Chicago connection to that Columbus, OH Anti-Semitic protest sign: supporter Mike Kearns, Chicago police officer

This post is dedicated to the everyday antifascists, the ones who make racists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, sexists, misogynists, transphobes, and other such Nazis unwelcome across every platform. We see you. We appreciate you.

Last weekend, people across the country answered the astroturfed call and demanded local government reopen their states, despite the tide of the growing coronavirus pandemic, so they and more vulnerable people can get back to work (lol). Urged on by facebook groups created by right-wing organizations and donors, people are demanding an end to the self-isolation guidelines. However, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust imagery are also present at anti-lockdown protests. For an overview and photos about the worrisome and staggeringly stupid protests, read this Daily Mail article.

And these fascist chuds made a Chicago connection.

So who’s this Mike Kearns guy? He was tagged in “The Real Plague” post and then used the term “goyim,” a term that has been co-opted by anti-Semites. As explained by Rebecca Einstein Schorr in Forward, “white supremacists to refer to themselves [as goyim] in a shocking example of linguistic appropriation. By incorporating it, and other Yiddish terms, into their nationalist lingo, they perpetuate the anti-Semitic myth that we are a cabal with our own secret language and agenda. ‘The Goyim Know’ is a catch-phrase used to mock Jews by using pseudo-Yiddish phrases to impersonate them by ‘exposing’ the Jewish ‘conspiracy.’ ‘Oy vey, it’s anudda Shoah’ and ‘oy vey, the goyim know, shut it down’ are just two examples often found on social media in comments and on memes,” by Rebecca Einstein Schorr in Forward.

Talented internet sleuths quickly determined that Mike Kearns is a Chicago police officer:

It’s important to note that the fb profile pic frame “sometimes antisocial/always anticommunist” Mike Kearns uses is a part of the Anticommunist or “Anticom” branding. As reported by independent media outlet Unicorn Riot, “while Anticom claims to represent ‘varying points of view,’ much of the chat messages appear consistent in ideology across the tens of thousands of messages sent in the server. Anticom Discord users show a particular fixation with antisemitic memes and conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world. Many postings in the server contain variations on ‘the happy merchant,’ a distorted drawing of a Jewish man’s face long used as a trope in anti-semitic propaganda.” Additionally, “Many of the messages sent by Anticom supporters cross the line into clearly inciting violence and present serious public safety concerns. Dropbox link posted in Anticom’s Discord user iSpringfield in April contained a folder of manuals detailing how to create various forms of explosives, such as grenades and blasting caps.”

That’s the group with whom Chicago police officer Mike Kearns identifies.

And since this past Sunday, it looks like Mike Kearns cleaned up his facebook, removing the Anticom messaging and the pic of himself in CPD uniform, It goes to show that you can clean up your facebook page but if you miss your URL, your identity is a dead giveaway. We managed to grab your URL, Mike20103 and noticed that it’s the same before and after you got busted as a white nationalist.

Scratch a cop, find a fascist. Some folks have been reporting Mike Kearns to CPD management for his posting of support on an anti-Semitic picture. If that’s your jam, here’s the portal with which to do so.

Further, anti-Semitic and racist signs at these Tea Party 2.0 protests are not standalone incidents. As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates, racists seize the opportunity to unduly cast blame, per Washington Post:

Speaking of the ADL, they believe they are confirming the identity of one of the “Real Plague” sign men and his incredibly violent friends: