East County Facebook group swelled to more than 22,000 members, photos and videos from several protests show participation on the ground was often limited to just a couple dozen people.

On Aug. 1, during a protest in La Mesa, several minor altercations between protesters and counterprotesters led to the arrest of a counterprotester, Ryan Mcadams of Jamul, on suspicion of battery. Some counterprotesters wore large knives on their hips, and others, who wore American flags in their back pockets, were involved in scuffles with protesters, videos show.

Haskins, in one of his Facebook videos, defended the actions of those who engaged with protesters that day.

“We’re a bunch of pissed-off patriots that are out there, sick and tired of our communities being attacked and threatened by these (expletive) terrorists,” he said.

One former member of the group, Grey Zamudio of San Diego, was arrested in August when FBI agents executed a search warrant at his home and found unregistered rifles and firearms in Zamudio’s apartment and truck, as well as two silencers, according to a federal complaint.

Zamudio had written in Defend East County about owning an “SBR,” or short-barreled rifle, which, as others in the group pointed out, is illegal in California.

The San Diego Police Department also issued Zamudio a gun violence restraining order “based on recent threats of violence in numerous social media posts,” according to the complaint.

More recently, Democrat Ammar Campa-najjar and Republican Darrell Issa, candidates for the 50th Congressional District, appeared in livestreams on the group’s Facebook page with Haskins, prompting criticism from several left-leaning activists.

Sepulvado said earlier in the day that Facebook’s removal action had immediately made East County a safer place.

“Racism is always gonna show its ugly face but we have shattered an important mirror of that ugliness in our community,” he said.

A former leader in Defend East County, Mike Forzano, started his own defender group called “Exiled Patriots.” Forzano did not respond Saturday when asked if his group is still on Facebook.