Politico reported last night that a small group of Sanders supporters showed up at the home of Nevada’s Democratic Party chairman at 11 o’clock at night and began shouting into bullhorns. Police were called:

“I want assurances that there isn’t going to be any shenanigans going on tomorrow. The Democratic Party does not control what happens,” Maria Estrada, a self-described “Berner” from Los Angeles, said into the bullhorn, according to a Facebook Live video she streamed on her personal page. She repeatedly said she didn’t want to see a repeat of the 2016 election, which she insinuated was rigged against Sanders…

William McCurdy, the Nevada party chair and a member of the state Assembly, confronted Estrada and the other Sanders supporters outside his home nearly an hour after they arrived. He told them they had “crossed a line.”

Estrada shot back: “If any bullshit happens tomorrow the only person who crossed the line is you.” McCurdy called the police to report the disturbance but Estrada and the others were gone by the time the authorities arrived and the matter was closed, according to the North Las Vegas police department.

Here’s video of the protest at McCurdy’s house:

Scoop w/ @hollyotterbein
NV Dem party chair & CA SoS called the police this wknd after svrl Bernie supporters came to their homes w/ bullhorns late at night to warn abt elections/2016
They FB live’d it
Jeff Weaver condemned the tacticshttps://t.co/BxJPlm9Zn2 pic.twitter.com/xAnyVcKzO7

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 27, 2020

The next night, around 9 pm, the same group of protesters went to the home of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Here’s video of the protest at his house (2nd clip):

Maria Estrada, a self-described "Berner" from CA who went to NV and helped lead the actions (NV at after 11pm), defended them: “Protesting is our right — whether they called the police or not is irrelevant.”
1st video was from NV. This is from Padilla's home in LA after 9pm pic.twitter.com/P5QY32geez

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 27, 2020

In all, this has apparently happened four separate times, each time the target was a Democratic official. Police were called “at least twice” according to Politico.

Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver denounced the behavior saying, “No one who behaves like this is part of our movement. People who support this campaign do so by civilly mobilizing other voters to come to the polls. We have zero tolerance for these activities and condemn them in the strongest terms.”

That’s lovely but it’s not very believable. The “Bernie Bros” have a well-earned reputation at this point as a group willing to swarm and harass anyone who dings their candidate. We saw it earlier this month when leaders of the Nevada Culinary Union were doxed and threatened after the group put out a flyer saying Sanders would take away their existing health insurance.

Just a few days ago the Independent published a story suggesting Sanders’ worst supporters were taking their cues from his own top staffers and that Sanders was well aware of it.

Sanders certainly isn’t the first socialist to have a cadre of thugs around him who intimidate and punish his enemies. In fact, it’s a little bit on the nose that the socialist candidate is the one with the followers who behave like this. He is definitely attracting a fringe of far left people who see extremism as a virtue. And looking at Sanders’ own rhetoric over the last 40 years, it’s not hard to imagine why they think he agrees with them. The author of the Politico piece notes that the woman leading these protests justified them on the basis of a quote from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Just one problem. The quote is apparently apocryphal.

Harvard's John Womack and UT El Paso's Samuel Brunk, who've both written Zapata books said they'd never seen the quote before
"I highly doubt he ever said it," Womack said.
It's a small thing but potentially demonstrative of the growing left-wing digital space and misinfo in it

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 27, 2020