Chicago Proud Boys Telegram Chat Logs Identify Chicago Police Officer Rob Bakker as Proud Boy

The Proud Boys are an SPLC-designated hate group for their identity as a far-right neo-fascist organization that admits only men as members and promotes political violence. They’re easily identified with their yellow-ringed knock-off Fred Perry polos and their propensity to get loud, drunk, and in fights. Across the country, they have been condemned for attacking defenseless people in the streets, especially if the PB gang did not agree with their political beliefs, their sexuality or gender orientation, or their religion.

The Proud Boys Chicago chapter operated a clandestine Telegram group called “Fuck Antifa” that was later renamed to “D-Fence Squad” for a significant portion of the summer of 2019. The members of the chat group have been identified as Sean Dolan, “Trigger” Tom Christensen, Nick Stiso, Jon “Heathen” Argumedo and Chicago Police Officer Rob Bakker.

Proud Boy & CPD Officer Rob Bakker

Antifascists were able to infiltrate the Telegram group and glean much intelligence about the internal organization of the Chicago Proud Boys. Antifascists were able to identify a CPD officer who was operating in the group chat alongside Proud Boy Chapter President Tom Christensen as well as other Chicago Proud Boys and previously identified white supremacists organizing in Chicago. Telegram scrapes and screenshots from the Telegram group are available (screenshots, Telegram archives 07-23-2019, Telegram archives 07-31-2019).

In the chat logs, Jon “Heathen” Argumedo talks about a blog that was circulating at the time and the fact that the blog entries were being taken down systematically for violating terms of service. “Trigger” Tom is giving Jon advice on recirculating the same articles on the blog and evading future bans by abbreviating addresses. The blog that Argumedo is discussing here is the now defunct antiantifachicago.blogspot.net blog, which antifascists were quickly able to get removed for violating terms of service and posting addresses.


Chicago Police Officer and Proud Boy Rob Bakker is a central actor in the group chat, inviting several of the members to meetups.

Do note the profile pic used by “Tommy Chicago Pres” is a direct copy of the Malört icon, which has been noted elsewhere and is an offense to any Chicago resident [archive].

Anyways, Tom Christensen later notes that this meetup was at 1736 W. Balmoral Avenue in Chicago.

 


Officer Rob Bakker also circulated hoax videos by far-right writer Andy Ngo.


Trigger Tom later posts by the Chicago Police Department on Facebook during Pride Month where Tom tags Rob and asks him to “come get ya boyz.” Officer Rob later states in the chat that he isn’t down with wearing anything rainbow, thus connecting Rob to the Chicago Police Department. This is the first of many references to Officer Rob’s place of employment and identity.


In a latter discussion in the chat logs, Officer Rob mentions replying in the comments to a post on the Facebook of a “communist” by the name of Jason. Officer Rob mentions that he responded to this, and that Rob’s ex girlfriend and several of their friends also posted on the status. Trigger Tom even proposes setting up a fight between Jason and Nick Stiso, who acts as Tom’s lackey in all the illegal acts that they were caught up in. Folks may remember Nick Stiso from the dossier we wrote about him earlier plus him getting all yelly in the Patriot Front rally earlier this year.

CW: homophobic slur

In further discussion, Officer Rob “hopes that one of them comes at us somewhere,” probably because Rob is looking for someone to get into fights with.

On July 4th, Officer Rob Bakker drops another hint that he is an officer in CPD when he states that there was a car accident in his district that night and that the news reporter was wearing a red and black dress.


On July 11th, Officer Rob plans a “stommtisch” aka a hang out at Atlantic Pub in Chicago later in the chats as well.


On July 17th, Trigger Tom invites the group chat to a Proud Boy Picnic.


Things begin to really unwind in the group chat when we began to tease dossiers on Chicago Proud Boys members on our now suspended Twitter account in July. The group chat loses their grip on security.


The location of the Proud Boy picnic was spread to the wider antifascist community and someone decided to place a sticker on the mailbox of the address of the picnic. Trigger Tom confirms that the house was “hit” when he posts in the Telegram chat.


Later, on July 23rd, Trigger Tom posts a link to a status written on our former Twitter about making public the membership of the Chicago Proud Boys. Tom also changes the name of the group from “Fuck Antifa” to “D-Fence Squad” at this time. The first Telegram archived pull is from this date, when the chat was already renamed, but screenshots go back further and may include messages that were deleted in latter logs.


Tom starts to get really worried when we start posting Officer Rob’s full name on Twitter. We also tease that we know his job is sensitive, because he is employed at the police department. He also says “nobody knew you were invited” right in the group chat, as we were monitoring.


Nick Stiso reveals his desires to do something to help Officer Rob keep his job, like a good little bootlicker.

Nick Stiso really is eager to commit violence.

Finally, Officer Rob Bakker confirms that Chicago Anti-Fascist Action had Rob’s correct name. He also suggests that he has government contacts that will officially label the group as terrorists and that he has been in contact with “high police about their whereabouts” which would make sense being that they’re Officer Rob’s coworkers. Officer Rob is a member of a white supremacist group and using his government powers to try to intimidate whoever he deems is antifascists. Rob is also a member of a Masonic lodge [source].


We even added Officer Rob Bakker’s private phone number into our contacts and Telegram confirmed to us that he was in the D-Fence Squad chat.

But who is Officer Rob Bakker?

Let’s take a look at his Facebook [source, archive]. Scrolling through his Facebook likes [source], we find his interest in several Pagan groups and Pagan Nationalism as well. The Southern Poverty Law Center discusses in depth about Pagan far-right groups that promote white supremacist ideas, you may read more about Neo-Volkisch groups here. Ben Shapiro also regularly shows up on the list of those who have been radicalized into white supremacist ideologies, as does Turning Point USA. His Facebook like for “Anticommunism” stands out as well, because it is a tip to Anti-Communist Action, a Neo-Nazi group that started right around the same time as the Proud Boys:

Do note that Officer Rob Bakker liked both Liars Club and Livewire Lounge on Facebook, both venues being mentioned in the “Fuck Antifa” Telegram logs.

Rob Bakker is an officer for the Chicago Police Department and a member of an SPLC designated hate group, the Proud Boys. He was one member of a clandestine Telegram chat with several other white supremacists, including Trigger Tom Christensen, who is currently incarcerated for stabbing two people at a concert. Officer Rob Bakker has access to resources as a member of law enforcement, and has admitted to using these resources to punish those who he thinks are antifascist. To double check our analysis, do enter Officer Robert Bakker’s name into the data.cityofchicago.org Salary and position portal and you’ll be able to confirm Officer Rob’s job:

 

Further, friends and comrades over at the Invisible Institute created a public-built cop database to identify and hold police accountable. We encourage anyone who’s had a bad experience with any Chicago cops to look up their record, like we did for Officer Rob Bakker:

 

As the saying goes, the Cops and Klan go hand in hand. Keep an eye out for this face out at bars on the streets, friends!

As always, if you have any tips about any fascists in Chicago or elsewhere, please reach out to antifascistchicago@riseup.net 

This entry was posted in General. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.