oath keepers massachusetts

The Oath Keepers view themselves as defenders of the U.S. Constitution, but organizations that monitor right-wing extremists say the group is a dangerous militia. At 2:31 p.m.18 minutes after rioters breached the west front of the Capitol buildingthe Oath Keepers' operations leader that day, Michael Greene, called Rhodes. The Oath Keepers is a far-right citizen militia and anti-government group that sprang into existence as the Tea Party Movement powered up its reform-blocking machine and the racist birther. Later in 2014, members of the Oath Keepers showed up in Ferguson, Missouri, during the unrest that followed the death of Michael Brown, a Black man, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. And go out into public on election day, dressed to blend in with the public with video, still camera, and notepad in hand, to look for and document suspected criminal vote fraud or intimidation activities. And he made clear that it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who might steal the election. Rather than rely on the government, Oath Keepers have assisted following natural disasters across the United States and Puerto Rico since 2017, using these efforts to garner positive press coverage. It asks its . Barbeau pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun and was sentenced to 27 months in prison in September 2017. The group has also recruited from among people already involved in the anti-government extremist movement. The ADL noted that the Oath Keepers have adhered to the general tenets of the militia movement, and believe the goal of this conspiracy is to form a tyrannical New World Order to enslave Americans. t. e. Social conservatism in the United States is a political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. He was subsequently convicted of knowingly transmitting a threatening communication and received an eightmonth sentence. Though it is not alleged that Rhodes entered the Capitol building, Rhodes led Oath Keepers planning and coordination in advance of January 6 which included the formation of armed teams prepared to use force and he was at the building and allegedly in communication with members of the group during the insurrection. As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the United States during the summer of 2020 in reaction to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Oath Keepers offered protection to various restaurants and businesses from alleged looters and arsonists and in several cases, they showed up to provide armed security. UPDATE: OnJanuary 13, 2022,federal authorities arrestedOath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes oncharges ofseditious conspiracyfor his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Despite this, the Bundys and a number of other heavily armed militants decided to break away from a pro-Hammond rally in Oregon and occupy the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a famous birding location. When. In 2015, armed Oath Keepers along with various individuals from the broader Patriot movement traveled to mines in Montana and Oregon during regulation compliance disputes related to mining rights versus surface rights in the hopes that their presence would intimidate federal officials from taking action. Oath Keepers explain that if the federal government issues an unconstitutional order often illustrated by extreme hypotheticals such as mass gun confiscation or illegally mass detaining Americans in concentration camps it is up to the military and law enforcement to enforce these edicts. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism received more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists, according to the Associated Press. Members have provided security for events and individuals promoting Stop the Steal after the 2020 election, including Roger Stone. While this terminology reflects some of the language used by explicitly antisemitic groups, antisemitism is not a foundational issue for the Oath Keepers. In January 2010,Charles Dyer, an ex-Marine and rising member of the Oath Keepers, was arrested for raping his 7-year-old daughter. The Bundys and other sympathizers tried to get Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son, Steven Hammond, 46, on their side, denouncing the Hammonds resentencing and the management of public lands by federal agencies. We think a good first step is to have the veterans stand up in every community and go help form and train neighborhood watches, to get the people to take back into their own hands their own personal self-defense and security.. Throughout his presidency, Oath Keepers fully embraced Trump, including Rhodes, who was seated in the VIP section at Trumps 2019 rally in El Paso, Texas. The organization urged members to form security networks within their communities to block neighborhoods with vehicles and armed men, and following one protest in El Paso, the group claimed that they successfully served as a deterrent to anyone looking to inflict damage, thereby taking credit for peaceful protests. The charges followed a March 2011 vehicle stop by the Worcester Police Department due to an invalid license plate and driving with excessive speed. Extremists Engage in Political Violence During Pro-Trump Rallies, Extremists Face Arrests, Uncertain Future Following January 6 Insurrection, reference militiarelated conspiracy theories. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is seen on video during the hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, on Capitol Hill in . The center. This eventually led to a number of Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, allegedly participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we would give him a trial by jury. Strike now. Stewart Rhodes, Open Letter to President Trump: You Must Use Insurrection Act to Stop the Steal and Defeat the Coup, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 14, 2020, Frankly, were concerned about a Benghazi-style attack. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism received more than. Two elected officials in Wilbraham and Cape Cod are listed as being members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group. In June 2020, a police officer who was on duty and policing a George Floyd protest inCosta Mesa, California, was caught donning a Three Percenterpatch with the words Oath Keeper.This is one example of a larger trend and strategy among antigovernment extremist groups to recruit and infiltrate law enforcement and military organizations. Throughout 2020, the group has also posted several calls to action in places like Washington D.C., New Orleans and Texas, looking for volunteers to protect monuments across the United States, arguing that these measures were needed to protect the monuments from Marxist domestic enemies who were seeking to destroy American history. Members told us at least 40 Oath Keepers were at the January 6 rally with some seen providing security to Trump associate Roger Stone. The real goal of these militias is to prey upon the fears and concerns of local communities and revitalize the American militia movement, all under the guise ofneighborhood watchand self-sufficiency. News never stops. In many ways, Jan. 6, 2021, was the day that Stewart Rhodes had been waiting for his whole life. Then after we convict him he should be hung by the neck until dead. Stewart Rhodes, at an event in Tempe, Arizona, May 5, 2015, It is the height of Orwellian perversion of language and logic to say that disarming you of the most effective arms for combat that you still have is somehow not really disarming you, because you still have hunting rifles and shotguns. Oath Keepers showed up atBlack Lives Matter protestsduring protests in summer 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man. Simply put: because many of them were reportedly there. In May 2012, a federal judge in Knoxville sentenced Huff to four years in prison. In January 2017, the Oath Keepers, along with Three Percenters, coordinated volunteer security operations forTrumps inaugurationto protect against any possible violence from jihadist terrorists or radical leftist groups. Oath Keepers provided similar armed security details for Trump rallies inMinnesotaandTexasin October 2019. While the Oath Keepers official statement regarding the death of George Floyd was to condemn the actions of the officers involved, they have stated that they oppose looting and arson and have expressed a general distrust for the Black Lives Matter protests. The group has also long warned that voluntary UN sustainable development plans like Agenda 21 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was implemented in 2015 will be used to take away private property and civil liberties in the name of sustainability. Fish and Wildlife celebrates reintroduction of rare West Virginia fish that 'looks like a candy cane'. Prior to his arrest, Dyer had posted a YouTube video in which Dyer, a former Marine, said, Join the military? Nineteenindividuals arechargedwith conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiring to prevent an officer of the U.S. from discharging a duty, and of these, eleven including founder and leader Stewart Rhodes are also charged with seditious conspiracy. However, those who knew him said he soon started using his time at the court to express his disillusioned views and complain of government overreach,The Associated Presswrites in its history of the group. Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021. Obviously, were not in a confrontation,David Smith, regional spokesman for the Forest Service, told the Southern Poverty Law Center. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. This militaristic group consists of national leadership and state, county and local chapters scattered across the country. In February 2015, Irish was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Rhodes eventually left his job at the court and began looking toward forming an anti-government movement. The Nevada-based nonprofit was founded by Yale Law School graduate and former U.S. Army paratrooper Elmer "Stewart" Rhodes. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn President Biden's election, handing the Justice Department a major victory in. . The other orders they refuse to follow are of a similar sort. Oath Keepers, along with many of thesame right-wing personalitiesat these events, took part in the Capitol insurrection weeks later. Rhodes insists the government wants to track gun owners like it does sex offenders and uses mass shooting incidents as an excuse to violate Second Amendment rights. The Oath Keepers have also amplified conspiracies regarding antifa, for example an August 2019 post on their website details allegations that antifa attempted to purchase weapons from Mexican cartels to advance an uprising within the U.S. and that antifa was planning to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in El Paso, Texas. Well, I think what we have to realize is that, you know, Trump actually failed. In April 2010,Matthew Fairfield, a suburban Cleveland man described by prosecutors as the president of a local Oath Keepers chapter, was arrested for storing bombs at his and a friends home and for obstructing justice. This includes attendance at racially charged events, with NBC News reporting a number of armed Oath Keepers turned up at the 2015 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Its not the people who are there Im worried about its the ones from the fringe who want to join in. In return, prosecutors agreed not to reimpose the other three charges, which had been recently dropped, against Irish. Though Twitter has not stated which specific posts they determined violated their policy, in the weeks leading up to their ban, the Oath Keepers Twitter account declared in the wake of the murder of Patriot Prayer member Aaron Danielson that there is a Marxist rebellion against the United States, with the oft stated intent to overthrow its government under the Constitution. The account urged President Trump to declare that there is an ongoing Marxist insurrection led by antifa and Black Lives Matter and to respond by calling the militia into federal service to suppress the rebellion.. According to their Facebook, Oath Keepers has provided disaster relief in five hurricanes and have also issued calls for action following various other floods, tornadoes and wildfires. Eleven Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 12, 2022, and charged with seditious conspiracy, which is defined as a crime against the state. Amplifying Fears of the Deep State: Though the Oath Keepers espouse an anti-government ideology, the Oath Keepers largely support President Trump and his administration. However, as the pandemic progressed, Oath Keepers changed their narrative, shifting from concern about the government failing to contain the virus to fearing government involvement altogether. He was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A federal jury convicted him on the carrying a firearm charge but acquitted him of using a firearm in relation to another felony. The Oath Keepers are an anti-government, right-wing political organization committed to supporting and defending their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. At the White Hope mine in Lincoln, Montana, the U.S. Forest Service took issue with an unauthorized shed and surface disturbances related to the cutting of firewood. COVID-19 Advice: The militia movement has long been preoccupied with the idea that a pandemic (possibly one that was manufactured) could be used as a pretense to infringe on American liberties, and the Oath Keepers are no different in this regard. The list of orders the Oath Keepers vow to refuse reveals their extreme conspiratorial mindset, because the orders are not instructions likely to ever be actually handed down by officials; instead, they are reflective of the antigovernment conspiracy theories embraced by the extreme right. The Second Amendment Under Assault: Oath Keepers call for the nullification of all gun laws and view any gun control measures as schemes designed to dismantle the Second Amendment. In June 2017, Oath Keepers participated in March Against Sharia rallies organized by ACT for America, an anti-immigrant hate group. The organization has publicly labeled lockdown measures Orwellian violations of liberty and urges their members to defy these measures. Protests broke out in the city following the grand jurys decision not to indict Wilson. The Center for Strategic and International Studieshas additionally outlined a large swath of the Oath Keepers' agenda. Community Preparedness Teams (CPT) and Post-Disaster Response: In October 2013, the Oath Keepers announced the formation of civilization preservation cells (since renamed Community Preparedness Teams), which Rhodes claims are necessitated by the countrys impending (and possibly government-created) economic collapse. They are often confrontational and have participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government. The standoff with federal and other law enforcement agencies lasted 41 days. However, a minority of Oath Keepers are so antiauthoritarian that they have been less willing to express support for law enforcement. ADL estimates there are between 1,000 and 3,000 Oath Keepers, though the groups influence extends well beyond that number. The Arizona Supreme Court reprimanded Rhodes andfined him $600. In September 2014, following an Alford plea by Kokesh, a Fairfax County, Virginia, judge ordered a suspended sentence for the warrantrelated felony drug and gun charges. But they chose Massachusetts as the site for the group's formal launch in 2009. The Oath Keepers, who believe themselves to be " the last line of defense against tyranny ," are more aptly described as a conspiracy group, or extremist militia, who have set aside their anti . The Southern Poverty Law Center further describes the Oath Keepers as "often confrontational," noting that they have been involved in a number of armed standoffs involving the government. In cases of an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances. In his book Oath Keepers: Patriotism and the Edge of Violence in a Right-Wing Antigovernment Group, Sam Jackson says this creates in an inherent contradiction for the group the police and military organizations from which their members come are some of the same organizations the group likely would have to attack in order to carry out its self-proclaimed mission against the government. On July 26, 2013, upon posting bail and being released from jail, Kokesh was re-arrested on charges related to the Freedom Plaza stunt by violating a D.C. gun law that prohibits carrying a firearm outside of ones home. Label it pretend legislation like the Founding Fathers did.Stewart Rhodes, during an interview on Infowars The Alex Jones Show, Jan. 20, 2021, It is CRITICAL that all patriots who can be in D.C. get to D.C. to stand tall in support of President Trumps fight to defeat the enemies foreign and domestic who are attempting a coup, through the massive voter fraud and related attacks on our Republic. Here's everything you need to know: They are described by the Anti-Defamation Leagueas "a large but loosely organized collection of right-wing anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement." Members patrolled the site of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and polling locations in 2016 and 2020, allegedly to discourage and report voter fraud. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. When two ranchers near Burns, Oregon, were ordered back to prison for arson of public lands after an appeals court decided their initial sentences were too short, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of Cliven, got involved. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists and identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law. Rhodes formally launched the Oath. Once these thugs turned to burning, killing and looting, they became domestic enemies.. At least nine people associated with the Oath Keepers have been. As part of the groups mission, Oath Keepers have directed their recruiting effort toward members of the military, law enforcement and other public-safety positions. But he failed to do that and he allowed a ChiCom puppet into the White House and I think we now need to just declare that to be illegitimate and refuse to comply with anything that comes out of his mouth, anything he signs, anything passed as so-called legislation. The group's name refers to the oath to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," sworn by members of the U.S. military and police force. In December 2018, the Oath Keepers website advertised acall to actionfor a Border Operation, encouraging engagement in paramilitary activity to prevent the invasion of illegals into the country and to provide security for border ranches and families, presumably against immigrants, another exaggerated and unsupported claim propagated by the group. We are already in a fight. Stewart Rhodes, founder of the . The Oath Keepers rose to prominence when handfuls of heavily armed members showed up at racial justice protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and their profile grew thanks to a series of . Washington, D.C., January 2021:Federal authorities have arrested at least 25 people associated with the Oath Keepers, charging them in connection with their efforts to impede the processes governing the transfer of presidential power in the lead up to and during the January 6 insurrection. Smith, regional spokesman for the Oath Keepers showed up atBlack Lives Matter protests... Four years in prison in September 2017 organization has publicly labeled lockdown measures violations., including Roger Stone Stop by the neck until dead being members of the language used by explicitly oath keepers massachusetts... Keepers participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government 2010, Charles Dyer, a man... 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