A former marine and ex-Republican, Ron Filipowski tracks right-wing conspiracy theories.
A criminal defense attorney was tracking Donald Trump's base online.
He is concerned about the safety of school board members.
He told Insider that he was watching them post their home addresses online.
The violence at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection wasn't surprising to Ron Filipkowski, a criminal defense attorney in Florida.
He was able to see the trouble ahead by following the right-wing extremists on social media. The Proud Boys and one of the Oath Keepers warned him on that day. He noticed that the activity had increased after Donald Trump urged his supporters to be there.
He referred to The Proud Boys as the Super Bowl on December 30, 2020.
Before the 2020 election, the former Republican began tracking extremists on social media to try to convince moderates to vote for Joe Biden.
The former Marine and state and federal prosecutor is still keeping an eye on the far right, working with two researchers who are anonymous, and monitoring live-streamed events, podcasts, radio broadcasts, social media, and dark chat rooms. He watches the War Room video every day, and he describes Steve Bannon as a "chaos agent."
The safety of school board members is one of the main concerns he has. There is a cause for alarm beyond the rowdy protests at meetings over mask mandates, COVID policies, and race and gender education.
He told Insider of the school board members' personal information.
He's sharing a lot of what he sees, but he's not sharing everything. The majority of it can't be shared because it has crazy theories. He said things would get him banned from the micro-blogging site.
He said that he has seen 99 things worse.
You're like Inspector Clouseau.
Sometimes he includes commentary. "The editor on this is going to have one of the most difficult jobs in America in 2022," he said about Lauren Boehbert's book.
He will post a video of a guy screaming that if the LA City Council doesn't lift their mask mandate 'get your guns' because it's going to be 'civil war'.
He's been doing television interviews about his work, and his account has more than 263,000 followers.
CNN host Michael Smerconish commented during an interview with Filipkowski that he was like Inspector Clouseau.
The man has a day job. Why do you keep doing this after Biden won? He believes the country and democracy are in danger. He thinks that the last real democratic election could be in 2024, when Trump is trying to replace elected officials who control voting.
In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Filipkowski detailed how Trump loyalists who attended the January 6 rally have now made targets of school boards, city and county commissions, secretaries of state, and supervisors of elections.
"They have taken their disparate causes and motives to the local level, refocusing on softer, more vulnerable targets such as local government agencies, because of the new motto of one of their ubiquitous leaders, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn."
The former high school history teacher told Insider that he is vested in the challenges facing the school board because he has documented many of the wild meetings. He said that many members don't feel protected by local law enforcement and that the activists who are intimidating them are trying to get them to quit.
Attorney General Garland called on the FBI to address illegal threats against public servants. The Department of Justice relied too much on the National School Boards Association's complaint, which riled Republicans, in its response.
In October, he posted a video of a speech by a school board member about the threats and harassment she has received. He wrote that the Garland memo was not about Republicans' "BS that the FBI is arresting moms for speaking!"
Republicans say the discontent started with parents, but that others are orchestrating the chaos on masks and race education. He said that they includeinfluencers, the grifters, people making money off this and political leaders who are exploiting it for votes.
A crowd of angry people are objecting to the Louisiana governor's mask requirement for schools.
Trump's monster.
The Judicial Nominating Commission in Florida had a member until December 2020. He resigned in protest over the treatment of former state data scientist Rebekah Jones, who was fired for refusing to manipulate COVID data. His resignation letter is pinned on his pinned tweet.
His protest has not earned him friends in the office of the governor. Christina Pushaw wrote in an email to Insider that how either of these characters became left-wing celebrities is puzzling.
Jeffrey Haynes was surprised to see his former law partner change his party registration after years of being a hard-core Republican. Haynes said that the first child's name wasRonnie Reagan.
After January 6, he said he changed to Democrat. He wrote in his op-ed that he no longer recognized the long answer as the reason for abandoning the GOP.
He and the other researchers are not paid for their work on the far right.
He expects a lot of work from the Republican Party. He said that what he has seen online has left him "shook" by how radicalized people have become. He said that Trump had created a monster and it was the people from the left.
He said that the booed Trump when he talked about vaccines shows how he has lost control.
"That's the base pushing back, saying we're in charge now." "Not you,'" he said.
Business Insider has an original article.
