Militia movement
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*[[Secure the border]] - a major focus of (racist) militia movements. | *[[Secure the border]] - a major focus of (racist) militia movements. | ||
*[[Moral panic]] | *[[Moral panic]] | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
Revision as of 07:13, 2 April 2010
The militia movement is a subculture within the United States consisting primarily of disaffected, rural, white, right-wing Christians who believe that the Federal government's authority is either broadly abused or outright null and void. The movement was mostly active 1992-1996, but as of 2010 appears to be making a comeback.
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Well regulated?
They draw their name from the "well-regulated militia" clause of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution[1] (generally interpreted by others to mean bodies such as the National Guard, assembled and regulated by the states or the Feds), and many have ties with white nationalism and tax protester groups. The militia movement is often associated with survivalist paranoia about impending societal breakdown or race war.
Many of these groups conversely view themselves (or frame themselves to the public) as groups of citizens organized and ready to be called on by local government when needed, and that private citizens militias such as theirs were the "original intent" of the Founders for national defense and assistance with local law enforcement. This is a half-truth. While it is true that historically, government agencies (from the local sheriff to the state) have called upon private citizens during times of emergency or temporarily deputized private citizens, and most state constitutions include definitions of the "unorganized militia" as all adult males (usually between a certain age range, 18 to 45) for this purpose, it is a leap of logic to conclude this sanctions the formation of private paramilitary organizations not organized by nor recognized by the government. The concept is "all adult males", not a private group of people holding decidedly fringe views proclaiming themselves "the" militia. Besides conspiracy theorists and survivalists, the movement also attracted a heavy admixture of wackers (although most of them left once it became clear the movement was also a magnet for dangerous anti-government paranoids like Timothy McVeigh).
Legality of militias
Most militia groups claim direct lineage from Revolutionary War groups such as the Minutemen, and at least a few claim to be available to their states for defense purposes. However, many, if not most, states have laws against private armies such as these or any sort of paramilitary organization not directly authorized by state or federal government.
Legally speaking, the National Guard (which is not any sort of citizen militia) is considered the "organized militia" under US federal law, a few states also have their own "organized militia" separate from the National Guard (the Texas State Guard is an example), and to the extent that there is a citizen (or "unorganized") militia, it is a concept found in state constitutions used to bridge a gap in federal law declaring all able-bodied males between 18 and 45 to be part of the "militia". Should the "unorganized militia" need to be called to service at the federal level, one might presume that the proper way to do so would be to enact a draft using the Selective Service infrastructure. Things in the US would probably have to be quite bad for it to get to this point. Historically private citizens have been 'drafted' at the state or local level under the 'militia' clause on a temporary basis, usually to help with emergency services, but while this was common in the 1800s it is very rare today.[2]
Modern times
The movement began at a 1992 meeting initiated by fringe preacher Peter J. Peters in Estes Park, Colorado, although they appear to have taken some of their ideology and organizational tactics from two earlier movements, the 1970s/1980s Posse Comitatus, and the 1960s Minutemen. Peters' meeting was initiated in the wake of the Ruby Ridge fiasco and he invited a large number of leaders from both mainstream evangelical Christian and political extreme right circles; while most mainstream Christians blew him off, the attendance reads like a who's who of the extreme right. Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler was there. So were Texas Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam, Chris Temple who published the Christian Identity newspaper The Jubilee, and attorney Kirk Lyons who headed the CAUSE Foundation (a "pro-white" legal foundation which stands for Canada, Australia, United States, South Africa, and Europe). The purpose of the meeting was to figure out what to do to make sure a Ruby Ridge didn't happen again. Their solution: form citizens militias.
However the movement quickly spiraled out of control - and out of the control of the extreme right leaders who initiated it. As with many such movements the founders talked up the militia concept but then stepped out of the way and went back to what they had been doing before once the ball got rolling. The movement quickly attracted a different set of unstables and unknowns who saw the militia movement as a way to make a name for themselves:
- Michigan janitor Mark Koernke who called himself "Mark from Michigan". Mr. from Michigan was soon giving public speeches and making videos spinning outlandish tales of fleets of mysterious black helicopters being prepared for blue-helmeted United Nations troops to invade the U.S. Koernke then started a show on shortwave radio peddling his same nonsense. More fun than being a mere janitor, I guess (hey, is this guy an example of the same thing?)
- John Trochmann, who had been at the Peters meeting. Trochmann founded the Militia of Montana whose main purpose was to promote the militia concept by selling a mail-order packet of information. The packet included a handbook for how to organize a militia (amusing because among other things every page of the booklet had the words TREASON TREASON TREASON TREASON TREASON across the top and bottom margins); a book catalog of the usual conspiracy books and far-right material; and a bunch of photocopies of tanks and military equipment being carried on railroad cars, supposed "evidence" that the United Nations was about to invade the U.S. in the name of the New World Order.
- Indiana attorney Linda Thompson. Formerly a liberal who had done some work for the ACLU, Thompson made a video called Waco, the Big Lie right after the 1993 Waco siege. While not the first significant criticism of the government's actions at Waco, it made a splash because it was at the time the most sensational. Thompson soon went haywire, proclaiming herself "Acting Adjutant General of the Unorganized Militias of the United States", jumping on the "black helicopter" bandwagon, claiming the bar-coded stickers on the backs of highway signs were to guide U.N. tanks after they invaded the U.S., and proclaiming an armed march on Washington, D.C. scheduled for September 19, 1994 during which "all militia units" were to assemble and arrest the entire U.S. Congress for "treason". She later called off the march (after just about every other militia group balked at her insane proposal) and claimed it had only been to drum up publicity. Yep.
- Ron Cole, who was so moved by the Branch Davidian siege in 1993 he converted to Branch Davidianism on the spot, and also started a Colorado militia group. He soon got involved in the feud among surviving Branch Davidians as to who would take over leadership after Koresh's untimely demise. He and the three other members of his Colorado militia were arrested in 1997 over allegations of possession of a pipe bomb.
- The movement also attracted the usual bunch of grown-up little boys who read magazines about mercenaries and needed an excuse to run around in the woods in camo shouting "hoo-ah!" (Couldn't they have just gone hunting instead?)
The militia movement's strongest period (as monitored by the Anti-Defamation League[3] and the Southern Poverty Law Center[4]) was the mid-1990s during the Clinton administration, and much of its ideological motivation came from perceived injustices perpetuated by governmental authority in cases such as Ruby Ridge and Waco. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh resulted in publicity that may have adversely affected militia membership rolls.
Where are they now?
After the Oklahoma City bombing, many of the casual hangers-on left the movement in droves, perhaps realizing it was a haven for the mentally unstable and potentially violent and in any case deciding they had cold feet and didn't want to be associated with it after all. This left a small hard core of true belivers still in the movement. After 9/11, the few remaining active militia groups split over their reactions, some claiming 9/11 was an inside job and others proclaiming their patriotism and offering their support in the war on terror, and the militia movement then petered out entirely, at least from the public eye.
It was thought in some quarters that the movement was reviving due to controversies over illegal immigration and increased attacks on Constitutional liberties under the previous Bush administration. What they might achieve in either case is up for discussion.
With the "...return of far-right "Patriot" rhetoric about government oppression with the election of President Obama"[5] there is some concern that a new wave of citizen militia activity, perhaps even composed of ex-military veterans of the Iraq War, will be formed.
See also
- Citizen's Rule Book - a pamphlet on jury nullification that shows much of the militia POV on legal issues such as common law.
- Posse Comitatus - the loosely-defined white supremacist group that provided much of militia ideology.
- Second Amendment - the thing that makes them, in their own special way, right.
- Gun - (probably) the real reason they do it: because they're obsessed with looking cool while carrying assault weaponry.
- Tax protester - a similar and probably overlapping group of nutters.
- Survivalism - a heavily overlapping group of nutters.
- Secure the border - a major focus of (racist) militia movements.
- Moral panic
- Hutaree
External links
- ADL militia watchdog archives (site put on ice in 2000)
- ADL paper on the revival of the militia movement
- The militias' YouTube strategy. Includes seven embedded videos.
Footnotes
- ↑ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
- ↑ For example, firefighters used to be 'drafted' from the local tavern in places where there was no regular fire department, but this inevitably led to problems with arson by unemployed people needing a quick job.
- ↑ http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Militia_M.asp?xpicked=4&item=19
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Southern Poverty Law Center.
- ↑ http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/willl-ex-military-patriots-form-more