Dr. Michael Logan co-authors an article about crimes perpetrated by anti-fascists in Portland

KENNESAW, Ga. (Jun 30, 2021) — Dr. Michael Logan, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, and Dr. Gina Ligon, Director of the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, & Education Center (NCITE) housed at the University of Nebraska Omaha recently co-authored a publication in a special issue focusing on the January 6th Capitol Breach at Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict (DAC). The article, titled “Come one, come all: individual-level diversity among anti-fascists”, examines individual differences among 95 radical anti-fascist sympathizers federally charged for crimes committed in Portland, Oregon. Furthermore, anti-fascist sympathizers were compared to other types of domestic extremists (e.g., far-right, Q-Anon, far-left) on key demographics, such as age, gender, and ethnicity. The goal of the article was to examine the types of people and tactics involved in the sustained political unrest in Portland to contextualize the events on January 6th.

The present study examined the individual differences of radical anti-fascist sympathizers who were federally charged for crimes committed in Portland, Oregon, between May and October of 2020. Anti-fascist sympathizers were also compared to other types of individual extremists on demographics (age, gender, and ethnicity). The anti-fascist sympathizers examined in this study were on average 28 years old, male, and white. The most frequent federal charges were assault on a federal officer, failure to obey a lawful order, and civil disorder. Using Bruce Hoffman’s criteria for defining terrorism, these data show that this sample of radical anti-fascists’ targeting and tactics do indeed warrant examination from terrorist scholars. Given that radical anti-fascist sympathizers have waged a sustained campaign of prolonged violence, more research is needed on the antecedents to their joining such movements and the efficacy of policy recommendations to diffuse them.