A Las Vegas man has been arrested over a white supremacist plot to attack gay bars and synagogues.
Conor Climo, 23, was arrested and arraigned in federal court last week after bomb-making materials were discovered in his home by an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, Buzzfeed News reports.
Climo reportedly discussed his plans to use either Molotov cocktails or another form of explosives with other white supremacists via encrypted messages. He also told the FBI that he had spent two years considering creating a “sniper platoon” to attack Jewish people.
The investigation found that Climo had repeatedly used “derogatory racial, anti-Semitic and homosexual slurs” and spoke with an FBI informant about identifying “possible targets near Las Vegas, including police leadership, synagogues, an area in downtown Las Vegas with gay bars, and the headquarters for the Anti-Defamation League.”
According to the FBI, Climo said he “harbors biases and hatred toward various racial and religious groups to include African Americans, Jews, and homosexuals.”
An investigation into Climo was opened after the FBI learned he had been communicating with Atomwaffen Division, an extremist white supremacy group.
Climo, who has been arrested on multiple federal charges including possession of an unregistered firearm, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.
In a statement, US Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich said, “Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this country.”
JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that HRC was “extremely alarmed to hear that Conor Climo, who was arrested last night in Las Vegas, was allegedly planning to attack a synagogue & LGBTQ bar.”
“While Climo’s actions are concerning, they are not in a vacuum,” she continued. “Dangerous & hateful rhetoric start at the top levels of government and heavily influence the rest of American society. Each and every day, the Trump-Pence administration has sought to dehumanize LGBTQ people, undermine our rights and treat us like second class citizens. The LGBTQ community is under attack, and the Trump-Pence administration is fueling the flames.”
Three years ago, Climo gained notoriety after local media reported that he planned to patrol his Las Vegas neighborhood while carrying an AR-15-style assault rifle and survival knife.
Climo abandoned his plan after neighbors complained, instead saying he would join a neighborhood watch group.
Watch KTNV’s report of that story below:
Despite white supremacists being responsible for all race-based domestic terrorism in 2018, the Trump administration reportedly blocked a report stating as much from reaching Congress.
It has also reduced or eliminated funding and programs designed to combat white supremacists, according to the New Civil Rights Movement.
Police in West Hollywood are searching for a man who assaulted another while man yelling anti-gay slurs. He is also believed to have assaulted other individuals in the area.
The victim of the anti-gay assault, David Velasquez, told the WeHo Times that, on Sunday, March 17, he was coming back from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he had been treated earlier in the day for severe cold and flu symptoms.
He stopped by the Pavilions in WeHo to pick up medication and was riding his personal scooter home when the altercation occurred.
Velasquez noted that he was riding on the sidewalk to avoid being hit by potentially drunk drivers as he made his way through West Hollywood on a particularly raucous St. Patrick’s Day.
Anti-LGBTQ trolls have blamed openly gay Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for a bridge collapse in Baltimore believed to have killed six people after it was hit by a 95,000-ton cargo ship.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after the Dali, a 985-foot container ship flying the Singapore flag, crashed into the bridge's reinforced concrete support pier.
The container ship, which was traveling at about 9 miles per hour, lost both engine power and electrical power to its control and communications systems minutes before it crashed into the bridge stanchion.
Michael Everts, the owner of FIT Personal Training on 17th and Q Streets NW, pleaded not guilty to a charge of distributing child pornography.
Everts was arrested last November after allegedly sending pornographic photographs of prepubescent boys and videos of men sexually abusing children via Telegram to an undercover agent posing as a pedophile.
Court documents claim the FBI was alerted to Everts months earlier after an employee of the location-based hookup app, Sniffies, told investigators that a user -- later identified as Everts through his email and phone information -- had allegedly "actively underage ."
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