Suspected 'Trump won' flag arsonist identified using Strava after reward offered by Tim Pool, Benny Johnson

A suspect has been identified in connection with the burning of a "Trump won" flag in Raleigh, North Carolina. After a reward was offered for information on the arsonist by John Kane on Twitter, which was then raised by Tim Pool, and again by Benny Johnson, Kane reported that he had reported the suspect to police.

"A gentleman from Lodi, California who does not want his name made public first identified the arsonist," Kane reported, stating that the identification was made using Strava, an app that records bike rides, and gps, which was timestamped  and "correspond with the time stamps on the videos."

"I sent him $1,000 as promised," Kane said, "a few minutes ago and will be sharing his information with @Timcast and @bennyjohnson so that they can do the same. I am truly grateful to each of you for lending your audience and money to catching this arsonist."

James Lawrence stated that he is representing Kane. He told The Post Millennial that his client, "John Kane, sent evidence regarding the identity of the individual who twice set fire to his Trump sign to the Raleigh Police Department" on Sunday evening.

"My understanding," he continued, "is no arrest has been made as of yet. My client will be pressing charges and will be filing a civil lawsuit against the individual."

Raleigh Police could not confirm to The Post Millennial that a suspect had been reported, or a police report filed. 

On Friday, Kane shared an August 12 Nest surveillance video of a man on a bike stopping to kick the "Trump won" sign in his yard, and a few days later, on August 15, the man on the bike stopping to set the flag aflame at 4:19 am.

Kane offered $1,000 for information on the arsonist, which Pool then added $5,000 to. Johnson later upped it, bringing the total to $11,000.

"I'll add $5,000 to the reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of this arsonist," Pool said.

"I am offering $5,000. Reward is now + $10,000 for information on the violent criminal leftist who burned down a trump sign," Johnson added in a separate post. "We need to stand up against hatred. No more political violence in [America]."

Kane explained why it mattered to him, and why he put up the sign in the first place.

"I have been asked," he said, "why put up a sign that is effectively putting a target on your back for the radical leftists. The answer is embodied in an Alexandr Solzhenitsyn quote: 'The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.'

"@realDonaldTrump won in 2020," he went on. "@JoeBiden did not get 81M votes. Staying silent to this fact is a choice. It’s a choice with catastrophic repercussions, turning again to Solzhenitsyn:

"'In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.'"

Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned in a Soviet gulag, writing The Gulag Archipelago, which became a rallying cry for the opposition to communism. It also revealed how easy it is for a society to devolve into authoritarianism when individuals succumb to groupthink and engage in mob behavior.