Southern Povery Law Firm: Troubling Uptick In Militia Activity

There was a time that militias were necessary for the defense of our young country. Most of the militia activity in recent history threatens the national welfare and what we believe is soul of our country: equal rights under the constitution, for all Americans and legal residents of the nation among other truly moral issues. 

Equally troubling, is the racist tint of the current movement, ironically called the "patriot movement," caused, it is believed, by the election of a black president.  After what the heroes of the civil rights movement of the late '50s and 60s, both black and white, went through to try to guarantee simple human rights and civil rights under our constitution, such as the right to vote, this development is nothing less that nauseatingly frightening!

To those of us who were politically active in the civil rights movement this development causes feelings of anger and of being fed up with having to "fight" the same battles over and over again simply to fulfill the promises of the founding of a nation based on freedom and basic human rights. 

Our country was founded on such high principles that even the founders themselves could not live up to its promise. Over the decades, we have struggled to live as they could not; more in the light of our founding ideas and principles. We have, at times, failed and have, at other times, succeeded. 

Still, it is apparent that we must continue the struggle to move beyond fear and hatred. Yes, the struggle continues to live according to the whispering of the better angels of our nature. It is not always easy but it is essential not only for the soul of our nation but for our own spiritual well-being as well.

We should never forget the lesson of WWII Germany. If we are not willing to stand for the basic human rights of our fellow citizens, for their freedom, as well as our own, we will have only ourselves to blame when our very lives are threatened by the fear and hatred of others. 

We are either all free and are guaranteed the same civil rights or we are not. 

The Southern Poverty Law Firm has stood for freedom from intimidation, and worse, for many years now and they deserve our support in whatever form we can offer it.

	The Militia Movement The Second Wave The return of the militias and the larger anti-government 'Patriot' movement Nativists to 'Patriots' Nativist vigilantes increasingly adopting the ideas of the 'Patriot' movement Terror from the Right 75 plots, conspiracies and racist rampages since Oklahoma City Download the report (PDF) The 1990s saw the rise and fall of the virulently anti-government "Patriot" movement, made up of paramilitary militias, tax defiers and so-called "sovereign citizens." Sparked by a combination of anger at the federal government and the deaths of political dissenters at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the movement took off in the middle of the decade and continued to grow even after 168 people were left dead by the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building — an attack, the deadliest ever by domestic U.S. terrorists, carried out by men steeped in the rhetoric and conspiracy theories of the militias. In the years that followed, a truly remarkable number of criminal plots came out of the movement. But by early this century, the Patriots had largely faded, weakened by systematic prosecutions, aversion to growing violence, and a new, highly conservative president. They're back. Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country. "Paper terrorism" — the use of property liens and citizens' "courts" to harass enemies — is on the rise. And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to "reconquer" the American Southwest. One law enforcement agency has found 50 new militia training groups — one of them made up of present and former police officers and soldiers.   Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. "This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," says one. "All it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence." A key difference this time is that the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate. One result has been a remarkable rash of domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama. At the same time, ostensibly mainstream politicians and media pundits have helped to spread Patriot and related propaganda, from conspiracy theories about a secret network of U.S. concentration camps to wholly unsubstantiated claims about the president's country of birth. Fifteen years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote then-Attorney General Janet Reno to warn about extremists in the militia movement, saying that the "mixture of armed groups and those who hate" was "a recipe for disaster." Just six months later, Oklahoma City's federal building was bombed. Today, the Patriot movement may not have the white-hot fury that it did in the 1990s. But the movement clearly is growing again, and Americans, in particular law enforcement officers, need to take the dangers it presents seriously. That is equally true for the politicians, pundits and preachers who, through pandering or ignorance, abet the growth of a movement marked by a proven predilection for violence.   Page:  1   2   3

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