Armed Men With QAnon Ties Arrested Outside Major Philly Voting Center
Two men armed with guns were on their way to the Philadelphia Convention Center when they were stopped by police
Philadelphians are currently celebrating the fact that Joe Biden has eeked out ahead of Donald Trump as pollsters continue to tally the votes in the Keystone state. While Philly locals were dancing in the streets, QAnon lunatics were hatching a plan to break it up and thankfully were thwarted by police before it could occur.
Two armed men (and an unarmed female accomplice) were arrested outside the Philadelphia Convention Center (one of the largest voting centers in the city and where votes are still being tallied) and according to an anonymous tip, these armed men crossed state lines and were apparently planning on “straightening things out” at the voting center.
A local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia reports that on Thursday, November 5, 2020, the Philadelphia Police Department received a tip that an armed family from Vermont were on their way to Philly in a silver Hummer truck. On Thursday night just before 11 pm, police found a silver Hummer parked outside the convention center and then minutes later found two armed men on foot outside the center.
NBC News reports that Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner identified the men on Friday night as Joshua Macias and Antonio Lamotta from Chesapeake, Virginia. They were both arrested and charged with Concealed Firearm Without a License and Carrying a Firearm on Public Streets or Public Property. Apparently, a woman was with them, though she was not arrested. The anonymous tip claimed that they wanted to head to the vote center with plans on “straightening things out.” Both men were armed when arrested, and the police found an AR-15 style weapon in their truck. Unclear what they wanted to straighten out, but I can only assume they were bolstered by President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.
Police pointed out that the truck they were in had QAnon stickers on it and there was a QAnon hat inside the car, and if you’re fortunate enough to not know what QAnon is, it’s basically a right-winged and deranged internet cult that believes a bunch of Hollywood and “global elites” are involved in child sex trafficking rings and that only Donald Trump knows the truth and that Trump was supposed to win the re-election and reveal the names of these supposed child abusers. QAnon is a bunch of conspiracy theorists, basically. Interestingly, NBC News also reports that QAnon — which is led by an anonymous individual named Q, who regularly posts to the extremist forum 8kun — has gone silent since Monday and the administrator who runs the 8Kun message board just stepped down.
Unclear if the QAnon maniacs who marched on the Philadelphia Convention Center got the memo that their QAnon community has apparently gone dark, but NBC News found the armed men’s social media profiles, where they apparently shared many QAnon conspiracy theories, including one claiming QAnon was “a positive military operation” and that “judgment day” was coming.
However, despite their QAnon ties, the Philadelphia district attorney believes these individuals were acting alone and that there does not appear to be a larger movement of violence at play here. “We do not have indications that the story is bigger than these two individuals,” Krasner said.
It’s terrifying to think that people are happily dancing in the streets of Philly, unaware, as two armed extremists were on their way to the heart of the city to do god knows what.
