Buffalo IndyMedia Center

05/10/2021

This picture was taken at a political fundraiser in which "Students First" participated and from which it benefited. Stefan Mychajliw, David DiPietro, Charles Pellien, Nicholas Orticelli are all pictured here and many of them are wearing a uniform consisting of a black shirt. As people who know history, we found this interesting and quite telling.

"Black Shirts, colloquial term originally used to refer to the members of the Fasci di combattimento, units of the Fascist organization founded in Italy in March 1919 by Benito Mussolini. A black shirt was the most distinctive part of their uniform.

The Black Shirts were mainly discontented ex-soldiers. Ultranationalist, they posed as champions of law and order and violently attacked Communists, socialists, and other radical and progressive groups. They broke up strikes, destroyed trade union headquarters, and drove socialist and Communist officials from office.

In October 1922, their activities culminated in the famous march on Rome, which brought Mussolini to power. Afterward, while the term Black Shirts continued to be used to refer to party militants in general, the name Fasci di combattimento designated the local party units."

- The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

31/08/2021

Peter J Harding, Capitol insurrectionist, Unmask Our Kids leader, Unmask WNY Kids leader, and former NY Watchmen militia member sharing a bunch of dangerous and false opinions about masks. Mind you, he does not have any school aged children and yet here he is speaking at a school board meeting and being applauded by members of the above-named groups.

13/07/2021

Shared with permission from the Buffalo United Resistance Network on Instagram:

⚠️Content warning for blatant racism. We know that Stefan Mychajliw has associated with racist groups like the New York Watchmen for awhile now, and has made decisions like condemning “Polish Americans against white supremacy” banners; and a recent comment on Instagram account is another drop in the racist bucket. Stefan continues to obsess over the Working Families Party’s endorsement of both India Walton and his opponent, Hoak. In his latest post about India Walton (who is Black, and isn’t running for office in the same area as him), a friend, who he follows on Instagram refers to Black people as “animals.” This comment was made over 18 hours ago and Stefan has left it up, during election season when social media accounts of politicians running are heavily monitored.

Edited to add: 1 full day later and this blatantly racist comment is still up but opposition to it has been deleted or hidden, and multiple posts have been made by Stefan since.

28/06/2021

26/06/2021

Courtesy of the Buffalo United Resistance Network:
"Yesterday a friend of our team was driving along Ellicott Rd (Route 240) in West Falls (a hotbed for local right-wing extremists, despite it’s very small size), into Orchard Park. They noticed a group of individuals gathered in the Emmanuel United Methodist Church parking lot. This church is very small and rarely has anyone there other than on Sunday mornings. A sizable group gathered on a Friday night was out of the ordinary. They spotted the Golf Car City business truck and gave us a call to ask if it was connected to anything we had seen regarding far-right organizing lately. When they turned around to drive by again and get a better look, they saw that the person who was speaking and had the attention of the group of 8-10 people in the parking lot, was none other than Capitol insurrectionist Pete Harding.

This was surprising to hear as local groups have insisted in the last month that they have completely cut ties with Pete Harding. The Constitutional Coalition then back-pedaled a bit, stating that someone simply attending a meeting doesn’t make them a member. When our friend provided the closest cross intersection for Emmanuel UMC, we realized that our attention had recently been drawn to this church with a new supporter logo being added to the Buffalo Backs Beasley rally flyer, for the Black Robed Regiment, which lists their address on Facebook as the address of Emmanuel UMC.

When we looked into the church further, we noticed that Stephen Mannion is the pastor. He is a member/leader of the Free NYS group and uses the Black Robed Regiment logo as his avatar in the Free NYS chat, where he often spouts off anti-LBTQIA rhetoric).

In addition, Pete was yet again featured on Channel 2 news yesterday, at an Unmask our Children rally. A previous story showed him at an Alden Unmask our Children rally in a Rolling Patriots hoodie, but this time he was in an Unmask our Children shirt, speaking to the crowd on a megaphone. Unmask our Children is another organizer of the Buffalo Backs Beasley rally, as is Marie Rock’s Business and Community Recovery Initiative."

18/06/2021

Erie County Sheriff Candidate Karen Healy-Case and her supporters have emphasized time and again that she is the “law and order candidate.” In reality, Healy-Case is surrounded by violent and other immoral (racist, against democracy, etc.) individuals. As we all know, violence is almost always illegal, which is clearly counterintuitive for a potential sheriff. The purpose of these infographics is to highlight those relationships. Investigative Post released an informative article this morning https://www.investigativepost.org/2021/06/17/erie-county-a-dubious-national-leader/ about the “patriot groups” in Western New York, which may be the reason our region is tied for the second highest arrest rate in connection with the Capitol attack.

We see appearances locally from Save Our Seniors, The Marching Patriots, and the Rolling patriots. They look wholesome and well-mannered at many of those events. But if you look immediately below the surface; the groups recruit members for more violent associations like the NY Watchmen, Proud Boys, Three Percenters. They also recruit members at their local patriotic events to participate in unlawful and highly problematic events. For instance, the Marching Patriots hold local family friendly events; but a group of them also went in their uniforms to DC and members breached the Capitol grounds, breached the Capitol building, and one even lit Associated Press equipment on fire. That behavior is a far cry from families with small children walking down a sidewalk smiling and waving their American flags.

In some of the accompanying infographics, we see Healy-Case publish endorsements from the individuals. Others she spends time with and poses with in photos. Others attended events featuring her. The commonality in all of them is that this group of individuals is associated with Healy-Case. She has promised to not enforce certain gun laws nor enforce future public-health measures. It’s very concerning that someone who has the potential to become the sheriff in a county that contains NY’s second largest city has supporters who are violent and/or racists.

10/02/2021

This video focuses on the actions of Charlie Pellien and Stefan Mychajliw in the 12/19/20 Buffalo, NY attack in Niagara Square against anti-racist activists. It also covers how David DiPietro and Bills Fan Thunder are linked to Charlie Pellien, the Watchmen, and the 12/19 Niagara Square attack.

In this video we see Nick Orticelli make the first physical contact, followed by Charlie escalating with a maglite, and then the rest of the attack. Charlie beats an elder and a young Person of Color with his maglite. The other members of the Watchmen, of which Charlie is the state-wide leader, tase, beat with weapons, punch, and kick individuals in addition to throwing a smoke gr***de.

DiPietro and Mychajliw then both gives speeches supporting the Watchmen immediately after, including Mychajliw shaking Charlie’s hand. They are public officials accountable to their constituents. Their phone lines are always open to hear your thoughts on their affiliation with armed far right extremists who openly delight in their brutal assaults on community elders and People of Color.

The video ends with Charlie and Brett Biro speaking about Charlie’s charity, Bills Fan Thunder, trying to convince others that Charlie hasn’t always been racist as he spends time with Black kids. We disagree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJlTOtLg88

This video focuses on the actions of Charlie Pellien and Stefan Mychajliw in the 12/19/20 Buffalo, NY attack in Niagara Square against anti-racist activists....

03/02/2021

The announcement comes less than a month after group members allegedly joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.

17/01/2021

Trigger warning for violence: Another disturbing video shared by anti-racist comrades of the attack committed by right-wing extremists on 12/19

14/01/2021

Wayne (Wyatt) Mychalak’s attack on leftist activists with support from his fellow Watchmen and Proud Boys.

The mainstream media reported this incident as only one person with minor injuries.

09/01/2021

We have seen a politician using an image of a flag with this print quite a bit the last couple days. We feel it's worth mentioning that this image was created by and is used by local grassroots activists. Anti-fascist work has overwhelmingly been done by grassroots activists for close to a century now. It is rarely the work of politicians. Of course politicians can and should contribute to this work as well. Everyone should be anti-fascist.

Feel free to share the image below!

06/01/2021

Hello comrades! We know many of you are watching what's happening unfold in DC. A number of far right extremists from WNY are down there, and the Marching Patriots flag was recently seen inside the capitol building. If you find any images of locals in DC, please send them to [email protected] the olive green flag in this video of the breached capitol is the Marching Patriots flag

Edited to add photos of local white supremacist/trump loyalist logos. If you are watching coverage, PLEASE grab photos of anyone you see in DC in these

28/12/2020

A protest was held today at noon, outside of Erie County Hall on Franklin, to call for pandemic relief for the working class in Erie County. Members of Workers World Party, Queen City Workers’ Center, and The Green Party stood in frigid temperatures and 20mph winds with signs and banners. Speakers at the event touched on the eviction moratorium ending and workers getting more desperate for financial relief. They expressed disgust at the growing divide between the economic position of the working class and those who have profited off of the pandemic.

Mary Lister from Queen City Worker’s center stated “Over the past 9 months, we at the Queen City Workers’ Center have received a deluge of calls from workers who are worried for their very lives.” Lister expressed concerns around working conditions during the pandemic for health care, restaurant, grocery store, and childcare workers.

Carol Sandy Przybylak, Vice Chair of the Erie County Green Party, spoke about the lack of relief for states, counties, and municipalities; and yet Governor Cuomo has chosen to continue rebating a stock transfer tax to Wall Street worth 16-18 billion a year. All the while, working families have received little relief. Stock markets continue to soar and large corporation profits increase, without that economic success trickling down to workers.

Nigel from Workers World Party spoke out against the rich getting richer during the pandemic, and tax breaks given to them instead of those tax breaks being given to workers or to provide local services.

With financial help and legal protections dwindling while the pandemic is still hitting hard in Erie County, it’s clear that the working class in Buffalo is going to have a tough financial year ahead.

22/12/2020

The first public, organized gathering of the Proud Boys in Buffalo was this past Saturday. They participated, along with the Watchmen, in the attack of multiple individuals, most seriously injuring one of our elders. When the group of folks who were with the elder left the area, the Proud Boys and Watchmem followed them carrying full size maglites.

The Proud Boys are NOT welcome in Buffalo. This is the City of Good Neighbors. People who burn BLM signs off of historic Black churches and attack folks who don’t have the same ideology as them are NOT good neighbors.

Proud Boy and Watchmen photos in comments for uniform identification purposes.

Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the group, claimed responsibility for the act, which authorities are investigating as a potential hate crime.

09/12/2020

09/12/2020

Content warning regarding anti-semitism, gun violence, and Covid conspiracies.

As our friends at BURN aren't active on Facebook, we figured we would share this content here to ensure it ended up on this platform as well. We are shocked by the amount of negative information coming out around the Watchmen and associated groups in the past couple weeks.

Damon Grant Hewitt is an Anti-Masker, Flat Earther, and QAnon enthusiast who is a member of the New York Watchmen. You can often find Hewitt spewing his grossly misguided views on Covid-19 & The “New World Order,” an anti-semitic conspiracy theory, on Facebook. He is affiliated with Yowawa media, Alt Right Podcast “Edge of the Falls” and their White Nationalist leader Brett Biro. Damon also attended the “Million MAGA march” and described it as the highlight of his life where he was seen with The Proud Boys (pictured above). Finally was seen last Saturday alongside fellow watchmen at a Rolling Patriots Rally in Kenmore NY without a mask breathing and spewing his rhetoric in close proximity to cops and counter protesters. This is just one member but think about the rest. If the watchmen are here to protect the community then why would they allow someone with such a distorted perception of reality into their fold? We cannot allow this in our community. We cannot allow people to hurl these kind of hateful remarks for everyone to see. We must oppose fascism at every turn. We Keep Us Safe.