Antifa, BLM and Urban Guerrilla Warfare

By John Friend

A document critical of Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) distributed and later abandoned by a prominent law enforcement training group has outraged the radical left, their supporters, and their all-too willing enablers in academia, the controlled corporate media, and Big Tech.

The International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), a membership-based association of professional educators and trainers of law enforcement agencies and personnel across the world, is “committed to the reduction of law enforcement risk through the enhancement of training for criminal justice practitioners,” according to its official website. The respected association distributed a document titled “Understanding Antifa and Urban Guerrilla Warfare” in an October email newsletter and member update, noting that the document was “restricted to law enforcement only.”

AFP was able to secure a copy of the report before it was removed from ILEETA’s website.

Harvey Hedden, the executive director of ILEETA, explained to this reporter in a recent interview that the controversial document in question “was the research product of an ILEETA member and not a statement of policy or support by the association” and that the association welcomes “the exchange of ideas, techniques, and opinions on training.”

The Associated Press was informed of the document by a member of ILEETA. It triggered outrage from a number of left-leaning academics and organizations who were particularly upset with the frank critiques and straightforward characterizations of both the BLM and Antifa movements, whose supporters and activists have engaged in wanton destruction, violence, criminality, and terrorism across the country in recent years, largely with impunity.

The document accurately describes Antifa and BLM as “revolutionary movements whose aims are to overthrow the U.S. government,” and insists that the groups “have no intentions to negotiate” or compromise. It goes on to allege that both Antifa and BLM are “fronts for Russia and China” which receive funding from subversive international elements, including George Soros, which trickles back to the Democrat Party.

Additionally, the document argues that no law enforcement agency at the local, state, or federal level is keeping records on Antifa or BLM groups and activists. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies at all levels are overly focused on right-wing and so-called white supremacist groups and organizations, encouraged and manipulated by blatantly dishonest organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, which has “distributed extremely inaccurate information on the rightwing groups while praising Antifa and BLM.”

Despite many of the objectively and factually accurate assessments presented in the document, left-leaning academics and organizations have denounced the document and pilloried ILEETA for daring to distribute it, which was done in an effort to “discuss and debate [law enforcement] training issues,” Hedden noted.

Phillip Atiba Goff, a professor at Yale University and the CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, described the document as “dangerous” and “distressing” to Associated Press (AP), before insisting it is “untethered to reality.”

“I worry that it leads to people dying unnecessarily,” Goff hysterically asserted.

Scott Roberts, a senior director of criminal justice campaigns for Color of Change, a left-wing “racial justice” organization working to create a “less hostile world for black people in America,” urged police departments to cut ties with ILEETA. Sherice Nelson, an assistant professor of political science at Southern University and A&M College who studies black political movements, denounced the “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories” promoted in the document, arguing that the claims about Antifa and BLM are “wildly outlandish” and that they promote violence and dehumanize others.

Hedden commendably defended the document when interviewed by the AP, insisting that it was merely the opinion of a member of the organization and was open for debate and scrutiny. Hedden went on to explain that the ILEETA “supports the exchange of ideas and strategies to improve criminal justice training but does not endorse specific approaches,” according to the AP.

He also noted that, like law enforcement, many of the criticisms of BLM may be justified, while others are “overgeneralizations.”

“ILEETA received a number of threatening emails and phone calls accusing us of supporting the conclusions in the document, which is a falsehood,” Hedden explained to this reporter. “We do support freedom of expression and exchange of ideas. It is apparent that this is a subject in which there cannot be rational debate and we will therefore cover other subjects of training that will not interfere with our mission.”

John Friend is a freelance writer based in California.