They also routinely offer protection to individuals, including to Ann Coulter at a UC Berkeley Free Speech event in 2017. 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 . We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to keep the peace or to maintain control.. organization adopted anti-lockdown rhetoric. 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. In 2013, four years after its formation, the Oath Keepers announced the planned formation of Citizen Preservation Teams, which now are called the more sanitized name ofCommunity Preparedness Teams(CPTs). They are also proponents of the sovereign citizen movement, believing that they are not subject to any laws of the U.S. government. In the days leading up to the 2016 election, the organization issued a call to action seeking volunteers to position themselves at polling stations to ensure that the left did not steal the election from then-candidate Donald Trump, and since his election they have expressed support for the president, largely redirecting their ire away from the federal government and towards the broader left. When executing a search warrant, law enforcement officers discovered a live napalm bomb and dozens of other explosives in a storage locker; he eventually was indicted on 97 different charges, including 18 counts of unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, 23 counts of receiving stolen property, 23 counts of possession of criminal tools, 10 counts of failure to secure dangerous ordnance, one count of perjury, and 21 counts of pandering obscenity involving child pornography. Luther was arrested for her violation of public health orders and fined $7,000. Herndon, Virginia, July 2013: Gun rights activist and Oath Keeper Adam Kokesh was arrested in Washington, D.C., on weapon charges after a search warrant on his Virginia home turned up firearms and illegal drugs. I have a difficult time believing that 100 percent of the people were cleared or were 100 percent controllable.. Minuta has beenindictedon the conspiracy charge. But they chose Massachusetts as the site for the group's formal launch in 2009. Prior to his arrest, Dyer had posted a YouTube video in which Dyer, a former Marine, said, Join the military? This activity mirrors the Oath Keepers behavior in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, when a small of group of armed local Oath Keepers, led by Sam Andrews, took to the streets during the unrest following a grand jurys decision not to charge a former police officer for the shooting death of a Black teenager, Michael Brown, Jr. t. e. Social conservatism in the United States is a political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. In April 2009,Daniel Knight Hayden, an Oklahoma man who identified himself as an Oath Keeper, was arrested after tweeting messages threatening to attack officials in Oklahoma state on April 15, Tax Day. Hayden later received an eight-month prison sentence. The far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers claims to have thousands of members across the country. 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. Over a dozen members of the Oath Keepers who were present on Jan. 6 were charged with conspiracy for planning to obstruct an official proceeding, along with other related charges. Greenwood, Delaware, February 2015: Oath Keeper Matthew Opaliski was charged with three counts of dealing firearms without a license and two counts of unlawful transfer of firearms after he allegedly sold, traded or gave firearms to a person who was not a Delaware resident. [1] In the United States, one of the largest forces of social conservatism is . In May 2012, a federal judge in Knoxville sentenced Huff to four years in prison. At least nine people associated with the Oath Keepers have been. Massachusetts, in 2009. SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743), Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement, Request for Legal Assistance Economic Justice, Stewart Rhodes, during an interview on Infowars The Alex Jones Show, Jan. 20, 2021, Stewart Rhodes, posted on the Oath Keepers website, Jan. 4, 2021, 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, Stewart Rhodes, during an interview on Infowars The Alex Jones Show, Oct. 27, 2020, Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers Call to Action: Border Operation, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 4, 2018, Stewart Rhodes, in an Oath Keepers press release following the mass murder of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 13, 2016, Stewart Rhodes, at an event in Tempe, Arizona, May 5, 2015, Stewart Rhodes, My Personal Pledge of Resistance Against Any Attempt to Disarm Us by Means of an Assault Weapons Ban, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 19, 2012, providing security without first obtaining a license., David Smith, regional spokesman for the Forest Service. At least 20 members of the group were eventually accused of conspiring to block President Biden's election certification, including Rhodes and four of his top associates. Oath Keepers is an essential contribution to our understanding of the growing appeal and violent potential of ever-evolving forms of domestic extremism. He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we would give him a trial by jury. All Rights Reserved. Huff was given a four-year prison sentence. It focuses on a concern with moral and social values which proponents of the ideology see as degraded in modern society by liberalism. 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. According to the local Oath Keepers chapter,at least 700 individuals responded, setting up perimeter security teams, providing armed escorts for outside members of the press and blocking off the entrance road to the mine. 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. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies. Oath Keepers is an American far-right [1] anti-government militia [1] [3] whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of Presidential power as prescribed by the US Constitution. 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. This estimated size would still make the Oath Keepers larger than any single traditional militia group. The Oath Keepers seem to be trying to resolve this tension by focusing their confrontational tactics primarily on various federal law enforcement agencies, while often siding with local law enforcement officers in other controversies. 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. Their overt opposition to President Trump made them a target for anti-government extremists, and Oath Keepers were quick to label antifa the modern day Brown Shirts. They have repeatedly called on President Trump to put an end to the terrorist insurrection of antifa, particularly in response to their alleged involvement in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and they have offered protection to various individuals who have been doxed by supposed antifa supporters, including ICE officials and their families. Rhodes formally launched the Oath. 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 . But we will spot, document, and reportanyapparent attempt at vote fraud or voter intimidation as is our duty.. In June 2017, Oath Keepers participated in March Against Sharia rallies organized by ACT for America, an anti-immigrant hate group. Cleveland, Ohio, April 2010: Matthew Fairfield, president of the local Oath Keepers chapter, was arrested on a large number of explosives (and other) charges, including child pornography allegations. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. Thirteen people associated with the Oath Keepers have. The Oath Keepers urge military and law enforcement personnel to step up to stop the conspirators. In March 2011,David Phillips, a Massachusetts Oath Keeper, was arrested on firearm charges. He formally launched the Oath Keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2009, where the first shot in the American Revolution was fired. 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. The miners filed an appeal and asked the Oath Keepers toprovide securityto protect them and the mine against the BLM, claiming the BLM had a history of burning down cabins and confiscating property at whim, without due process. The Oath Keepers subsequently put out anationwide call to actionfor Operation Gold Rush, as they called it. 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.. Some looming UN transgressions anticipated by Oath Keepers include the implementation of global taxation and a global currency that would end the use of the dollar. The group is rooted in conspiracy theories, including the belief that the federal. While the most notable of these remains the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, they reportedly have a long history of involving themselves in vigilante justice. Each theory goes back to the idea that the U.S. government has fallen under global governance and will at some point use police and military members to enforce the New World Orders plans. Neither do we. Antifa is a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, sometimes aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements. The indictment alleges that Rhodes conspired with co-defendants and others to oppose, by force, the execution of the laws enabling the transfer of presidential power. 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. Despite this clear evidence of involvement, themilitia movementhas by and large not reckoned with the role their conspiratorial beliefs and violent rhetoric played in the leadup to the insurrection. Usually these calls for security go unanswered, and merely serve as displays of support for various causes and a means of garnering attention. The groups website called Quartzsite apivot pointfor Americans finally to see the looming danger of the New World Order. In the end, the Oath Keepers got a lot of headlines, but accomplished virtually nothing. As part of a December 2014 plea agreement, Irish admitted to lying to authorities. 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. Overreaching laws or regulations are also expected. Meanwhile, they are doubling down on conspiratorial claimsthat the election wasstolenand that the Biden administration is a nefarious entity seeking to destroy the American way of life.This signal the return of the militia movements traditional animosity towards the federal government which they largely downplayed during the Trump administration. They are often confrontational and have participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government. Oath Keepers across the country have engaged in a wide array of activities, some of which have gotten considerable media attention. In April 2010,Darren Huff, a militia member and Oath Keeper, was arrested on a firearms charge after he traveled from Georgia to Tennessee to put certain government officials under citizens arrest for refusing to indict President Obama. 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. In a report published this week, COE identified 373 people in the Oath Keepers database believed to be active law enforcement officers, 117 people who seem to be currently serving in the military . The Oath Keepers have had more success in recruiting former military personnel, which is a much larger pool to draw from; many Oath Keepers speak of past military service. 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 first order, for example, that they refuse to follow is any order to disarm the American people. They also pledge to disobey any order to impose martial law or to support foreign troops on American soil. 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. 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. Oath Keepers also responded to a request for protection by salon owner Shelley Luther when she reopened her business on April 24 against public health mandates and then tore up a cease-and-desist letter from local authorities. 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." But the files showed that Rhodes had tapped into a deep current of anxiety, one that could cause a surprisingly large contingent of. ). Stewart Rhodes, My Personal Pledge of Resistance Against Any Attempt to Disarm Us by Means of an Assault Weapons Ban, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 19, 2012. . All rights reserved (About Us). More recently, the Oath Keepers have offered armed security to individuals attending Trump Rallies, Free Speech rallies and other pro-Trump events. 19, 2009, in the wake of the country electing Barack Obama as its first Black president. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants or to subject them to military tribunal. In a separate incident, the U.S. Park Police arrested Kokesh for bearing arms at the Freedom Plaza in violation of Washington D.C. law by loading a shotgun. Once these thugs turned to burning, killing and looting, they became domestic enemies.. On May 30, John Shirley, a constable in Hood County and a member of the Oath Keepers board, issued a call to action, encouraging members toshow up armedwith rifles to provide security outside Luthers salon. 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. We are already in a fight. Stewart Rhodes, founder of the . The Oath Keepers declared theirmission accomplishedand ended the security operation in what they touted as a victory against the government. In many ways, Jan. 6, 2021, was the day that Stewart Rhodes had been waiting for his whole life. In February 2015, Irish was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Following the 2020 election, in which former President Donald Trump lost to President Biden, the Oath Keepers began working on a weeks-long campaign to have the election overturned. 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. Instead, many simply dismiss the events of January 6thas the work of antifa or a false flag operation. Dyer failed to show up in court for his trial, becoming a fugitive. The group also has a long history of engaging in and promoting their own form of vigilantism by providing voluntary armed security, not affiliated with any law enforcement entity, at various protests and venues. 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. In addition, Oath Keepers routinely pushed conspiratorial rhetoric within their communities, including promoting the ostensible effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, claiming the virus is a Chinese bioweapon, and casting the virus within a deep state globalist narrative. WASHINGTON The founder of a right-wing group whose members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol spent about six . 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