Right Wing Death Squad, often abbreviated toRWDS, is a slogan used in the 21st century byfar-right Americans. The term was first used in the 1970s to describe Latin Americanparamilitaries who targeted theirleft-wing opponents.
The term was first used in the 1970s to describe Latin American paramilitarydeath squads who targeted left-wing opponents.[1] The death squad dropped the leftists out of helicopters. They were called the "death flights".[2]
Jeremy Bertino wearing a T-shirt with "RWDS" and "Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong" slogan, 2019,Pittsboro
From the 2010s onwards, the term was used in the U.S. by far-right extremists. The term, often abbreviated toRWDS is used inmemes,[3] in online forums, on clothing, patches, and stickers.[1] The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism attribute the terms' popularity to usage by the American neo-fascist organisation theProud Boys. The slogan is often accompanied by the words "Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong"[4] and the abbreviationRWDS is used as a hashtag #RWDS.[5]
Some groups were created with names resembling RWDS, prompting Facebook to block multiple pages due to their hateful content.[6][7] A 2019 Facebook group calledRight Wing Death Squad was monitored by theFBI due to the violent, anti-semitic, and white supremacist content being posted.[8]
Mauricio Garcia, the perpetrator of the2023 Allen, Texas outlet mall shooting wore aRWDS patch when he killed eight people.[9] After the shooting, former Proud Boys regional leaderJeremy Bertino[10] spoke of his regret about wearing a Right Wing Death Squad patch.[11]
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