Situation Report: Alleged Antifa supporter armed with pipe bombs arrested at J6 prisoner support event

On January 6^th, 2022, the Pinellas County Florida Sheriff’s Office reported that they had arrested an individual, 22-year-old Garret Smith, of Oldsmar Florida, on multiple charges of possessing home-made explosive devices, as well as “loitering and prowling.” Smith was spotted by law enforcement in the vicinity of a protest being conducted in support of an individual being held in relation to the J6 riot in Washington D.C.

Smith was wearing “black bloc” style clothing, common with Antifa members and other Anarchist extremists and carrying a backpack when arrested.  Smith also possessed a black helmet spray-painted with the “Iron Front” symbol of three arrows surrounded by a circle commonly worn by Antifa members.  A search of Smith’s residence, where he lived with his parents, revealed additional explosive devices.

Smith was also found in possession of a “direct action check list” which described numerous items common to Antifa direct actions and which were utilized heavily during the 2020 Summer riots. Items on the list included: black clothing, laser pointer (used to blind police officers), pepper spray, caltrops (to disable vehicles), umbrella (to shield participants from observation), slingshot, fireworks and rockets, flammable items, and breakable glass bottles (likely for construction of Molotov cocktails), as well as gas mask and filters. A reference to a remote-controlled drone on the check list is notable. Using drones to scout target areas and protest routes is an increasingly common Antifa tactic.

According to law enforcement Smith had recently returned from Oregon, the site of numerous Antifa actions and some of the heaviest rioting during 2020.

Smith is reportedly not communicating with police, and it is not immediately clear what his intended action was.

Smith would not be the first individual with Antifa links prepared to use violence to target protests related to the January 6^th riot and other election integrity protests, however.

On January 15^th, 2021, the FBI arrested Daniel Alan Baker in Tallahassee, Florida for an alleged plot to target a protest at the Florida State Capitol building. Baker, a self-identified “hardcore leftist” and “anarchist,” had attended 2020 protests in the Pacific Northwest and expressed a desire to target rival protestors and law enforcement in retaliation for the January 6^th incident. Baker, a former U.S. Army soldier who had fought in Northern Syria with the Kurdish YPG force, appeared to be responding to media coverage of claims by federal law enforcement that riots like the January 6^th incident were planned at state capitol buildings by armed right-wing extremist elements.

No such incidents occurred.

The arrest of Smith, as with Baker, raises questions about whether media coverage of the January 6^th anniversary, is (perhaps inadvertently) encouraging Antifa militants to action. Antifa’s ideology is predicated on the need to violently confront so-called “fascist” or “right-wing” political opponents. Media coverage that suggests that lawfully conducted first amendment demonstrations are linked to “right-wing extremists,” and which may overemphasize the size and scope of such extremism in the United States, is a motivating force.

Consider for example the interview conducted by MSNBC on January 7^th, the day after the Smith arrest, with Daryl Lamont Jenkins. Jenkins’ organization, The One People’s Project, is listed as the registrar of the Torch Antifa network website. Torch Antifa is the largest regional network of Antifa groups in the United States and linked to international Antifa groups. The MSNBC interview praises Jenkins for his role in doxing January 6^th attendees and other individuals Jenkins views at “far-right.”

Local law enforcement should be aware of the potential for Antifa elements to target lawful first amendment demonstrations related to issues which have received media coverage as being “right-wing” or “extremist” issues. Examples include January 6^th, election integrity, vaccine mandates, or recent issues related to the teaching of critical race theory in local schools. Such targeting may include preparation to use potentially lethal force, either through firearms (as in the Baker case) or via improvised explosives (as may be the case in the Smith case.)