Willem van Spronsen - Antifa activist attacks ICE center

Willem Van Spronsen was an anarchist and anti-fascist from Washington who was fatally shot by police on July 13 while trying to set a fire with incendiary devices during an attack at an ICE detention center in Tacoma. Authorities say Van Spronsen was armed with a rifle and threw “lit objects” at buildings and vehicles in the parking lot of the Northwest Detention Center.

Van Spronsen, a Vashon Island musician affiliated with the Puget Sound Anarchists and local antifa groups, was shot and killed by Tacoma Police officers, the Seattle Times reports. No one else was injured.

The detention center is run by GEO Group, a private company, and has a capacity to hold 1,575 people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The incident comes amid nationwide protests against planned raids targeting undocumented immigrants announced by President Donald Trump and his administration and outcry against the conditions of facilities being used to hold detained migrants and asylum seekers.

Van Spronsen was previously arrested in 2018 at the Tacoma detention facility when he was accused of lunging at a police officer who was detaining another protester. Van Spronsen later pleaded guilty to obstructing a law enforcement officer and was given a deferred sentence.

The incident occurred about 4 a.m., Tacoma Police said. Officers responded after receiving a call from an ICE employee at the detention center, according to the police department.

“We are extremely grateful to the officers of the Tacoma Police Department who reacted quickly to the incident that occurred outside the Northwest Detention Center this morning,” Michael Melendez, acting field office director for Seattle Enforcement and Removal Operations at ICE, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This incident could have resulted in the loss of many more lives, were it not for the brave actions of all the officers involved.”

GEO Group told The Associated Press, that “baseless accusations,” about the facility, “have led to misplaced aggression and a dangerous environment for our employees, whose safety is our top priority. Violence of any kind against our employees and property will not be tolerated. We are thankful for the quick and brave action by the Tacoma Police Department, which prevented innocent lives from being endangered.” The company said the Tacoma detention center has air conditioning and other modern amenities, recreational activities, a bed for every detainee and medical care available at all hours.

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FULL TEXT OF WILLEM VAN SPRONSEN’S MANIFESTO

there’s wrong and there’s right.
it’s time to take action against the forces of evil.
evil says on life is worth less than another.
evil says the flow of commerce is our purpose here.
evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary.
the handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane.
beware the centrist.
i have a father’s broken heart
i have a broken down body
and i have an unshakeable abhorrence of injustice
that is what brings me here.
this is my clear opportunity to try to make a difference, i’d be an ingrate to be waiting for a more obvious invitation.
i follow three teachers:
don pritts, my spiritual guide, “love without action is just a word.”
john brown, my moral guide, “what is needed is action!”
emma goldman, my political guide, “if i can’t dance, i don’t want to be in your revolution”
i’m a head in the clouds dreamer, i believe in love and redemption.
i believe we’re going to win.
i’m joyfully revolutionary. (we all should have been reading emma goldman in school instead of the jingoistic drivel we were fed. but i digress.) (we should all be looking at the photos of the YPJ heroes should we falter and think our dreams are impossible, but i double digress. fight me.)
in these days of fascist hooligans preying on vulnerable people on our streets, in the name of the state or supported and defended by the state,
in these days of highly profitable detention/ concentration camps and a battle over the semantics,
in these days of hopelessness, empty pursuit and endless yearning,
we are living in visible fascism ascendant. (i say visible, because those paying attention watched it survive and thrive under the protection of the state for decades. (see howard zinn, “a people’s history of the united states.”) now it unabashedly follows its agenda with open and full cooperation from the government. from governments around the world.
fascism serves the needs of the state serves the needs of business and at your expense. who benefits? jeff bezos, warren buffett, elon musk, tim cook, bill gates, betsy de vos, george soros, donald trump, and need i go on? let me say it again: rich guys, (who think you’re not really all that good.) really dig government, (every government everywhere, including “communist” governments.) because they make the rules that make rich guys richer.
simple.
don’t overthink it.
(are you patriots in the back paying attention?)
i’m a man who loves you all and this spinning ball so much that i’m going to fulfill my childhood promise to myself to be noble.
here it is, in these corporate for profit concentration camps.
here it is, in brown and non conforming folks afraid to show their faces for fear of the police/ migra/ proud boys/ beckies…
here it is, a planet almost used up by the market’s greed.
i’m a black and white thinker.
detention camps are an abomination.
i’m not standing by.
i really shouldn’t have to say any more than this.
i set aside my broken heart and i heal the only way i know how- by being useful.
i efficiently compartmentalize my pain…
and i joyfully go about this work.
(to those burdened with the wreckage from my actions, i hope that you will make the best use of that burden.)
to my comrades:
i regret that i will miss the rest of the revolution.
thank you for the honor of having been in your midst.
giving me space to be useful, to feel that i was fulfilling my ideals, has been the spiritual pinnacle of my life.
doing what i can to help defend my precious and wondrous people is an experience too rich to describe.
my trans comrades have transformed me, solidifying my conviction that we will be guided to a dreamed of future by those most marginalized among us today. i have dreamed it so clearly that i have no regret for not seeing how it turns out. thank you for bringing me so far along.
i am antifa, i stand with comrades around the world who act from the love of life in every permutation. comrades who understand that freedom means real freedom for all and a life worth living.
keep the faith!
all power to the people!
bella ciao
audio manifesto: theSuper8.bandcamp.com
don’t let your silly government agencies waste money “investigating” this one. i was radicalized in civics class at 13 when we were taught about the electoral college. it was at that point that i decided that the status quo might be a house of cards. further reading confirmed in the positive. i highly recommend reading!
i am not affiliated with any organization, i have disafilliated from any organization who disagree with my choice of tactics.
the semi automatic weapon i used was a cheap, home built unregistered “ghost” ar15, it had six magazines. i strongly encourage comrades and incoming comrades to arm themselves. we are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state: ignore the law in army yourself if you have the luxury, i did.

Everyday we inch closer and closer to a 2nd civil war.

Video of him performing in 2012:



Of course the comment section is full of Chuds saying the usual "dumb leftist jew, go proud boys kill them all!" like the brainlets they are.

I guess I'm super confused about what this guy was trying to do. It seems like he was angry about the fact people are being held in detention centers. And it seems like this guy was gonna break them out. But he showed up with incendiary devices to start fires along with guns. Maybe he wasn't worried about killing a few of the people held in the camps if that means he got to release more of them? It seems like a lot could go wrong quickly, like setting fire to the whole building or blowing up something that wasn't intended.

hvernon wrote:

I guess I'm super confused about what this guy was trying to do. It seems like he was angry about the fact people are being held in detention centers. And it seems like this guy was gonna break them out. But he showed up with incendiary devices to start fires along with guns. Maybe he wasn't worried about killing a few of the people held in the camps if that means he got to release more of them? It seems like a lot could go wrong quickly, like setting fire to the whole building or blowing up something that wasn't intended.

It's likely his intent was to simply make a statement, rather than actually free anybody. A shame really. That would be a noble endevour if ever there was one.

Tommy QTR wrote:

Video of him performing in 2012:



Of course the comment section is full of Chuds saying the usual "dumb leftist jew, go proud boys kill them all!" like the brainlets they are.

Ironic how they're the ones who created the NPC meme, all of them are like NPCs.

InsaneIntruder wrote:

Tommy QTR wrote:

Video of him performing in 2012:



Of course the comment section is full of Chuds saying the usual "dumb leftist jew, go proud boys kill them all!" like the brainlets they are.

Ironic how they're the ones who created the NPC meme, all of them are like NPCs.

Literally all humans and really every living thing on the planet is a robot. Everything follows its biological instincts and nothing more. The NPC meme is retarded because everything that lives and breathes is technically an "NPC".

cakeman wrote:

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Implying all of their points aren't what all right wing speakers say. Or the fact that most of them blindly follow Trump, no matter what he does.

Doubling down is not a good look. As if it wasn't just proven correct with how predictable and defensive libshits are (protip: desperate for 'no u' is because it's accurate); and as if the same doesn't apply to referencing Trump in response. I'm sure you've read a lot of Spengler and Lothrop Stoddard to know what right wingers say, while nobody has a television and went to school to know the heights of liberal criticism.

Modern day leftists seem to crave anarchy but would be the first ones removed/destroyed in such a society.

cakeman wrote:

Doubling down is not a good look. As if it wasn't just proven correct with how predictable and defensive libshits are (protip: desperate for 'no u' is because it's accurate); and as if the same doesn't apply to referencing Trump in response. I'm sure you've read a lot of Spengler and Lothrop Stoddard to know what right wingers say, while nobody has a television and went to school to know the heights of liberal criticism.

Anti-alt right? You must obviously be a liberal and a fan of Spengler and Lothrop Stoddard (both of which I haven't heard of until now). It's not like I used to be alt right, I obviously learned it from some left winger.
My views are closest to Sayyid Qutb if anything.

He's literally a diet coke version of Joe Stack.

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G4145 wrote:

Tommy QTR wrote:

Tesla101 wrote:

Modern day leftists seem to crave anarchy but would be the first ones removed/destroyed in such a society.

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You're doubting that the people who's entire ideology is literally based upon being nice wouldn't survive for very long...?

1. Not all leftists want anarchy.
2. Leftists ideals are not based on being nice, the fact you think that shows you know nothing about Leftism.

Alright, I'm taking bets; how much longer until the inevitable civil war/years of lead/troubles start?

STK wrote:

Alright, I'm taking bets; how much longer until the inevitable civil war/years of lead/troubles start?

I think there might be a rise in political violence but a full out civil war seems unlikely, in fact I would argue some countries in Europe are more likely to fall into civil conflicts than the United States.

N/A

More info on the case:


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Video of the attack.