Landmark Antifa Trial in San Diego (Verdict Reached)

This post provides an overview of the Antifa Pacific Beach riot and what happened in the trial of the two Antifa who went to trial in April, 2024, Jeremy White and Brian Lightfoot. There were eleven Antifa originally charged in the conspiracy to riot. Nine of them pled guilty before the trial began. There is also a 12th Antifa, Jonah Bigel, who participated in the riot and attempted to burn down a police storefront a couple of weeks after the riot. He was arrested and prosecuted separately.

Verdict: The verdict was read on 5/3/24. The two defendants who went to trial. Both were found to be guilty of conspiracy. Jeremy White was found not guilty of his one count of assault. Brian Lightfoot was found guilty on 6 counts of assault, not guilty on one count and the jury was hung on 9 counts. Nine other Antifa had already pled guilty.

Antifa has an anarcho-communist ideology that justifies violence against fascists, Nazis and racists. When there is a shortage of fascists, Nazis and white supremacists to attack they tend to brand everyone who opposes them as that. They are a revolutionary movement and believe that the American system is a fascist and racist system, which should be destroyed. It is not clear that any person they attacked during this riot could be legitimately labeled a fascist, Nazi, or white supremacist. In any case, it is still a crime to attack someone for what you perceive (or imagine) their beliefs to be.

NOTE: This post is a work in progress. I will be fleshing it out with more video and text for a couple of weeks to give you a concise view of how it went down.

Patriots and high school boys attacked

Four patriots and four high-school boys arrived at that event early to provide a place where those arriving could congregate. An estimated 40-50 persons in Black Bloc showed up. About 50 more persons were with Antifa mostly from the ideologically allied Black Lives Matter movement. The Antifa were armed with bear-spray, pepper-spray, tasers, full cans of Twisted Tea used as projectiles, knives, batons, clubs, and one baseball bat, carried by Jonah Bigel. Lightfoot sprayed all eight of them first with bear spray and a couple of other Antifa joined the spraying. Video of this incident is shown at the beginning of this news video by the “Daily Caller” website.

The four patriots were the main target, but the 17-year-old school boys were also sprayed and one was beaten down by a group of Antifa. Light testified that he analyzed the patriots and he knew they were about to become violent because the one in the blue checkered shirt had his hands in his pockets.

Prosecutor relates White’s and Lightfoot’s comments on the initial attack that started the riot.

As the four patriots retreated they continued to beat and kick them and throw projectiles at them. A helpless, unarmed woman was beaten was by several of them. Jesse Cannon threw a wooden folding chair that hit her in the back. She lunged at Lightfoot who had bear-sprayed her. Lightfoot pushed her to the ground while several Antifa continued to beat and kick her.

Lightfoot claimed self-defense in this incident, because she lunges at him out of desperation. The prosecutor pointed out that once you attack someone, you can not claim self-defense any longer if they try to fight back. The unarmed woman’s attempt to fight back was not even a a real threat to Lightfoot.

Some of them chased one of the high school boys, who had already been sprayed with bear-spray for some distance along the boardwalk. The 17-year old was very thin, probably weighed less that 150 pounds. Several of them started beating the boy mercilessly and spraying him. It seems it was Samuel Ogden who brought a heavy walking stick about 5-feet long similar to the photo to be used as a club. They also beat boy with the walking stick. They showed a photo in court of the boy’s back in court with about 6 huge welts on his back from the club. I have not seen that image on the Internet, probably because he’s a minor. However, the photographer, John Cocozza, was hit later with the same club and the boy’s wounds look the same as Cocozzas in the photo below, only the boy had about half a dozen on his back.

Man and dog bear-sprayed

One of the Antifa knocked a child off a bicycle. An man, walking his dog on the boardwalk, approached Jeremy White to complain about it. White bear-sprayed the man and his dog. The dog was lunging at White, but the man was tightening his grip on the dog and still had a strong grip on him when they were both sprayed.

To View a video of the event, go to YouTube at this link”

Man and his dog bear-maced by Jeremy White

Excerpted from Prosecutor Harvey’s Closing Statement. All court audio is credited to Ken Stone of Times of San Diego.

Phone stolen and smashed

Two Republican woman tried to cross the area occupied by Antifa / BLM to go to the patriot area as the anarcho-communists chant a threat of violence FUCK AROUND, FIND OUT!. They stole the phone from one of the women and took turns stomping on it. One Antifa member pounded it with a flagstaff. The phone was in live mode, so they recording themselves committing the crime. Then, they gave the destroyed phone back to its owner as evidence.

First photographer attacked

Here, John Cocozza describes what happened to him. He is a professional photographer, who was just there that day to take photographs. He is trained in the martial arts and has work as a bouncer in bars. He had no fear of Antifa and talked back to them. For probably that reason he was tagged as the “enemy”.

Second photographer attacked

A second photographer on a bike was attacked, referred to as RL in the court documents. RL carried a knife in a scabbard, which is legal.

RL was beaten down by several people. His bicycle and hat was stolen and thrown into a garbage dumpster.

Jeremy White is accused of pointing him out for attack for other. He is also accused of following him around the corner and bear-spraying him and tasing him.

John Cocozza helped free RL from the attackers. Brian Lightfoot grabbed from Samuel Ogden the same walking stick that the high-schools boy was beaten with and hit Cocozza on the back with it.

Man beaten while trying to rescue daughter

An older man, who according to defendant Lightfoot was attacking a younger woman. The man was slugged by Lightfoot the father in the head and knocked him to the ground by one of the Lightfoot, then three other Antifa jumped in and the four of them beat the man together. The DDA played the 911 call and the man told police he was her father trying to get her out of the danger of the Antifa riot. She was possibly a supporter of Antifa / BLM and did not want to leave. So, they were probably having an altercation with him trying to her to pull her out of the riot. Lightfoot was wiping away tears after they played that 911 call. However, when the prosecutor asked whether he regretted attacking that father trying to save he daughter, he said, “no”.

Man punched and bear-sprayed

A older man who had been drinking talked back to several Antifa members. He was bear-sprayed by Lightfoot without any justification. Have not seen video of that on the Internet, but the prosecutors showed it in court.

Unidentified men beaten down

There were, I believe, one or two unidentified men where were beaten down and bear-sprayed by a number of Antifa members.

This is one such attack on an unknow man by a group of Antifa, presumably for no good justification. I assume that, because the were attacking other people with no justification.

Notice a call goes out for a medic from multiple Antifa members. That the medic is not for the person that the mob beat viscously, but for one of the mob who carried out the beating. Jeremy White is standing there watching the beating, but there is no sign that he offer to help by stopping the beating or aiding the victim.

Antifa/BLM rioters attack police

The riot was declared an unlawful assembly by police, but only on the Antifa/BLM side. The Antifa/BLM mob refused to leave, which is itself a crime. Some on the Antifa/BLM side attacked the police line. Bottles, rocks and eggs were thrown at police. The police drove the mob back by firing volleys of pepper balls on the ground to create a cloud of irritant.

See an aerial view if this fighting at 10:49 this link.

The twelfth Antifa conspirator

Jonah Bigel, Antifa
This document below from from the court file describes the charges against Jonah Bigel. Bigel was charged with seven felonies and one misdemeanor. He tried to burn down a police storefront, possessed an illegal unregistered handgun, which would be useful for crimes. He was the one carrying a baseball bat at the J9 riot in PB. Bigel participated in the attacks on persons they perceived as pro-Trump and he also broke a store window with the baseball bat. To make it worse, he did these things while he was on probation for an earlier conviction. I don’t know the details of his conviction. Will try to obtain that and add it here later.

Jonah Bigel Charges
Download – Jonah Bigel charges (PDF file)

More info on Jeremy White

White testified at the trial that he had participated in a number of national protests. He received a congressional award from Bernie Sanders.

Listen here to the interview that White gave for the Antifa-friendly website, “It’s going down.” White has plenty of legal and ideological reasons to spin things. No one should assume he is being truthful.

Antifa ideology justifies violence

This is an except from the Antifa Handbook by Bray. Antifa supports violence upon those they deem to be fascist or white supremacist. They often define their opposition as “fascist”, whether they really are or not. It states that Antifa does not wait for violence from the other side to shut the event down. That is exactly what Antifa did at this Pacific Beach event. They didn’t wait for violence, but tried to shut down a free speech rally with rampant violence from their side without any justification.

Related Articles

San Diego jury convicts two So Cal Antifa members – The Post Millennial

Jurors affirm riot charges for two defendants in 2021 PB violence – San Diego Reader

Antifa defendants expose selves gloating over Reader cover – San Diego Reader

More to be added.

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Are Antifa / BLM Radicals Transporting Illegals At Border?

There are reports that radical leftists are transporting illegals from the border in an Old School bus in Jacumba, Ca. Though not yet confirmed, it’s pretty clear that Antifa-BLM-style radicals are running the camp and they do have a school bus and trailer parked there. To go this this campsite paste the following coordinates in your navigator or search for “Valley of the Moon trailhead”. The camp is just off old Highway 80 within sight of the trailhead.

UPDATE: After a few days, the radical group was gone. This is the location of the anarcho-communist camp, where they parked their bus and trailers. Not sure if the Border Patrol asked them to leave are they left on their own accord. The only thing that shows that they were ever there is a tent with anarcho-communist colors (Red and Black). I do still believe that they were using the bus and trailers to transport illegals, or intended to do so.

Anarcho-communist campsite now empty

There are still illegals crossing there though at this time. They just do not have their radical helpers.

Jacumba Camp East
(Near Valley of the Moon trailhead)
32.63747,-116.10759

View and share this video on Facebook.

Note the umbrella the guy displays at 3:50 is the colors of the anarcho-communist flag, red and black. The graphic below is from the Wikipedia entry for “anarchist communism”, but you can also recognize them by the way they act and talk.

Since it has been revealed recently that Biden has CBP transporting hundreds of thousands illegally into the US by airplane, it does not seem too farfetched that he may have ordered CBP to ignore NGO workers transporting them from the border. I would guess, the radicals at the campsite are also paid by some government entity, our tax dollars at work.

How Tens of Thousands of Illegals Breached a 30-Foot Border Wall

A big part of the mission of the Border Patrol is to stop illegal crossings at the border. Biden has turned the mission of the Border Patrol on its head. Now the Border Patrol is playing a supporting role to the cartels in their efforts to smuggle unqualified refugees illegally into the US. Under Biden, they have been turned into a helper organization for the cartels, at least for human trafficking. The Lukeville border crossing was closed to legal crossers for a month so that tens of thousands of illegal crossers could be served more quickly and transported promptly to the next station on their journey into the US interior. This post details how they crossed the Trump “wall” and how they were processed and transferred.

Below, some illegals who crossed the border via a hole in the bollard fence are shown. They are walking to the Lukeville border station to surrender to agents. They will fraudulently claim asylum and be released. These illegals are recruited and trained by the cartels on what to do and say in their initial “credible fear” interview to be released into the US interior. Many of them will borrow up to half of their crossing fees and work to pay off the loan on the US side. The work is likely to be for the cartel involving some kind of illegal activity, such as drug smuggling, prostitution, extortion, money laundering, murder, etc.

A typical hole cut in a bollard is shown below. It does not does not appear easy to cross via this small hole, but the bollard can be pulled out of the way for easy crossing by hundreds at a time. This bollard was cut with an oxy-acetylene torch, but they can also be cut with a grinder. The concrete inside was chiseled out. It takes about 30 minutes for an expert to cut the bollard.

The 30-foot wall would seem to be easier to breach this way than the 18-foot wall. This is because there is more leverage if the wall is 30 feet high. A bollard therefore flexes more easily so that a person can pull it aside to create a gap for people to slip through, compared to 18-feet bollards.

One man was repairing these holes in the fence. I’m sure it takes him longer to repair a hole than it takes the smugglers to cut multiple new ones. So, he can never catch up with the smugglers cutting holes. I am sure the National Guard has plenty of wielders they could have used, but the National Guard was only helping to process and transport the illegals.

There were dozens of places where a bollard had been cut through and repaired with a steel sleeve. The Steel sleeve is weaker than the original bollard, because it no longer has steel rebar inside after being cut once. So, the coyotes like to cut the same bollard multiple times.

The video below shows how they cross. A single person can pull the bollard out of the way. The video below was originally taken by Fox News, but I copied it from a Mexican TV station. In 3 minutes, 77 people crossed illegally. So, hundreds or thousands can cross though one hole cut in the fence in a very short time. I did not see the Border Patrol or anyone else trying to stop them from cutting holes and crossing. Groups of as much 1,000-1,500 were crossing this way in Lukeville. A group of a 1,000 could cross, using a single hole like this in 30-60 minutes when no one is trying to stop them. During the Trump term, the Border Patrol would tear-gas large groups trying to cross like this.

Note the cartel coyote at 00:20 in the video giving the news crew and the American public the finger, as he crosses dozens of illegals with impunity into the US with active the assistance of the Border Patrol and the National Guard, who are tasked only to process and transport them.

Estimated Revenue Generated

The smugglers have a big advantage over the Border Patrol, because there is a huge about of money being generated in this operation. They are better funded and more flexible than the local Border Patrol. In any case the Border Patrol did not seem to be going to any great effort to stop them.

Every person crossing pays thousands of dollars to the smugglers. Assume they each pay $5K, which is a conservative estimate. The average number crossing was about 2,000 per day for a month from December 4th to January 4th. That is 60,000 within that month. A press release by local congressmen estimated 2,000 crossers per day. That was also my estimate, based on what I saw and what I was told by locals. That would mean about $10 million dollars being collected in revenue every day or $300 million dollars for that month.

That is the month that the Biden administration shutdown the crossing so that the Border Patrol, Customs and the National Guard could concentrate their efforts on assisting the cartel to move about 60,000 illegals into the US. Some of the profits, no doubt, end up in the pockets of key US politicians.

The estimate above does not include the revenue generated by additional drugs smuggled, due to the Border Patrol being tied up processing illegal crossers, claiming asylum, or the money that many pay in addition to be smuggled across Mexico. The total revenue generated by this month-long operation would likely be a couple times higher than the $300 million estimated just to be put across the border. Total revenue could approach a billion dollars at this one small, isolated border crossing, where there are relatively few Border Patrol agents. Agents were pulled off the border to service illegal crossers, which made it easier during that time to smuggle drugs in that area.

Processing Unqualified Asylum Seekers

The illegals were processed under the tent at the border crossing, where vehicles normally drive through.

Few of these people spoke English and they are likely to form their own communites and not assimulate into the US mainstream. Many of them are from countries that does not have a deportation agreement with the US. For that reason they will be very difficult to deport, say if they commit crimes. Most of their home countries do not share criminal records, either. So, there is no way to find out if they are known criminals.

The were transported in vans to the local Border Patrol Station on Highway 85 about 25 miles north of Lukeville, near the crossroads of “Why”. I followed one and clocked the van at 85+ mph. They apparently had to drive that fast to keep up with the flow of illegal crossers.

There is another processing station (shown below) on a dirt side road (Puerto Blanco Drive) just over a mile north of the Border Crossing to the west of Highway 85. This is the normal processing station when the border crossing is open. Paste these coordinates into your navigator to go to the approximate location of the processing station: 31.889585, -112.832399 or click on this link for a map 31.889585, -112.832399

Local townspeople were told exactly when the border crossing would reopen and traffic did slow down, just before January 4th when it was scheduled. For a number of reasons, it seems there was a two-way communication channel and coordination between the American government and the smugglers. It may be routed through Mexican officials who then talk to the smugglers.

Lookouts On Monument Hill

Monument Hill is just west of the border crossing. Lookouts posted there warn the smugglers, if there is any threat from approaching Border Patrol agents.

Three people in the image below are replacements for the lookouts. They are climbing the hill along the Mexican side of the fence. One of the two lower persons is a woman. There is a second man above them, who appears to be sitting on a rock resting.

This is video of the lookout on Monument Hill. The three lookouts are on top of the hill. Three replacements on their way to the top can be seen on the lower right part of the video.

Previous Method of Mass Crossing

The Lukeville area is prone to desert flashfloods. Without floodgates that can be opened, a flashflood can easily knock down sections of the fence, especially if they are set in sand. There are also maintenance gates that allow the Border Patrol to pass through in case repairs need to be made from the other side. The border fence is always built a couple feet back from the actual US border.

About 2 years earlier the coyotes were crossing masses of illegals by opening the floodgates or maintenance gates in the area. There is a round, silver lock in the gates that. The lock is the American Lock 2010 series “Puck” Lock. They would apparently melt the lock open melt with a torch. Then open the gate and let a crowd of illegal
crossers run through.

Conclusion

They have refined their methods of cutting through the border fence quickly. This is a great threat to border security in California, Arizona and New Mexico, where very large numbers have already been crossing recently.

To state the obvious, the border cannot be secured when there is a president (Biden) and his DHS Secretary (Mayorkas) who actually want and encourage large masses of fraudulent asylum seekers to cross the border illegally. Of course, a secure border a barrier is necessary, as well as effective presidential policies. Biden/Mayorkas policies are actually malicious.

Sending more Border Patrol Agents and National Guardsmen when they are under orders to only assist illegals to cross and not try to stop them is only going to encourage and enable the cartels to send more across.

Attempt To Disqualify DA In Antifa Conspiracy Due To Her Conservatism (Failed)

A motion has been filed in the first-ever, Antifa conspiracy case to disqualify the San Diego District Attorney, Summer Stephan, from prosecuting the trial because during her campaign she expressed conservative political and pro-law-enforcement views. Her views have been deemed hostile to the violent, anarcho-communist ideology of Antifa. Therefore, she is accused of being unable to fairly prosecute Antifa members, who conspire to commit violent crimes intended to suppress the free speech of others. This motion may be considered at an upcoming hearing on November 17th by Judge Daniel Goldstein. If this concept were accepted widely it would seem that only progressive Democrats could be allowed to try BLM and Antifa defendants.

UPDATE: This motion failed.

Twelve antifa have been charged with conspiracy to riot and other crimes. Seven of them have already pled guilty. One has been sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison. The intention was to disrupt a pro-Trump rally on January 9th, 2021 in Pacific Beach, a neighborhood in San Diego, just three days after the J6 event at the Capitol building.

First of all, pointing the finger at the crimes of someone else does not excuse a person from their own crimes. In the article below by KBPS, the writer summarizes the complaints in the motion to disqualify. He refers to elements that he claims are white supremacists and fascists and crimes that some have supposedly committed. This Leftist conspiracy theory holds that those on the Left are being prosecuted in San Diego, while others on the Right get off free. I can tell you from personal experience that’s not true.

Examples given in the KPBs article below as unpunished crimes the Right has committed are the following. One person giving a Nazi salute, another brandishing a knife and others assaulting Leftists. Giving a Nazi salute is not a crime and you don’t know whether it reflects the person’s own belief or whether he did it in sarcasm because they say Antifa are the real fascists.

Brandishing a knife and minor assaults are misdemeanors. Under current California law, a misdemeanor has to be witnessed directly by the police to be prosecutable, even if there is video. On the other hand, these Antifa defendants are charged with felony conspiracy.

Defense attorney asks judge to remove San Diego District Attorney from antifa conspiracy case – KPBS Article

Why BLM/Antifa Attract Attention Of Law Enforcement

If radical, revolutionary, far-left groups are getting more scrutiny from the DA and the police in San Diego than groups on the Right it may just be because they tried to burn down the La Mesa Police station in San Diego County. Here they chant in front of the San Diego Police Station that all police stations should be burned to the ground. That kind of thing somehow tends to get the attention of the police. Yet, if the DA and police act or even call it a “threat”, somehow they must be incurably “biased”.

Jonah Bigel was among the Antifa rioters on J6 — though he was not charged in the conspiracy. One of his actions on another day was apparently an attempt to burn down a San Diego Police Storefront office.

Antifa traces their roots back to the pre-WWII Antifa street fighters against Nazis and they use similar symbolism. But anyone who knows a little about that history knows that Antifa of that time were not just “anti-fascist”, they were violent, revolutionary communists, not really much different in their violent tactics than Nazis.

Text Of The Frivolous Motion To Disqualify

Below is the 243-page Motion to Disqualify, which is full of misleading information and falsehoods, but in “progressive”, communist-friendly California it may very well succeed.

briggs-law-motion-to-disqualify-file-stamped2_OCR

Previous Disqualification in BLM Case

There is an earlier case, in which a DA was disqualified in the prosecution of BLM organizers. This happened in San Luis Obispo, Ca. In this earlier case 300 BLM protesters shut down a major freeway and vandalized some of the cars as well as put drivers at risk of being injured in accidents. It was claimed that the DA was biased, because of things his wife and other associates said, not him. See quote from the first article below:

The trial court found that a campaign email from Wendy Dow, wife of the DA, which made references to “crazy protest activity” and “the wacky defund the police movement and anarchist groups,” “established a disqualifying conflict of interest on the part of District Attorney Dow and his entire office.”

The court also found that District Attorney Dow had “associated with two media personalities who were critical of BLM and that he had participated in a Facebook group in which some members had posted statements that disparaged BLM.”

Pacific Beach Antifa-Case, Related Links:

Previous, BLM-Case, Related Links:

Every Illegal And His Dog Crossing Border In San Diego

Illegals crossing on the beach as seen from Mexican side

The video below combines a couple of videos that were posted on Mexican news outlets. They are reused here to show illegal crossers at the beach in San Diego. According to reports, about 100 illegals per day are crossing the border at this place.

The section of a few hundred yards was not finished during the Trump term and is being finished now under Biden. I do not think Biden wanted to do it, but a judge ruled that he could not reprogram the money that had been reserved for it by Trump. So, he has to let it go forward and finish the part of the Trump Wall that has already been funded, apparently. Note the dog crossing near the end of the video. Reportedly, the dog was immediately repatriated to Mexico, but probably not the humans.

View of construction from the US side

They are building an 18-foot primary fence, bordering Mexico and a 30-foot secondary fence behind it. The secondary fence has been completed first. It will take many more months for the primary fence to be finished and presumably for that time, it will continue to be relatively easy to cross here at the beach.

View of Border to the west from US side

The silver color of the new fence is due to an anti-corrosive coating of some kind applied to the normally rust-colored, steel bollards. The brown fence in the distance was completed during Trump’s term in office.

View of the Border to the east from US side

Other Notorious illegal crossing places in San Diego Co.

When this construction is done, of course, you should not expect the unprecedented mass illegal crossing of millions to stop, at least not while Biden is in office. Here are some other places that they cross regularly. Of course, crossing in all of these places is controlled by the local cartel coyote and illegal crossers have to pay, about $8-9K in the San Diego area to cross from what I have heard.

  • Tijuana river border crossing – Just to the west of the San Ysidro border crossing, behind the Las Americas Premium Outlets there is a 350-yard gap here where there is no border barrier at all to stop fake refugees from walking into US territory to fraudulently claim asylum and be released.

  • Near the South Bay Water Reclamation Plant – At this location just off Monument Road, the cartel coyotes put fake refugees over the primary fence. They camp out there until the Border Patrol comes to pick them up with a shuttle bus. Progressive hypocrites provide food, water and other supplies through the secondary fence here. They claim it is a “humanitarian relief project”, but it is really about progressive (neo-Marxist) politics and cheap labor for big business. Click on these coordinates (32.540046, -117.068154) for a map to the location.

  • Marron Valley – Between Otay Mountain and Tecate Peak, there is no border barrier at all for about 6-7 miles of relatively flat land. The Tijuana river meanders across the border at this place, but it is dry most of the year and can be easily walked across. The Border Patrol has a shuttle bus stop here where they go regularly to fetch the new arrivals, most to be quickly released into the US. The Border Patrol discourages the public from driving all the way to the border in Marron Valley, because it is a hot spot for drug smuggling. Click on these coordinates (32.578056, -116.763056) for a map to the location. The Border Patrol warns that you NOT go past the gate in the road at this point.

  • Campo Creek – where the creek and an old railroad track crosses the border there is several hundred yards where there is no border barrier at all. It is easy to walk across the border here. To drive there you have to use the border road starting from Tecate or from Campo.

  • Jacumba Hot Springs. Near Jacumba there is a single low fence, built during the Bush era, where they climb over. In places the fake refugees can walk around the fence. Reportedly a number of camps are there of fake refugees. The Border Patrol also provides a regular shuttle service for them to the station.

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This should be considered criminal endangerment of a child, as well as untold hundreds of other such cases occurring every week. Our government’s policy encourages it, as well other serious criminal behavior.