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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Florida sheriffs, acting under the orders of a local politician, gave a security briefing to an armed right-wing group heading to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to videos obtained by the Daily Dot.

The Flager Liberty Coalition (FLC) recommended its members pack body armor, mace, and knives—which they said were for protection—and were working with Flagler County Commissioner Joe Mullins to bring crowds to D.C. that day. Mullins has faced criticism from his fellow local politicians for attending the protests that turned into the Capitol insurrection.

Together, the group brought three buses of people to Washington on Jan. 6.

The briefing is one of the best publicly available videos illustrating connections in advance of Jan. 6 between right-wing activists, pro-Trump protestors, MAGA politicians, and law enforcement.

Flagler authorities, Mullins, and the FLC did not respond to requests for comment. After the Daily Dot reached out, the FLC deleted all videos off YouTube referenced in this article.

The video of the briefing was first taken by independent journalist Tracey Eaton and reviewed by the Daily Dot.

The briefing is alternatively absurd, banal, and telling. In one moment, a sheriff warns that antifa will be at the Capitol and that “as a weapon, they’re using fire.”

In another, one of the participants asks about going to the Capitol after President Donald Trump’s speech. He is hushed and told that the group would speak about it later.

On the group’s website, however, the intent to go to the Capitol that day was clearly marked, as an itinerary included “walk to the Capitol.”

Yet another claims the government will fry people’s cell phones if they show up.

The briefing occurred on Jan. 5, 2021, when the Homeland Security Division of the Flagler County, Florida Sheriff’s Office met with the FLC and other pro-Trump protestors about to leave for Washington, D.C. They said they were explicitly there on behalf of Mullins, who has been an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Throughout the briefing, Mullins stands next to the officers.

Later, Mullins is praised for supporting the trip. Someone notes that he paid for two of the three buses that were going up to D.C. and that he contributed a large donation to make the trip happen.

Mullins said he was in touch with a congressman who would stand with the group in front of the Capitol for support and would be voting against certifying the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

The briefing was primarily conducted by Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies Mike Lutz and Chris Peterson. It combines conspiracy theories and misinformation, as well as a request that protesters tell “the Donald” the police say hello.

“D.C.’s a dirty city,” Lutz jokes at the onset, noting they have free hand sanitizer to pass out as part of COVID-19 protections.

“District of criminals,” one man responds.

Lutz says that anarchists will attack people if they travel solo, warning them to stay in groups. He adds that if members are confronted with violence, they can defend themselves.

Lutz goes on to say that antifa members will “sucker punch” and “kick you.”

The group the police are addressing, the Flagler Liberty Coalition, began as an anti-mask organization in Florida, though their YouTube channel show members training with firearms—including one video posted just before Jan. 6.

They’ve been known to attend local community meetings, trying to end mask mandates in Florida schools.

In a related video obtained by the Daily Dot, FLC member Mark Phillips, who organized the trip along with Mullins, tells protestors to bring helmets, body armor, mace, pepper spray, and knives and notes that some members of the group will be in “fight mode.”

The video was filmed prior to Flagler police briefing the group. In advance of the trip to D.C., one of the principals of the group posted on Facebook that “firing squads are the only way to unfuck the Republic.”

The group highlighted their trip to the Capitol with a number of videos of their bus ride.

In a since-deleted video on their YouTube page from the protest, they are seen chanting “Who’s House? OUR HOUSE” on Jan. 6, filming from what they say are the Capitol steps.

“FLC members & guests were at the foot of the steps, caught up in the tear gas, the confusion and the surge pushing them forward. Holding their ground, they reminded everyone just whose House they were visiting while keeping the peace outside,” the caption says.

No one identified as part of the FLC by the Daily Dot has been arrested or charged for any crimes that day.

Some of the people who went would later admit to “trying to take the steps of the Capitol.”

In the briefing, Lutz tells attendees, “Please be polite to law enforcement.” Numerous pro-Trump supporters attacked police on the Capitol steps, as a mob charged up to try and stop the certification of the 2020 election.

The police note that county sheriff Rick Staly couldn’t appear at the briefing, but that he wished he could have.

Last week, the Orlando Sentinel reported Staly is a “constitutional sheriff,” part of an anti-government extremist movement that refuses to enforce laws they believe are unjust, such a gun control legislation.

Peterson, the director of Flagler’s Homeland Security Division, claimed he was looking at “criminal intelligence streams in advance of the riot,” and found that people could would be posing as Trump supporters, so attendees should be careful who they speak with.

Lutz joked that people who would be pretending to be Trump supporters would “break out in a rash” if they put on MAGA gear.

During the briefing, a pro-Trump supporter claimed that cell phones at a previous protest were “fried” by authorities trying to jam electronics. Lutz told attendees to be careful with having their WiFi and Bluetooth on, although he also notes that cell phones being attacked at pro-Trump rallies is “news” to him.

On Jan. 7, the Flagler Liberty Coalition group returned and were interviewed in a subsequent video, also taken by Eaton. Several people admit to not only attending Trump’s speech, but heading to the Capitol building.

One tells Eaton, “towards the end of [Trump’s] speech, we wanted to make sure we got a good spot at the Capitol … where they were supposed to do the counting of the electoral votes … but then by the time we got to the statehouse we found out that Pence already certified 40 minutes prior … roughly speaking, kind of chaos had broken loose … that’s eventually when we took … started trying to take the steps of the Capitol.”

It’s unclear what the person is specifically referring to, as the certification of the election came later that night, with Pence having been rushed away from Congress. It’s also unknown if any members of the Flagler group entered the Capitol.

While the Flagler Liberty Coalition does not appear to have any ties to more well-known anti-government militias involved in planning the Capitol riot, after Jan. 6, Phillips conducted an interview with the wife of Kenneth Harrelson. Harrelson was one of the Oath Keepers who was arrested and charged with sedition for his role in the Captiol riot.

In the interview, Phillips calls the Jan. 6 insurrection a deep state false flag designed to cover up the fact that the 2020 election was stolen.

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harrisonstories · 1 year

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Happy belated 80th birthday to my favourite guitar player. <3

A sequel to this post.

George Harrison: You need Eric Clapton.

John Lennon: No, you need George Harrison.

"He showed me a lot of things on the guitar. George was a really great guitar player. He just didn't think he was. He told me that he almost quit one time because he couldn't play as well as Eric. He said that Eric just had this feel and touch. George really wanted to play like that and told me so, many times. But who wouldn't?" - Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominoes)

“[George is] a great guitar player. When he strikes up on the slide there’s nobody better; his precision, his vibrato is perfect. But he always plays it down.” - Jeff Lynne (ELO, Traveling Wilburys)

"I had heard George's playing on the records, but I hadn't seen him play before I saw A Hard Day's Night. I picked up some tips from him, like playing the G-string up and down the neck for lead guitar because it gave more punch to the lead line. And of course he played the Rickenbacker 12-string and that was a big influence on me, but I even liked to watch his Gretsch playing. He did a lot of barre chords -- John and George used barre chords almost exclusively, whereas coming from the folk tradition I used lots of open chords. With The Searchers and The Seekers, you could hear some of that 12-string out there, but primarily it was The Beatles. I know George influenced us a lot." - Roger McGuinn (The Byrds)

“The innovations in guitar technology he brought to The Beatles were just amazing. He defined what we now know as this classic Rickenbacker 12-string sound. He laid the groundwork for me. And it’s utterly definitive. Nobody had used that volume-pedal technique before ‘I Need You’ […] But you can’t beat ‘Ticket To Ride’. It’s futuristic guitar, even before Hendrix came on the scene. It still sounds like a modern guitar part now." - Johnny Marr (The Smiths)

"I met George during the session Cream did for Badge, and I was very impressed with his playing [under the pseudonym L’Angelo Mysterioso]. I took it for granted that people like McCartney and Lennon were brilliant but didn’t really analyse it. But when you actually play with George you could see what an amazing guitar player he was, doing things that I hadn’t even thought of." - Jack Bruce (Cream)

"Me personally, I worshipped guitar players like George Harrison, who was this melodic part of the Beatles sound and he seemed like he served the song more than his own ego of how many notes per second he could play. I really appreciated that." - Vicki Peterson (The Bangles)

"I love George Harrison so much because [of] the way he would construct a little kind of solo within the song which would be part of the song. So from him I learned about melody […] George Harrison would create a little masterpiece in 8 bars in the middle of Hard Day's Night for example. It's a perfect example of that where he would do something that no other guitarist in the world would think of. He'd put this little lick in. It would have some little fast bits in it, and it would be so outside what you'd imagine the solo of that song to be. Later on I got to know George very well. We became very good friends at one time, and he could do things that no one else could do, and his slide playing was amazing because he used to have very strong Eastern influences from his days with Ravi Shankar and doing the meditation and everything. Just to be around someone like that you learn so much. He really was a giant in the music world for me, very sadly missed." - Gary Moore

"George’s guitar playing was just perfect. In those days we didn’t jam and get to the middle of a song and just play any old thing (laughs); we would have rehearsals and you’d kind of figure out what the part would be so from then on, when you played that song, that was the solo. He was that sort of guitar player and I learned that and I really liked that ‘cause that’s what I was thinking most of the time." - John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

"To see George Harrison there [on the Ed Sullivan Show], standing off to the side, looking down at his guitar while he played his licks -- to my impressionable mind it defined what a lead guitarist was. I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to be like the guy in the middle -- the guy looking down at his guitar and playing all the little fills and solos. Harrison taught me about short solos and hooks, and what a hook is. All those mid-Sixties Beatles tracks -- whether it was 'Day Tripper' or 'Ticket to Ride' or whatever -- they all start with a guitar lick that you wait to come around again in the chorus. That’s where I learned to do that." - Elliot Easton (The Cars)

“His chords were sometimes more a cluster of notes that, to my ears, are beautifully dissonant. The turnaround lick over the last chord in the chorus of the Beatles’ ‘Help’ functions on many levels. It’s such an innovative use of the open G and B strings ringing out, while a minor 3rd shape chromatically descends below it.” - Brian Bell (Weezer)

"I modeled myself after George Harrison a lot in the early days; solos you could sing along with. To this day, that's my approach, and I teach it as a guide at IMA's Rock 'n Roll Girl's Camps." - June Millington (Fanny)

“George was responsible for perhaps the most romantic guitar solo of all time when he recorded Something. It’s arguably among the most gorgeous and expressive solos in any song.” - Nancy Wilson (Heart)

“The solo [from the album version of Let It Be] -- the way his lick comes in after the keyboard breakdown strikes the perfect emotion and uplift for the track. I’ve ripped it off a million times, and will probably rip it off a million more before I’m through. The tone is perfectly gritty but without a safety net and mixed way on top of the tune, warts and all. Love it.” - Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters)

"I was into Harrison. He's an amazing guitar player. Songwriter too." - Jim Root (Slipknot)

“I feel like the music world mostly thinks of George Harrison as the phenomenal songwriter that he was, but I think he’s really underrated as a tone innovator. I remember reading a GW article [January 2014] about I’m Only Sleeping and how George got this crazy tone by writing the solo, learning it backward and then recording it with the tape running back to front, resulting in the initial solo he had written with this insane, surreal effect. It’s so interesting to think about what that process would have been like, getting those tones in a completely analog studio setting.” - Nita Strauss

“As a guitarist, I've always loved George Harrison. I've never been a fan of the rock'n'roll style, or the solos, etc. I like simple things. When Harrison does a solo, it doesn't sound like a solo, it's just his part, it's never a show of virtuosity. I don't like sham.” - Alex Scally (Beach House)

“The mix [in Savoy Truffle] is all about a trip to the dentist’s office. The guitar tone -- most likely run through a fuzz pedal -- sounds like a drill. The bending, stabbing notes during the lyrics, ‘But you’ll have to get them all pulled out’ really gets the image of a dentist’s drill across vividly. I borrowed those bending, stabbing notes from him and have no intention of returning them anytime soon. The phrasing is total Harrison -- even with the fuzz, you can tell it’s him. He does have that ‘George Harrison sound’ as well, but to identify a guitar player with phrasing is rare.” - Joey Santiago (Pixies)

“Till There Was You shows George’s vast range of playing in 1963. He has lovely phrasing, uses diminished notes –- and there’s a fantastic use of the Gretsch tremolo arm before a fabulous run into the middle eight. [GW Editor’s note: Although he used a nylon-string guitar on the studio recording, Harrison often performed the song with an electric guitar.] To my young ears, this was masterful guitar playing." - Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake)

“No one changed the face of guitar more than George, in my opinion.” - Steve Lukather (Toto)

“He gives [Dig a Pony] space where it’s needed and doesn’t clutter the sound or detract from the lead vocal. This is definitely something we could all learn from him. His choice of notes adds a sense of melancholy to the song, lifting it above what could otherwise have been a bit of a throw-away number. Lennon would later refer to the song as ‘garbage,’ but for me, Harrison’s class makes it an underrated gem. Watching the footage, we get an insight into George’s excellent technique throughout the song; expertly switching between flat-picking, hybrid picking and straight finger picking to accent the lead lines and add texture to his parts. There’s a great shot where you can see him with his pick palmed while playing with his fingers, followed by a quick adjustment of the volume and tone controls, before swiftly returning the pick for some flatpicking. It’s skillfully done and impressive to watch.” - Kevin Starrs (Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats)

“I mean he was one of the first guys to really play melodic slide because most guys that play, they want to play blues, you know? Which is great, but George from My Sweet Lord on, he would play really melodic. I love the way he played, and he was really kind to me. He was very supportive, and he told me several times that he liked the way I played slide too, so I’m greatly indebted to George.” - Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

'My impression of George when I first met him was that he wasn’t really extremely confident, didn’t understand what all the fuss was about and felt like maybe people were mistaking him, or making a mistake, or seeing something that wasn’t there. That was the feeling I got from him. Everyone was into hot licks, but he didn’t have any. So I feel he didn’t have a glimpse of how really wonderful a musician he was…He was very conscious that he couldn’t read music and that he couldn’t play searing solos off the top of his head. What he could do was worth more to me. He was a beautiful musician, extremely musical. The 'Moonlight Sonata' is a very simple thing to play on the piano, but it’s beautiful. And beauty is not about technique." - David Bromberg

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