Washington gunman motivated by fake news 'Pizzagate' conspiracy

[garbon]

A taste of the future?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/gunman-detained-at-comet-pizza-restaurant-was-self-investigating-fake-news-reports

Washington restaurant was target of fake news reports it was operating a child abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton and an aide

US police have arrested a man wielding an assault rifle who entered a pizza restaurant that was the target of fake news reports it was operating a child abuse ring led by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top campaign aide.

An unidentified 35-year-old man was being held for questioning after police were called to the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington near the Maryland border, said Aquita Brown, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation's capital.

The suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a gun at a restaurant employee, who fled and notified authorities, police said. The man then discharged the weapon inside the restaurant. There were no injuries.

Two weapons were found inside the restaurant and a third one was recovered from the man's vehicle, police added.

They said the suspect during an interview with investigators revealed that he came to the establishment to "self-investigate" Pizzagate, the police statement said. Pizzagate is a baseless conspiracy, which falsely claims Clinton and her campaign chief John Podesta were running a child sex ring from the restaurant's backrooms.

Police said there was no active investigation of child abuse allegations relating to the restaurant.

A Reuters witness at the restaurant with his one-year-old child said it was crowded when the gunman entered, with many families dining.

Last month, various media outlets, including the Washington Post and New York Times, reported on internet postings that had sparked death threats against the owner of the restaurant.

The attack on Comet was considered an example of how fake news reports that proliferated during the election year impacted people's lives.

A fake news story was even tweeted by General Mike Flynn, Donald Trump's pick for national security adviser. In the 3 November tweet he linked to a discredited story that suggested Hillary Clinton and her "crew" were involved in child abuse and added the comment "U decide."

After the incident at Comet, the police department said in a statement that it was "monitoring the situation and aware of general threats being made against this establishment."

"We've directed the staff to notify MPD should they receive specific threats or have concerns about their safety."

The Reuters witness who was inside Comet at around 3pm ET (2000 GMT) said he was paying his bill when he saw a man entering the restaurant's front door. "It appeared to us he had a long rifle with him. We scattered," he said.

The restaurant began to empty and some staff also exited, according to the witness.

A police department tweet later stated, "Suspect armed w/assault rifle taken into custody."

[CountDeMoney]

The future? Ask Planned Parenthood in Colorado about fake news stories setting off crazies.

[garbon]

I guess but this one is so ridiculous and was actually tweeted out by someone Trump later gave a position to.

[derspiess]

What could pizza have referred to in those emails?  Obviously the conspiracy theory is total BS, but obviously they were using pizza and other words as code for something.

[garbon]

What could pizza have referred to in those emails?  Obviously the conspiracy theory is total BS, but obviously they were using pizza and other words as code for something.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38156985

The saga of 'Pizzagate': The fake story that shows how conspiracy theories spread

No victim has come forward. There's no investigation. And physical evidence? That doesn't exist either.

But thousands of people are convinced that a paedophilia ring involving people at the highest levels of the Democratic Party is operating out of a Washington pizza restaurant.

The story riveted fringes of Twitter - nearly a million messages were sent last month using the term "pizzagate".

So how did this fake story take hold amongst alt-right Trump supporters and other Hillary Clinton opponents?

Let's start with the facts.

In early November, as Wikileaks steadily released piles of emails from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, one contact caught the attention of prankster sites and people on the paranoid fringes.

James Alefantis is the owner of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in Washington. He's also a big Democratic Party supporter and raised money for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was once in a relationship with David Brock, an influential liberal operative.

Alefantis - who's never met Clinton - appeared in the Podesta emails in connection with the fundraisers.

And from these thin threads, an enormous trove of conspiracy fiction was spun.

Users of 4chan, a message board known for free speech, extreme content and trollish behaviour, began posting speculation and supposed connections gleaned from internet searches. They trawled Alefantis' Instagram feed for pictures of children and the modern art which lines his restaurant's walls, and dreamt up a paedophile sex ring involving prominent politicians and political donors.

Soon there were protesters outside of Comet Ping Pong. Alefantis even invited some of them in - they filmed the encounter and put it on YouTube.

"They ignore basic truths," Alefantis tells BBC Trending. For instance, the conspiracy supposedly is run out of the restaurant's basement. "We don't even have a basement."

"Sometimes an innocent picture of a child in a basket is just an innocent picture of a child in a basket and not proof of a child sex trafficking ring," he says.

The conspiracy theory bubbled up from 4chan onto the mainstream internet when a Reddit user posted a long document with all of the "evidence" several days before the US election. It first appeared on a section of the site popular with Donald Trump supporters from the extremist white nationalist alt-right.

Alefantis, along with Comet Ping Pong employees and others, started to get threatening messages. He locked his Instagram account.

...

[Razgovory]

What could pizza have referred to in those emails?  Obviously the conspiracy theory is total BS, but obviously they were using pizza and other words as code for something.

What the fuck are you talking about?

[CountDeMoney]

What could pizza have referred to in those emails?  Obviously the conspiracy theory is total BS, but obviously they were using pizza and other words as code for something.

As long as they were all carried to term, who cares? #ItsAChoiceOfToppingsNotAChoice

[grumbler]

What could pizza have referred to in those emails?  Obviously the conspiracy theory is total BS, but obviously they were using pizza and other words as code for something.

I am not sure they would do that. In the past, they used codes that no one but them even recognized as code.  If they are really claiming that they are using those words as code, then they should show that.

[derspiess]

If they were actually talking about pizza in those emails, the emails make zero sense.

[Razgovory]

If they were actually talking about pizza in those emails, the emails make zero sense.

Demonstrate.

[derspiess]

Maybe later, Raz.

[mongers]

If they were actually talking about pizza in those emails, the emails make zero sense.

So the pizzas they were ordering from the pizza joint weren't pizzas, but .....


... satanic child sacrifice weapons.

... fake election ballots.

... chemtrail spray tanks.

... fracking drilling kit.

... doctored global warming studies.

... Chicago style pizzas?

[Razgovory]

Maybe later, Raz.

No, I think today is a good time.  That was crazy bullshit, and trying to meet it half-way is disgusting.  So why don't you show us where you got that idea, huh?

[derspiess]

Maybe later, Raz.

No, I think today is a good time.  That was crazy bullshit, and trying to meet it half-way is disgusting.  So why don't you show us where you got that idea, huh?

From the emails I saw quoted, pizza and some other words seemed a bit out of context.  That's all.  I did say the conspiracy theory was BS.

[garbon]

Maybe later, Raz.

No, I think today is a good time.  That was crazy bullshit, and trying to meet it half-way is disgusting.  So why don't you show us where you got that idea, huh?

From the emails I saw quoted, pizza and some other words seemed a bit out of context.  That's all.  I did say the conspiracy theory was BS.

Actually the words were literally in context until people started taking them out of it.