Glenn Beck and Byron Williams: What the Fox News Host Has to Do With the Oakland Highway Shooter

Byron Williams, the California man who engaged police in a RoboCop-style shootout on Oakland's I-580 last Sunday, was an unemployed carpenter, multiple felon and big fan of Glenn Beck. According to TPM, before Williams, a former West Seattle resident, was stopped by police for swerving, he was on his way to the offices of the ACLU and the Tides Foundation, an obscure group that often found itself in Beck's cross hairs.

What the Tides Foundation actually does is hard to pin down. But considering its mission statement talks about promoting economic justice, it's understandable that Beck would try to lump it in with his other favorite whipping boys, like ACORN.

From his radio show last August:



So why might Williams have wanted to pay a visit to Tides?

His mother told the media that her son's anger stemmed from a hatred of the government's "left-wing agenda." She said her boy was on his way to "start a revolution"...

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The CA cop shooter and Glenn Beck: Here's what we know
July 23, 2010 1:32 pm ET by Matt Gertz

On July 18, Byron Williams, an ex-felon with a history of violent criminal behavior, was pulled over by California Highway Police on I-580. Williams, who was apparently intoxicated, opened fire at the officers as one approached his truck. He continued firing as eight additional officers arrived. More than 60 rounds were reportedly fired during the five to eight minute shootout; two officers were reportedly injured by flying glass after a squad cars window and windshield were shattered by gunfire. Williams was arrested and hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds.

Williams was reportedly heavily armed with a handgun, shotgun, rifle and body armor. Shortly after the shooting, a CHP sergeant said that "There is no doubt in our mind, given the body armor and the extensive amount of ammunition he had, that he was on his way to do a very serious crime against either someone or a group of people" And indeed, Williams reportedly told investigators that "his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU."

The ACLU is a very well-known entity, but the Tides Foundation, which seeks to "promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected," is much more obscure.

Williams may have been a disturbed individual who was destined to explode. But the question the media should be asking is why he decided to target Tides.

According to his mother, Williams "watched the news on television and was upset by 'the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items.'"

We don't know what Williams was watching, or that television played a role in his decision to target Tides. However, if it did, according to our Nexis searches, the primary person on cable or network news talking about the Tides Foundation in the year and a half prior to the shootout was Fox News' Glenn Beck.

According to our searches, since Beck's show premiered on January 19, 2009, Tides has been mentioned on 31 editions of Fox News programs, 29 of which were editions of Beck's show (the other two were on Sean Hannity's program). In most of those references, Beck attacked Tides, often weaving the organization into his conspiracy theories. Two of those Beck mentions occurred during the week before Williams' shootout.

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Today, Glenn Beck acknowledged his role in purportedly "turn the light of day on" the Tides Foundation. After playing a clip in which Color of Change's James Rucker says that "No one knew what Tides was" until "they were on Glenn Beck's blackboard," Beck says:

BECK: Then he says, the reason why I'm trouble is because no one knew what Tides was before Glenn Beck's blackboard. Tides was one of the hardest things that we ever tried to explain, and everyone told us that we couldn't. It is the reason why the blackboard really became what the blackboard is, is because I was trying to explain Tides, and how all of this worked. Now, you'll notice that I'm a danger because no one knew what Tides was until the blackboard. Meaning that they need the cover of darkness. They must silence people that turn the light of day on to these organizations.

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