‘Black Bloc’ profile: Jared Chase has done ‘dumb things, but nothing like this.’
BY KIM JANSSEN, FRANK MAIN AND RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporters May 19, 2012 4:16PM
Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H. (AP Photo/Chicago Police Department)
Article Extras
Updated: July 1, 2012 12:29PM
On his Facebook page, Jared Chase says he’s a deejay and posted a graphic of his name with two automatic weapons below it.
His uncle explained Chase is a “wannabe rapper” with some past arrests for civil disobedience. “He told me he was going to be protesting,” said the uncle, Michael Chase, of New Hampshire. “I’m quite shocked. He’s not above doing dumb things, but nothing like this.” Labeled a “domestic terrorist” by prosecutors, Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, N.H., is charged with possession of an explosive or incendiary device, conspiracy to commit terrorism and providing material support to terrorism. Like fellow suspect Brent Vincent Betterly, Jared Chase was involved in scrapes with the law in recent months. Chase was arrested in Dade County for loitering and petty theft, a misdemeanor. The loitering case was dropped, but on Jan. 27 Chase was found guilty on the theft charge and ordered to pay $458 in fines and court costs. He hasn’t paid the assessment, records show. Chase’s uncle, Michael Chase, said Saturday that his nephew had driven up to Chicago from Miami in late April with fellow suspect Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and other protesters who had been taking part in the Occupy movement there. Prosecutors say Chase, Church and Betterly drove up together. Michael Chase said his nephew had a job at a restaurant in Boston, but quit to take part in the movement there, before traveling to Rhode Island, Washington D.C. and Miami to live in tents and take part in Occupy. Michael Chase said he believed his nephew had been arrested before for minor civil disobedience, but nothing this serious. “He gets a little carried away and does a little elbow bumping with police, but certainly nothing like you’re describing,” Michael Chase told a reporter. On Jared Chase’s Facebook page, he says he’s studying 3D animation and game programming and says he has his own marketing and promotions company. On one music site, a blogger identified as Jared Chase of Keene, N.H., tells a rapper: “I hope you got kids or a wife so I can cut there[sic] throat while they sleeping, and then rape them after there dead.” On Facebook, he listed other protests he was involved in, including a May 1 event in Chicago when demonstrators blocked the entrance to Bank of America downtown. He also referred to his time in Miami when Occupy protesters were allowed to move into a rundown apartment complex in Overtown. In March, he wrote a typo-ridden post about the complex being raided by authorities: “We got raided by FBI & Miami Swat last night, everyone detained like terrorits , yet no arressts were made. I was zip tied , and the only one put in a cop car ( f--- you pigs ).” Chase also posted a photo of himself holding a sign with the word “Oakland” on it, apparently to show solidarity with the protesters who had highly-publicized clashes with police there. “He said we are supporting the Oakland Occupy people because a bunch of them had gotten beaten up [because of] police brutality,” Michael Chase said. “He said it was confrontational, and they were showing his support for those guys.” Michael Deutsch, lawyer for Jared Chase and the other two suspects, says his clients are innocent and were entrapped by police. Jared Chase had planned to return to his home state of New Hampshire next week to take part in a ceremony for his father, who passed away over the winter.
