OAKLAND — In the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, some individuals banded together to save warehouses and artists’ spaces by fixing them; another group’s end goal was to shutter spaces in an effort to “crush the radical left.”

The group has called itself Right Wing Safety Squad but colloquially calls itself the SS, and claims to have contributed to shutting down 16 artists’ live-work spaces across the country. They claim responsibility for the crackdown on Burnt Ramen and Bridge Art Space in Richmond as well as Qilombo and Peralta Studios in Oakland, although they also admit they have no proof of their participation.

The call to action began Dec. 7 on 4chan, an anonymous online message board that birthed both the hacktivist group Anonymous as well as the practice of “Rickrolling,” an internet prank that sends people to a video by Rick Astley. The anonymous poster claimed that all “artspaces and illegal venues” were “hotbeds of liberal radicalism and degeneracy,” and requested others to report any code violations in an effort to “Make America Safe Again.”

Long forum discussions are accompanied by photos from inside DIY warehouse spaces and music venues, where amateur code inspectors point to what they say is evidence of hazards.

References to President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan shared space with photos of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character the Anti-Defamation League said has been increasingly co-opted by white supremacists, and Nazi imagery and references.

The group’s nickname, the SS, uses the same double lightning bolt runes that the Nazi paramilitary organization used. Even the name, Safety Squad, elicits comparisons to the Nazi’s Schutzstaffel, which translates to “protection squadron.”

Burnt Ramen, an underground music venue in Richmond, was shut down by the city’s code enforcement officers on Dec. 16. Mayor Tom Butt initially wrote on his website that he was alerted to Burnt Ramen’s purported code violations by a “social media author,” but later retracted that statement, saying it was an email from a concerned resident.

Sadaf Zahoor lived at Burnt Ramen until Dec. 16 and has said the residents are now sleeping on friends’ couches. She was upset that Butt had published the address of her home along with photos of the inside. Afterward, she said friends had alerted her to threatening statements and photos of her home on 4chan.

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“It’s weird that people who have never heard of us are doing research (on our home), where it is exactly and how can you get there,” Zahoor said. “There were already people making allusions that we didn’t deserve to live and that they should burn the house down.”

The exact nature of the individuals within the group is mutable. Some soften their statements, saying they are protecting “unwitting leftists from getting themselves killed.”

The impact of this group also remains to be seen. Buildings on their “trophy thread” that they claim to have shut down have been on fire officials’ radar before.

Adrian Sheppard, Richmond’s fire chief, said his department has not received any anonymous messages or complaints about Burnt Ramen. He said the department was already aware of issues at the space, but the Ghost Ship fire “compelled us to move quicker.”

The Right Wing Safety Squad lists Qilombo, a community center in Oakland, as a successful target, but Qilombo’s lease was voided by SMC Property Management on Dec. 5, seven days after its renewal and three days after the Ghost Ship fire. It was only on the Right Wing Safety Squad’s list in the second half of December.

The members of the Right Wing Safety Squad have faced eviction — albeit virtual — themselves.

On Monday, a 4chan manager posted on behalf of owner Hiroyuki Nishimura that the safety squad discussions would no longer be allowed on the political message board because they are off-topic. An additional warning was made that those types of discussions were risky, repeating the mantra that “4chan is not your personal army.”

The group has since moved on to a darker corner of the internet, 8chan, which Google had at one point banned from its searches. From there, groups such as the Watchdog Society: United Musicians Against Hate have started to harass the Right Wing Safety Squad, even into their newer home, on the Discord chat app.

Although officers in the Safety Squad have continued their organization, recent discussion touched on the “low energy” nature of the movement now and whether activities would be slowing down during the holidays.

They readily admitted that there was no proof their actions had any effect, due to the anonymous nature of their organization. More often, they talked about the home base they lost when they were evicted from the message boards of 4chan.