The Antifa member who attacked a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, wrote a manifesto in which he calls on his “comrades” to arm themselves.
Authorities said Willem Van Spronsen, 69, was armed with a rifle and flares when he attacked the private Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility Saturday morning, attempting to set the buildings on fire but managing only to ignite a car. He died in a shootout with police, the Tacoma News Tribune reported.
Van Spronsen details the “unregistered, ‘ghost’” weapon he used Saturday in his manifesto, which is now published on Antifa’s main news website, ItsGoingDown.org. “The semi-automatic weapon I used was a cheap, home-built unregistered ‘ghost’ AR-15, it had six magazines,” he wrote.
We are told that this is the final letter of Willem Van Spronsen – who was shot and killed by law enforcement as he attempted an attack on a for-profit refugee detention center in Tacoma, Washington.
It’s a beautiful, painful, devastating letter.
He wasn’t crazy -inaction is. pic.twitter.com/YMO1vhXCHn
— Shaun King (@shaunking) July 15, 2019
He also wrote that he encourages “comrades and incoming comrades to arm themselves.”
“We are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state,” his manifesto continues. “Ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, I did.”
Antifa is a left-wing extremist organization, but certain groups within Antifa are pro-Second Amendment.
The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), for example, is a nonprofit organization “comprised of anti-fascist, anti-racist socialists who defend the right of the working-class to keep and bear arms.” The group’s Twitter account has about 14,3000 followers.
The SRA’s website specifically invites “anarchists” and “anti-fascists” to join their movement.
