Hawaiian shirt-clad radicals called Boogaloo were at Columbia protests, sheriff says
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott warned the public Thursday about a radical group called Boogaloo that he says infiltrated the protests in Columbia last weekend and might have played a part in causing violent clashes with law enforcement.
Then, hours after asking for community help in identifying a man suspected of committing crimes at Saturday’s protest, the Sheriff’s Department announced the man’s arrest Thursday night.
Joshua Barnard, a 24-year-old Columbia resident, faces charges of looting, larceny, aggravated breach of the peace and instigating a riot, as well as breaking into a motor vehicle, the Sheriff’s Department said.
In an interview with The State, Lott said Barnard is suspected to be with the Hawaiian-shirt-clad Boogaloo group. Photos show a man matching Barnard’s description at Saturday’s rally, wearing the group’s characteristic Hawaiian shirt, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
“It’s big because he is one of those who was with the Hawaiian shirt crowd that was there,’’ Lott said. “He was actively participating in the riot. He was part of agitating the crowd.’’
The shirt Barnard was wearing was part of a uniform, said Lott, who, ironically, was in one of the photos with Barnard. Members of Boogaloo will show up to protests wearing the Hawaiian garb, and their mission is to incite a new civil war, the sheriff said.
Boogaloo is a national anti-government movement that targets liberal politicians and law enforcement, NBC News reported.
Its members are called “far-right extremists,” bent on spreading a violent, anti-government agenda, and “Boogaloo Bois” have been at dozens of protests across the U.S., the Washington Post reported.
The Boogaloo name comes from a 1984 movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” which has become slang for any bad sequel, or in this case is used as a code word for a second civil war, according to the Associated Press.
“Another derivation of ‘Boogaloo’ is ‘big luau’ — hence the Hawaiian garb,” the AP reported.
On Saturday in Nevada, three Las Vegas men identified as Boogaloo members were arrested and charged in federal court with conspiracy to cause destruction during protests over the death of George Floyd, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Stephen “Kiwi” Parshall, 35, Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 40, planned to attend a protest on the Las Vegas Strip and were targeting police with Molotov cocktails, the newspaper reported.
Some armed members of the organization marched in Raleigh in May to protest North Carolina’s stay-at-home order, put in place to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to the News & Observer.
Their presence in Columbia was noted by law enforcement and protest organizers.
“We saw that on Saturday. There’s lots of pictures of them with Hawaiian shirts on, and then they end up at the police department. It was bad.” Lott said. “They are going to go to jail, and we’re not going to stop until we catch all of them.”
Lawrence Nathaniel, who organized the initial rally at the state capitol last Saturday, said the group of white men in Hawaiian shirts tried to stir anger in the crowd as the protest event progressed. Nathaniel said the men in Hawaiian shirts went with the crowd to the Columbia Police Department headquarters, where the protest became unruly.
“When we got there, it was peaceful,’’ he said. “Then the agitators made their way to the front.’’
Lott said he spoke with one of the men in a Hawaiian shirt at the State House before the confrontation at the police department.
Nathaniel said he never talked to the men wearing Hawaiian shirts, but he counted about 10 of them at the rally. Nathaniel said the men in Hawaiian shirts brought two recreational vehicles to the event, parking them in a garage.
“They were going through the crowd, agitating people,’’ he said.
Nathaniel said he had brought in volunteer marshals to try to keep the peace during the rally. Most were black, but he said “Hawaiian shirt guys are all white folks and all have some distinct tattoos.’’
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 3:29 PM.
