The Boogaloo Movement

Overview

The Boogaloo movement is a loosely organized far-right, anti-government extremist movement that emerged in the early 2010s on internet message boards such as 4chan. As part of the larger militia/patriot movement, groups and individuals affiliated with the Boogaloo movement rose to prominence in 2020 during the George Floyd and anti-COVID-19 lockdown protests, often participating in pro-gun rallies, providing “security” during civil unrest, or participating in demonstrations themselves. Adherents often refer to themselves as “boogaloo boys” or “boogaloo bois,” and say they are preparing for “the boogaloo,” or a second American Civil War.

Ideology

Boogaloo adherents often describe themselves as libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, and even anarchist. Alex Newhouse of Middlebury University’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) defines the movement as far-right “because they draw a line directly from Waco and Ruby Ridge…They hold up things like the McVeigh bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the armed response to Ruby Ridge as heroic moments in American history.” Moreover, some members of the boogaloo movement adopt accelerationist ideology–which, in right-wing milieus, calls for an acceleration of conflict through violence, such as racially-motivated murders, terrorist attacks, and assassinations that result in an eventual societal collapse, in which a white ethnostate emerges in its place.

History

The earliest references to “the boogaloo” can be found in online image board posts on sites such as 4chan. Researchers at CTEC traced its origins as a meme on 4chan’s /k/ message board dedicated to military weapons and firearms but grew as an offshoot on the infamous /pol/ board as a result of the overlap between the two forums. References to “boogaloo” on these boards frequently appeared alongside references to “dotr” or “day of the rope,” alluding to the former neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce’s 1978 dystopian fiction novel The Turner Diaries, in which all non-whites and “race traitors” are lynched and their bodies displayed in public. The use of the term eventually migrated to other social media platforms, notably Facebook, where hundreds of boogaloo Facebook groups appeared, primarily during COVID-19 lockdowns; as many as 60% of such groups emerged during this time, according to the Tech Transparency Project.

In March 2020, the boogaloo movement claimed its modern martyr after the fatal police shooting of Duncan Lemp in Potomac, Maryland. Lemp was a boogaloo Facebook group leader suspected of illegally possessing firearms whose home police raided in a no-knock search warrant. Far-right groups and boogaloo supporters suspected the authorities killed Lemp because of his role in the community and his anti-government beliefs.

Notable Events and Activities

Boogaloo followers gained increased visibility in January 2020 when they attended the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) Lobby Day, a massive gun rights rally in Richmond. Sporting Hawaiian shirts and clad in tactical gear from head to toe, prompting then-Governor Ralph Northam to declare a state of emergency in response to threats of armed militias storming the capital.

Beginning in May 2020, boogaloo group members began attending protests in response to the death of George Floyd, claiming to protest against police brutality and to provide security for protestors and local businesses. Boogaloo presence at the protests reached an apex in May and June 2020, when United States Air Force sergeant Steven Carrillo murdered a Federal Protective Service officer in Oakland and a Santa Cruz County deputy, respectively.

Later, in October 2020, the Department of Justice (DoJ) federally indicted six boogaloo followers associated with the Michigan-based militia Wolverine Watchmen for plotting to kidnap and murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in response to the state’s COVID-19 lockdown policies.

Symbology and Iconography

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

The movement’s namesake derives from the 1984 dance musical film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, which critics derided as unoriginal and strikingly similar to the first film. The appended phase “2: Electric Boogaloo” was subsequently adopted by far-right meme culture to describe a second American Civil War. The term can also be shortened to “boogaloo” or “the boog.”

Hawaiian Shirts

Adherents of the Boogaloo movement are often seen wearing Hawaiian shirts alongside other military gear to identify one another at rallies and protests. The exact time when members began sporting this identifier is unknown. However, following more stringent efforts by social media companies to moderate and remove Boogaloo-related content from their platforms, Boogaloo networks began utilizing derivations of the word, including “big igloo” and “big luau,” the latter of which is directly related to the use of Hawaiian shirts.