Boogaloo movement

Members of the boogaloo movement often wear Hawaiian shirts along with military fatigues to identify themselves at protests, such as this 2020 VCDL Lobby Day gun rights demonstration in Richmond, Virginia.

The boogaloo movement, members of which are often referred to as boogaloo boys or boogaloo bois, is a loosely organized American far-right extremist movement. Members generally identify as a libertarian citizen-militia, and say they are preparing for a coming second American civil war, which they call the "boogaloo". Widespread use of the term dates from late 2019, and members use the term (including variations, so as to avoid social media crackdowns), to refer to violent uprisings against the federal government or left-wing political opponents, often anticipated to follow government confiscation of firearms.

The movement consists of pro-gun, anti-government groups. The specific ideology of each group varies, however, the group largely condemns racism. The boogaloo movement primarily organizes online (particularly on Facebook), and members have appeared at in-person events including the 2020 United States anti-lockdown protests and the May 2020 George Floyd protests. They are often identified by their attire of Hawaiian shirts and military fatigues, and are heavily armed. In May–June 2020, Facebook acted to limit the movement's activities and visibility across its social media platforms.

Naming and identity

The term boogaloo is a reference to the 1984 cult film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, an unpopular sequel that was largely viewed to be a near-exact copy of the original film. Following the film release, adding "2: Electric Boogaloo" to a phrase became a joking reference to any unwanted or archetypical sequel. The boogaloo movement adopted their name from the belief there will be a second civil war; that is, "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo".

Members of the boogaloo movement also use other similar-sounding derivations of the word, including boog, boojihadeen, big igloo, and big luau, and have created logos and other imagery incorporating igloo snow huts, and Hawaiian prints. The names and the broader imagery are used by members of the boogaloo movement to avoid crackdowns and automated content flags imposed by social media sites to limit or ban boogaloo-related content. Members attend protests heavily armed and wearing tactical gear, and sometimes identify themselves by wearing Hawaiian shirts along with military fatigues. They have also used other imagery popular among the far-right, such as the Pepe the Frog meme.

Beliefs and structure

Groups in the boogaloo movement do not have a strong unifying ideology. The groups are generally described as far-right or alt-right, although some groups have also been described as libertarian or anarchist. Members of boogaloo groups typically believe in accelerationism, and support any action that will speed impending civil war and eventually the collapse of society. According to The Economist, to this end boogaloo group members have supported the "spreading of disinformation and conspiracy theories, attacks on infrastructure (such as that on New York’s 311 line) and lone-wolf terrorism." J.J. MacNab, a George Washington University fellow researching anti-government extremist groups, notes that opinions on racism and attitudes towards law enforcement are among the views that differ the most between groups in the movement.

• some groups condemn racism}} Attempts by some elements of the Boogaloo movement to support anti-racist groups, such as Black Lives Matter, have been met with wariness and skepticism.

Some members of the movement claim that the group and its ideology are nothing more than online jokes, however, law enforcement and researchers maintain that people connected to the groups have been implicated in plans to commit real-world violence. The Tech Transparency Project has observed that, while public posts on boogaloo Facebook pages tend to be satirical, members of private boogaloo groups "exchang[e] detailed information and tactics on how to organize and execute a revolt against American authorities." Some of the private groups ban the sharing of memes to keep conversation focused on serious topics. The NCRI has also commented on the mix of serious and joking content, writing, "This ambiguity is a key feature of the problem: Like a virus hiding from the immune system, the use of comical-meme language permits the network to organize violence secretly behind a mirage of inside jokes and plausible deniability."

According to the non-profit Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), groups belonging to the boogaloo movement organize on mainstream online platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, as well as on more obscure platforms such as 4chan. Bellingcat identifies Facebook as a particularly important platform for the movement, and that the movement numbers in the tens of thousands. The NCRI researchers also estimate the movement to have tens of thousands of members.

Members of the movement can appear unexpectedly at events and protests initiated by others with apparently different affiliations, an aspect that Harvard social scientist Joan Donovan called "stream sniping"; a term from the world of Internet gaming, which refers to interrupting another's live stream in order to bring attention to oneself and to provoke authorities to respond.

History

Extremism researchers first took notice of the word "boogaloo" being used in the context of the boogaloo movement in 2019, when they observed it being used among fringe groups including militias, gun rights movements. This usage of the term is believed to have originated on the fringe imageboard website 4chan. Researchers from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) found that the usage of the term "boogaloo" increased by 50% on Facebook and Twitter in the last months of 2019 and into early 2020. They attribute surges in popularity to a viral incident in November 2019, when a military veteran posted content mentioning the boogaloo on Instagram during a standoff with police, and to the December 2019 impeachment of Donald Trump. The boogaloo movement experienced a further surge in popularity following the lockdowns that were implemented to try to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and the Tech Transparency Project observed that the boogaloo groups appeared to be encouraged by President Trump's tweets about "liberating" states under lockdown. The Tech Transparency Project also found that 60% of boogaloo Facebook groups had emerged following the pandemic lockdowns, during which time they amassed tens of thousands of members. A Facebook spokesperson said that Facebook and Instagram had changed their policies as of May 1 to "prohibit the use of ['Boogaloo' and related] terms when accompanied by statements and images depicting armed violence."

On March 12, 2020, a boogaloo Facebook group leader named Duncan Lemp was shot and killed by police in a no-knock raid of his home in Potomac, Maryland. Police had obtained the search warrant based on a tip that Lemp was violating a restriction from possessing firearms, though Lemp's family has contested that he was under any such restriction. Lemp's family has also asserted that he was asleep when he was killed by police. Some far-right groups have theorized that Lemp was killed by police for his anti-government beliefs and his position in the boogaloo movement. J. J. MacNab, a fellow of the George Washington University extremism program, has described Lemp as a "martyr" of the boogaloo movement, and warned that the increase in anti-police sentiment among boogaloo group members following his death may lead to violence against the police in the "foreseeable future". A Facebook user who was later identified as Aaron Swenson was arrested on April 11, 2020 in Texas, after streaming a live video on Facebook in which he stated he was driving around looking for police officers to ambush. He was apprehended after a high-speed police chase, and found to be wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying loaded firearms and ammunition. Swenson had shared boogaloo memes on his Facebook page, and other members of the movement watched and commented during his live stream. Swenson had also posted a photo to Facebook the day after the shooting of Duncan Lemp, in which he wore a Hawaiian shirt and combat vest and used the hashtag "#HisNameWasDuncan".

George Floyd protests

Further information: George Floyd protests § Reports of extremist activities

Some boogaloo groups joined the protests against law enforcement that occurred across the United States in May and June 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd. According to Vice, although the boogaloo groups tried to position themselves as allies of the Black Lives Matter movement, they generally avoided addressing police brutality as a racial issue. Some members of boogaloo groups said they were attending protests to provide protection, either to the protesters or to stores. Posts in some online boogaloo groups called for their members to loot police stations and set fire to government buildings, and some encouraged actions emulating the "rooftop Koreans" (a reference to Korean store owners who shot at looters from roofs during the 1992 Los Angeles riots); however, the posts do not appear to have resulted in any such actions by boogaloo group members.

On May 30, three men who identified themselves as members of the boogaloo movement were arrested on terrorism charges in Las Vegas, Nevada. The men, who had been plotting since April to bomb an electrical substation, had decided instead to focus on the protests that were happening throughout the country in response to the killing of George Floyd. At an anti-lockdown protest in Las Vegas several days earlier, they had told a confidential informant that they intended to try to incite violence and kick off a riot at a George Floyd protest. They were arrested when they were found filling canisters with gasoline and creating Molotov cocktails on their way to such a protest on May 30, and each was charged with the federal crimes of conspiracy to damage and destroy by fire and explosive and possession of unregistered firearms. They were also accused in state court of felony conspiracy, terrorism, and possession of explosives.

Two men were arrested on June 5 in Richland County, South Carolina for attempting to incite a riot at a George Floyd protest. Law enforcement believe the men are affiliated with the boogaloo movement. Both men were wearing Hawaiian shirts when they were arrested; one also had boogaloo patches and a flag, the other had two pistols and two long guns.

Countermeasures

On May 1, 2020, Facebook amended its policy on Violence and Incitement to prohibit "boogaloo" and similar terms "when used with images or statements depicting armed violence". On June 5, 2020, Facebook told Reuters that it would make it harder to find groups associated with the boogaloo movement by no longer recommending such groups to members of similar associations. Facebook also told The Verge that it would be demoting boogaloo-related content in search results. A spokesperson for Facebook anonymously told Reuters, "We felt we needed to take this action given discussions of potential use of violence."

See also

• QAnon
• Patriot movement
• 3 Percenters
• List of militia organizations in the United States

External links

• The Boogaloo movement is not what you think, Bellingcat (May 2020)
• Boogaloo at Know Your Meme