By Ryan J. Reilly. He was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A leaked Oath Keepers membership list contains more than 38,000 names, including those of elected officials, police chiefs, and members of the military, according to a report published Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League. And Im worried about the safety of the people up there. When questioned, Phillips allegedly told the officer that he was exempt from having to register or insure his vehicle. Neither do we. 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. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps. Minuta has beenindictedon the conspiracy charge. Oath Keepers across the country have engaged in a wide array of activities, some of which have gotten considerable media attention. Some of these have resulted in hostile and violent confrontations with government agents, others have materialized into nothing more than show-of-force demonstrations. 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 . 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. 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 driving theory behind the Oath Keepers is that the federal government has been overtaken by a mass liberal conspiracy in an effort to strip Americans of their rights. Nov 7, 2022, 2:04 PM. 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. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty. In June 2017, Oath Keepers participated in March Against Sharia rallies organized by ACT for America, an anti-immigrant hate group. Since 2015, various Oath Keepers CPTs have held militia-like training sessions on topics such as weapons use, patrolling techniques, first aid, and emergency communications. 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. The Oath Keepers leader, Stewart Rhodes, has posted various livestreams on the groups website claiming that undocumented immigrants are part of a larger plan to flood the United States with Democratic voters to shatter the American social system. 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. The core idea of Elmer Stewart Rhodes' group, the Oath Keepers, is that its members vow to support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution forever and the group's own list of 10 "Orders We Will Not Obey."The list is a compendium of perceived, unrealized threats from the government - orders, for instance, to force Americans into . 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. He has since been arrested onseveral chargesand is included in the larger conspiracy case with over a dozen other Oath Keepers for their coordination efforts ahead of Jan. 6. 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.. Massachusetts - site of . Peoria, Arizona, January 2016: Jon Ritzheimer, a former member of the Oath Keepers, voluntarily surrendered to local authorities. Obviously, were not in a confrontation,David Smith, regional spokesman for the Forest Service, told the Southern Poverty Law Center. And you can bet that if you let them take away your military semi-autos, next on their list will be bolt action rifles, which they will call sniper rifles (and By God, that is certainly what they are good for! 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. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section. We are, indeed, most concerned about expected attempts at voter fraud by leftists, Rhodes said. In this case, the Oath Keepers and other rightwing extremists opposed the Bureau of Land Managements efforts to impound Bundys cattle, which had been illegally grazing on federal land. 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. 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. The five members were driving around Mexico Beach patrolling the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in a Ford automobile that was decorated to look like a patrol cruiser; every member wore military-style clothing, including one vest that read tactical officer.. Oath Keepers also claims that the reason Democratic leaders support gun-control legislation is to allow for easy gun confiscation and make the American people both dependent and vulnerable to a takeover. Oath Keepers have made continuous, baseless claims that antifa is an arm of the Democratic Party and that they are working together with the goal of a socialist takeover. The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest far-right antigovernment groups in the U.S. today. Thirty-nine seconds later, defendant Kelly Meggs, who was then leading about 14 Oath Keepers toward the Capitol, also called Rhodes. But the Hammonds said they were planning on reporting to prison, did not want their help and asked them to return to Nevada. The Oath Keepers did denounce the Malheur occupation because, asRhodes wrote, It is not being done with the consent of the locals or at their request, without the request of the Hammond family and because it is not in direct defense of anyone.. For a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist who had been planning for dystopian collapse for . On Nov. 14, the group attended theMillion MAGA Marchin D.C. and provided security at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Nov. 21. McLamb warned of postCold War chaos perpetrated by an elitistcontrolled New World Order, while Rhodes warns of an insidious global oligarchy bent on destroying Americas constitutional republic. Documents shared by the ADL claimed that politicians, police officers, firefighters, EMTs and other public officials were members of the extremist group. The Oath Keepers was officially launched with a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts, onApr. Beyond this, members of the Oath Keepers have reportedly participated in a variety of other far-right movements, including the "Stop the Steal" campaign associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The name Oath Keepers comes from the groups core principle that members vow to uphold the oath they took as law enforcement or military personnel to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Oath Keepers urge members to obey the Constitution, as they understand it, even if that interpretation goes against that of U.S. lawmakers and judges. "Back in 2014, they appeared to be a pretty solid conservative group, I can't speak to them now," he said. Opaliski subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license and was sentenced in July 2016 to one year and one day in prison. CNN A lawyer with close ties to the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers has been charged with four counts related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, including conspiracy to. On May 16, 2020, Stewart Rhodes spoke at a rally in Palestine, Texas, organized in opposition to pandemic safety mandates, and the group hosted a similar event on May 23 in Austin, Texas. Two elected officials in Wilbraham and Cape Cod are listed as being members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group. The Oath Keepers fled, leaving Bundys other supporters to mock them as cowards and delusional paranoids. Fairfield was indicted on 97 charges, including unlawful possession of explosives, receiving stolen property, perjury and child pornography. The other orders they refuse to follow are of a similar sort. He would go on to start the Oath Keepers group in 2009 in Lexington, Massachusetts the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext. 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. The Pacific Patriots Network also includes antigovernment extremist groups aligned with the Three Percenters, and the Oath Keepers contingent is the very same chapter that took part in Operation Gold Rush in Oregon in 2015. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel toldHigh Country News that he was [concerned] in that there were militia,Three Percentersand Oath Keepers from around the country that had come in and were potentially unpredictable. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, author of Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right Jackson provides the most detailed examination of Oath Keepers that we have, developing our understanding of how . At a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19 . Stoking fears of Black Lives Matter as part of Marxist NWO program: Oath Keepers have framed the civil rights movement that emerged following the death of George Floyd as part of a Marxist agenda that they allege is being used to destroy the United States. In 2014, Rhodes claimed the group had an unlikely 35,000 dues-paying members who are said to be mostly, although not exclusively, current and former military, law enforcement and emergency first responders. Its better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets. Heavily armed members of the Oath Keepers were seen on rooftops in what they said was an effort to protect businesses from rioters. Before 2019, the Oath Keepers Twitter platform used the term deep state only once, but since then the term has been used at least 79 times on the platform, which suggests that the organization finds this rhetoric to be a useful tactic to appeal to the large pool of right-wing actors who believe in the conspiracy. A few days later, he was arrested after police found a shotgun and illegal drugs in his Virginia home. The Oath Keepers belief that the allegedly tyrannical American government will use law enforcement and military personnel against its people leads to their avowed purpose of opposing such conspiracies. 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 . 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 . Membership has never actually required current or former ties with military, police, or first responders. In response to various controversial shootings by and of police since 2014, most Oath Keepers have sided with law enforcement against activist groups like Black Lives Matter. 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. The Oath Keepers have become indelibly tied to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and their leader, Stewart Rhodes, was convicted of seditious conspiracy related to that day. In return, prosecutors agreed not to reimpose the other three charges, which had been recently dropped, against Irish. These beliefs, which encapsulate the oneworld government conspiracy theories that underpin the antigovernment movement, stoke paranoia, fan antigovernment sentiment and give them purpose. He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we would give him a trial by jury. Countering Black Lives Matter: Some of the Oath Keepers most notable mobilizations have occurred in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Mack is a founding member on the Oath Keepers board of directors. The number of active duty police and military personnel who have publicly admitted to being Oath Keepers is very small; the number of closeted members may be larger. Impending Martial Law: One of the most prominent Oath Keeper theories is that a large scale pandemic, natural disaster or terrorist attack will give the government an excuse to impose martial law resulting in (but not limited to) door to door gun confiscation, the ban of interstate travel and detainment of citizens in concentration camps. They are also proponents of the sovereign citizen movement, believing that they are not subject to any laws of the U.S. government. But the Oath Keepers made fools of themselves that day, excitedly telling Bundys rag-tag army that they had received intel that President Obama was about to attack the Bundy ranch with drones. He was charged with conspiracy to impede officers of the U.S. from discharging their duties via force, intimidation or threat. The head of their group is not escaping justice that much is certain. The Oath Keepers are part of the militia movement, a subsection of the broader antigovernment Patriot movement which consists of sovereign citizens and tax protesters, among others that believes the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip Americans of their rights. As part of their support for President Trump, the Oath Keepers have decried the deep state, an alleged network of institutions and bureaucracies within the federal government that a range of right-wing actors and groups believe is trying to undermine and even destroy the Trump administration. The officer towed the vehicle after a check revealed that the vehicle registration and insurance had been cancelled. 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. Barbeauwas sentencedto 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Were looking for indicators that theyve got people who arent US citizens voting; then we can go and suppress that behaviour by letting it be known that were watching. But the files showed that Rhodes had tapped into a deep current of anxiety, one that could cause a surprisingly large contingent of. Well videotape them and turn it over to law enforcement.Stewart Rhodes, as quoted in The Times article, Primed by Trump, Militias Gear up for Stolen US Election, June 29, 2020, This is a military invasion by the cartels and a political coup by the domestic Marxist controlled left, which sees open borders and mass-illegal invasion as their ticket to permanent illegitimate political power. I have a difficult time believing that 100 percent of the people were cleared or were 100 percent controllable.. The standoff with federal and other law enforcement agencies lasted 41 days. The Oath Keepers wereparticularly active in 2020, participating in various anti-lockdown protests, providing vigilante-style security for local communities and businesses during the Black Lives Matter protests that spread in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and warning about a potential takeover by the Marxist left during the 2020 election. 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