Following Saturday’s terror attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Washington, a connection is being made between the perpetrator, 69-year-old Anifa member Willem Van Spronsen, and the inflammatory rhetoric of one sitting congresswoman in particular.
According to reports, Van Spronsen wrote a manifesto in which he consistently referred to immigrant detention centers as “concentration camps,” echoing terminology that was recently pushed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
The manifesto
In the rambling manifesto, released just before his armed attack on the Tacoma ICE facility, Van Spronsen used the term “concentration camps” instead of “detention centers” no less than four times.
“Evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary,” read one instance. “The handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane,” read another.
A self-proclaimed Antifa member, he further stated that a “revolution” is on the way and that his “comrades” ought to arm themselves.
If that is the case, Van Spronsen won’t be there to join the revolutionaries, as he died in a shootout with authorities during the attack.
The connection
Using the term “concentration camps” — which for most people evokes images of the Holocaust — to refer to U.S. immigrant detention centers is a rhetorical tactic that has been used and defended by Ocasio-Cortez over the last few weeks.
“That is exactly what they are,” she said at one point in June. “They are concentration camps. The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
Based on the manifesto, Van Spronsen appears to have got Ocasio-Cortez’s message loud and clear, and “doing something about it” is exactly what he tried.
Refusal to condemn
Seeing this connection, a reporter from The Rebel asked Ocasio-Cortez about it. But the congresswoman has offered nothing other than that “a statement” will be forthcoming. Watch below:
BREAKING: Ocasio-Cortez refuses to condemn the far-left terrorist attack on the ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington
The terrorist used Ocasio-Cortez’s rhetoric in his manifesto pic.twitter.com/t1priIPAiW
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 15, 2019
One would think that the easiest thing to do would be to simply condemn the violence of Van Spronsen, if nothing else, to let others know that this is not acceptable behavior. But the freshman congresswoman was not even willing to do that. She simply remained quiet as the questions kept coming.
It is now a day later, and that statement has yet to appear. Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow “squad” member, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), also refused to condemn the attack when asked by the Rebel reporter.
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