D.C. “Antifa Leader” Is Third Man Charged in Marine Attack in Philadelphia - 29 January 2019
Joseph Alcoff has been charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, and conspiracy, among other offenses.
It has been more than two months since two United States Marines said they were assaulted in Philadelphia by a “mob” just blocks from the controversial We the People Rally, and now a third man has been charged in the attack.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has charged 37-year-old Washington, D.C., resident Joseph Alcoff with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, and conspiracy — all felonies — among other charges. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently out on bail.
Alcoff joins codefendants Tom Keenan and Thomas Massey in the case. Both Keenan and Massey were arrested at the end of November and are also out on bail awaiting trial.
Suspects Thomas Massey (left) and Thomas Keenan (right) in their Philadelphia Police Department mugshots.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of November 17th.
According to court documents, Marines Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres, who were not in uniform, were approached by a group of 10 to 12 activists on the 100 block of South Front Street in the Old City section of Philadelphia.
Video of Marine Attacked - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpxxTzkb9k4&feature=share
Investigators say that the activists, who have been linked to the antifa movement in blog posts, news accounts, and in courtroom testimony, had been counter-protesting at the We the People rally.
At a preliminary hearing for Massey and Keenan in December, the two Marines testified that the activists attacked them, allegedly calling them “nazis” and “white supremacists,” using ethnic slurs against them (both Marines are Hispanic), punching and kicking them repeatedly, and macing them.
On the stand in December, the Marines testified that they had no knowledge of the We the People rally and that they were in town for a Marine ball at a nearby hotel.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the Alcoff case, Torres was reading online stories about the attacks when he came upon an article on the Tucker Carlson-founded Daily Caller website that connected Keenan to Alcoff.
That article called Alcoff “D.C.’s radical antifa leader … who’s advocated for violence and for the overthrow of the government.”
Torres saw a photo of Alcoff in the Daily Caller story and contacted detectives in Philadelphia, claiming that he recognized Alcoff as another member of the group that attacked him.
Investigators say that Torres then showed the detectives photos that he took of the suspects at the time of the attack, and police “strongly agree” that Alcoff was the person in Torres’ photos.
According to an NJ.com article from 2011, Alcoff and Keenan were arrested in Bordentown that year and charged with rioting.
Alcoff has had a long history of protest. The below video captures him in the mid-2000s saying “I’m a Communist, motherfucker” before spitting at the person recording him.
Alcoff’s next appearance is scheduled for February 11th 2019, in Common Pleas Court.
A video of the Alcoff - https://youtu.be/8o2BxtT6TuI or https://hooktu.be/8o2BxtT6TuI
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/01/29/joseph-alcoff-antifa-marines-philadelphia/
An Antifa activist is appearing in court today over charges he’s facing in Philadelphia that include aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation for allegedly being part of an Antifa mob in November that attacked two Hispanic Marines.
But Fox News reports until recently Joseph Alcoff was well-connected with Dems in Washington.
He worked for the liberal group Americans for Financial Reform, participated in congressional Democratic press conferences, and was pictured with Democrats Maxine Waters and Sherrod Brown among others.
During that time, he reportedly was an Antifa leader in Washington and reportedly an organizer for Smash Racism DC, the group responsible for shouting threats at Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz, and his wife.
Alcoff has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Corrie O'Connor
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Antifa Leader Relied on Anonymity to Push Radical, Violent Agenda
- The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined that an influential Antifa leader uses aliases to spread radical and often violent rhetoric while concealing his actual identity.
- Joseph “Jose” Alcoff works with congressional Democrats as part of his day job as a manager with a DC-based advocacy group. But he spreads socialist and communist propaganda when going by the name “Jose Martin.”
- Identifying as “Chepe,” Alcoff advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich. He has relished the mainstreaming of Antifa’s militant tactics in the Trump era.
- A 2017 book identified Chepe as an organizer behind Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group that mobbed Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home in November and ran Ted Cruz out of a restaurant in September.
Smash Racism DC organizer Jose Martin, also known as “Chepe,” is a radical communist and Antifa leader operating in the U.S. He advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich and claims to have international involvement in left-wing movements.
Smash Racism DC is the Antifa group that protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house and berated Sen. Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave. It’s only one of the Antifa leader’s radical left-wing projects.
But the agitator has made great efforts to separate his fanatical personas from a third identity, his legal name: Joseph “Jose” Alcoff. Under that identity, the 36-year-old has worked as a payday campaign manager for Americans for Financial Reform since 2016, where he advocates for reforms of predatory loans before members of Congress.
Alcoff left nearly no connections between his real identity and Jose Martin and Chepe, but a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation of public records, social media posts, media reports, books, protest videos and podcasts dating back to 2004 found that all three identities are actually one person, posting online from the Twitter handle @Sabokitty.
He has used his Jose Martin identity to make public appearances to promote socialism, once calling for a society without police. But his communist Chepe alias makes his Jose Martin identity seem moderate, using it to advocate for violence to achieve his goal of eliminating capitalism and the U.S. government.
Alcoff did not respond to multiple requests for comment. His Twitter account was made private shortly after TheDCNF reached out for comment Tuesday evening, as was the account of his brother, Sam Alcoff, a producer for Democracy Now. Alcoff’s mother, Linda Alcoff, also made her Facebook page private Tuesday evening after TheDCNF contacted Alcoff.
Alcoff, who’s been involved in radical movements for decades, seeks to create “a world that is without capitalism, without private property … that is socialist and communist,” he’s said as Chepe.
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The Strange Connection Between the CFPB and Antifa
Financial regulators and Antifa leaders might seem like strange bedfellows, but it seems the creators of the Payday lending regulations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had a prominent Antifa member's advice in mind while designing these now defunct regulations.
Joseph Alcoff, a leader of the Antifa group Smash Racism D.C. (the group that maliciously stormed Tucker Carlson’s residence and harassed Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife out of a D.C. restaurant) was arrested recently in Philadelphia for aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. This is not Alcoff's first offense; he has a long history of violence. So it should surprises some to know that while he was leading a militant organization, he was also doubling as the spokesperson for Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).
Alcoff served as the communications director at the notoriously left leaning AFR. During his tenure at the organization, Alcoff aided in multiple congressional Democratic press conferences and was even a guest on the House Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee podcast, where he criticized the state of the CFPB under the Trump Administration. Alcoff also released a statement regarding the Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic (SAFE) Lending Act, which attempted to bolster regulations on Payday lenders.
Alcoff’s attempts to target Payday lending did not stop there. He personally met with former CFPB Director Richard Cordray and other CFPB senior staff on three separate occasions in 2016 and 2017, during the height of the Payday regulation debates.
All the while Alcoff continued to make threats against political leaders, commit violence against innocent bystanders, and regularly call for the overthrow of capitalism on his social media channels. Somehow, these attacks on many Trump supporters never made the news until recently, unlike the recent Jussie Smollett’s alleged hoax anti-gay hate crime that outwardly accused Trump supporters of hate crimes without any real evidence.
Fortunately, AFR publicly stated that Alcoff is no longer with the organization, and his work in drafting policies and regulations with the potential to harm millions of consumers and small businesses is slowly unraveling. The CFPB announced earlier in February that the bureau is implementing a plan to rescind the harmful Payday loan regulations that were created with Alcoff’s assistance.
Eliminating these regulations as part of “Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans” is a win for both consumers and small businesses. These regulations would have most certainly decimated the entire Payday loan industry, hurting thousands of individuals who rely on short-term loans.
Contrary to the Alcoff’s beliefs that Payday loans merely force “Americans [into] a cycle of debt,” the loans are remarkably simple. Borrowers must prove they have an active income, a checking account, a government-issued ID, and only then can they obtain a short-term loan for a nominal fee of roughly $15 for every $100 borrowed.
Alcoff’s intentions to destroy the Payday loan industry could have forced a family to choose between paying bills and putting food on the table. One survey found that nearly 60 percent of Americans do not have enough cash to cover an unexpected $500 expense. Payday loans prevent borrowers who have taken a financial hit into choosing between two necessities. Rather, they have the ability to cover both with access to simple short-term loan options.
Alcoff’s successful infiltration of a government agency that could have wiped out an entire industry should infuriate policymakers and the public alike. His public agenda to end Payday loans while secretly leading an organization that is known for its extreme violence should make both Democrats and Republicans question their allegiance to AFR, which propped Alcoff up as its spokesperson. Violent extremists should not get to dictate policies that affect every day Americans. Luckily, with Alcoff's influence out of the picture, it looks like the CFPB is back on the right track.
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