By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI raided the California home of YouTube celebrity Jake Paul on Thursday in connection with a riot at an Arizona shopping mall, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Agents were seen removing firearms from the home.

The FBI also served search warrants in Nevada and Arizona.

“The FBI is executing a federal search warrant at a residence in Calabasas in connection with an ongoing investigation,” an FBI representative said in a statement. “The affidavit in support of the search warrant has been sealed by a judge and I am, therefore, prohibited from commenting as to the nature of the investigation. No arrests are planned.”

Paul was charged with misdemeanors in connection with the riot, but police are dismissing the
case and cooperating with the FBI.

Black Lives Matter protesters in Detroit.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI arrested a 42-year-old El Paso man who posted a racist video in which he threatened to kill Black Lives Matter protesters, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Manuel Flores faces up to five years in prison on a federal charge of making a threat over the internet.

The FBI arrested Flores on Monday in the Dallas area after authorities say he admitted recording and uploading a video to YouTube entitled “N***** Lives Matter” in which he said “my dream is (to) at least … take out at 200 N*****.”

In the video, which shows what appears to be an AR-15 resting on his feet, Flores said he planned to travel to Dallas and dare protesters to “stop him.”

Flores was arrested in the Dallas area.

As of Wednesday, Flores was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting to be transferred to El Paso for a preliminary hearing that has not yet been scheduled.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol is inviting the public to watch a ceremony celebrating its 96th birthday.

The one-hour event was live-streamed Thursday and is available to watch below.

Border Patrol said the ceremony “is a time-honored tradition that highlights the Agency’s core values: Honor, Integrity, and Service to Country.”

David Hogg discounted the conspiracy theory on CNN on Tuesday.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

The soaring popularity of a discounted, right-wing conspiracy theory that claims last week’s Florida school shooting was an FBI plot was underscored Wednesday when YouTube’s top trending video featured a segment on the baseless allegations.

The video, originally posted in August, claimed that David Hogg, a survivor of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was an “actor,” not a classmate.

In the video, the 17-year-old was featured in an interview with the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles to discuss a dispute between a lifeguard and a swimmer.

The video, which received more than 200,000 views in about 12 hours, was copied and re-uploaded by a YouTube user named “mike m,” who wrote new caption: “DAVID HOGG THE ACTOR …”

Since the massacre that killed 17 people, the conspiracy theory has gained traction among Trump supporters and others on the far right who believe – or want you to believe – that the shooting was an FBI plot to seize power from Americans.

The video was removed by YouTube for violating its policy on bullying and harassment.

On CNN on Tuesday, Hogg disputed the outrageous claims.

“I’m not a crisis actor,” Hogg told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360” Tuesday. “I’m someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that.”

He added, “I’m not acting on anybody’s behalf.”

Nikolas Cruz via instagram

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

The FBI is reviewing how it handled a tip months ago about a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz who boasted he was “going to be a professional school shooter.” 

The name is the same as the shooter who opened fire with an AR-15 on Wednesday at a Florida high school, killing at least 17 people.

Ben Bennight, a bail bondsman, said he flagged the comment on YouTube in September and emailed a screenshot to the FBI, who paid him a visit and asked whether he knew the commenter.

The FBI told the New York Times it reviewed databases and conducted open-source checks and is now trying to determine what steps were taken to identify the commenter.

“There was no particular information about the particular time, location or further identifiers about the person who posted the comment,” Rob Lasky, the F.B.I. special agent in charge in Miami, said. “No additional information was found to positively identify the person who posted this comment. There was no connection found to South Florida.”

The FBI said it’s options were limited because of scant information that would have made it difficult to obtain a grand jury subpoena to identify the YouTube user.

“I hope he would have been interviewed by the F.B.I. or referred to the local police assuming he was identified,” said Eugene Casey, a veteran former F.B.I. agent. “I would have done my best to identify the individual who made the threat, but he could have posted it to YouTube from a public computer in a library or somewhere else.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A 52-minute video that shows the traffic stop and arrest of Sandra Bland before she died in a jail cell three days later appears to be edited, raising questions about the whether police cam evidence was tampered with.

NBC News reports that Texas Department of Public Safety authorities were investigating what appeared to be edits pointed out by experts and regular viewers.

Police have said Bland committed suicide, but family and supporters don’t believe that was the case.

In several of the clips, the audio stays constant but the video occasionally repeats itself.

Motorists are increasingly using cameras to defy Border Control questions and orders.

The footage of motorists refusing to answer questions on American roads are posted on YouTube and are popular on social media.

The overwhelming majority of people don’t seem to care and perhaps see cooperating as their duty in keeping the nation guarded,” The Houston Chronicle reports. “But a small, and apparently growing, number of people say they should not have to answer any such questions from armed federal agents, and they also refuse to consent to searches of their vehicles. They say that people should not so willingly give up their rights.

There is no telling how many times a day agents and civilians clash over the issue or what most often happens next. But many dozens, if not hundreds of videos are posted on  YouTube by travelers who recorded their moments of truth. Some of the time agents just wave through travelers who said they were exercising their right not to answer any questions. In other instances standoffs ensue in which motorists are forcibly yanked from their vehicles.”

Jeremiah Perez

Google alerted authorities to a Colorado Springs man who threatened to “hunt” and kill police officers in the comment sections of a YouTube video, leading to the man’s arrest Monday, the Colorado Spring Gazette reports.

Jeremiah M. Perez was arrested after Google contacted the FBI Office in San Francisco.

“SINCE DARREN WILSON our group has killed 6 retired sheriffs and cops……because of this event we will hunt two more in colorado this week…..for every innocent citizen that cops kill WE, VETERANS WILL KILL RETIRED HELPLESS COPS,” the threat read. “COPS ARE THE REAL ENEMIES OF FREEDOM LOVING AMERICANS and TIME TO STRIKE BACK IN ALL OUT WAR IS NOW.”

The user name of the commenter was “Vets Hunting Cops.”

Perez told authorities he didn’t like police and his anger was intensified after an officer shot Michael Brown in Ferguson.