Local Paper Let's Militia Freak Off the Hook, Again

The issued correction doesn't address other details mysteriously scrubbed from the piece.

Henry Hoeft counter-protesting at a Black Lives Matter event in 2020.

The Rooster reported yesterday that The Columbus Dispatch made a major goof by running a soft profile of a prominent Boogaloo Boy named Henry Hoeft ahead of his traveling to fight the Russians in Ukraine.

It’s actually much worse than I thought, which I didn't see coming.

I figured this was a random internet post that got thrown together in haste. No, it was published on the front page of the Sunday Edition of The Columbus Dispatch:

You can see how pleased Hoeft was with the media coverage in the ripped TikTok below. Keep in mind that this is a man who wants to spark the next Civil War:

Hoeft’s deception is easy to spot once you are familiar with his schtick. Readers of a certain age will recognize this as an “Eddie Haskell effect.”

He is smart enough to realize that most Americans won’t send you cash to travel to a foreign war if you identify as somebody who fantasizes about race war and mass murdering “alphabet boys” from federal agencies.

Identifying as a veteran who is going to Ukraine as some random do-gooder is a lot more palatable to the public—look no further than the fawning coverage he hustled into The Dispatch.

His act makes it easier to connect with other jaded combat veterans who can then be introduced to the Boogaloo lifestyle away from the media. That’s Hoeft’s actual goal with this, and he got everything he wanted.

The Dispatch had no choice but to issue the correction, which they did in the smallest way possible albeit at the top of the article:

Editor's Note: This story has been revised to reflect that Henry Hoeft has been associated with the far-right group known as the Boogaloo Bois in the past.

The Dispatch can’t admit they got bamboozled by an active member of a right-wing militia, so they couch the correction’s language by making it look like he isn’t an active member.

There is no discussion on how that association might fuel his desire to go to Ukraine or what it might mean if he survives and returns to America.

Hoeft, who said he is half-Ukrainian on his father's side, has previously identified himself as a member of the “Boogaloo Bois,” which has been characterized as a far-right extremist group. Operating under the alias “Henry Locke,” the man was among a team of Ohio Boogaloo members who were at a Black Lives Matter protest carrying AK-47s, AR-15s and extra magazines last year.

He said he distanced himself from the far-right group after it "got all crazy." However, among the seven people with whom he is traveling to Ukraine, Hoeft said, is Mike Dunn, the former leader of the Last Sons of Liberty, a faction of the Boogaloo Bois. Dunn could not be reached for comment.

“Henry Locke,” for the record, is the alias under which Hoeft routinely posted pictures of him pointing loaded pistols at police officers, unbeknownst to them. He also called for the governor of Michigan to hang for tyranny, an offense which got him kicked off the site:

The Dispatch mentions none of this. If a reader didn’t know better, they might think Hoeft and his goons were there in defensive support of Black Lives Matter.

The Dispatch’s only source of Hoeft no longer being in the Boogaloo Boys is Hoeft himself, and he has every reason to keep his radical associations hidden as he tries to raise money to fight in Ukraine.

Instead, The Dispatch let’s Hoeft claim he is a former member who left the groip when “it got too crazy.” No follow up on what “too crazy” might mean for a man who saw active combat in Iraq, or even what the “it” is that got too crazy in the first place. Just more stenography to cover their asses.