Here’s why some of the armed counterprotesters at the Alamo wore Hawaiian shirts
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Military-style groups brandished firearms to protect the Cenotaph in front of the Alamo.
Military-style groups brandished firearms to protect the Cenotaph in front of the Alamo.
Photo: Matthew Busch
Military-style groups brandished firearms to protect the Cenotaph in front of the Alamo.
Military-style groups brandished firearms to protect the Cenotaph in front of the Alamo.
Photo: Matthew Busch
On Saturday, protestors marching in memory of George Floyd faced off with counterprotesters armed with assault-style rifles and sporting tactical gear.
Some of the armed group wore baseball caps or cowboys hats. Others wore something more unusual: Hawaiian shirts.
The men wearing the shirts Saturday were among those organized by groups like Texas Freedom Force, which urged its members to “defend the Alamo & Cenotaph if the need arises.”
READ ALSO: Police investigating after graffiti was found on Alamo Cenotaph
The day before, anti-white supremacy slogans had been sprayed on the white-marble Cenotaph. Police formed a barrier between the armed protesters and the Floyd marchers.
Why were some of the armed group wearing Hawaiian shirts? The sartorial choice is the signature look for the “boogaloo” anti-government movement. Such shirts — and leis — became commonplace in crowds protesting COVID-19 lockdown orders.
The loose movement uses the name of a 1984 movie, “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” as a code word for a second civil war, the Associated Press reports. Another derivation of “boogaloo” is “big laua” — hence the Hawaiian garb.
“Whereas the militia movement, radical gun rights activists typically promote the boogaloo as a war against the government or liberals, white supremacists conceive of the boogaloo as a race war or a white revolution,” according to The Anti-Defamation League.
While some “boogaloo” followers maintain they aren’t genuinely advocating for violence, law-enforcement officials say they have foiled bombing and shooting plots by people who have connections to the movement or at least used its terminology.
A 36-year-old Arkansas man whose Facebook page included “boogaloo” references was arrested on April 11 by police in Texarkana, Texas, on a charge he threatened to ambush and kill a police officer on a Facebook Live video.
“I feel like hunting the hunters,” Aaron Swenson wrote on Facebook under an alias, police say.
Mark Dunphy is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | [email protected] | @m_b_dunphy
