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Here are a few examples of such incidents, as documented by several news outlets:
In June 2018, a Nevada man named Matthew Philip Wright blocked traffic on a bridge near the Hoover Dam, demanding that officials release a government document about the handling of Hillary Clinton’s email probe. After a standoff with police, Wright drove away and was later arrested, during which he mentioned QAnon talking points. Police found several firearms, ammunition and a flashbang device in his car.
In March 2019, a New York man named Anthony Comello allegedly killed a member of the Gambino crime family who he said was part of the "deep state." During one court appearance, Comello wrote "Q" on the palm of his hand.
In April, an Illinois woman named Jennifer Prim was arrested after allegedly driving onto a New York City pier with a car full of knives. In a livestreamed video, she threatened to kill Joe Biden for his purported involvement in a sex trafficking ring.
There’s also a question of whether QAnon’s claims could violate defamation laws. Since the conspiracy theory makes many salacious, unproven allegations about public figures, there could be grounds to sue the QAnon supporters who espouse them.
"If there are false factual allegations that would harm someone’s reputation, then that can be fodder for a libel lawsuit," said Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida. "The problem here, though, that we might think about is the so-called Streisand Effect — that you give more attention to something than it's probably worth by filing the lawsuit."
What does #SaveTheChildren have to do with it?
Posts with #SaveTheChildren and #SaveOurChildren, along with related demonstrations in hundreds of cities across the country, purport to be about ending child sex trafficking. But the hashtags were propped up by supporters of QAnon and Pizzagate.
#SaveTheChildren has been shared millions of times, but it is not linked to any humanitarian organizations. Save the Children, a London organization that aims to improve the lives of children around the world, has nothing to do with the viral hashtag.
#SaveTheChildren and #SaveOurChildren started circulating in QAnon and Pizzagate Facebook groups in July before spreading to conservative sources like PragerU, a powerhouse page on Facebook. More recently, conspiracy theorists helped plan demonstrations in scores of towns and cities across the country.
"The whole danger of this whole thing is that it’s such an effective entrypoint for QAnon and Pizzagate’s style of thinking," said Travis View, co-host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, in a recent episode. "There’s no decoding involved. It doesn’t ask you to go through the Podesta emails, it doesn’t ask you to read the Q drops — it asks you to recognize that children are being harmed and trafficked and then get outraged about it."
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