The hacktivist collective Anonymous is planning a “Denouncement Day” this Friday to “denounce the Confederacy, to denounce racism, bigotry and hate,” saying “it is time to take down these monuments of hate ourselves.”
Supporters plan to gather at 6 p.m. EST at the statue of Rear Adm. Raphael Semmes in Mobile, Ala., the Confederate Soldiers Monument in Little Rock, the Jackson Guards Memorial in Jacksonport, Ark., the Searcy Confederate Memorial in Searcy, Ark., the Our Confederate Dead monument in Munn Park in Lakeland, Fla., the Confederate Monument in Piedmont Park in Atlanta (which was defaced with spray paint this week), the Corinth Confederate Monument in Corinth, Miss., the Confederate Soldiers Monument at the Bryan County Courthouse in Durant, Okla., the Confederate Monument in Lynchburg, Va., the Mecklenburg Confederate Soldier in Boydton, Va., and the Robert E. Lee sculpture in Charlottesville, Va.
Additional locations could be added as suggested, the release from Anonymous said.
In a video titled “We are Angry,” prefaced with footage of protesters toppling a Confederate soldier statute in Durham, N.C., this week, Anonymous calls it “a sad state of affairs when in the year 2017 we still have Nazi party flags flying high and terrorists still killing for the Nazi cause.”
“We are angry — angry because there is an administration in the White House that has sold its moral and ethical obligation to represent the citizens of the United States in exchange for individuals who believe they are simply better than those who do not look like them or follow their sadistic ideologies,” the video states.
“…Anonymous has made clear that it will not stand by as this bigotry continues to perpetuate. We are taking a stand against an intolerant evil that must be crushed. That is why we chose to engage Operation Domestic Terrorism, where we continue to take down both white supremacist websites and of those who share the ideology. ”
The hacktivists have long run #OpKKK, identifying members of white supremacist groups, and also run #OpDeathEaters to target pedophiles and #OpISIS to take down online Islamic terrorist content and members.
The hacking group said it was not involved with this week’s takeover and defacement of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer site, saying that founder Andrew Anglin made up the claim to draw attention. The Daily Stormer was booted off GoDaddy this week and then removed from Google Domains; it has since resurfaced with a .ru suffix hosted out of Russia but was promptly knocked out today by an Anonymous attack. Cloudflare, which continues to serve extremist websites such as the Taliban, has also canceled the account that protected the Daily Stormer from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
Anonymous vowed to let employers and “the proper authorities” know where members of white supremacist groups are. “There are good Americans in need of jobs and it would be a shame for Nazis to be occupying them,” the video adds.
Several arrests have been made in the Durham statue toppling, with those identified and detained charged with vandalism.
“You as citizens cannot allow these types of actions to go unpunished. Anonymous has taken steps to remove the websites of these far-right extremists under the banner of #OpDomesticTerrorism,” the hacktivist collective said in a message to the residents of Charlottesville last weekend.
“You’re not alone; Anonymous is the people, and the people is Anonymous. Take a stand with us and do not allow these domestic terrorists to use your city as a rallying point for their hatred. Counter protest. Organize. Attend their rallies. Pass & distribute Anonymous flyers. Use the hashtag: #OpDomesticTerrorism, #OpAltRight to display our message of anti-fascism within your community; let these right wing extremists [know] Anonymous is watching.”
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