Federal authorities continue rounding up North Texans for allegedly taking part in the deadly Washington insurrection. But months before the Capitol assault, some connected to a different type of anti-government movement were menacing Dallas streets and threatening violence against police, court records show.
Daniel Austin Dunn, 30, of Denton County, was one of them, the FBI says. He pleaded guilty in December to making threats -- for encouraging violence against police in social media posts during the George Floyd protests in downtown Dallas last summer. He is currently awaiting sentencing.
Dunn, a former Marine who lives on a Bartonville ranch, was a sympathizer of the anti-government boogaloo boys -- or boogaloo bois -- extremist movement, according to prosecutors. Like some of those charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dunn used violent rhetoric against law enforcement, saying in one post, “They should all be lined up and shot,” court records show.
In response to a video of a Michigan police officer firing a tear gas canister at close range at an unarmed man, Dunn wrote: “Why wasn’t this cop shot immediately?”
A couple of pending federal cases show that threats of violence from armed extremists also exist at home, as the Dallas FBI warned just a few months ago. Dunn’s case provides insight into the loose-knit and decentralized boogaloo movement, which coalesced online in chat groups of those with shared libertarian values.
Many, like Dunn, have previous military experience. And they believe armed overthrow of an oppressive government is justified, just as some militia members do. But experts say there are important distinctions between them and the far-right militias that sprung to life following the volatile November election.
Boogaloo boys, usually clad in Hawaiian shirts, came to notice in Dallas and around the country last year while protesting COVID-19 lockdown orders and as they attended Black Lives Matter protests while armed with assault rifles. What they want is a civil war, which they hope to instigate by exploiting civil unrest, experts say. Some boogaloo adherents have been arrested for inciting riots as well as shooting, bombing and killing police officers.
Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said boogalooers or boogs, as they are also known, are anti-authority and view the police as the “tools of a repressive state.” They believe the police want to take away their guns, he said. And no-knock warrants in the middle of the night make them angry, particularly since one of their own – 21-year-old Duncan Lemp – was killed that way by police in Maryland in March 2020, Pitcavage said.
“The boogaloo movement is much like the pre-Trump militia movement minus the specific New World Order conspiracy stuff,” he said.
Boogaloo adherents are mostly interested in guns and military gear, Pitcavage said, and did not buy into Donald Trump. The boogaloo movement originated in a “discussion forum for people who love tactical gear,” he said. Some members consider militias to be “lapdogs” due to their enthusiasm for Trump, while viewing themselves as “more pure,” Pitcavage said.
That’s why boogalooers did not play much of a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, he said. Trump remaining in office “doesn’t get their juices flowing.” Rather, they are more likely to turn out to an anti-gun or anti-lockdown rally, he said.
Still, authorities are taking threats from both groups seriously given the rise in militants calling for armed revolution. Arrests are being made.
“He [Dunn] essentially endorsed the boogaloo boys as good people,” Jeff Cotner, an FBI agent, said during Dunn’s June detention hearing.
Philip Russell Archibald, 29, of Lancaster, is also linked to the boogaloo boys, court records show. He used his social media accounts to encourage vigilante activity and “guerilla warfare” against National Guard troops that deployed to Dallas last summer to help police the BLM protests, prosecutors say. He remains in federal custody awaiting trial on steroid trafficking charges and a firearm charge.
Archibald was in downtown Dallas after curfew, armed with a rifle, and he posted on Facebook that he was “hunting Antifa” and was going to “kill” looters, according to court records. He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney could not be reached for comment.
Archibald and Dunn, who had access to a handgun, shotgun and hunting rifle, are not accused of acting on their alleged threats. They are among several other Texas boogaloo members or supporters who are charged with assorted crimes.
Cameron Emerson Casey Rankin, 21, a self-proclaimed boogaloo member, was arrested on a firearms charge in San Antonio in November. Authorities say he wished to overthrow the government and had showed up at the Alamo in May with other armed men for a planned protest.
Ivan Harrison Hunter, 26, of Boerne, was charged in October for allegedly firing an assault rifle at a Minneapolis police station during a riot in May. Hunter had been in “frequent communication” with Rankin, authorities said.
Rankin and Hunter have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Rankin’s attorney, John Ritenour, said the allegations against his client “have nothing to do with that movement or any alleged involvement.” Hunter’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Alex Newhouse, who leads terrorism and extremism research at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, spent months studying the boogaloo movement with help from students and published a recent paper on it. He said in an interview that the Millennial and Generation Z followers viewed the BLM protests as an opportunity to gain support for an armed citizen revolt.
An intelligence bulletin issued by the FBI’s Dallas field office in the fall reported that boogaloo adherents were likely to try to incite fellow extremists to take part in anti-government protests, thereby increasing the threat of violence in the Dallas area. But the boogaloos’ biggest recent demonstration was at a Jan. 18 pro-gun event in Richmond, Va., Newhouse said.
“I have suspicions that a lot of the militia boogaloo types sort of melted back into the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, who obviously had a very significant showing at the Jan. 6 insurrection,” he said.
With Joe Biden in the White House, the boogaloo and militia movements would normally be in a position to surge, Pitcavage said, due to their typical hostility toward Democrats. But this past summer, they were largely “de-platformed,” meaning removed from social media, YouTube and other online forums, which limited their ability to organize and recruit, he said.
“It’s a lot harder for them to get their message out,” Pitcavage said.
Call to revolution
Dunn served for two years in the Marines as an aircraft ordnance technician before leaving the service in 2012 following his arrests in Lubbock where he was stationed, court records show. A superior had recommended an “other than honorable” discharge after Dunn was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors, but it was ultimately listed as “honorable,” prosecutors said.
In those cases, Dunn had fired a gun at a man during a dispute over a woman, the FBI said. No one was hurt during the incident. Several weeks later, Dunn was arrested again -- for retaliation, stalking, unlawful carrying of a weapon and public intoxication, court records show. Police said he slashed the victim’s tires.
He was on probation from 2014 through April 2020 related to those cases, court records show. His probation officer told the FBI that Dunn was “strongly anti-government” and could “become violent if somebody says the wrong thing.”
“She said that he told her that she was the only person in law enforcement that he did not want to kill,” Cotner, the FBI agent, testified.
Dunn allegedly posted on Facebook on the morning of June 1 that “civil unrest is what’s needed to start a revolution, and civil unrest is what these protests are turning into every night. I love it.”
By then police had clashed for two straight days with protesters in downtown Dallas, firing projectiles and pepper spray into the roving crowds. The skirmishes became violent at times following sporadic looting and vandalism of downtown buildings and businesses.
Dunn also wrote: “Get this out to EVERYONE! Riot cops can’t keep up the oppression if they can’t see. Paint bombs (water-balloons with thick paint), blind riot cops and slicken their gear. It’s an effective tactic.” He included a photo of riot police “covered in paint splatter,” court records say.
On June 2, he posted several photos including a flag with an igloo and Hawaiian flowers “indicative of boogaloo ideology,” court records say. Dunn attached the photos on someone else’s post that said, “I would like to talk to you about the boogaloo movement, if you will hear me out.”
And Dunn had this to say about a post involving Trump on Facebook: “If I ever stand face to face with this president, I’d [expletive] slap him,” according to court records.
By June 3, Dunn had become angrier about footage of the police response to the social justice protests, writing: “So far I’ve seen people shot in the head and eye with rubber bullets… tear gas canisters shot directly at people from point blank range, and children being Maced and tear gassed. Why aren’t more cops being shot? Why aren’t people actually fighting back?”
On June 5, Dunn commented on a video showing riot police shoving an elderly man to the ground. “All 16 of them should be lined up and shot like the dogs they are. They very clearly have no regard for life, so they don’t deserve theirs anymore,” he allegedly wrote.
Another post that day says: “This is why I say to shoot cops; they’re absolute thugs and criminals and they can do this with impunity,” court records show.
The rhetoric is similar to what turned up on social media months later when an angry mob of Trump supporters overwhelmed police and stormed into the Capitol looking for lawmakers.
Allies of convenience
Temani Adams, Dunn’s attorney during the detention hearing, said her client completed his probation from the Lubbock cases and the charges were dismissed. She questioned the claim that Dunn is anti-government, noting that he is ex-military and the son of a retired federal agent. Adams also said her client supports “Black people’s rights.”
One of Dunn’s comments on social media was directed at a photo of men wearing “boogaloo paraphernalia,” saying they were there to help protesters, court records show. “They’re on your side. Their entire ethos is to protect you from the state, the government, the police, the military, and anybody else who stands against civilians. THEY ARE YOU FRIEND. THEY ARE THERE TO PROTECT YOU, THE CIVILIAN.”
Newhouse said boogaloo expressions of solidarity toward BLM and Antifa are superficial, designed merely to forge temporary “allies of convenience” for what they view as a potential common goal: the dismantling of the government. “There are no common goals beyond that,” he said.
Rick Dunn, his father and a former Southwest Airlines pilot and recently-retired federal Homeland Security agent, said during the detention hearing that his son has lived at home most of his life, once worked for a daycare center and loves little kids. “I’ve never seen him in a fight. Never hurt anybody,” he said. “He’s very compassionate… wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
In the case of Archibald, the other North Texas boogaloo supporter, it was his alleged drug operation that led to his arrest, court records show.
Federal agents had been investigating Archibald’s steroid distribution ring since March 2019, court records show. The bodybuilder and personal trainer mailed the drug to his customers in Texas and across the country. He was arrested after agents arranged several undercover drug buys, authorities say.
The Middlebury Institute’s Newhouse said heightened awareness of domestic terrorism is shaping how law enforcement responds to extremist views.
Wichita Falls resident Gavin Perry, 27, was arrested last year after threatening to kill U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she is running a “satanic cult,” court records show. There is no indication he is connected to the boogaloos or any other extremist movement, but he also allegedly threatened other Democrats on his Facebook page. Perry remains in federal custody as he awaits trial.
Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney in Dallas at the time, said in a statement about Perry’s case that while the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, it does not permit the making of death threats against politicians and others.
“We will not allow them to threaten our officials’ physical safety,” she said.
