White Nationalists Jailed, Accused Of Inciting Riots In Berkeley, SoCal

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Four more members of the white nationalist group "Rise Above Movement" are now behind bars after being suspected of inciting a riot in Huntington Beach.

Video evidence showed one of the men, Robert Rundo, beating a counter-protester in Southern California. Rundo was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after fleeing the U.S. for Central America.

The indictment charges Rundo along with Robert Boman, Tyler Laube and Aaron Eason. The FBI says Rundo and other gang members used the internet to incite and participate in violence.

The FBI even intercepted text messages from the members incriminating themselves after the violent April showdowns in Berkeley.

One text read: "I was about to jump into that, but our guys were just wrecking them."

Another read: "Apparently, he hit Antifa so hard, he dislocated his shoulder."

"The country is founded on freedom of speech, so you're allowed to talk--you just can't do things like that that disrupt people's lives," said Rick Scott, a retired FBI agent.

While the charges are specifically for the Huntington Beach incident, the indictment also places all four men at rallies in Berkeley that happened in March and April.

However, Scott says getting a U.S. attorney to successfully press charges in a case like this is difficult.

"It's not easy to get an indictment on inciting a riot. It's gotta be something substantive there. It just can't be rhetoric. It has to be something that's done," Scott said.