Authorities identified one of the protesters who allegedly forced their way into the U.S. Capitol during a fatal riot on Jan. 6 as a UCLA student from Costa Mesa who founded a conservative campus organization; and arrested him Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Federal agents in Orange County took Christian Secor, 22, into custody after searching his Costa Mesa home Tuesday, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. He was charged on suspicion of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; violent entry and remaining on restricted grounds, civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding in a complaint filed later that day in federal court for the District of Columbia. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ordered the defendant held without bail.
Footage and images recorded during the riot at the Capitol show Secor forcing his way past at least three police officers blocking a set of double doors leading into the building while wearing a red hat bearing the slogan “Make America Great Again,” authorities said in an affidavit supporting his arrest. He was also seen standing on the floor of the Senate and sitting in the chair of the congressional body’s Presiding Officer, while carrying a blue flag with the words America First in white writing.
Students at UCLA identified Secor as the founder of America First Bruins, a conservative campus organization, an FBI arrest affidavit said. Other tipsters provided photos of Secor participating at a political rally in Huntington Beach, and said he is a self-described fascist who has called for America to become a “whites-only” nation in social media posts, according the the complaint filed against him.
“Jews will not replace us!” and “nationalism everywhere,” he wrote from his Twitter account, @fullautonat, in posts that were featured in an article dated April 1, 2020, according to court documents. Secor is known to go by the alias “Scuffed Elliot Rodger.”
The FBI interviewed five informants, then conducted surveillance on Secor for three days beginning Jan. 25. He was taken into custody once investigators were able to match his description to the man seen in footage recorded during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
It was not immediately known if Secor is represented by an attorney who could comment on the allegations against him.
He is the second Orange County resident arrested so far in connection to the violent uprising in Washington D.C. In Southern California, four other defendants were from Los Angeles County, one is from Victorville, one lives in Beaumont and another is from Coronado. As many as 192 people nationwide have been arrested in connection with the insurrection spurred by unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Secor’s arrest Tuesday came as no surprise to UCLA students who have documented and criticized his role on campus as president of America First Bruins and in the past, had called on the university to address what they viewed as hate speech and attacks against other students.
A former member of the Bruin Republicans, the campus’ pro-GOP student club, Secor founded America First Bruins several years ago and was well-known on campus for using his platform to deliver hateful, racist, and xenophobic comments, according to several UCLA students familiar with Secor.
Debate around Secor’s controversial language hit a fever-pitch in April after disturbing tweets and comments against immigrant, undocumented and international students, as well as LGBTQ students and Jewish students had surfaced online, said Aidan Arasasingham, president of the UC Student Association.
The comments and Secor’s group spurred a debate on campus about free speech and hate speech. Many students petitioned university administrators to revoke the club’s charter, said Arasasingham, a senior and global studies major, an action officials had declined to do on the grounds of First Amendment rights.
“We knew there were warning signs to this level of extremism and violence and hatred,” Arasasingham said. “So why did our university and proper authorities not intervene before it was too late, before a UCLA student was sitting in the chair of the vice president after inciting a violent mob.”
Matthew Richard, a political science major who has opposed fascist groups on campus throughout his time at the university, said he hopes Secor’s arrest will mean an end to the harm he presented to other members of the campus.
Grayson Peters, a senior who studies political science and French, said Secor’s arrest seemed inevitable. Peters wrote an article in April in the campus’ Jewish news publication, criticizing Secor’s anti-Semitic views.
“It is a very surreal feeling that the people you are walking past on campus, or who you might have a class with, might be people who thing you don’t belong in this country, or wish you dead,” said Peters, who is Jewish.
Peters, who is currently enrolled in a class with Secor, also wished campus officials had stepped in sooner to address Secor’s comments and influence.
“Even if it’s just tweets, even if it’s just ranting, even if it’s just in the context of forceful debate, there is violence in those words — it was pretty clear where this would end up,” he said.
UCLA administrators were not immediately available Tuesday evening for comment.
The arrest affidavit said Secor is “widely known by his association” with America First Bruins and the “Bruins Republicans.”
The Bruin Republicans issued a statement saying: “Someone who was expelled from our organization since last year has been arrested in connection to the Capitol Hill protests. We found out about his inappropriate behavior and banned him long ago. We expect the media to lie and slander us, but this is nothing new.”
Source: Orange County Register
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