Arizona

‘Kill them’: Arizona election workers face midterm threats

Published

2 years ago

November 6, 2022

‘Kill them’: Arizona election workers face midterm threats

Nov 6 (Reuters) – Election employees in Arizona’s most fiercely contested county confronted greater than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications within the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, most of them primarily based on election conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The harassment in Maricopa County included menacing emails and social media posts, threats to flow into private info on-line and photographing workers arriving at work, based on almost 1,600 pages of paperwork obtained by Reuters by way of a public data request for safety data and correspondence associated to threats and harassments towards election employees.

Between July 11 and Aug. 22, the county election workplace documented at the least 140 threats and different hostile communications, the data present. “You’ll all be executed,” mentioned one. “Wire round their limbs and tied & dragged by a automotive,” wrote one other.

The paperwork reveal the implications of election conspiracy theories as voters nominated candidates in August to compete within the midterms. Most of the threats in Maricopa County, which helped propel President Joe Biden to victory over Trump in 2020, cited debunked claims round pretend ballots, rigged voting machines and corrupt election officers.

Different jurisdictions nationwide have seen threats and harassment this 12 months by the previous president’s supporters and distinguished Republican figures who query the legitimacy of the 2020 election, based on interviews with Republican and Democratic election officers in 10 states.

The threats come at a time of rising concern over the chance of political violence, highlighted by the Oct. 28 assault on Democratic Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband by a person who embraced right-wing conspiracy theories.

In Maricopa, a county of 4.5 million individuals that features Phoenix, the harassment unnerved some election employees, based on beforehand unreported incidents documented within the emails and interviews with county officers.

Plenty of momentary employees give up after being accosted exterior the principle ballot-counting middle following the Aug. 2 major, Stephen Richer, the county recorder who helps oversee Maricopa’s elections, mentioned in an interview. One momentary worker broke down in tears after a stranger photographed her, based on an electronic mail from Richer to county officers. The unidentified employee left work early and by no means returned.

She wasn’t a political particular person, she instructed Richer. She simply needed a job.

On Aug. 3, strangers in tactical gear calling themselves “First Modification Auditors” circled the elections division constructing, pointing cameras at workers and their automobile license plates. The individuals vowed to proceed the surveillance by way of the midterms, based on an Aug. 4 electronic mail from Scott Jarrett, Maricopa’s elections director, to county officers.

“It feels very very like predatory habits and that we’re being stalked,” wrote Jarrett.

ATTACKS PERSISTED

For the reason that 2020 election,Reuters has documentedmore than 1,000 intimidating messages to election officers throughout the nation, together with greater than 120 that would warrant prosecution, based on authorized specialists.

Many officers mentioned that they had hoped the harassment would wane over time after the 2020 outcomes have been confirmed. However the assaults have endured, fueled in lots of circumstances by right-wing media figures and teams that proceed with out proof to forged election officers as complicit in an unlimited conspiracy by China, Democratic officers and voting gear producers to rob Trump of a second presidential time period.

In April, native election officers in Arizona participated in a drill simulating violence at a polling web site by which a number of individuals have been killed, based on an April 26 electronic mail from Lisa Marra, the president of the Election Officers of Arizona, which represents election directors from the state’s 15 counties. The drill aimed to assist officers put together for Election Day violence, and left individuals “understandably, disturbed” mentioned the e-mail to greater than a dozen native election administrators.

In a press release, Marra mentioned: “This is only one different device we are able to use to make sure election security for all.”

Maricopa officers appeared at instances overwhelmed by threatening posts on social media and right-wing message boards calling for employees to be executed or hung. Some messages sought officers’ house addresses, together with one which promised “late evening visits.” Staff have been filmed arriving and leaving work, based on emails amongst county officers.

Two days after the Aug. 2 major election, the county’s info safety officer emailed the FBI pleading for assist.

“I recognize the constraints of what the FBI can do, however I simply need to underline this,” wrote Michael Moore, info safety officer for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Workplace. “Our employees is being intimidated and threatened,” he added. “We’re going to proceed to seek out it increasingly troublesome to get the job executed when nobody desires to work for elections.”

A particular agent for the FBI acknowledged the company’s limitations, based on the emails. “As you place it, we’re restricted in what we are able to do – we solely examine violations of federal legislation,” the FBI agent responded in an Aug. 4 electronic mail. Reporting threats to native legislation enforcement is ”the one factor I can counsel,” the agent wrote, “even when at this level it has not resulted in any motion.”

The FBI declined to touch upon the agent’s response to Moore. It additionally declined to substantiate or deny the existence of ongoing investigations into the threats.

Moore didn’t reply to requests for remark, however Richer, his boss, mentioned in a press release that he significantly appreciated the FBI’s partnership and vigilance. “That is an inherently emotional matter – communications of essentially the most vile nature have been repeatedly despatched to my staff,” the assertion mentioned.

One nameless sender utilizing the privacy-protective electronic mail service ProtonMail despatched “harassing emails” for nearly a 12 months, Moore, wrote in an Aug. 4 electronic mail to the FBI. One message warned Richer that he’d be “hung as a traitor.”

“I’d prefer to have a black and white poster in my workplace of you hanging from the tip of a rope,” the sender wrote.

The harassment and threats have been affecting the psychological well being of election employees, Jarrett wrote in his Aug. 4 memo. “If our everlasting and momentary employees don’t really feel secure, we won’t be able (to) recruit and retain employees for upcoming elections.”

In all, county officers referred at the least 100 messages and social media posts to FBI and state counter-terrorism officers. Reuters discovered no proof within the correspondence that officers noticed any of the messages as breaching the expansive definition of constitutionally protected free speech and crossing into the territory of a prosecutable menace.

The U.S. Justice Division declined to touch upon particular ongoing investigations however mentioned it has opened dozens of circumstances nationwide involving threats to election employees. Eight individuals face federal expenses for threats, together with two who focused Maricopa County officers.

DOJ spokesperson Joshua Stueve mentioned that whereas the “overwhelming majority” of complaints the company receives “don’t embrace a menace of illegal violence,” he mentioned the messages are “usually hostile, harassing, and abusive” in the direction of election officers and their employees. “They deserve higher,” Stueve mentioned.

ONLINE INSPIRATION

Misinformation on right-wing web sites and social media fueled a lot of the hostility in the direction of election employees, based on the interior messages amongst Maricopa officers.

On July 31, the Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump web site with a historical past of publishing false tales, reported {that a} Maricopa County election official allowed a employees technician to achieve unauthorized entry to a pc server room, the place he deleted 2020 election knowledge that was set to be audited. The web site revealed the names and pictures of the official and the tech; readers responded with threats towards each.

“Till we begin hanging these evil doers nothing will change,” one reader wrote within the Gateway Pundit’s remark part. One other recommended dying for the pc tech recognized within the story: “hold that criminal from (the) closest tree so individuals can see what occurs to traitors.”

The tech hadn’t deleted something, based on a Maricopa spokesperson. The county election director had instructed him to close down the server for supply to the Arizona State Senate in response to a subpoena. A evaluation of server data confirmed nothing was deleted, the spokesperson instructed Reuters, and all knowledge from the 2020 election had been archived and preserved months earlier.

Election workers singled out in Gateway Pundit tales “are likely to see a surge in being focused” for threats and harassing messages, Moore, the county’s info safety officer, mentioned in a Nov. 18, 2021, electronic mail to the FBI. These tales, he added, are sometimes “flagrantly inaccurate.” A Reuters investigationpublished final December discovered the Gateway Pundit cited in additional than 100 threatening and hostile communications directed at 25 election employees within the 12 months after the 2020 election.

Different right-wing information shops and commentators elicited comparable hostile feedback in response to their allegations towards Maricopa officers. In August, right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk posted a remark in Telegram accusing Richer, the county recorder, and “his cronies” of constructing Arizona’s elections “a Third-World circus.”

“When will we begin hanging these individuals for treason?” one reader commented. One other merely added, “Kill them.”

The Gateway Pundit and Kirk didn’t reply to requests for remark.

After a safety evaluation by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety in late 2021, Maricopa strengthened doorways, added shatterproof movie on home windows and acquired extra first help kits, based on the paperwork.

However the harassment has continued.

“This goes past simply onsite safety. It’s a psychological well being subject,” Jarrett, the county elections director, wrote in an electronic mail to county officers two days after the first.

“I very a lot respect freedom of speech and welcome public scrutiny,” Jarrett added. “Nevertheless, permitting this predatory exercise to happen is damaging and threatening the viability of the elections division.”

Reporting by Linda So, Peter Eisler and Jason Szep; Modifying by Suzanne Goldenberg

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.

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Arizona

Instant Grades: Cardinals Sabotage Playoff Hopes

Published

6 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Instant Grades: Cardinals Sabotage Playoff Hopes

The story since the bye week has largely been the same game after game. The Arizona Cardinals had two chances to beat the Seattle Seahawks and fight for first place in the division. They failed both times.

Today, they needed to beat the Carolina Panthers to stay in the hunt with the LA Rams beating the New York Jets. They failed.

The underlying issues of why this is happening is another issue for another article, but the fact is that the Arizona Cardinals are out of the playoff hunt and already looking forward to 2025.

In the meantime, what happened today and how did the various position groups perform? Let’s take a look.

Quarterback – C-

No, Kyler Murray didn’t put the entire team on his back today to force a win, but it also can not be argued that he had much help from the team around him other than James Conner. That is not an excuse though for a player in his sixth NFL season with a massive contract that comes with high performance expectations.

Still, Murray is supposed to be a special player and he did not look special today. There was a flash of the special quarterback in the fourth quarter with a 20-yard rushing touchdown, but it was too little too late.

Most concerning, late in the fourth quarter Murray made a boneheaded mistake throwing to a spot of the field without an obvious receiver and the Panthers picked off the floater and held the ball till the very end, effectively ending Arizona’s season. There has not been a game since the bye in which Murray has not made a similarly mind-bogglingly bad play.

Offensive Line – B-

There were certainly concerns about the offensive line going into this game with left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. out with a knee injury and center Hjalte Froholdt suffering from an illness.

Thankfully, Froholdt was able to play through illness and Kelvin Beachum plugged in at left tackle and played another decent game.

Overall, the offensive line played a fine game and were one of the few position groups that showed up and simply did their job althought their performance was noticeably impacted after Jonah Williams went to locker room with a knee issue in the third quarter.

Tight End – C

Hard to really grade this position since, in a major switch from previous weeks, Trey McBride did not feature heavily for the Cardinals offense.

McBride caught three of the four balls that came his way, but only for a gain of 20 yards and once again was kept out of the end zone to extend his scoreless streak.

Running Back – A

James Conner is every coaches dream power back. After Petzing belatedly figured out that the Panthers possess the worst run defense in the league, Conner truly took over the offense.

Sadly, Conner hurt his knee in the third quarter and did not reenter the game leaving Michael Carter and DeeJay Dallas as the remaining active running backs.

Without Conner’s special gifts the Cardinals offense was not the same and the Panthers took advantage of that fact.

Wide Receiver – C-

The reader would be excused for not believing the Cardinals have any wide receivers on the roster considering the lack of impact they have had in several games this season.

Petzing has faced severe backlash for not finding ways to get the ball to the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft, Marvin Harrison, Jr, and for good reason. Still, trying to force the ball to Harrison, Jr. has not worked out and the connection between Murray and his rookie receiver is still not there.

Michael Wilson has shown up in big moments several times this year and did have a major 38-yard grab in the third quarter that gave the Cardinals some life.

Defensive Line – C-

The Cardinals defensive line failed in the two areas that were criticial to helping their team succeed this afternoon; contain Chuba Hubbard and put pressure on Bryce Young.

Naquan Jones was the only defensive lineman to actually get to Young but otherwise the young, second-year quarterback had time to do what he wanted and even saw multiple gaps open up through the defensive line and broke off some major runs that put the Cardinals in a hole early.

Hubbard really started to have his way in the second half and on several drives basically controlled the entire Panthers offense, often getting through the first line of defense untouched.

Linebacker – C+

The most that can really be said for this group is that Baron Browning flashes occasionally and did manage to get Young on the ground today for a sack.

Otherwise, the linebackers did not have a significant impact on this game after being one of the most consistent position groups all season. That being said, Kyzir White’s sack in overtime gave the Cardinals much needed hope and forced a punt, but again, too little too late.

The problems containing Panthers running back Hubbard might have started with the defensive line but the linebackers are supposed to stem the bleeding and they failed consistently in that effort in the second half.

Secondary – B-

Young did not have an inspired passing game today at all, and that is largely thanks to a sticky Cardinals secondary that did not allow him many easy downfield passes.

Rookie Max Melton had some rookie moments, but he continues to show some flashes that indicate a bright future in the league. It was second-year cornerback Garrett Williams that had some coverage issues.

Budda Baker did Budda Baker things but a big coverage whiff in the fourth quarter put the Cardinals in tough position. Fellow safety Jalen Thompson teamed up with Baker to clean up a lot of mistakes.

Sean Murphy-Bunting has struggled in big moments all season and today was not an exception. Needing a big stop early in the fourth quarter he allowed a corner of the end zone touchdown that put the Panthers up by ten and effectively ended the Cardinals season. A bad individual performance but not necessarily indicative of the entire position group’s performance.

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Arizona

Arizona Cardinals vs Carolina Panthers live score updates for NFL Week 16 game today

Published

14 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Arizona Cardinals vs Carolina Panthers live score updates for NFL Week 16 game today

The Arizona Cardinals continue their 2024 NFL regular season schedule with an NFL Week 16 game against the Carolina Panthers today.

The Cardinals are coming off a 30-17 win against the New England Patriots at home in NFL Week 15.

The Panthers lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-14.

The Cardinals are 7-7 on the season. The Panthers are 3-11.

Follow our live updates of the game, which is being played at Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium, for the latest score, news, notes and analysis of the Week 16 NFL game Sunday.

Watch Cardinals at Panthers with FUBO (free trial)

Cardinals vs Panthers schedule: What time is NFL Week 16 game?

The game is on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 11 a.m. MST, 1 p.m. ET.

Cardinals vs Panthers TV: What channel is NFL Week 16 game on?

The game can be seen on FOX.

Cardinals vs Panthers streaming: How do I watch NFL Week 16 game on livestream?

Streaming options for the Cardinals at Panthers game include FUBO and other streaming services that carry FOX.

Cardinals vs Panthers announcers: Who is calling the NFL Week 16 game?

Chris Myers (play-by-play) and Mark Schlereth (analyst) are scheduled to be the announcers for the Cardinals-Panthers Week 16 NFL game.

Cardinals vs Panthers game odds: Who is favored in NFL Week 16?

The Cardinals are a four-point favorite over the Panthers in NFL Week 16 odds for the game, courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook.

Arizona is -225 on the moneyline, while Carolina is +180.

The over/under (point total) is set at 47 points.

Pregame reading for Cardinals at Panthers game today

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Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

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Arizona

Arizona ‘villain’ Charles Smith arrested after filming himself spray bug killer pesticide on food inside Walmart

Published

22 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Arizona ‘villain’ Charles Smith arrested after filming himself spray bug killer pesticide on food inside Walmart

A self-described Arizona social media “villain” was arrested after he filmed himself allegedly spraying bed bug killer on groceries inside a Walmart as he boasted to police about his prank videos.

Charles Smith, 27, is accused of grabbing a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer and unleashing the pesticide on a series of perishable items in the Mesa, Ariz. megastore around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 19.

In the now-deleted video, the influencer filmed himself wearing a black hoodie and pink bandana while spraying the toxin on bananas, acorn squash, potatoes, lemons, green apples and Roma tomatoes at the store — located in a neighborhood southeast of Phoenix.

Police claim the TikTokker, who goes by the username WolfieKahletti, intentionally went to the store to film pranks for his channel.

Smith identifies as an online “troll,” according to court documents viewed by Az Family. He has more than 300,000 followers on TikTok.

The troublemaker allegedly told police that he makes between $6,000 – $10,000 per month filming his provocative prank videos.

”I think social media has got people doing crazy things out here,” Walmart shopper Xavier Griego told the outlet. “It’s unfortunate that somebody would mess up their whole life, potentially, for something on social media for views.”

Smith voluntarily turned himself over to police on Dec. 21.

He faces charges of introducing poison (a felony) as well as three misdemeanors that include criminal damage, endangerment and theft.

A spokesperson from Walmart told AZ Family that store employees removed the directly impacted products and cleaned the affected areas of the store.

It’s not clear if any customers were injured from eating the contaminated items.

“This incident underscores the potential dangers of reckless actions disguised as social media pranks,” the Mesa Police Department said in a statement.

Other videos posted online by Smith include the posts of him seemingly mixing in bacon and eggs in a stranger’s load at the laundromat as well as locking people inside a different grocery store.

The spray is “harmful if swallowed” and “prolonged or frequently repeated skin contact may cause allergic reactions in some individuals” per HotShot’s website.

Suspects convicted of tampering with consumer products face up to 5 to 20 years in prison.

In 2022, an Arizona man was sentenced to 10 years of probation after being convicted of adding harmful chemicals to food at several retail stores in the Phoenix area.

David Lohr was ordered to pay restitution to a grocery chain for $390.42 and ordered to participate in a mental health evaluation and any additional recommended treatment.

There were no reported injuries or illnesses associated with the tampered items during the 2018 stunt, prosecutors said.

Lohr was accused of tampering with products at stores in California one year later and sentenced to a 51-month prison term followed by three years of supervised release with mental health services.

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