Whatever the Alt-Right lacks in organizing prowess, it sure makes up for in drama. After being vastly outnumbered at rallies in Boston, Laguna Beach and Berkeley, the movement is circling the drain with rampant infighting. The latest salvo comes courtesy of the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights’ (FOAK) Orange County chapter. Current OC FOAK commander Dennis Luke uploaded a YouTube video on Monday challenging former commander Juan Cadavid (aka “Johnny Benitez”) to an MMA fight—one that the Weekly is ready to offer a $1,000 prize should it ever happen.
The beef? Luke, also known as “Based Skywalker” after April’s Battle of Berkeley, took issue with Cadavid claiming in a public video that he stepped down from FOAK to focus on Alt-Right event planning instead. According to Luke, that’s not how it happened. “He didn’t step down he was kicked out,” Luke wrote on pro-Trump livestreamer Irma Hinojosa’s Facebook page on Friday. Luke also claimed the directive came from FOAK founder Kyle Chapman, better known as “Based Stickman,” and himself. Both Chapman and Luke got arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in Berkeley (though face no charges) and have stayed in contact ever since.
Luke called Cadavid a “manipulator” while evoking his multiple aliases and raising suspicions about him being a left-wing infiltrator, or, at best, a red-pilled grandstander. “He was simply kicked out for unbecoming a knight,” Luke says, all huffy puffy. “I had many conversations and a vote with men inside of my group.”
Here’s the rest of the video. Roll the tape!
Damn! And Leftists thought they had infighting down pat! Things seemed friendly enough just a few days ago, with Luke going to livestream Cadavid’s America First! anti-immigrant, anti-refugee vigil that got outnumbered by 2,500 protesters. But something changed afterward. Cadavid responded to Luke’s public challenge, not by accepting the fight, but recording a 25-minute video of his own yesterday. He claimed Luke provided conflicting information about his exit from FOAK, but also noted Chapman gave him the cold shoulder after the latest round of Berkeley protests last weekend and figured something was coming.
Cadavid also posted purported text message exchanges relevant to the drama. “You talk to the media to [sic] much…and you lie…you are no longer an Alt knight,” Luke allegedly texted Cadavid last week. “Alright man I’m sorry you feel that way. I thought we were friends,” Cadavid replied. He also shared an exchange with Chapman that came after a plea for regional support for his Laguna Beach vigil fell on deaf ears. “Hey I’m stepping down,” he informed the FOAK founder. “I can’t effectively train people for the movement and put on events.” (Earlier this month, Cadavid organized a “Make Men Great Again” event that featured Chapman as a speaker at Old World in Huntington Beach.)
Chapman had an answer ready for Cadavid’s announcement. “From what I understand the men in your chapter cast a vote of no confidence against you,” he texted back. “Something about you being in this for person gain and aggrandizement.” (Quick aside: damn, another no-confidence vote? OC Foak now joins Anaheim, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach police departments in that trend!)
Chapman shared Luke’s video on Facebook Monday night writing “What do y’all think?” before deleting it, but it’s still up on the Based Stickman’s Twitter account. Luke released another video yesterday claiming Cadavid suggested a uniform for the OC Alt-Knights that included red-laced Doc Martins—a longtime staple of racist skinhead subculture. That probably won’t help Cadavid if he’s truly filing a slander lawsuit against Univision as he claims in the video for deeming him a Hispanic activist behind the white supremacist movement in Southern California—litigation he says will consume much of his attention going forward to the point where a follow up Sept. 24 America First! vigil in Laguna Beach is now canceled.
Whatever the case, none of this drama is new to Cadavid since appearing in Alt-Right circles this March as Johnny Benitez. He left the Proud Boys after running into problems with founder Gavin McInnes over the OC chapter of the group. Before that happened, John Turano (better known from the Battle of Berkeley as Based Spartan) called Cadavid out in a video rant announcing that he quit the movement. Cadavid responded by challenging Turano to an MMA fight instead of a street brawl. Nothing happened, even after Turano made a second video just a few weeks ago accepting the MMA fight but under the condition there’d be no rounds to stop the action.
Will Luke vs. Cadavid be any different? Fellas, if it ever happens, the Weekly is ready to write a $1,000 check to the winner. You can do what you want with the purse. Luke: spend it on building up FOAK under your command. Cadavid: recoup your stated financial losses from “Make Men Great Again” or buy some new Louis Vuitton scarves!
Actually, we don’t want to fund any of your games, so we’ll donate the prize to a charity doing good work, like helping U.S. veterans returning from wars abroad. That’s something we can all agree on, right?
If not, Luke released the video above from a July 4 friendly grapple with Cadavid—and that might be as good as it gets.
Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!