Impassioned tributes for Willem Van Spronsen, the seasoned Antifa activist who was shot dead by police after attacking an ICE detention center in Tacoma on Saturday, have flooded Twitter, praising him as a “hero” and a “martyr.”
According to police, Van Spronsen, 69, was armed with a rifle and an incendiary device when he approached the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, on Saturday and started hurling “lit objects” at cars in the parking lot, setting one vehicle alight. The authorities believe that his ultimate goal was to set fire to a propane tank, a stint that could have resulted in “the mass murder of staff and detainees” inside the facility, Shawn Fallah, of the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, told the Washington Post after the incident.
The assailant was stopped by police and killed in the ensuing showdown. It was later revealed that Van Spronsen left a three-page manifesto in which he described his act as “a call to patriots” to stand up against Trump’s migration policy, in particular, “the concentration camps” for migrants.
While Van Spronsen admits that he is “antifa,” he refuses to be affiliated with any organization, and calls on the government not to spend money on investigating his crime.
In the end of his manifesto, he urges his “comrades” to “arm themselves,” even illegally.
“We are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state. Ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, I did.”
Numerous anti-Trump #Resistance members on Twitter have sung praise to the perpetrator, including prominent civil rights activist Shaun King, who called Van Spronsen a "martyr" and his manifesto “a beautiful, painful, devastating letter”.
We are told that this is the final letter of Willem Van Spronsen - who was shot and killed by law enforcement as he attempted an attack on a for-profit refugee detention center in Tacoma, Washington.
It’s a beautiful, painful, devastating letter.
He wasn’t crazy -inaction is. pic.twitter.com/YMO1vhXCHn
— Shaun King (@shaunking) July 15, 2019
Many less high-profile, but equally passionate supporters took to Twitter to pay their respects to the attacker, with some echoing his call to use force in dismantling the existing system.
These Antifa tweets about Will Van Spronsen were made in just a span of under an hour. There are hundreds more that don't invoke his name. pic.twitter.com/sKuWlGVwVJ
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 14, 2019
Will Van Spronsen is a god damn hero if you disagree you are fash
— A.X.