A white Antifa thug could be charged with a hate crime against a black Trump supporter after allegedly assaulting him at a rally in California over the weekend.
Laguna Beach police have arrested 20-year-old Richard Losey, who is seen on video sucker punching the Trump supporter during an America First! rally in Laguna Beach on Sunday. The rally drew 2,500 people, according to the Orange County Register, and has resulted in four arrests.
10pm: Laguna PD arrests Richard Losey for alleged sucker punch of Trump supporter Sunday. Charged w/ battery + terroristic threats @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/du7ZwGgxXh
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) August 24, 2017
“The video shows a black man wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ shirt hit squarely in the face by another man,” said Sgt. Jim Cota.
The victim, R.C. Maxwell, was talking peacefully with a group of people at the rally when Losey snuck up and assaulted him. Losey then disappeared into the crowd and fled before police could catch up to him.
Police arrested Losey, who hails from Lancaster, Ohio, Tuesday evening and charged him with battery and making terroristic threats.
On Sunday, Laguna Beach police also arrested Samuel Gonzales on suspicion of resisting and delaying arrest; Harlan William Pankau on suspicion of weapons charge for carrying a knife; and Trevail Dominique Johnson was arrested on suspicion of assault.
Laguna Beach police detectives were able to track Losey down Tuesday night as he was trying to buy a bus pass back to Ohio.
Maxwell told FOX 11 that the attack was unprovoked and racially motivated.
“If the optics were completely different and I was a black lives matter supporter and I was attacked on the Trump side of a protest I would be in the spotlight on CNN right now,” Maxwell said. “I went over to the left side to see if I could engage them with dialogue and I was instantly encircled by the so called anti fascists.”
In the days after the assault, Losey appeared to identify himself on Twitter, admitting that he punched Maxwell because he wouldn’t stop talking about Donald Trump, and replying “arrest me, lmfao” when someone called for his arrest.
Losey has apparently deleted those tweets and now his Twitter feed consists almost entirely of selfies like these:
https://twitter.com/xxxlawsuitxxx/status/899960210038673408
Maxwell said, “I think the fact that I’m a black conservative causes a lot of problems for the left side because there’s no way they can really resolve that according to their narrative of what they think Trump supporters are, so I think that was a bit triggering to the other side. I was getting lots of specific comments like you’re a sellout, you’re an Uncle Tom.”
FOX 11 corroborated Maxwell’s version of events, saying that their reporter tried to interview him on Sunday after he was shoved by a counter-protester.
Shortly after the interview began, Maxwell was surrounded before being verbally harassed.
“I was in a pinball machine full of Antifa, it was a little scary but I was being bold and not adversarial,” Maxwell said. “You just wanted to ask me a couple questions about what was happening and we couldn’t even conduct an interview. Dialogue is being shut down and free speech is being attacked and it’s being attacked by so called peaceful protesters under the name anti fascists.”
https://youtu.be/9iIkJhZwWls
According to the OC Register, “Losey was booked into Orange County Jail on $50,000 bail on suspicion of misdemeanor battery with a hate crime enhancement.”
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