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A member of the Proud Boys has been arrested for allegedly planning a 2^nd attack on the US Capitol. 40-years old Edward Florea from New York was arrested on Tuesday for calling for a 2^nd armed insurrection in Washington DC. FBI claimed he was a member of the Proud Boys. Point to be noted that supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol last week in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. A local news broadcaster WLNY reported and said, “The joint terrorism task force is holding him on weapons charges after he allegedly wrote online that he is a member of the Proud Boys and wanted to arm people to travel to Washington, DC”. The Proud Boys are a Southern Poverty Law Centre designated hate group that espouses neo-fascist ideology and whose members assault people at protests.

The former FBI Agent Manny Gomez said, “They’re openly advocating violence, that in and of itself is a crime. All local, city, and federal law enforcement should be ready, and on standby, and have a plan and have leaders that will enforce that plan”. The arrest is the latest in a nationwide investigation to locate everyone who participated in the Capitol insurrection last week. Last week’s attack on the Capitol left 5 people dead, including one Capitol police officer. It is noteworthy that a 34-years old Aaron Mostofsky (son of a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge) could face up to 10-years in prison after he was discovered in photos storming the Capitol with a police riot shield and wearing a bulletproof vest. The FBI has launched an investigation after the incident.

Social media was and continue to be a large part of these investigations. The FBI said the agency was able to track and arrest multiple people through their social media posts before the riots on 8^th January 2021. FBI says you might be wondering why this whole thing wasn’t prevented if thousands of others were also posting about storming the Capitol. It’s the context that matters. Point to be noted that the agency isn’t able to open an investigation into a post without a threat of violence or criminal activity. The agency said, “We have to separate the aspiration from the intentional and determine which of the individuals saying these despicable things on the internet are just practicing keyboard bravado or they actually have the intent to do harm”. While the riots were not linked to one specific post or person the conversations are being followed.