Next on the Neo-Fascist Chopping Block: The Hokoanas

Our BFF Rebecca Hargraves (that’s sarcasm, people) tried to defend Marc and Elizabeth as they shot and pepper sprayed people during Milo’s Seattle outing, but turns out that no, it was premeditated, not self defense.

SEATTLE, WA – Although they attempted to claim self defense when they shot and pepper sprayed protesters opposing an Jan 20 appearance at the University of Washington by former Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulos, a couple has been arrested after prosecutors determined that they were planning beforehand to engage in violence at the protest which eventually became a full-on riot with fights taking place between supporters of Yiannopoulos and those opposed to him.

According to court documents, Marc and Elizabeth Hokoana, both 29, are charged with assault, Marc with third degree assault for pepper spraying the crowd, and Elizabeth first degree assault for shooting Josh Dukes, 34, a member of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The couple, both of whom have carry conceal permits, is not in custody but they are scheduled to appear in court for arraignment proceedings May 8^th at King County Courthouse. Court documents indicate that a $50,000 bail on them was imposed.

“The evidence will show that these defendants took a gun into a volatile protest in Red Square, and that Marc Hokoana engaged in several provocative acts, including using pepper spray on the crowd,” King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a prepared statement. “The crowd reacted predictably to being pepper sprayed, but the evidence will show that at the time Elizabeth Hokoana fired her pistol that her husband was not in imminent danger.”

Video shows that Dukes was facing away from Elizabeth Hokoana when he was shot. Marc Hokoana, who reported it to police as a “self-defense shooting” three hours later, was heard in videos of the protest telling Elizabeth to “calm down” and “don’t shoot anyone,” later telling her and others in the crowd, “They have to start this. They have to start it.” Witnesses remember him trying to provoke the crowd and exchanging punches with some of them.

Court documents indicate that prosecutors determined that the Hokoana’s actions were planned after reviewing a Facebook post the day before to a friend where that read, “I can’t wait until tomorrow. I’m going to the Milo event, and if the snowflakes get out off (sic) hand, I’m just going to wade through their ranks and start cracking skulls.” When the friend, who was not identified, asked if he was going to be carrying a gun, he replied, “Nah, I’m going full melee,” following that comment with, “Lily (is).” The friend then replied by saying “GET ‘EM” and followed that post with, “Just don’t end up in jail.”

The rally against Yiannopoulos garnered nationwide attention after the violence that ensued, which was so volatile that it might have prompted neo-Fascist video blogger Rebecca Hargraves, who says she was assaulted while covering it and had her phone smashed, to consider leaving the city altogether. “I don’t think we can co-exist with these people,” she said in one of her videos. “I’m very seriously like ‘All right, I’m just going to have to give you Seattle!’” the St. Louis-area native continued.

In another video shot at the time, Hargraves defended the Hokoanas saying that they acted in self defense, saying Marc was “trying to make sure there was no violence from our end,” had interviewed them and even showed video she shot herself of the shooting.

The rally prompted far right activists over the next few months to posture as free speech activists as they organize events that many have seen to actually been organized to simply fight antifa. Days after his Seattle appearance, Yiannopoulos attempted to hold a similar event at Berkeley in California that was also met with clashes. Neo-Fascists have responded in holding two rallies there, one on March 4 and another on April 15, both of who resulted in fights between them and antifa, and after conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who in recent months has been associating herself more with the self-styled “alt-right”, announced she was going to speak there this Thursday, the neo-Fascists took to social networks to call for another rally during her appearance. Yiannopoulos, who has not been heard from since an interview surfaced of him defending pedophilia, is planning a week-long event in Berkeley in September.

According to a wedding registry website, the Hokoanas have been married for almost two years. In 2013, Marc Hokoana attended a Guns Across America where he was interviewed by a local publication, providing a now ironic quote: “It’s important to have this exposure and for the public to see people with guns that don’t fit the stereotype of old white racists who own guns.”

State v. Hokoana (PDF)