‘Seduction Hunters’ Seeks to Identify Participants in January 6th Capitol Attack – NBC Chicago

While many watched in horror as the attack on the U.S. Capitol took place on January 6, 2021, some took it upon themselves to convert that terror into action.

A loose network of self-styled detectives continues to scour the internet – in their free time and in their own right – trying to make a name for the digital videos and images from the uprising.

From his home in Denmark, Tommy Carstensen said he’s spent several months working full-time on that endeavor, spurred on by noticing what he describes as “democracy in decline.” in both Europe and America.

“I always looked at it like a terrorist attack like 9/11,” Carstensen said. He said that he was involved in the creation of two websites: jan6archive.com, which serves as an archive of videos of the uprising and jan6attack.com, which contains pictures of the individuals who have participated, with those not yet officially identified nicknames tagged with the hashtags sport that hunters use as they work to find the real name. The second site also allows visitors to filter individuals by various characteristics, clothing, actions, and more.

“It was like, okay, look for violent people at first,” he said. “Look for the people who have entered the building, shall we?”

While some hunting efforts are as simple as Twitter posts to find information, sites like jan6evidence.com took it to the next level, featuring an interactive map that links to thousands of time-stamped photos and videos.

Like the Carstensen site, jan6evidence.com also has filters that allow users to separate images by type of rioter or type of behavior. Much of the footage on these sites was recorded by the perpetrator himself.

“For them, it makes perfect sense to brag about what they’ve done,” said one hunter. She said that once she and her colleagues came up with a name with a picture, they immediately turned over their results to the FBI.

“We found that our work made a real difference,” she said. “We found our fingerprints in the court documents.”

Indeed, some of the fees charged so far have referred very specifically to the efforts of these tranquilizer hunters.

Evidence from the “Deep State Dogs” group was cited in court documents in the case against Daniel Rodriguez, who was accused of using a Taser to enter Washington, DC, Officer Michael Fanone. Rodriguez pleaded not guilty in that case.

And Chris Sigurdson’s tweets about a man he calls #SprayMeSprayYou have been charged against Daniel Ray Caldwell. Court documents in that case document Sigurdson’s link to a video that authorities say shows Caldwell directing a spray towards police, as well as another in which Caldwell – who committed found not guilty – even admitted to having sprayed the police.

“They sprayed us with pepper spray, kept spraying, I was like ‘Dude do it again, I’ll spray you again.’ He did and I sprayed back and got like 15 of them,” Caldwell is seen recounting on the video.

Not all of the individuals seduction hunters are looking to identify break the law or will eventually be charged with breaking the law, and while there is overlap between the suspects the FBI is looking for Searches and individuals are marked on the site of the hunters, list is undefined.

Another hunter affiliated with the website jan6evidence.com said they are working to name a still-unidentified group at the Capitol that they believe have ties to Chicago.

They say one of those men, who they call #AllBlackBabyThor because of his outfit and necklace, appears in images from the uprising and has also been spotted in crowds at rallies. Proud Boys gathering on the outskirts of Schaumburg.

For its part, the FBI – the agency that maintains its own suspect location during the attack on the Capitol – said the agency welcomes the assistance of tranquilizer hunters.

“The FBI encourages the public to continue to tip,” the FBI said in a statement. “The FBI continues to work diligently to identify and arrest those who participated in the U.S. Capitol riots.”